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Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

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231–240 of 361 posts

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

#231

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…

In Spain we get the worst version of this. Media organizations (the equivalents to MPAA or RIAA) get a percentage of the price of all storage devices (hard drives, flash memory, anything) that are sold, implying that they might be used for piracy. But it's still illegal to pirate! So we're paying for something we MIGHT do, but we still can't do it.

The same is true in Belgium. But i heard there is a strange benefit: You are allowed to copy anything if the source is legally yours at the time of copying.

So person A lends some music to person B, person B copies it and returns the original to A. This scenario is legal. The nice thing is person A can be a library.

Now if person A makes a copy and gives it to person B, this is illegal, even if the end result is identical. Bits have color.

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

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, uBlock Origin is very effective against Youtube. I never see ads on Youtube.

Same for me, when i use youtube on my mobile i am flabbergasted by the amount of ads and 20 minute promo programs. Why and how can you watch that without a add blocker?

Just FYI, uBO blocks YouTube ads if you are using Firebox on mobile.

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

#233

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.

It is certainly more expensive than Disney+ and the content why high in quantity on Netflix isn't necessarily high in quality across the board. Note, I am using 4k on all my streaming services.

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

#234
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?

>"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.

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

#235

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…

In Spain we get the worst version of this. Media organizations (the equivalents to MPAA or RIAA) get a percentage of the price of all storage devices (hard drives, flash memory, anything) that are sold, implying that they might be used for piracy. But it's still illegal to pirate! So we're paying for something we MIGHT do, but we still can't do it.

There would be no levies on storage medie. And it would be opt-in. It would only be illegal when you torrent and have not opted in to the p2p fee.

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

#237
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't turn an economic model into a political platform.

Politics and economics are inseparably connected.

Yes, but that doesn't mean they are the same. Capitalism is a way to describe market efficiency which is a good thing, but people are turning the word to mean a system where people hurt each other for profit.

I agree people shouldn't hurt each other, but that doesn't mean we should redefine a word and abandon a system of marketplaces.

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

#238

I don't pirate because I don't want to pay for content - I pirate because it is the only way I can get a lot of content. I wish there was a global way to subscribe to and pay for content in a market/app-independant way. If you are not in the USA, Canada or UK, your options to pay for the most popular, newest content are very, very limited. And if you are in a very small and/or somewhat impoverished country, forget ab…

If was to pirate I'd be doing it because I don't want to be tracked. I don't want Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Google, whoever knowing what I'm watching, when I'm watching, how many times I watched, what parts I reviewed, etc... I don't like the idea that some computer is adding me to categories I have no control over and making judgements I neither want nor can correct nor delete nor prevent and then sharing an selling that data.

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

#239
post #186

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…

> the exact same commercial for anti-AIDS drugs sixteen times per hour. European here, I will go over my surprise / weirdness about having ads for chronic disease medication like that, to ask : do you actually, you as the patient, choose which medication you receive for disease like that? Does your opinion override that of the doctor? Is it not ultimately a moot choice both by you and the doctor because the one you w…

You have to convince the doctor to prescribe it for you, but doctors take little convincing. The companies paying for the ads on TV are also taking the doctors out to expensive restaurants and giving them free samples of the advertised medicine. And of course doctors watch TV too.

All the incentives happily align.

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

#240

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…

Maybe Google's algorithms have determined that the floor wax company doesn't look at / understand its analytics reports.

I wish it was that intelligent. Ad buyers are morons and companies like Criteo are snake oil salesmen.

Advertising, as a whole, is one of the most inefficient use of man-power capitalism has ever created. Intelligent people who have been failed for the US education system(chasing the goal of 'be whatever you want to be... but there is no sustainable way) usually end up there in some fashion.

This glut of capable but ineffectual intellectuals is either helping the ponzi fiat money scheme or if this virus is a 12 month affair with limited buying leads to mass civil unrest.

The demographics of the ad companies skew left... which is ok as long as we don't get into South American Currency Territory which i think the petro dollar should keep away for the time being.

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