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Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

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Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#231

Post by illwrks »

delecti wrote: post #65
illwrks wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Movie rights will be a big factor also. Events like TIFF, Cannes etc, while being a platform to show films is also where deals are done, distribution rights are signed always for different territories etc. YouTube is essentially international which may invalidate some pre-existing licence and distribution agreements.

Youtube has the ability to limit videos to certain markets. One example is that the entirety of Mythbusters was uploaded in the past couple years, but isn't available to view in the US.

I wasn't really aware of this, I guess using a VPN would get around the issue though?

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#232

Post by echelon »

almostdeadguy wrote: post #167
echelon wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With AI, this entire vast content library is about to be worthless anyway. We'll be making more long-form, quality content per month than entire Hollywood production years. And if you include short form content and slop, it'll be more content per second than entire years. When faced with infinite content, people will reach for content currently popular in the zeitgeist or content that addresses niche interests. Holly…

Yeah I can't wait for "Forest Gump 2", The Simpsons Live Action starring John C. Reilly as Barney, and "Lord of the Rings But It's A Wes Anderson Movie". AI distilling the absolutely worst and most cynical Hollywood trends into full length motion pictures. I've yet to see anything remotely approaching non-slop from AI-generated video.

This already happens without AI, it's just that studios can only produce so many films given the budget, labor, and time constraints.

Tell me that any of the "Jurassic Park" films beyond the first were necessary. Or the "Lord of the Rings" films and shows beyond the original trilogy. These are products of the classical studio system. They keep trying to remake "Back to the Future" and as soon as Zemeckis dies, they'll have their way.

There will be amazing art made using AI, and AI will enable extremely talented creators that could have never made it in the classical studio system.

Don't be so pessimistic.

We're going to have "Obra Dinn" and "Undertale" equivalents in film soon. Small scale auteurs sharing their mind's eye with you.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#233

Post by xp84 »

hatmanstack wrote: post #180
echelon wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With AI, this entire vast content library is about to be worthless anyway. We'll be making more long-form, quality content per month than entire Hollywood production years. And if you include short form content and slop, it'll be more content per second than entire years. When faced with infinite content, people will reach for content currently popular in the zeitgeist or content that addresses niche interests. Holly…

It seems most of the things Netflix produces is optimized by the algo for attention. When I feel it directing me gives me the ick. Looking at you Squid Game.

It's part of the same phenomenon we see in social media. The first waves of social media and YouTube were predicated on the idea that you either seek out content yourself or view a feed of content you'd already taken action to subscribe to/follow. Services like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pivoted to go from "pull" where users select content or stay within their own networks, to a "push" model where the algorithm predicts and autoplays content, mostly from strangers, based on highly accurate predictions of virality and eyeball-retaining potential.

Things like Netflix realized it too and buried the "Continue Watching" at a randomized index in an endless carousel, added Autoplay and even starts autoplaying something different after you finish a series. And of course, newer things like TikTok have always been this way. All these things are, I'd argue, user-hostile in that they're optimizing toward, in the extreme case, complete addiction.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#234

Post by bsimpson »

I work at Google, and I didn't even know that there are good movies you can watch for free with a YT Premium subscription until I saw this article:

https://www.youtube.com/feed/storefront

Includes Roger Rabbit, Billy Madison, Good Will Hunting, Wayne's World, Mars Attacks, Grumpy Old Men, Osmosis Jones, the 90s TMNT movie…

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#235

Post by jsnell »

jasoncartwright wrote: post #137

There is an increasing amount of UK TV uploaded to YouTube from whoever owns the rights. Have seen The Bill (26 seasons) and pretty much all of Gordon Ramsey's work recently (including a 8hr entire season video). ITV appears to have even created the brand "Our Stories" for their YouTube fly on the wall telly content. Much of this not-fantastic-quality TV could probably be easily found on YouTube even without the righ…

Also 18 seasons of Taskmaster, which at least I think is fantastic quality.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#236

Post by bsimpson »

Now do Coyote v. ACME!

(It was a Roger Rabbit-style live action + cartoon character blend, based on an awesome newspaper parody, that was completely created, received rave reviews, and then shitcanned by the befuddling new accounting practices of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#237

Post by genewitch »

not2b wrote: post #170
robertlagrant wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be really nice if YouTube could give uploaders the ability to schedule ad slots, rather than them appearing randomly. Unless they do this already and stuff I watch just does it badly, of course.

It appears that the intent of the ad scheduling is to be so annoying that it motivates people on the fence to pay for premium.

Would ABC make more if everyone switched to premium, or if everyone was ad-suppported? Be thorough, include ad sales people, telephone lines, lawyers, etc.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#238

Post by almostdeadguy »

genewitch wrote: post #230
almostdeadguy wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I can't wait for "Forest Gump 2", The Simpsons Live Action starring John C. Reilly as Barney, and "Lord of the Rings But It's A Wes Anderson Movie". AI distilling the absolutely worst and most cynical Hollywood trends into full length motion pictures. I've yet to see anything remotely approaching non-slop from AI-generated video.

Birdemic 3, deathstalker 4, star wars episode N, star wars episode N+1, star wars non-episode A, star wars non-episode [...] Yeah, boy, I'm glad humans are making novel stuffs.

Yeah that is literally all the movies being made by people, unlike AI which has produced groundbreaking creative works.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#239

Post by bsimpson »

LordDragonfang wrote: post #193
giancarlostoro wrote: post #122

Anything from before the 1980s should just be on YouTube, its easy cash for them on films that are sitting idle otherwise. Anything they aren't licensing to anyone anywhere should just be on YouTube. Or any sort of streaming platform that has sane ads, and anyone can see. It is really sad to me there's no genuine YouTube competitor.

> Anything from before the 1980s should just be on YouTube Agreed, but because all of that should be public domain at this point. The idea that some company needs rent-seeking motivation to allow people to view 50-year old media literally until everyone who could have consumed it when it was published is dead is absurd.

It's such a scandal that even though the original Mickey Mouse cartoons are finally in the public domain, the Mickey Mouse Protection Act is still preventing anything created in our lifetimes from ever joining the public domain during them.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#240

Post by flessner »

kelnos wrote: post #214
echelon wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wasn't the argument. The argument is that few will watch the majority of WB's back catalogue, because their time is being spent with all the other attention sinks. This places a monetary value on the content, not a social or cultural value.

I don't agree with that argument. I am constantly finding new movies and TV shows to watch that I genuinely enjoy, but I still (reasonably often, even) watch or re-watch older content that I end up enjoying just as much. Flooding the market with AI-generated content -- even if that content is good -- is not going to stop me from watching (or re-watching) older human-created productions. I don't think I'm all that uni…

I agree with that, although for me it's books that I really enjoy currently.

After quitting most of social media, the jump-cutting in a lot of shows and movies nowadays gives me headaches weirdly... maybe that's just me though.

Also, everyone that's at least a teenager has grown up on human produced content - most of this worry will only manifest if there's a generation that strictly prefers AI produced content instead of it just being a complement (e.g. the generated pictures in articles, or automatic clips from Twitch streams)

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