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Tech's broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap. (www.businessinsider.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmygrad.ml
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[–] 11 points 2 years ago* (14 children)

How is it more expensive? I pirate everything myself, but even if I got one or two streaming services it would be at most 20-35 dollars. The cheapest cable plans were easily 75+ with any of the good bundles easily going for 125 or more.

The death of cable was a long time coming. A truly awful service. Though the thing that replaced it isn’t much better.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Honestly once you've experienced living ad-free you can't go back. I have been pirating for years, using ad blockers for years, and now whenever an ad comes on I get jumpy lol. I even use spicetify on Spotify (I mostly listen to it on PC anyway) to block ads. I haven't watched cable in over a decade. You forget how it actually is pretty quickly. Whenever I see people watching TV and the ad break comes on it feels absolutely endless, and so loud too.

    And it's even worse in the US where they have 3 ad breaks during a show. In europe they only do one in the middle of the show. Actually as a kid I was wondering why they had a black screen sometimes in shows and figured it was a 5 second intermission lol.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    Exactly, once you've experienced it I just don't get how anyone could go back except kicking and screaming but people want their slop I guess?

    Cable is garbage. Just straight ad-infested low quality slop that has its production values slashed year over year. Goodness I sound old now but I do think back in the early 2000s when I was growing up that there was better quality and shorter commercials too.

    Compare to ad-free service from two streaming services at $20/month each and you're only paying $40 and getting no commercials, no interruptions, no wastes of your time and tons of content on demand on your schedule.

    Add to that some sailing knowledge and you don't have to worry about rotating services either.

    The only thing I miss as a film nerd is TCM (also commercial free). Oh and PBS sometimes had good stuff though that's not technically a cable channel.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Oh, through pirating? Fair.

    I just want shit to air on my television at random again.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I know there's a Plex program that does this, creates simulated channels filled with randomized (or via pre-defined criteria like action movies) channels that you can tune to. Might be something for Jellyfin that's similar. Maybe not exactly what you're after and if you don't have a very large collection it won't work that well but if you have hundreds of movies or shows it could look pretty random.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Streaming is expensive if you want to watch all the things. Netflix, Amazon, Paramount, HBO, Disney, Apple, and who knows what else I'm missing all have original series and if you want to see something from each service you would have to subscribe to each service.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    What idiot is using all of those services simultaneously though? At that point you either pirate or choose one or two services to use for the month. You can’t watch them all at once anyway. If you’re buying all of them, then that’s on you at that point.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    so many people do this because they sign up for a 3 month trial or whatever and just end up paying for the shit because there's a show or whatever on each service they like so they just keep paying

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    It’s a predatory practice, but that feels like it’s more on the consumer at that point. If you blow your money on pointless stuff like that, or forget to cancel your subscriptions, then you are not responsible with your money.

    Do people not check their bank statements at the end of the month?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Same goes for cable. Of course you can do the minimum, but then you're missing out on things which are heavily advertised, things your friends are talking about, etc. Of course you don't have to but a lot of people are swayed by that.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Well you're also paying the cable company 50-100 for the internet regardless of whether you pirate or stream.

    (Or another isp that isn't a cable company but the comparison is funnier this way)

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    i pay about 400 a year for my piracy tools and services.. which when i say that out loud sounds ridiculous, but it's still far far cheaper than paying for multiple streaming services and/or cable

    plus i can watch whatever i want, binging or not commercial free, and i can get games and whatever else thrown in at no additional cost

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