What are you surprised that people pay for, when there are free alternatives in existence?
I was going through my Wal-Mart+ subscription plan that I got for free and I saw their offers. One of which was EMeals, that was a 60-day trial. I thought that this was like Blue Apron or other meal delivery services so I thought I'd take a crack at it and hope that it would get me on a path to eat better.
Turns out, it's just a meal planner. And it's absurd to me why and how would anyone pay for something when there are countless and countless recipes and meal planners readily available for free. Who'd the fuck would want to pay for a planner? That's like paying for a calendar app.
Okay, to preface I really hate giving Google money, but I hate ads more, and paying for Premium also removes ads on YouTube apps across platforms. It also in some minuscule way rewards the creators I watch, but real support comes from Patreon.
I mean, it depends on how much you use it, no? I use YouTube more than Netflix and the like (most of the time anyway). Not that I have YouTube premium but still.
Yeah I'm with you. I know there's some way to block ads on any device if you are really dedicated but I don't want to get a PHD in ad blocking just to not have ads on YT on my phone
Just solved this problem actually. Smart tube app. Download on your tv with a browser and sideload the apk. Dunno about console but I'm sure there's some solution.
Streaming services are raising prices because prestige television was expensive and are using ads as a way to reduce the bill.
And you don't have to pay for streaming if you don't find it too be worth it. I've cancelled subscriptions because the increased price wasn't worth it.
Sidenote: Lol I'm getting downvotes for mocking streaming giants and ads on Lemmy. That's different 🤔.
Honestly, I hear you. Media isn't easy to make and takes a ton of talented people a lot of hours to accomplish. I also drop off of subscribing to stuff if it was really nice but "enshittified" into forcing ads into every interaction.
Something needs to change fundamentally though, because we're once again on the cable-TV slope of
"20 minutes of entertainment extended to 45 minutes by interrupting it with the exact same ad of a mega corporation pretending to be an underdog influencer."
My personal take is that if your average person were paid fairly, they'd have the money to spend on entertainment where ad-pollution wouldn't be necessary, and if the entertainment distributors/platforms/whatevs asked the fair amount required to pay everyone involved fairly, everyone would be happy.
I have lots of ad blockers. But my father watches YouTube on the LG TV app. I don't live there anymore and hearing the ads from the other room became offensive to the family.
It was easier to just buy a premium family plan and call it a day.
There is literally a discord, with a link here on Lemmy, with links in said discord to download sources. Plus there are help and troubleshooting threads.