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Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

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Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#141

Post by scarface74 »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #78
scarface74 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing the box office results of Disney’s movies, your anecdotal opinion doesn’t jibe with the overall market. Besides, there will also be Disney original MCU and Star Wars TV series.

Yeah you’re sort of right, 5 of the top 10 on this list are from Disney, including 2 Marvel properties: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2019&p=.htm But what I’m talking about is if you scroll down this list, 8 of the top 100 are from Disney unless I’m missing a studio name, I’m counting BV and MGM. So those 5 are pretty much all the 2019 blockbusters you’ll get from the service in a few months.

Well 6, SpiderMan was released and financed by Sony but Disney did all of the writing and producing. Sony's last two Spiderman movies before they did a deal with Disney were a flop.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#142

Post by TeMPOraL »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #115
lunchables wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we removed the entire cost of the physical cable network from the equation. Unless you mean the cost of your internet service PLUS the cost of the streaming services should be about equal to your "traditional cable package" ? If so, then you're probably not far off. Except that the cable providers don't also get some margin off delivering the programming anymore.

How did we remove the cost of the physical cable network? They still have to support all of that bandwidth, just over a different format. Plus, most people today also demand these services are without ads, so what traditionally paid for more of the content side has to be made up on the subscription side.

Somehow it worked fine with everything under one roof for low price, until Netflix streaming contracts expired. Something tells me that the change has nothing to do with true costs, and everything to do with an attempt to extract more short-term profit from the IP, regardless of the ultimate damage it will cause to streaming space.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#144

Post by CoolGuySteve »

scarface74 wrote: post #141
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah you’re sort of right, 5 of the top 10 on this list are from Disney, including 2 Marvel properties: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2019&p=.htm But what I’m talking about is if you scroll down this list, 8 of the top 100 are from Disney unless I’m missing a studio name, I’m counting BV and MGM. So those 5 are pretty much all the 2019 blockbusters you’ll get from the service in a few months.

Well 6, SpiderMan was released and financed by Sony but Disney did all of the writing and producing. Sony's last two Spiderman movies before they did a deal with Disney were a flop.

Sony owns the distribution rights and might own them well into the future, which is what we're talking about here.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#145

Post by Mindwipe »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #62
eitland wrote: post #14

No surprise. Even we (HN) predicted this the moment the first content company withdrew their content from Netflix. Two reasons: 1. People only have so much money. 2. When people compare it to what they used to payit seems unfair. People complain when gas prices increases by a few percent, no wonder they complain when they suddenly have to pay twice or even three times for the same content they used to pay one low mon…

I remember the days (circa 2009/2010) where the main complaint about streaming Netflix was that there was nothing on it compared to the disk collection. When exactly did that change? There must have been a brief “monopoly period” when Netflix had all of the content, but I don’t remember it.

> There must have been a brief “monopoly period” when Netflix had all of the content, but I don’t remember it.

It literally never happened except in the collective desperation of certain HN posters to justify piracy to themselves.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#146

Post by scarface74 »

viraptor wrote: post #75
scarface74 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Your circle” unless it includes families with small kids, isn’t Disney’s primary audience. Most normal middle class people aren’t going to go through the trouble of pirating movies and setting up a Plex server and then worry about setting up their router to get a good connection while they are away from home and even then deal with the abysmally slow upload speed of the typical home network instead of spending $8 a…

That sounds terribly complicated. You know you can google "watch ... online free" and get a streamable version in the first two pages of results, right?

And I just did that for Avengers on my iPad. The first result takes me to:

- 5Movies4Free -- which then redirects me

- mobilevpn.download -- and then when I click on "Install and Register Now". It redirects me to

-"app.appsflyer.com" which then

- redirects me to the app store

- and then it just hangs

Is that really the user experience that people want as opposed to just paying $8 a month and they can stream movies to 4 devices, download on mobile so they don't have to worry about poor connectivity and they can stream to almost any device?

Not to mention your solution not only requires them to wade through shady sites, but they also would have to have a computer connected to their TV.

In the US, Apple has close to half the mobile phone market and a much larger share of the market of middle and upper income households. Do you think that people who are willing to pay Apple prices for hardware will even blink at signing up for Disney+ and Netflix instead of going through all of these contortions?

Edit: I forgot to mention that every major cellular carrier and MetroPCS (a sub brand of T-mobile) is bundling at least one streaming option as part of their family plan - except for Verizon.

Edit 2: I would have never gone through the entire process on my computer, too much of a risk of drive by downloads. I knew that it probably wouldn't do too much damage on iOS.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#147

Post by mcv »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #50
mcv wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I'd prefer to have everything on Netflix, I'm definitely going to get Disney+. Not a fan of Disney the corporation, but if Disney+ contains everything Star Wars, everything Marvel, everything from Jim Henson, and everything from all their other properties, there's no way I'm going to pay for easy access to that. We don't even watch regular TV anymore at my home. It's either Netflix or Youtube.

There are only one or two Marvel or Star Wars movies a year though. Is that really worth subscribing to a streaming service for? (Not to mention that only maybe a quarter of these movies are worth seeking out, the rest are something I’d only ever watch for free on an airplane or something. But that’s just personal taste).

There are about 20 Marvel movies, 11 Star Wars movies, and 2 Star Wars TV shows. This is not about watching them when they come out, it's about being able to watch the entire backlog whenever I want. (Assuming they make their entire backlog available, which they should.)

Also: tons of Pixar movies. And I still haven't seen The Lion King and Aladdin. Or pretty much any Disney movie other than Brave.

If it's not your thing, that's fine, but I've got two kids, and Netflix is a bit short on movies for the whole family that are fun for both kids as well as parents. They're great at stuff for just the kids or just the parents, but for the whole family is what Pixar and Disney are good at.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#148

Post by scarface74 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #55
coldtea wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most normal middle class people aren’t going to go through the trouble of pirating movies and setting up a Plex server and then worry about setting up their router to get a good connection while they are away from home and even then deal with the abysmally slow upload speed of the typical home network instead of spending $8 a month to just have the convenience of Disney+ to be a glorified babysitter. Depending on t…

Moreover, it's not like there aren't pirate streaming services available. In fact, I can't think of anyone non-technical I know who torrents anything; they all stream movies from pirate player sites. It's easier, and also perfectly legal for the viewer.

It's not "easy" on mobile and definitely not easy when you have to depend on cellular connectivity to stream while on the road.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#149

Post by kedean »

tyingq wrote: post #102

Hasn't driven me to piracy. It has, however, driven me to subscribe/unsubscribe as needed. Paid for a month of HBO, for example, mostly for the Chernobyl series, watched that and a few movies, unsubscribed. I think that pattern might hurt these services more than piracy.

There's also the option of refusing the new services. When I think on what I'll do as content keeps fragmenting across services, I keep coming back to one answer...watch less video content. The time before easy streaming wasn't that long ago, and if the content makers and distributors aren't going to play ball, then I can entertain myself in plenty of other ways.

The bigger losers are going to be parents that have a harder time convincing theirs kids that they don't need, e.g., Disney+.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#150

Post by mcv »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #98
scarface74 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By definition, if people are collectively, willingly giving Disney billions of dollars a year for a Marvel and Star Wars movies, the market is jibing where it matters.

Still, and circling back to the main point - a movie or two per year plus a single TV show and some occasional filler content is not by itself worth keeping a service subscription at the current prices.

I really hope and assume Disney+ doesn't limit you to just the most recent movies. The whole point of these services is that you get access to everything they ever made, and in the case of Disney and all the properties they own, that's quite a lot.
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