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Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

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Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#251

Post by wingspar »

nolok wrote: post #226
wingspar wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twenty-odd years ago, I saw a tv ad for the drug Paxil. It was about social anxiety disorder. Didn’t know that was a thing, so I never looked into fixing it. Talked to my doctor about it. Got a prescription, took the medication for several years. It changed my life for the better.

That may be a culture difference, and it might not even be entirely healthy (with the god doctor syndrome), but from where I stand your relationship with your doctor and/or his skill was not where it should be if he doesn't regularly ask you the usually basic/boring questions that detect there is an issue to fix, and you don't naturally tell them you feel bad about X or you have this or that issue.

You’re assuming I went to the doctor regularly, not just when I had an issue to present.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#252

Post by summerdown2 »

deelly wrote: post #209
RedShift1 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've argued about this numerous times: ISP's need to provide customers with an opt-in p2p license that adds a small fee to their monthly bill. This monthly fee is transferred to a central authority, the ISP does not make any profit from this fee. The license would allow users to torrent whatever content they want. Torrent trackers would be fully legal, their only legal obligation would be keeping track of torrent pop…

M-m-m... "small fee" for "unlimited access to millions of music/movie/software/game/books entities that can cost billions of dollars". How exactly it should work, again?

You realise that's exactly the model of libraries, right?

A small fee (taxation) in return for open access to literature, and in most cases music and film too.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#253

Post by lotsofpulp »

res0nat0r wrote: post #128
cheschire wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually this kind of approach would torpedo their company's growth. Every price hike alienates part of their base who, for whatever reason, cannot or will not accept the new higher price and they will jump to another provider who is the same or cheaper in price even if the product they receive is worse. At some point the price difference between the quality product and the cheap product becomes so vast that the qu…

Netflix per dollar is about the cheapest entertainment you can get. Frankly it should be MORE expensive for the amount of high quality content they release constantly.

>Frankly it should be MORE expensive for the amount of high quality content they release constantly.

I canceled it because it was obvious their content is stretched out for no reason other than to waste my time. Also it’s full of product placement which takes me out of the story.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#254

Post by 0x202020 »

Talanes wrote: post #140
0x202020 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they are bound to. You don’t think as soon as Disney can they aren’t going to start showing ads for everything Disney related? The worst step back to me from TV -> streaming -> streaming becoming more TV like is content release schedules. The Mandalorian on Disney Plus was a great example, you have all the episodes ready and there isn’t a good reason to keep them sitting behind a time gate. I would be much mo…

Catering to the customers least interested in keeping the service isn't a great business strategy. Those who do only want to pay for one month to watch the whole show still have the option of subscribing during the last month of airing. Or any time after that.

For sure. It’s one of those things that my use case is probably a very, very small percent of users but it would be nice to be a bit more viewer friendly from that point of view. Right now since they have limited new content it feels like they are stretching them to keep subscribers as long as possible.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#255

Post by lotsofpulp »

jarjoura wrote: post #120
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you heard about Game of Thrones or Westworld or Stranger Things, or most recently, Tiger King, you'd realize this is very much still a thing for a large population. Weekly shows of certain types have massive speculation and plot discussion crowds with podcasts and analysis channels. Then there's a second viewership wave created by all the memes. Netflix's just drop the whole season model has cost them a lot in pub…

Arguably Game of Thrones could be the last series to ever capture the attention of the entire world at the same time. Everyone I know watched it, all ages, and all different genre fans. Bars used to play the episodes to a packed crowd. It was truly epic. I don’t think these other series you listed are anywhere close to the level GoT captured. They win awards and have big budgets and fans spread the word, but still no…

If anything, I think GoT turned people away from getting invested into TV shows especially over long seasons due to its nonsensical ending.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#256

Post by Razengan »

jasode wrote: post #249
jason0597 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't dividends make up for any slowdown in growth? If I buy a share in Netflix and instead of the share price rising I get instead a dividend payment, I'd be fine with that, right?

>Shouldn't dividends make up for any slowdown in growth? If I buy a share in Netflix and instead of the share price rising I get instead a dividend payment, I'd be fine with that, right? Not really. To riff on the old saying, "money doesn't grow on trees" , we can also say "dividends don't grow on trees." Where do dividends come from ? From profits. But where do profits come from? In accounting lingo, we say profits…

> we notice that profits come from Company X's purposeful activities that are desired by customers that choose to spend money with Company X instead of Company Y.

