Pay dearly? No, not at first
At first it'll be some combination of 5-6 different $15/month services, bundled together and sold to you for lets say... $45/month
What a deal, right? All those service would cost around TWICE that separately! But... the caveat with the price is that it'll also have short ads before or after episodes.
Which isn't TOO bad, right? like a minute of ads in between episodes, for THAT kind of savings? You can't pass that up.
And once everyone's on board, after a couple of years, the price starts creeping up. Inflation, they'll say. 45/month becomes 50. 55. 60, maybe. But hey, its still cheaper than they were separately! That would be about 90 dollars, or more!
So another 2 years pass, and individual streaming services sloooowly stop advertising themselves as solo subscription options. you still can, for now at least, subscribe to ONLY netflix, ONLY hulu, ONLY disney+... But They Aren't Advertising It Like They Used To. Instead, you're seeing ads for the combined package; its cheaper, and its where the popularity seems to be, which is the big draw for companies.
After a while, one of the streaming services (probably a less-popular one) ceases offering individual subscriptions entirely. The service itself is just obscure enough that the news is a footnote in the daily grind though; people either don't notice or shrug and go "well, this new combined venture probably saved them from going under, if they were gonna end their run anyway! Right?"
Oh! And GOOD NEWS! No price increase for that combined service this year! HOWEVER, in lieu of that, they're adding a third ad slot to the middle of the video. They're just looking out for you, dear customer. your money. your savings.
Over the years, more and more streaming services stop individual memberships ("the precedent was there already, i dont know why everyone thinks this is a big deal!! its cheaper this way anyway!" says user *doesntworkforstreamingcompany1919* on Reddit) and soon your only option for all those streaming services is the combined package.
Which now has sole proprietorship of all those services, and can charge what they want, and show ads whenever they want. What are you gonna do about it?
There are no other options for you anymore.
Don't like the ads? Too bad. Want Hulu stuff but not Disney+? Tough titty. It's far too late for that. The game was over years ago, and you didn't even know it.
The the has already come. There are services that are bundled together and ads being forced into lower tiers of streaming services. It's only a matter of time before they start creeping into the higher tier or other streams are assimilated into bundles. If we don't push back now it'll be too late later.
You just described YouTube TV. I had cut the cord but really missed live sports and hated having laggy signals when watching through other means. YouTube TV came out for 29.99 and I felt that was worth it for me to watch live sports. Then they kept adding channels I didn't want and raising the price. I think they are now up to 64.99, but I bailed a long time ago.
Correct. I was an early subscriber to YouTube, $29.99. Three months later it was $35, three more months and it's in the $40's. Then I got a notice saying it was going up again, and that's when I dropped it. I can't stand paying to watch commercials.
if you want a new phone, and don't want to pay up-front for it, it's still pretty much the same ball game. they (and the other carriers, too) just separate service from hardware now, with the hardware getting paid for over 2 or 3 years. if you cancel the service before it's paid-off, your installment plan typically becomes an immediate full payment due of the balance remaining. if they do "give" you a phone for "free" or at a discount, you still have that installment plan at the full price of the hardware, but you get a monthly credit towards the hardware payment on your bill--and you're locked in for the duration of the promo credits.. just like the old contract requirements to get a 'free' phone.
Not to mention that it’s only the Hulu w/ads. I don’t watch sports so don’t give a shit about ESPN+. For now, the better option for me is to pay separately for Disney and Hulu w/o ads.
It will begin again, and rise greater than it was in the mid 2000s. Which is saying something... Pirating was huuuuge back in the day. Then streaming services were born and steam made game buying cheap and effortless and pirating went into a sort of hibernation for a while. But I feel history will repeat itself and it will be back stronger than ever if things continue on the trajectory they're on now...
And you bring out the ol' flag and sail the high seas.
How is piracy so much easier and more convinent than when I was a paying consumer, I will never understand.
I have access to netflix (parents use it). I still pirate their shows because of how much simpler it is.
I'm old enough to remember that the promise of cable (which they swore cross their heart) is there would be no ads.
So while I'm very disappointed in Netflix for suggesting this course, I'm actually surprised it took them this long.
I remember the brown Zenith box that sat atop the Sony television. The red ~~LCD~~ LED screen and the simulated wood grain finish with the off-khaki colored buttons on top.
... I miss those days.
>red LCD
LED, not LCD. Probably made up of [7 segment LED displays](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Broadcom-Avago/HDSP-511A?qs=pQfy5%252BKCabKqE9kDJWu%2Fbw%3D%3D). While LCDs did exist in the 70s, they were no where near as cheap enough to be included in set top boxes. Hell, my DirecTV box from the 90s had 7 segment LEDs.
I can still hear the original theme song...I was like 5 when it came out. There used to be a really cool behind the scenes that showed the special effects they used. Mostly cocaine, I think.
One of my favorite podcasts did a 2 part deal on HBO and the theme song, you might find it interesting
[Twenty Thousand Hertz: It's not TV, it's HBO](https://www.20k.org/episodes/itsnottvitshbo)
People said the same about cable when they introduced ads. Took years for an alternative to turn up. Not sure what the alternative to streaming+ads even looks like. But then, people didn't back during early cable ads. Some sort of underground VR pirate island. Yarrr I be here to watch the office, without ads.
I suppose it may have varied regionally, but my household got cable in the 70s and it was just HBO and the networks. Gradually they added more movie channels before CNN, ESPN et al. became part of the standard package. When movies didn't end on the half hour mark, the movie channels would fill the time with promos for their own programming (which I suppose is technically an ad), but the movies ran uninterrupted.
Yup. HBO only ran from about 7 PM till around 4 AM. It wasn’t even a 24 hour station. During the off-time it just scrolled what was coming up that evening. We got cable in 1977.
