21–30 of 556 posts
The last remaining video rental stores are closing down just as streaming services become so fragmented that making a short trip to rent any major film or TV series you want for a few dollars is starting to look okay again.
Each could still have its own promotions, bundles, etc (e.g. pay X more to watch new movies from Disney), but at least the base proposition can have a single subscription price and some pay as you consume more scheme, single analytics, etc.
In my ideal autocratic regime, they'd be forced to work under such a scheme, like power companies are forced to ultimately connect to the same grid (at least in some countries).
Streaming "choices"? It's fragmentation and rent-seeking behavior. It is simply a case of the supply not meeting the demand at a reasonable price point, when there is an alternative.
Everyone wanted to get rid of the cable bundle and have channels a la carte. Be careful what you ask for.
"May" drive them back? This has already happened in my circles.. People who had cut the cord but all but walked away from casual piracy and signed up for Netflix and HBO (and probably Prime Video because they had Amazon Prime already) are openly talking about the fact they're definitely not signing up for more streaming services, and are seeking out torrenting again for the stuff that's being pulled from Netflix (esp…
“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…
Depending on the country, you'd be surprised.
I'm not sure why Disney has the hold it has in the US, but in most of Europe I know it's nothing special (to the point of being a "must have" brand). Kids can just sit in front of regular kids TV channels. And normal middle class families can and do pirate all the time...
My ISP (UK, Sky) has recently started blocking torrent/magnet sites. So I'm not convinced.
"May" drive them back? This has already happened in my circles.. People who had cut the cord but all but walked away from casual piracy and signed up for Netflix and HBO (and probably Prime Video because they had Amazon Prime already) are openly talking about the fact they're definitely not signing up for more streaming services, and are seeking out torrenting again for the stuff that's being pulled from Netflix (esp…
“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…
"May" drive them back? This has already happened in my circles.. People who had cut the cord but all but walked away from casual piracy and signed up for Netflix and HBO (and probably Prime Video because they had Amazon Prime already) are openly talking about the fact they're definitely not signing up for more streaming services, and are seeking out torrenting again for the stuff that's being pulled from Netflix (esp…
“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…
IMHO the increasing coupling of video producers and streaming services isn't a good idea at all as it again produces (quasi)monopoles for certain brands/shows (e.g. Disney).
Through then IMHO the trend of tech companies increasingly expanding in a way which couples different kind products together is a worrisome trend (e.g. hardware producer couples with os producer coupled with application producer, or content producer coupled with content delivery services, or "shared" online marked places coupled with them starting to sell their own "featured" products, or coupling of ebook store with ebook reader, etc.).
My guess is that this will lead to increasingly large companies with increasingly less chances for real competition giving this companies more and more (mainly implicit) power over people and economy and with this also influence in politic.
Sure currently for streaming services it looks like it will lead to better competition, but my guess is that this won't be long term and in a view years we will be left with a oligopol of a small number of companies now dominating both production and distribution of high quality video entertainment content, without there being any real chance for any new competition (except if there is some form of interactive video revolution (I don't mean video games) coming from outside the video industry.