Many companies make money from activities that are not desired by customers.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#257

Post by ntsplnkv2 »

xbmcuser wrote: post #201
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #157

Im enjoying Hulu/Netflix/Prime Video while I can. My kid has grown up in a household without commercials and where you get points for who can hit “skip” the fastest when one does pop up. Commercials were always annoying but when you aren’t used to seeing them then it really hits home that your seeing the exact same commercial for floor wax sixteen times an hour and the exact same commercial for anti-AIDS drugs sixtee…

You can pay the $10~ per month for premium and get rid of the ads. Many people here on hn complain about the ads but are unwilling to pay to support non ad version at the same time.

I just use a Pi-hole server now.

I don't have a problem paying for subs, I use Apple Music and used Spotify, I like Netflix or Prime. But Google/Youtube is unethical with their ads. Yesterday I saw an ad showing "the police kidnapping people in california" from a Russian account. No way to report it anymore, now way to prove it was true, a blatant example of trying to influence people negatively.

I'll support the content creators I like directly now via other methods. If youtube can't at least remove blatantly false "ads" then they don't deserve my support.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#258

Post by Kye »

ses1984 wrote: post #229
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #157

Im enjoying Hulu/Netflix/Prime Video while I can. My kid has grown up in a household without commercials and where you get points for who can hit “skip” the fastest when one does pop up. Commercials were always annoying but when you aren’t used to seeing them then it really hits home that your seeing the exact same commercial for floor wax sixteen times an hour and the exact same commercial for anti-AIDS drugs sixtee…

You are on hacker news so it's likely you are a successful young adult male, what do you mean hn readers aren't in a desirable demographic? (apologies if that doesn't exactly describe you) Google might know you are a lost cause but they don't actually care, they still sold the impression. Anyway you might have Google targeting turned off, which is why you're seeing ads for floor wax instead of whatever saas is advert…

Ads can't seem to decide if I'm a rich homemaking woman with a side business, a rich man high up in a company, or someone who speaks Spanish and loves fast food. I don't know how to tell them I'm none of those.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#259

Post by nolok »

wingspar wrote: post #251
nolok wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be a culture difference, and it might not even be entirely healthy (with the god doctor syndrome), but from where I stand your relationship with your doctor and/or his skill was not where it should be if he doesn't regularly ask you the usually basic/boring questions that detect there is an issue to fix, and you don't naturally tell them you feel bad about X or you have this or that issue.

You’re assuming I went to the doctor regularly, not just when I had an issue to present.

Pretty much every studies show that the best working medical system are those with the best screening and prevention in place, among with are regular (usually free in Europe) checkup, accented for at risk population (child, aged people,...). Depending on your age in France there are lots of yearly /every 3 years checks entirely free that the national health agency push you to do.

So I may have assumed that yes but then if not it goes back to my original parent point of it being a sign of a broken system.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#260

Post by jasode »

Razengan wrote: post #234
jasode wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Growth" is now one of my most hated overused business lingo, after "innovation". Is it too naive to hope that this pandemic will make us collectively question the value of creeds like growth for growth's sake? The "growth for growth's sake" is a thought-stopping meme. Let's unpack why that's an inaccurate reason for why companies do what they do and also why people who don't even work at those companies also care a…

Netflix can grow by getting more users by offering attractive services and features instead of advertisements. Even if they stop getting new users, and just maintain their current user base, what is so bad about that? Nobody is going to go broke from that.

>Netflix can grow by getting more users by offering attractive services and features instead of advertisements.

I wasn't suggesting that it was desirable for Netflix to show ads. I was replying specifically to the "growth for growth's sake" because it's misleading.

As for "Netflix can grow by getting more users by offering attractive services and features", that's circular reasoning. They need growth to help pay for new attractive services and features.

>Even if they stop getting new users, and just maintain their current user base,

The problem is that their none of their existing user base signed a 30-year irrevocable contract to always pay $11.99 for the next 360 months. Consumers have free will and their preferences change which is why Blockbuster couldn't count on their old customers to keep walking into their stores to rent DVDs.

In other words, the "just maintain their user base" doesn't mean anything because customers have their own agenda of how they make changes in spending discretionary entertainment dollars. E.g.: https://www.google.com/search?q=netflix+lost+subscribers

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