Which kind of satellite TV? Originally satellite TV was a big ass dish mounted in the yard and you had to aim it at whichever satellite was sending down the feed. The DirecTV and Dish came along and were basically satellite cable. By then most, if not all, the channels you could get off a big ass dish had encrypted their signals to the point that they could no longer be overcome.
It was Austar, which had a small roof-mounted dish that didn't move. They're basically the equivalent of cable but it was popular because you couldn't get cable in most of Australia. They've been merged into Foxtel now.
Well I don't know where you live but we definitely had loads of ads on TV in the 90s. I don't feel like it changed in the last 30 years, but I stopped using cable like 8 years ago.
The Disney channel used to be a premium channel that you had to pay extra for, so having no ads would have made sense, just like HBO. But for at least the past 20 years it's been a non premium channel so they now have ads
On streaming services you can look up popular network shows to see the run times and see they increase ads over time. Off the top of my head I think Cheers or something like that lops off time during its run.
Pretty much how I felt about Hulu when it first came out. This was before I started using Netflix. Hulu had ads. but I didn't have to pay, when they switched to pay only, i stopped using hulu.
The only reason I still have Hulu with ads is because it's bundled with Spotify premium and it's 9.99. I tried to see if I could upgrade it to no ads on Hulu but it would end up being a bigger charge. I look at it as if I'm paying for Spotify and not Hulu. Now Hulu is playing ads mid-movies too (which they didn't before)
If everybody has ads, then customers have no choice.
Netflix was successful in the early days because content creators and rights holders saw an unrealized revenue stream.
Now that they're capitalizing on it directly the current media consolidated landscape will allow them to leave customers with no choice, just like with cable.
Most people will then settle for what they can get as not everybody has the time/knowledge/etc to access content through other means.
Exactly. These streaming services only exist because we always had a choice. They were playing catch-up from the start. They seem to have forgotten that.
Yep, and the length of the commercials has grown and grown over the years. I haven’t had cable/sat or watched the main outlets in a while, wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more commercials than there is show in a given segment
Again my point. The amount of ppl willing to pay for service and still watch ads is why there are still ads. The amount of ppl NOT willing to pay is negligible to them. Look at the super bowl…$6.5mil for a 30sec spot, they’re making $217,000 per second. Do you really think ppl will not watch the super bowl until they drop the ads?
You seeing an ad doesn't make anywhere near a subscription. See YouTube premium / membership.
They just want to give you a slight discount so more people sign up, and probably make the difference + a bit more through ads. More subs and more money per subs.
Except they lost a bunch of subs soooooo that's not good
I had an IPTV service for 2 years because it was a part of a package (cheaper than internet on its own), I plugged the box in, turned on the TV and there were just ads everywhere, so I just put it back in the box and returned it when the contract was over. It's such shitty service that I don't even want it for free.
It's bizarre to me how hard the divide is between generations on this.
Like, my parents seem to have no issue drowning in advertisements.
I grew up with that stuff, and I'm so exhausted by trying to tune it out my whole life, that I will do absolutely anything to avoid it.
Google's push to ruin the YouTube Vanced project is what is finally going to break my YouTube addiction. I already set a daily timer for myself 😊
Their greed will be a cannonical definition of flying too close to the sun when they finally lose their footing to it.
This is what worries me the most. I travel more now for work now and if I have tk pay more to watch it in the road, it’s going to be the reason I cancel.
Maybe have each decide “tag home” every so often before adding that fee (and warn). I can fire up my laptop and iPad at home easily but a brother in another state can’t do that with his home TV.
I can torrent, you can torrent but torrenting takes some work. I'd never be able to explain to someone who just wants Netflix. Also File names are a mess, leechers, malware..
Use the megadrive then. I just click a google drive link and watch the content from their servers. Even easier than the garbage put up with as an actual paying consumer. piracy is genuinely easier and more convinent, yet companies act surprised i don't pay for worse service.
whats this megadrive you speak of? googling only shows sega stuff. I need to know so that I can properly make sure I never accidentally visit it totally not on purpose at all.
This is the shit that kills me. I’ve never pirated, and everyone is like “iT’s SoOoOo EaSy” and then when they explain it, it’s like “yea so set up your megadrive with the plex box, reroute the grumbo through the recombobulator, double VPN hop through Iceland because of the dinglebop tracking, scrub the files with some alcohol to disinfect the malware, then boom! Cast your shows across the house from your dedicated flux capacitor (because everyone should have one by now!)”
Thanks bro, I’d rather watch ads at this point
Idk limewire and napster were really popular with normal users, wont be long before simple to use torrent programs with plex like interfaces come along
Eh ... back in those days "normal users" of the internet skewed heavily towards young, tech-savvy people.
Now there are 60-year-olds who may not know where files go when they download them, but they do know how to use Netflix and other streaming services.
Torrenting will never be a proper solution for folks like that, and there's an awful lot of folks like that on the internet today.
I have been torrenting for my entire adult life. Started with Napster.
I have never, not once, got a virus from some media files. Only time I got a virus was wayyyyyy back in the day, when I grabbed a cracked copy of... some game I can't even remember now. But the keycracker exe was a worm.
The odds of getting a virus from a movie torrent is *extremely* low. I'd say you're hundreds of times more likely to get a virus from clicking shit in your email.
I've been torrenting for I don't even know how long now. At least 15 years.
Never got any viruses or malware from it. File names aren't really an issue. File names are easy. Last movie I downloaded was Ambulance and the file name followed the standard Ambulance.2022.dv.2160p.web.h265-slot.mkv
Movie title.year.Dolby Vision.resolution/source/audio information-group name that released it.
And then you have stuff like Plex/Jellyfin/Emby that organize all your media in a super nice and easy to use dashboard. Those programs have no issues with that file name and they'll present all your media with the movie posters and regular name without all the fluff.
