The era of cheap streaming is officially over
The era of cheap streaming is officially over
Pirating went down when paying for streaming was more convenient. Well, you are making it far less convenient.
Streaming has become cable 2.0.
It was wonderful when everything was on one, maybe two providers. Could watch everything in a very easy, very affordable way.
But everyone saw that, went "I know, I want that money!" and spent billions building their own individual infrastructures so make their own streaming services, and right around we go right back to the absolute worst days of cable and bullshit.
Only thing stopping me from saying fuck it and downloading shit I want to watch, is the fact that I no longer know what the good sites are.. since I havent pirated since the heyday of the bay.
[email protected] Their sidebar can teach you a lot.
Streaming has become cable with micro transactions.
Join lemmy.dbzer0.com the piracy instance and ask around about private trackers and if there are any open signups
And the irony is that people switched to cable for the exact same reason. They got tired of the nonsense that broadcast TV pulled with subscriptions for different channels and all the ads and everything, and went to cable because you paid one bill for every channel. Then, everyone moved to streaming because you had to buy 50 different cable packages for the one channel on each you actually cared about, and there were just too many ads to deal with, etc.
Something something, those who don't listen to history are doomed to lose profit margins or whatever.
TorrentFreak occassionally posts a list of sites, just use a good no logging VPN.
Galaxy torrents is a newer, solid option friend
Oh, so they defederated and y'all complaining about that now. I see how it is 😋
Arr
As lord Gaben has said, "piracy is a service issue"
Well, this time they have Google and Microsoft on big brother duty to make sure you don't get crazy ideas. And I'm not seeing enough people jumping away from Chrome and Windows to stop it.
I'm on Windows and it's never hindered me when I needed to go download something that would make a studio exec cry. Granted, I use Firefox, but I'm not sure what Chrome would do differently - it's just a matter of clicking links that get sent off to qBittorrent to handle. What "big brothering" do they do?
But so far google and microsoft are incompetent big brothers, to the point that most people will find free streaming sites just by searching "free streaming epx of show". Now we are not talking good streaming, or even safe but if you want an example just look at any place with poor users (like a school or library).
To be completely fair, it's been over for a while. Even if you completely forget about infrastructure, between the endless wars for licenses, endless removals of content from platforms, shitty inconvenient apps, and regional locks, it's already a dying market.
On top of all of that, they're implementing the "don't you have 5 extra dollars" strategy, with skyrocketing monthly prices for each of these. If it was 15$ a month to watch anything, i would still pay. but it's 15$ for each of them, and they still serve you ads, and sell your data
The funny thing is we're rapidly approaching the point where there's more digital content than any single human could consume in a lifetime. Including content from before copyright. So the main thing streaming services offer you is convenience and up-to-date media. But if you're just trying to entertain yourself 30-year-old 40-year-old 50-year-old 60-year-old 70-year-old content can be just as engrossing. You just get emotionally invested in it.
I've found a DVD rental place close to me with quite a collection. Honestly thinking about just unsubscribing from all streaming and going all in on DVD rental. I watched one recently for the first time ... you forget how consistently good the qualilty is compared to streaming (YMMV). But, in true hipster fashion, being more deliberate about what I watch, more openly exploratory, making more of an event of it, all seems attractive. If streaming were actually convenient, fine, but with the way things are now ... they can go to hell.
And the writer's strike shows that the artists don't get paid anyway if you pay for content, so they can't even play that card either.
We all knew that even before the strike too. Musicians get paid pennies on a dollar, and it's the same with writers. Actors are probably treated the same way, if you're not one of the hall of fame elites who get insane cash for garbage roles, after they've been in a Marvel movie once
Peacock HBO Max Showtime Disney. Fucking DC Universe was trying to be a thing.
Every media company wanted a streaming service but failed to deliver because of their hubris.
Hulu and Netflix have been my constant subscription services.
No worries, I wasn't paying anyway!
🏴☠️ 🏴☠️ 🏴☠️
I jumped ship at price hikes and no account sharing.
Same, the only streaming services I have now are paid for by my phone provider for free. Besides that, I sail the high seas proudly
🪢 Heave-ho! Thieves and beggars!
Never shall we die! 🏴☠️Hoist the colors
and thus began the second golden age of piracy
The great thing is it's so much easier now. About 2 months ago I cancelled all my streaming subscriptions.
Well, hell. I guess I'll go back to watching less and buying DVDs. I'm not watching commercials on a service I pay for. That's a non starter.
