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Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

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Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody wanted to control the entire pie, when in reality almost all of them would have been better off just licensing their content to Netflix and not worrying about streaming distribution

Completely agree, but they never seem to learn. The plumbing companies (like Netflix) look jealously at the content producers, and they desperately want that sweet content revenue. The content producers (like Disney) look jealously at the plumbing companies, and they desperately want that sweet plumbing revenue. Sometimes grabbing for the other revenue stream works out (like for Netflix) but most of the time it doesn…

Disney didn't forget :( They chose to stop, because they valued creating social change more than creating compelling content.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...and Netflix couldn't grow as a tech company paying the ever increasing content costs (and wasn't happy with a utility company valuation) so has spent enormous sums on just terrible shows. If you're an executive at any of these companies: VERTICAL INTEGRATION If you're an outsider looking in: GREED

Ok but what's wrong with becoming a basic content internet utility? Why can't Netflix "just" be YouTube for professionally made TV and movie content, with a great UI? Why is that a bad business?

They tried, didn't they? The move into content was forced when the content producers started pulling the licenses.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#283
post #256
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The majority of people who buy streaming, I suspect, are interested mainly in the conveyor belt of diverse and engaging content. I'd love to see this backed up by sources. I for one recall seeing streaming stats from Disney+ and old series like X Files are up there as some of the most streamed. Anecdotally, I watch and rewatch a lot of old series. Like I'm rewatching Breaking Bad on Netflix right now.

Isn't Suits - a long since lapsed cable series - like the most popular thing on Netflix? So was Friends, Seinfeld, and The Office for a time too. People love to think they can generalize all streamers into a bucket when in reality it's not as simple as anyone thinks. Viewing trends change all the time and can be unpredictable, even horrible stuff gets tons of views.

Apparently not:

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/top10/tv

Top 10 is pretty dynamic. Longest item there was there for 6 weeks and is new content. Hilariously "Fireplace 4K: Crackling Birchwood from Fireplace for Your Home" beats out Squid Game.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that true for all kids? I thought popular opinion was that all new gen kids have insatiable content appetites with low attention spans demanding constant newness?

If you feed them a constant stream of new content, yeah, they'll probably be that way, but they're not born with an insatiable desire for novel consumption.

Well maybe not everyone, but most of us are born with some level of Novelty Seeking [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novelty_seeking

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#285
post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few that have come up recently: * an intermittent fasting tracking app * A Pomodoro timer app * So many apps want a subscription (!) to remove ads * Picker Wheel, an app that lets you spin a wheel of random choices * several apps that let you "access" a video library of exercises * Canva, Figma, Adobe, LucidChart, most design apps By contrast, Ableton and most DAWs still have a completely reasonable one-time paymen…

I don't think you're looking hard enough or think differently then me. I don't need an IF app, but if I did I'd use Siri. Try this for pomodoro. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timer-loops/id1662287175 For exercise I never felt like tech helped me at all. If it's a huge problem fdroid will probably have it free. I'm doing self hosting some cloud services and I've gone back to paper for so many since they're needlessly…

Sorry if I implied you could only get these types of things through subscription.

I just meant I've seen the subscription model in a lot of places where it makes no economic sense.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#286
post #64

Streaming has become the new cable: a bunch of piecemeal services with mostly terrible content and a few gems each, with their own pricing plans and ad models. I have no interest in subscribing to all of them or even most of them. There's just too much junk, too many different subscriptions to monitor, and too much deception in their ad models (if I pay for "no ads" and see a 30 second unskippable ad for the service'…

Just today I investigated about Stremio and Torrentio and oh boy, it was waaay way easier to setup than I thought.

I am a person that can handle a good amount of "pain" while using technology (I like using Linux as a desktop, but my laptop's camera won't work on my monitor, sleep mode is broken, etc etc etc) so I am fine with browsing in my phone and casting to my TV. So I'll now get to the arduous task of convincing my wife to unsubscribe to at least some of the freaking too many stream services we are subscribed to (disney+, Star, Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and two or three local to my country).

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#287
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree, but they never seem to learn. The plumbing companies (like Netflix) look jealously at the content producers, and they desperately want that sweet content revenue. The content producers (like Disney) look jealously at the plumbing companies, and they desperately want that sweet plumbing revenue. Sometimes grabbing for the other revenue stream works out (like for Netflix) but most of the time it doesn…

Disney didn't forget :( They chose to stop, because they valued creating social change more than creating compelling content.

What did they do that makes you think they valued creating social change more?

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#288
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disney didn't forget :( They chose to stop, because they valued creating social change more than creating compelling content.

What did they do that makes you think they valued creating social change more?

I could explain, but South Park did it so well already.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#289
I'm going to go against the popular narrative and say that the current fragmentation of streaming services is a net positive.

The problem is that hard-core users are very vocal and dominate the conversation.

My normie take is that most households will do just fine by having max 2 stream services, which they can regularly switch up. Many may have additional ones via account sharing. That should give you plenty of high quality stuff to watch, "high quality" meaning better than TV.

Multiple streaming services fighting for your eye balls and them not being guaranteed of your business is a good thing. It's how a market is supposed to work. Competition. It's frightening how easily consumers would want to give that up for slightly more convenience of having everything under one roof.

Everything under one roof would mean total price control on the supply side, even more flat repetitive content, the providers having total leverage over producers, etc.

Our behavior enables monopolists. Stop doing that.

Re: Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"gaslight" != "trick" You can trick someone without deliberately working to make them doubt their own sanity.

Ehh that’s really the old definition. Nowadays I feel the colloquial definition is simply asserting a narrative you know is false. Emphasis on narrative, not a simple individual factual claim.

So what's the new word for the old definition then?

The old definition is clearly emotional abuse, but the new definition does not seem to meet that standard.

Is this just another case in which you have to add extra qualifiers as in "I have OCD, but what I mean is real, diagnosed, legitimate OCD rather than whatever the kiddos on Tic Tac say"?

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