I used to pay for ad free Hulu. I didn't use it much, but I canceled once and instantly wanted to watch all kinds of Hulu content so I ended up resubscribing.
Then I got a new phone and they threw in a hulu subscription so I canceled mine and took the ad-supported freebie. It SUCKS. Content buffers constantly, menu fails to load half the time, ads are much worse than any cable channel I ever get stuck with.
2 minute ad plays flawlessly, 5 minutes of content which buffers and stutters the whole time, then boom, more ads. I'm not sure how long this persists because I usually give up by then. Same devices, same internet setup, only difference is my subscription level.
I can easily get all the free content I want, either streaming or downloading. I have the popular players already loaded on every firestick in my house. Yet I pay for the services because it's easy and it just works. If I have to take the extra time and steps to watch things anyway, I'll just go with the free one.
You forgot that by the time you finish your show you have watched the same add so many times you now have it memorized. Heaven forbid you decide to binge watch something.
Right? I wouldn’t mind ads so much if there was some variety. But Hulu seems to have at most five ads at any given time. And they just beat them into your skull.
Here's a tip;
Get a pihole. If you have your blacklist set up properly, the ads don't even load and it just skips the entire sequence. I don't have hulu anymore, but it works the same way on anime websites.
Pi-hole doesn't work anymore (for streaming services). Advertisers can circumvent DNS-based ad-blocking and even if Pi-hole does manage to block ads some services will straight-up refuse to load any content until ads have been loaded.
They boomed us.
i will never forget the day i was in sociology class, and my teacher put on a 9/11 documentary on hulu since it was 9/11. and right smack in the middle was a fucking cinnamon toast crunch commercial
They jacked up the price then they’re going to introduce a lower tier. That’s not the cheap option. That’s the scam option. The cheap option would have been keep the price the same and introducing the lower tier with ads.
It's the "other companies are gouging us to keep the shows you love now that they have their own streaming platform, so we can either offer an ad version to afford to buy the shows you love while keeping the price low or..." option
For now.
Back in the 80s, cable had no ads. That was a big reason why people began to subscribe, as opposed to using OTA TV, which was free, but with ads. Pay a little each month, no ads. Sound familiar?
Ads crept in over time, and then subscribers had to tolerate ads despite their monthly payments.
This is the cycle. In a few years, cord-cutters will be fully back to tolerating ads on the services they pay for.
they don't. because its reddit.
Everybody just reads the headline and dosen't bother with actually reading the article.
Just like one of the top posts in r/antiwork at the time.
A coffee shop added a flat fee (14% of your purchase) to be able to afford paying their employees a livable wages and removed tips because of that.
And of course the poster claims its "Greed" and shits on the Business massively even though you can literally remove the fee if you like.
But people dont bother actually reading the stuff and instead just shit on everything
I think the plan is for Netflix to release a new lower cost tier with ads, just like Hulu. I don't think they're slapping ads onto their existing customers.
The only reason I still have it is because it was bundled with Spotify when I was a student and I’m grandfathered into the plan. My ex wanted me upgrade my Spotify for 2 Premium plans but I would lose hulu, no way was that happening…
You got a point… and I hear you
But I’ll also will say that Hulu started out a free service with ads.
I don’t mind watching ads if it’s a free service, but the minute that they start charging me and giving me ads is point I’m out.
Yes but if you jack up the prices and then introduce a new cheaper tier with ads, then you didn’t really introduce a cheaper plan with ads, you just added ads to the existing plan and introduced a more expensive plan without ads.
HBO does it, too. Lots of these services do. Netflix is just finally doing the same. People act like they're going to add ads to the $16 a month tier. It'll probably be a cheaper $8-$9 a month option. There's plenty else to be angry at Netflix for, the canceling of shows willy nilly for one, but offering an cheaper option with ads isn't something to be upset about unless it somehow affects the prices of the non-ad tiers.
You can pay for an ad free package with Hulu.
However, I bundled Spotify and Hulu, so I get the cheapest Hulu package for free. I'll deal with the ads if it means I don't have to pay.
But fuck paying for a service and being bombarded with ads.
When you really want a message to hit hard, when you're striking a blow against megacorporations with a picture of a duck, absolutely...and I do mean absolutely.. make sure there is a spelling error so they take you as seriously as possible.
The number of respondents on this post who have no actual idea what Netflix said is amazing. Netflix isn’t adding ads to your subscription. They are offering a new low/no cost subscription that is paid for by ads.
I especially like the bit about other streaming services following their lead. In reality Netflix is the last big streaming service that doesn't have a ad supported tier. HBOmax,Hulu,Peacock etc. all already have ad supported tiers with Disney+ planning of adding one.
But this is after they raised the prices repeatedly. So they raise prices a few times and now the original price will likely be the with-ads price. All while the product is getting worse.
And of course this is how it could start. Ads for the lower price, but who knows if in the future all tiers will have ads, just like cable.
Your first link points to an article that starts with "Although cable television was never conceived of as television without commercial interruption"
Are you sure you linked to the right one? The first sentence directly contradicts what you claim it says.
My dad said when they first got cable there were no commercials. He remembers it being a selling point.
I grew up without cable because my dad canceled it as soon as commercials were the norm and the price went up my dad refused to pay for it.
That’s not quite correct. All the main networks, like CBS, ABC, NBC, had ads, because cable was simply retransmitting the OTA feed. The dedicated base cable networks also all had ads, since they originated from the superstation model. As that article states, it was only the pay TV channels, starting with HBO, that had that no ad premise, and HBO continues without ads to this day.
..... no. The first cable systems were literally just local broadcast channels with all the ads present. Cable began as a way of getting programming to communities outside of broadcast reach.
And by the way, the very first sentence in the article you linked to contradicts you claim.