Worst comes to worse, I can dust off my eye patch, grab my parrot, and take to the high seas. I don't wanna, I prefer to pay for stuff, but ffs, if they can't be reasonable, I guess it's back to arrr me hearties.
Jellyfin / Plex downloads 📈📈📈
I'm paying for Spotify and Netflix because they are very convenient. I'm not paying for another 5 subscriptions because they maybe have this one show I would like to watch. They worked hard on fragmenting the marked and now they will complain people don't want to pay for 10 different subscriptions
Music services are almost a necessity to me because of the amount of music I listen to, but it's also a different animal. They all have mostly the same library, so you won't typically be subscribing to more than one.
The problem with streaming video services is that most people watch a couple genres, and there's content in every genre on every streaming platform. I watch a lot of scifi, for example. So I would need to subscribe to Apple TV for Silo and Foundation, Paramount+ for Star Trek, etc...
It’s an ironic end to the streaming wars. After pouring billions and billions of dollars into constructing supposedly revolutionary streaming platforms, and decimating the business models that had offered the industry stability for decades, the ultimate product looks awfully similar to what companies and consumers were trying to break free from in the first place.
I'll still take streaming any day over cable.
No contract and you can put everything in rotation. Sign up for a month, binge, cancel, next.
The streaming companies are starting to get wise to that. They've started splitting seasons and releasing them separately so that you have to be subbed for 2 months.
Sign up for a month, binge, cancel, next.
That's not going to last. As soon as they run the numbers and decide it's worth it, they'll create ways to lock you in.
The difference between watching something programmers and on demand is big. I still detest the newer prices though coupled with the decline in interesting content.
The era of piracy has returned. 🏴☠️
It never really left.. arrrrr.
Oh well, there's plenty of space for all of ya here on the high seas, welcome aboard, mateys!
Seed your torrents folks
We can go start pirating again
You guys stopped pirating?
Yes
I think I'm gonna go sailing the seven seas again.
But Wednesday’s move to significantly bump prices, marked an acknowledgment by Iger of the media giant’s intent to squeeze more revenue out of streaming by pushing consumers to the advertising-supported plans, which have proven to be more profitable.
“The advertising marketplace for streaming is picking up,” Iger told investors on the quarterly earnings call. “It’s more healthy than the advertising marketplace for linear television. We believe in the future of advertising on our streaming platforms, both Disney+ and Hulu.”
This is extremely important for them. Netflix's excellent deal for most of its streaming existence was obviously a thorn in the side of many other businesses. Even if streaming services can get you to pay an exorbitant amount of money on an ad-free tier, advertisers are frothing for the chance to advertise to you regardless. They want you to see their ads so badly. And let's not forget all the big tech companies, Netflix included, were riding high during the free money days of 0% interest loans. Those days are over, and the bill is due. Wall Street wants its money. And we are all the ones who have to pay up. Cheap streaming is officially over.
This is why these companies, including Netflix, have all introduced ad tiers. Not only is it a great way for them to juice their revenue streams, but also every other company wants a permanent residence in your brain, and then some. Given the way things have been going since duo-eras of the COVID pandemic and corporate profit-based inflation, they don't even need to collude on prices. All the execs need to do is look at the business press and say, "Hey, they're getting away with increased prices and password sharing crackdowns. We can do the same thing. The pay pigs keep paying!"
I really cannot understand why advertising is such a huge business. Where does all the money spent on advertising really come from?
Is it really unclear? If you had never heard of a product, you would much less likely purchase it. If Coke stopped advertising today, they'd start a very slow but real loss of market to it's competiton, be it Pepsi or whatever. Note that a LOT of advertising is not for you. It's for the corporate buyer at name your favorite restaurant so that they think that they'll get more consumers in the door because they have Coke products, as opposed to some other brand.
I'll be completely unsurprised when streaming companies start enticing or forcing us into term agreements.
Am I the only one that remembers the "cut the cord" and "stop feeding the cable pig" nonsense? What happened to all that? Thankfully, none of this has affected me, then or now. I don't usually bother with "programming" of any kind but, when I do, "arr mateys."
The cable pigs moved into the streaming game, and used licensing to enshitify streaming
Looks around. You guys are still streaming?
finishes downloading latest movie. Naw, what about you?
