It sucks for consumers...

It sucks for writers...

It sucks for actors...

It sucks for vfx workers...

And the CEOs running the companies and making all the money claims it sucks for them too because after their last couple years of shit decisions, they're making slightly less money.

So maybe those shareholders should re-evaulte who their CEOs are?

Maybe get rid of the people who killed the Golden Goose because they wanted to eat it?

I gave them a chance. They collectively became more & more rapacious & greedy.

Back to sailing the high seas.

Ah, well. There's always piracy.

Arrrrr whatever be i to do? 🦜🏴‍☠️

I’ve set sail on the high seas again for the first time in like 15 years.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Discovery's David Zaslav have also indicated that their services were initially priced "too low" in an effort to draw a huge and unendingly expanding subscriber base.

In the early-to-mid 2010s, a subscription to Netflix and Hulu and your friend’s borrowed HBO password could get you access to the vast majority of all the TV that was worth watching.

Netflix had a huge archive of older shows plus a slowly growing library of its buzzy releases like Orange Is the New Black, Jessica Jones, and Stranger Things.

Not content to let Netflix have what looked like a lucrative new market all to itself the companies that made and distributed TV decided one by one as the decade wore on that it was time to create their own apps and generate their own subscription revenue.

Tech companies also decided to jump in, with Amazon Prime Video pushing into expensive scripted dramas and Apple TV+ becoming relevant by dint of throwing untold gobs of money at all kinds of projects.

Netflix announced its first subscriber loss in a decade in early 2022, cratering its stock; despite some recovery, it's still only worth about two-thirds what it was at its peak in late 2021.

I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Luckily VPNs are cheaper

Streaming was great when Netflix launched, convenient and affordable - I remember being excited when Netflix finally launched in my country. Was only a matter of time before all would turn to shit with every tv network/producer launching their own streaming services and fragmenting all that content.

I am happy to steal from corporations. Been doing it all my life and I will never stop. Fuck em.

At this point, the best way to go (besides sailing) is to subscribe to one or two services at a time, cancelling others month-to-month based on what you want to watch.

We need an app that lets you search for content across all platforms and easily cancel and start subscriptions - queueing them up and helping you easily limit the amount you’re paying monthly.

But with these prices, it’s worth doing that manually.

I will forever wonder how these companies actively choose $0/mo over a cut of $XX/mo and everyone in the decision chain thinks it's the right decision.

For me it's back to the pirating era.

Sounds like a good time to cancel a subscription and finish the ol' Steam library

I've never threw away my jolly roger, it's just safely hidden away

Capitalism turns everything into shit. Not promises, only profit.

Yar har har matey.

🎶Yar Har, fiddle-de-dee🎶

https://www.togetherprice.com/ - great site to share subscription prices, I've been using it for years.

If companies are so adamant in both raising prices to the point of unaffordability, and making alternate routes to enjoy their art illegal, then what we should collectively do is to just go without them, maybe use that free time and money for something more useful than art.

The only reason I have Netflix is because I get it through T-Mobile as a last resort. Fuck the state of streaming content. Raise the pirate flag boys!

So piracy is a check on the abuses of the media market?

Interesting!

I'll plunder yer coffer, ye mutinous, squiffy gob! ... Hoist the Jolly Roger!

just ordered a nice OTA antenna so I can watch my local channels, anything else needed will be purchased for exactly 1 month and then cancelled

I've also started looking at smaller streaming services like CuriosityStream and MagellanTV cause I'm more interested in documentaries and such instead of the latest weekly tv dramas