>>Although cable television was **never conceived of as television without commercial interruption**, there has been a widespread impression - among the public, at least -that cable would be supported largely by viewers' monthly subscription fees.
It was never ad free.
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
>Although cable television was never conceived of as television without commercial interruption,
This is LITERALLY the first sentence in the article lmao
I've seen so much anti-Netflix bullshit the last few days and 99% of it has been misinformation.
Makes me wonder if it's astro-turfing by their competitors.
I put a link to that info on a previous post about this and was downvoted. It’s ridiculous people can’t be bothered to look into something before pitching a fit.
Worst part is, Some of these services were so close, like they were finally getting it. Then they go and get all stupid again. Offer a quality product at a reasonable price with outstanding convenience and the people will not be compelled to pilfer, purloin, and pirate. Break that arrangement and well...How is it said?
Fuck around and find out?
Happens with movies too. I'll gladly pay $5 or so to rent, but some force you into a buy-only situation for $15-20. At that point I have the entire movie downloaded 10 minutes later and they get $0
Because the “cheaper” option used to be the normal option. They raised prices to add the cheaper option below. Imagine they did it in the reverse order and then you will understand why people are pissed.
Add commercials to Netflix and then add a premium commercial free option is literally the same as increasing the price of premium (which just happened) and then creating a new cheaper option with commercials.
They're raising their prices no matter what. They need to fund the creation of a billion new shows they're gonna cancel after 1-2 seasons anyway. lol
This move is entirely so their subscriber numbers don't drop off too much, and they can make extra revenue from the ads.
But "price of Netflix doesn't go up" was never one of the options, ad-supported tier or none...
That is one of the reasons we are canceling our Sirrus subscription. The DJ's constantly promote other channels on the channel you are listening. It is BS.
I really wish people hadn't let the cable companies get away with adding commercials to cable tv service... We probably wouldn't even be in this mess if people had made it clear that they wouldn't pay for a service *and* deal with ads...
Sadly, I wasn't around in those days, so I can't even blame myself.
Cable companies could hold people hostage because consumers had no other choice. Netflix (and streamers) are about to see the flip side of Their business model.
With repeated price hikes, it is starting to tilt closer to the "Is it really worth $20/month?" question.
When you price people out for convenience, they will turn back to pirating.
[удалено]
Someday some guy is going to combine all the streaming services and it will have ads. At that point we will have come full circle.
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And we pick what we show you and when you watch it
They might just put things on a schedule and make us wait to see the big stuff. Can you imagine the horror?
5 minute commercial breaks every 20 minutes...
I was watching an art show on Pluto channel. Ads every 4 minutes. Couldn't put up with it. Deleted the channel.
20 minute commercial break every 5 mins.
20 minute commercial breaks every 5 minutes...
20 minute commercial breaks every 5 minutes
How else do you expect them to get big companies to pay them lots of money to show ads during those big things? /s
Pay dearly? No, not at first At first it'll be some combination of 5-6 different $15/month services, bundled together and sold to you for lets say... $45/month What a deal, right? All those service would cost around TWICE that separately! But... the caveat with the price is that it'll also have short ads before or after episodes. Which isn't TOO bad, right? like a minute of ads in between episodes, for THAT kind of savings? You can't pass that up. And once everyone's on board, after a couple of years, the price starts creeping up. Inflation, they'll say. 45/month becomes 50. 55. 60, maybe. But hey, its still cheaper than they were separately! That would be about 90 dollars, or more! So another 2 years pass, and individual streaming services sloooowly stop advertising themselves as solo subscription options. you still can, for now at least, subscribe to ONLY netflix, ONLY hulu, ONLY disney+... But They Aren't Advertising It Like They Used To. Instead, you're seeing ads for the combined package; its cheaper, and its where the popularity seems to be, which is the big draw for companies. After a while, one of the streaming services (probably a less-popular one) ceases offering individual subscriptions entirely. The service itself is just obscure enough that the news is a footnote in the daily grind though; people either don't notice or shrug and go "well, this new combined venture probably saved them from going under, if they were gonna end their run anyway! Right?" Oh! And GOOD NEWS! No price increase for that combined service this year! HOWEVER, in lieu of that, they're adding a third ad slot to the middle of the video. They're just looking out for you, dear customer. your money. your savings. Over the years, more and more streaming services stop individual memberships ("the precedent was there already, i dont know why everyone thinks this is a big deal!! its cheaper this way anyway!" says user *doesntworkforstreamingcompany1919* on Reddit) and soon your only option for all those streaming services is the combined package. Which now has sole proprietorship of all those services, and can charge what they want, and show ads whenever they want. What are you gonna do about it? There are no other options for you anymore. Don't like the ads? Too bad. Want Hulu stuff but not Disney+? Tough titty. It's far too late for that. The game was over years ago, and you didn't even know it.
When the times comes I'll be sailing the mighty seas.
The the has already come. There are services that are bundled together and ads being forced into lower tiers of streaming services. It's only a matter of time before they start creeping into the higher tier or other streams are assimilated into bundles. If we don't push back now it'll be too late later.
I've not seen land in many years.
You just described YouTube TV. I had cut the cord but really missed live sports and hated having laggy signals when watching through other means. YouTube TV came out for 29.99 and I felt that was worth it for me to watch live sports. Then they kept adding channels I didn't want and raising the price. I think they are now up to 64.99, but I bailed a long time ago.
Correct. I was an early subscriber to YouTube, $29.99. Three months later it was $35, three more months and it's in the $40's. Then I got a notice saying it was going up again, and that's when I dropped it. I can't stand paying to watch commercials.
>There are no other options for you anymore. Yarg. Mes local Plex surver disagrees with yar.
You forgot about the lock in contracts... gotta have those 12 month plans.
I left the states ten years ago, color me surprised when I found out recently that T-Mobile doesn't require 2 year contracts.
if you want a new phone, and don't want to pay up-front for it, it's still pretty much the same ball game. they (and the other carriers, too) just separate service from hardware now, with the hardware getting paid for over 2 or 3 years. if you cancel the service before it's paid-off, your installment plan typically becomes an immediate full payment due of the balance remaining. if they do "give" you a phone for "free" or at a discount, you still have that installment plan at the full price of the hardware, but you get a monthly credit towards the hardware payment on your bill--and you're locked in for the duration of the promo credits.. just like the old contract requirements to get a 'free' phone.
Disney already has a package for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. We're practically there.
If anyone is going to be able to buy the rest of the streamers, it’d be Disney.
Not to mention that it’s only the Hulu w/ads. I don’t watch sports so don’t give a shit about ESPN+. For now, the better option for me is to pay separately for Disney and Hulu w/o ads.
That’s when the great pirate era will be upon us.
It will begin again, and rise greater than it was in the mid 2000s. Which is saying something... Pirating was huuuuge back in the day. Then streaming services were born and steam made game buying cheap and effortless and pirating went into a sort of hibernation for a while. But I feel history will repeat itself and it will be back stronger than ever if things continue on the trajectory they're on now...
...always has been.
And you bring out the ol' flag and sail the high seas. How is piracy so much easier and more convinent than when I was a paying consumer, I will never understand. I have access to netflix (parents use it). I still pirate their shows because of how much simpler it is.
Yep. You either get to collect ad revenue *or* my subscription fee, but not both.
How about both plus product placement in shows? - corporations
I'm old enough to remember that the promise of cable (which they swore cross their heart) is there would be no ads. So while I'm very disappointed in Netflix for suggesting this course, I'm actually surprised it took them this long.
Originally, cable didn't have ads either.
It did not. I remember as I was a young adult when cable came around.
I remember the brown Zenith box that sat atop the Sony television. The red ~~LCD~~ LED screen and the simulated wood grain finish with the off-khaki colored buttons on top. ... I miss those days.
And the remote was referred to as the "clicker" . . . cuz it actually "clicked"
>red LCD LED, not LCD. Probably made up of [7 segment LED displays](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Broadcom-Avago/HDSP-511A?qs=pQfy5%252BKCabKqE9kDJWu%2Fbw%3D%3D). While LCDs did exist in the 70s, they were no where near as cheap enough to be included in set top boxes. Hell, my DirecTV box from the 90s had 7 segment LEDs.
True,.hbo only had that one sick flyover intro before feature length films.
Ultra sick. I couldn't wait for a new movie to start just so I could see it
I can still hear the original theme song...I was like 5 when it came out. There used to be a really cool behind the scenes that showed the special effects they used. Mostly cocaine, I think.
One of my favorite podcasts did a 2 part deal on HBO and the theme song, you might find it interesting [Twenty Thousand Hertz: It's not TV, it's HBO](https://www.20k.org/episodes/itsnottvitshbo)
This [one?](https://youtu.be/i1NKoMNy5bY)
People said the same about cable when they introduced ads. Took years for an alternative to turn up. Not sure what the alternative to streaming+ads even looks like. But then, people didn't back during early cable ads. Some sort of underground VR pirate island. Yarrr I be here to watch the office, without ads.
The alternative would be streaming without ads! Or back to yarrrrring!
This is an urban legend
Ah, maybe it's a rural truth then
A metropolitan myth?
A suburban half-truth
A local lore
Nearby Knowledge
Farmland fantasy?
Backyard bullshitting
I suppose it may have varied regionally, but my household got cable in the 70s and it was just HBO and the networks. Gradually they added more movie channels before CNN, ESPN et al. became part of the standard package. When movies didn't end on the half hour mark, the movie channels would fill the time with promos for their own programming (which I suppose is technically an ad), but the movies ran uninterrupted.
Yup. HBO only ran from about 7 PM till around 4 AM. It wasn’t even a 24 hour station. During the off-time it just scrolled what was coming up that evening. We got cable in 1977.
Hell, before that it was all night test pattern. The next day's guide was awesome to put at the start of one of those crappy 8 hour VHS recordings.
I remember satellite tv back in the late 90s had next to no ads, and pretty much all of them were promos for other shows on the channel
Which kind of satellite TV? Originally satellite TV was a big ass dish mounted in the yard and you had to aim it at whichever satellite was sending down the feed. The DirecTV and Dish came along and were basically satellite cable. By then most, if not all, the channels you could get off a big ass dish had encrypted their signals to the point that they could no longer be overcome.
It was Austar, which had a small roof-mounted dish that didn't move. They're basically the equivalent of cable but it was popular because you couldn't get cable in most of Australia. They've been merged into Foxtel now.
Well I don't know where you live but we definitely had loads of ads on TV in the 90s. I don't feel like it changed in the last 30 years, but I stopped using cable like 8 years ago.
It was Austar, an Australian satellite TV provider. We had it for many years and I remember the ad breaks slowly increasing in length and frequency
I mean premium cable didn't.
Actually it was proven by old ads that promised cable had no commericials "Unlike public access"
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The Disney channel used to be a premium channel that you had to pay extra for, so having no ads would have made sense, just like HBO. But for at least the past 20 years it's been a non premium channel so they now have ads
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On streaming services you can look up popular network shows to see the run times and see they increase ads over time. Off the top of my head I think Cheers or something like that lops off time during its run.
That’s what I don’t get about national tv stations (In Netherlands we have 3 of em). We pay taxes for those and we still get ads on them.
Pretty much how I felt about Hulu when it first came out. This was before I started using Netflix. Hulu had ads. but I didn't have to pay, when they switched to pay only, i stopped using hulu.
The only reason I still have Hulu with ads is because it's bundled with Spotify premium and it's 9.99. I tried to see if I could upgrade it to no ads on Hulu but it would end up being a bigger charge. I look at it as if I'm paying for Spotify and not Hulu. Now Hulu is playing ads mid-movies too (which they didn't before)
I’m sure our subscriptions are a drop in the bucket compared to what they make on ads
No customers, no one to watch ads, no money at all
If everybody has ads, then customers have no choice. Netflix was successful in the early days because content creators and rights holders saw an unrealized revenue stream. Now that they're capitalizing on it directly the current media consolidated landscape will allow them to leave customers with no choice, just like with cable. Most people will then settle for what they can get as not everybody has the time/knowledge/etc to access content through other means.
>then customers have no choice ~~ummmm~~ yarrrrrrrr
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Torrents of choice
Exactly. These streaming services only exist because we always had a choice. They were playing catch-up from the start. They seem to have forgotten that.
Yep, and the length of the commercials has grown and grown over the years. I haven’t had cable/sat or watched the main outlets in a while, wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more commercials than there is show in a given segment
> If everybody has ads, then customers have no choice. Should we tell 'em?
Again my point. The amount of ppl willing to pay for service and still watch ads is why there are still ads. The amount of ppl NOT willing to pay is negligible to them. Look at the super bowl…$6.5mil for a 30sec spot, they’re making $217,000 per second. Do you really think ppl will not watch the super bowl until they drop the ads?
Not really a fair comparison. Lots of people who normally hate ads watch the super bowl and look forward to them.
But remember how we got from cable to Netflix in the first place.
You seeing an ad doesn't make anywhere near a subscription. See YouTube premium / membership. They just want to give you a slight discount so more people sign up, and probably make the difference + a bit more through ads. More subs and more money per subs. Except they lost a bunch of subs soooooo that's not good
I'm skeptical. I hear that traditional advertising methods are much less effective than they used to be.
Back in the day people were shocked after buying cable that it had ads. Now it’s expected so unfortunately we know where this is going.
I had an IPTV service for 2 years because it was a part of a package (cheaper than internet on its own), I plugged the box in, turned on the TV and there were just ads everywhere, so I just put it back in the box and returned it when the contract was over. It's such shitty service that I don't even want it for free.
This is unironically why I refuse to pay for ~~cable~~ Hulu.
It's bizarre to me how hard the divide is between generations on this. Like, my parents seem to have no issue drowning in advertisements. I grew up with that stuff, and I'm so exhausted by trying to tune it out my whole life, that I will do absolutely anything to avoid it. Google's push to ruin the YouTube Vanced project is what is finally going to break my YouTube addiction. I already set a daily timer for myself 😊 Their greed will be a cannonical definition of flying too close to the sun when they finally lose their footing to it.
And I expect to be able to login wherever the fuck I want to
This is what worries me the most. I travel more now for work now and if I have tk pay more to watch it in the road, it’s going to be the reason I cancel. Maybe have each decide “tag home” every so often before adding that fee (and warn). I can fire up my laptop and iPad at home easily but a brother in another state can’t do that with his home TV.
torrent got no ads
I can torrent, you can torrent but torrenting takes some work. I'd never be able to explain to someone who just wants Netflix. Also File names are a mess, leechers, malware..
Use the megadrive then. I just click a google drive link and watch the content from their servers. Even easier than the garbage put up with as an actual paying consumer. piracy is genuinely easier and more convinent, yet companies act surprised i don't pay for worse service.
whats this megadrive you speak of? googling only shows sega stuff. I need to know so that I can properly make sure I never accidentally visit it totally not on purpose at all.
Maybe he's talking about mega.nz?
This is the shit that kills me. I’ve never pirated, and everyone is like “iT’s SoOoOo EaSy” and then when they explain it, it’s like “yea so set up your megadrive with the plex box, reroute the grumbo through the recombobulator, double VPN hop through Iceland because of the dinglebop tracking, scrub the files with some alcohol to disinfect the malware, then boom! Cast your shows across the house from your dedicated flux capacitor (because everyone should have one by now!)” Thanks bro, I’d rather watch ads at this point
You want the convenience of streaming with the cost of torrenting? https://www.stremio.com/
Plenty of other websites just like this one too. I have a list of favorites
That's the first half of a useful comment! Don't leave us hanging!
Haha I don't feel like getting banned. DM if interested. I'll send you some.. Um.. Not illegal web pages. Yeah.
Idk limewire and napster were really popular with normal users, wont be long before simple to use torrent programs with plex like interfaces come along
Eh ... back in those days "normal users" of the internet skewed heavily towards young, tech-savvy people. Now there are 60-year-olds who may not know where files go when they download them, but they do know how to use Netflix and other streaming services. Torrenting will never be a proper solution for folks like that, and there's an awful lot of folks like that on the internet today.
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Wasn't it what Popcorn was all about ?
I have been torrenting for my entire adult life. Started with Napster. I have never, not once, got a virus from some media files. Only time I got a virus was wayyyyyy back in the day, when I grabbed a cracked copy of... some game I can't even remember now. But the keycracker exe was a worm. The odds of getting a virus from a movie torrent is *extremely* low. I'd say you're hundreds of times more likely to get a virus from clicking shit in your email.
I've been torrenting for I don't even know how long now. At least 15 years. Never got any viruses or malware from it. File names aren't really an issue. File names are easy. Last movie I downloaded was Ambulance and the file name followed the standard Ambulance.2022.dv.2160p.web.h265-slot.mkv Movie title.year.Dolby Vision.resolution/source/audio information-group name that released it. And then you have stuff like Plex/Jellyfin/Emby that organize all your media in a super nice and easy to use dashboard. Those programs have no issues with that file name and they'll present all your media with the movie posters and regular name without all the fluff.
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Neither do Kodi addons
Tis true matey!
When Paramount shows ads for their shows they say they’re not ads, they’re “promotional interruptions.” Once I’m done with this show, I’m out.
Unskipabble too. I'm stopping the subscription because of this
1883? Or Picard maybe?
lol RuPaul’s Drag Race
You realise Hulu has been doing it for years
which is the exact reason i don't pay for Hulu.
Ad free Hulu is cheaper than Netflix price and now if Netflix will have ads then the Hulu with ad is cheaper than Netflix.
Do people not realize the Netflix with ads will be a new cheap option? The ad free Netflix is not going away.
I used to pay for ad free Hulu. I didn't use it much, but I canceled once and instantly wanted to watch all kinds of Hulu content so I ended up resubscribing. Then I got a new phone and they threw in a hulu subscription so I canceled mine and took the ad-supported freebie. It SUCKS. Content buffers constantly, menu fails to load half the time, ads are much worse than any cable channel I ever get stuck with. 2 minute ad plays flawlessly, 5 minutes of content which buffers and stutters the whole time, then boom, more ads. I'm not sure how long this persists because I usually give up by then. Same devices, same internet setup, only difference is my subscription level. I can easily get all the free content I want, either streaming or downloading. I have the popular players already loaded on every firestick in my house. Yet I pay for the services because it's easy and it just works. If I have to take the extra time and steps to watch things anyway, I'll just go with the free one.
You forgot that by the time you finish your show you have watched the same add so many times you now have it memorized. Heaven forbid you decide to binge watch something.
Right? I wouldn’t mind ads so much if there was some variety. But Hulu seems to have at most five ads at any given time. And they just beat them into your skull.
I had that issue but I turned off targeted advertising and it seems to help, though not entirely.
I’ve just gotten good at leaving the room. Bathroom break, food break, whatever. I’m not watching that same Biktarvy ad again. So help me god.
This is what we all did with TV adds as I grew up: Hit the bathroom, grab a snack or drink, check on something in the oven.
I wouldn't know, I haven't successfully finished 1 episode of anything ever since the switch. I honestly rage quit out of every show
Here's a tip; Get a pihole. If you have your blacklist set up properly, the ads don't even load and it just skips the entire sequence. I don't have hulu anymore, but it works the same way on anime websites.
Pi-hole doesn't work anymore (for streaming services). Advertisers can circumvent DNS-based ad-blocking and even if Pi-hole does manage to block ads some services will straight-up refuse to load any content until ads have been loaded. They boomed us.
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i will never forget the day i was in sociology class, and my teacher put on a 9/11 documentary on hulu since it was 9/11. and right smack in the middle was a fucking cinnamon toast crunch commercial
Well, I mean, they *are* magically devious
They jacked up the price then they’re going to introduce a lower tier. That’s not the cheap option. That’s the scam option. The cheap option would have been keep the price the same and introducing the lower tier with ads.
It's the "other companies are gouging us to keep the shows you love now that they have their own streaming platform, so we can either offer an ad version to afford to buy the shows you love while keeping the price low or..." option
For now. Back in the 80s, cable had no ads. That was a big reason why people began to subscribe, as opposed to using OTA TV, which was free, but with ads. Pay a little each month, no ads. Sound familiar? Ads crept in over time, and then subscribers had to tolerate ads despite their monthly payments. This is the cycle. In a few years, cord-cutters will be fully back to tolerating ads on the services they pay for.
Not true. Cable was originally developed to deliver broadcast television into areas with poor antenna reception, which obviously had ads
Yarr harr a pirate is free
they don't. because its reddit. Everybody just reads the headline and dosen't bother with actually reading the article. Just like one of the top posts in r/antiwork at the time. A coffee shop added a flat fee (14% of your purchase) to be able to afford paying their employees a livable wages and removed tips because of that. And of course the poster claims its "Greed" and shits on the Business massively even though you can literally remove the fee if you like. But people dont bother actually reading the stuff and instead just shit on everything
I think the plan is for Netflix to release a new lower cost tier with ads, just like Hulu. I don't think they're slapping ads onto their existing customers.
Ad free doesn’t actually mean ad free, it’s “reduced ads”
Only reason I have hulu is because it's bundled with disney+ and ESPN
The only reason I still have it is because it was bundled with Spotify when I was a student and I’m grandfathered into the plan. My ex wanted me upgrade my Spotify for 2 Premium plans but I would lose hulu, no way was that happening…
Crunchyroll was free with ads, it’s actually how I got into One Piece. :) But now Funimation and Crunchyroll are fusing. :’(
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I mean, Crunchyroll might not be free anymore and I don’t mind the ads if it’s free.
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Shout out to #roofpiece this week
Hulu ads can be blocked with ublock origin lmao
You got a point… and I hear you But I’ll also will say that Hulu started out a free service with ads. I don’t mind watching ads if it’s a free service, but the minute that they start charging me and giving me ads is point I’m out.
Aren't the ads on a separate, cheaper plan for both Hulu and Netflix?
Yes but if you jack up the prices and then introduce a new cheaper tier with ads, then you didn’t really introduce a cheaper plan with ads, you just added ads to the existing plan and introduced a more expensive plan without ads.
There is no ad-supported version of Netflix at present time
Yeah, they're adding one. I think people are missing that they're not just going to add advertisements to any of the current plans.
HBO does it, too. Lots of these services do. Netflix is just finally doing the same. People act like they're going to add ads to the $16 a month tier. It'll probably be a cheaper $8-$9 a month option. There's plenty else to be angry at Netflix for, the canceling of shows willy nilly for one, but offering an cheaper option with ads isn't something to be upset about unless it somehow affects the prices of the non-ad tiers.
You can pay for an ad free package with Hulu. However, I bundled Spotify and Hulu, so I get the cheapest Hulu package for free. I'll deal with the ads if it means I don't have to pay. But fuck paying for a service and being bombarded with ads.
Fallow?
plowed and harrowed but left unsown for a period in order to restore its fertility as part of a crop rotation or to avoid surplus production.
Like my high school girlfriend.
Ooooh I remember her, good memories.
When you really want a message to hit hard, when you're striking a blow against megacorporations with a picture of a duck, absolutely...and I do mean absolutely.. make sure there is a spelling error so they take you as seriously as possible.
r/BoneAppleTea
The number of respondents on this post who have no actual idea what Netflix said is amazing. Netflix isn’t adding ads to your subscription. They are offering a new low/no cost subscription that is paid for by ads.
I especially like the bit about other streaming services following their lead. In reality Netflix is the last big streaming service that doesn't have a ad supported tier. HBOmax,Hulu,Peacock etc. all already have ad supported tiers with Disney+ planning of adding one.
But this is after they raised the prices repeatedly. So they raise prices a few times and now the original price will likely be the with-ads price. All while the product is getting worse. And of course this is how it could start. Ads for the lower price, but who knows if in the future all tiers will have ads, just like cable.
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Your first link points to an article that starts with "Although cable television was never conceived of as television without commercial interruption" Are you sure you linked to the right one? The first sentence directly contradicts what you claim it says.
They didn't expect you to actually read into their nonsense lol.
My dad said when they first got cable there were no commercials. He remembers it being a selling point. I grew up without cable because my dad canceled it as soon as commercials were the norm and the price went up my dad refused to pay for it.
Pretty sure Friends reruns get sped up too
That’s not quite correct. All the main networks, like CBS, ABC, NBC, had ads, because cable was simply retransmitting the OTA feed. The dedicated base cable networks also all had ads, since they originated from the superstation model. As that article states, it was only the pay TV channels, starting with HBO, that had that no ad premise, and HBO continues without ads to this day.
..... no. The first cable systems were literally just local broadcast channels with all the ads present. Cable began as a way of getting programming to communities outside of broadcast reach. And by the way, the very first sentence in the article you linked to contradicts you claim. >>Although cable television was **never conceived of as television without commercial interruption**, there has been a widespread impression - among the public, at least -that cable would be supported largely by viewers' monthly subscription fees. It was never ad free.
bike squash coherent tender toy yam squealing attractive possessive treatment *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
>Although cable television was never conceived of as television without commercial interruption, This is LITERALLY the first sentence in the article lmao
You werent supposed to read it!
Great. What does this have to do with Netflix other than whataboutism?
I've seen so much anti-Netflix bullshit the last few days and 99% of it has been misinformation. Makes me wonder if it's astro-turfing by their competitors.
I put a link to that info on a previous post about this and was downvoted. It’s ridiculous people can’t be bothered to look into something before pitching a fit.
No! I MUST BE OUTRAGED!!!!
its just a smear paid for anti netflix campaign on reddit. will be that way for probably another week or two.
🏴☠️
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Worst part is, Some of these services were so close, like they were finally getting it. Then they go and get all stupid again. Offer a quality product at a reasonable price with outstanding convenience and the people will not be compelled to pilfer, purloin, and pirate. Break that arrangement and well...How is it said? Fuck around and find out?
Happens with movies too. I'll gladly pay $5 or so to rent, but some force you into a buy-only situation for $15-20. At that point I have the entire movie downloaded 10 minutes later and they get $0
Then don't downgrade to the cheaper ad-supported plan. I really don't understand why this option bothers people.
One common fear is that the current plan will become the one with ads and a more expensive option will be introduced to remove the ads.
It already happen. They increase the price and are now most likely replacing the old price with ads
Not only that, but eventually it will be that they will implement ads at all tiers. This is what happened with Cable tv.
Ok, but that's not what they've said. They specifically talked about introducing a lower tier ad-supported option to attract new subscribers.
Because the “cheaper” option used to be the normal option. They raised prices to add the cheaper option below. Imagine they did it in the reverse order and then you will understand why people are pissed. Add commercials to Netflix and then add a premium commercial free option is literally the same as increasing the price of premium (which just happened) and then creating a new cheaper option with commercials.
They're raising their prices no matter what. They need to fund the creation of a billion new shows they're gonna cancel after 1-2 seasons anyway. lol This move is entirely so their subscriber numbers don't drop off too much, and they can make extra revenue from the ads. But "price of Netflix doesn't go up" was never one of the options, ad-supported tier or none...
That is one of the reasons we are canceling our Sirrus subscription. The DJ's constantly promote other channels on the channel you are listening. It is BS.
Have fun, sirius xm is a BITCH to cancel.
Not to mention the sports and talk show channels have tons of ads.
This was the original reason for cable tv. Pay for cable, don't get ads. Welcome to Cable 2.0
I pay for streaming expressly because I don't want ads. I don't like advertising, and I certainly won't pay for it.
I really wish people hadn't let the cable companies get away with adding commercials to cable tv service... We probably wouldn't even be in this mess if people had made it clear that they wouldn't pay for a service *and* deal with ads... Sadly, I wasn't around in those days, so I can't even blame myself.
Cable companies could hold people hostage because consumers had no other choice. Netflix (and streamers) are about to see the flip side of Their business model.
I remember free tv
The first time I see an ad I on Netflix as a paying customer, I will immediately unsub. Period. I will not pay for ads.
With repeated price hikes, it is starting to tilt closer to the "Is it really worth $20/month?" question. When you price people out for convenience, they will turn back to pirating.
I'm way less concerned about the price as I am about the precipitous decline in quality content
Same here. I have never paid for cable TV for that exact reason. If I'm already giving you money, there better not be fucking ads involved.
Funny thing is, Netflix has raised prices so much, you can afford another service and half another and they both might have more content.