Around 2010 there was this "pledge" where a website people basically collected a list of things they'd require in order to stop pirating tv shows and movies and I think it came down to:
Provide easy access to large library Provide multi language support, must offer original language Allow downloads/offline viewing Be reasonably priced
Plus some additional stuff I can't remember.
When Netflix got big, they basically covered it all. Then everyone wanted a piece of the pie.
Back to piracy then. 15$ for put.io ✨🙏
I may have lowered the skull and crossbones, and folded it up, and stored it away, but I never got rid of it. I'm building my Plex server, and sailing the seas again
What’s put.io do exactly?
We came back to another cycle of big corporations forgetting they have to be more convenient than pirating.
Can't speak for anyone else, but just having an actual no logs VPN for less than the cost of one streaming service while also using qbittorrent with the torrent site search function is so much more convenient than spending probably hundreds at this point for streaming services I might only watch anything on once a blue moon.
Money issues aside, it is absolutely maddening to have to navigate through six or eight different streaming services to find the show you want to watch
I pay for spotify. If I want to listen to a song, it's on spotify. I don't need a different music streaming service for every single record company. As a result, I don't pirate music anymore.
Or even more convenient, the arr suite + Plex/jellyfish + Overseer. A docker compose is easy enough to write and get running in minutes
I would definitely love to set up a server for something like Plex if I had enough content to justify it. To me it seems excessive to have a server for just a very small handful of shows, in my case.
It's incredible to watch them kill their own golden goose
Apparently it wasn't so much a "golden" goose.
They were all happy to let them run at below cost just gathering up market share.
Now they're trying to re-position to be profitable. Their subscriber numbers will definitely take a hit but they will have done the math.
But hey, at least we also get connection issues when compared to cable.
Yeah, you used to have to get satellite for that to be an issue.
🏴☠️
Yarr Harr Harr, fiddly dee doo!
A little off topic, but I'd like to nominate the Paramount+ marketing team for some sort of award.
Their adverts are everywhere, I don't have Paramount+, yet every ad I see somehow makes me want it less.
every ad I see somehow makes me want it less.
That is called reactance bias. Being advertised or pressured to do something leads to want said thing less.
I mean, there is that. But it's also their choice of things they advertise. Like, there'll be a billboard with five or six diverse shows, and they're all the sort of absolute drek I'd scroll past in the subscriptions I already pay for.
I see them and just think "I'm glad I don't subscribe to Paramount+"
It's definitely a terrible streaming service all around. If I want a trekkie they be dropped.
Strange New Worlds is pretty good. I'll probably cancel when I'm done watching it though.
It's on Apple TV+, no need for PM+
Haven't sailed in a while, DM me tips on how to get my vessel sea-worthy again! 🏴☠️🦜
I've not done this, and I prefer anyone see as opposed to DMs, but there's a suite of open source apps https://medium.com/linux-shots/self-host-media-stack-jellyfin-radarr-sonarr-jackett-transmission-3e6a0adf716e
stremio + real-debrid + orion
Basically, orion finds the torrents, a debrid service cache's torrents and streams them to you, stremio renders the stream.
No need for a VPN, no need to seed, no need for the *arr family, nice UI with high wife-approval-factor to browse content.
Lol wut. My streaming torrents have never been better!
And that's me done with Disney+ - big price hikes and the removal of password sharing have killed the value in it.
Plus, I have such a massive backlog of things to watch, I wouldn't even notice.
arrr, matey
Arr, Sonarr, Radarr, Readarr,....
Is it just me, or have tpb & mirrors gotten EXTRA cancer-y lately
And that's why I use the questionably legal streaming sites... at this point I have been radicalized enough to find copyright an offensive premise
I got there about 10 years ago, a little after I graduated High School. I realized copyright was stupid before I ever really learned what capitalism is.
There's no way the model is sustainable once everyone starts their streaming platform.
Cool, looks like it's time to revisit my streaming services again. We're on Disney+ legacy, which is great because we get like $8/month off with my credit card (Amex Everyday), but if they end that deal, I'll probably leave too.
Netflix is getting to be not worth it, so I'll probably go order some DVDs of TV shows my kids like, then cancel and see how that goes. We really don't watch all that much.
Just recently bought a stack of used DVDs. This is the way.
After seeing this many "arr"s here, I just letting y'all in the comments know that 1) you're my peeps 2) you're feckin beautiful 3) I stay seeding for you <3
I don't think the era of cheap streaming is over, on the contrary, it's greater than it's ever been.
My selfhosted Plex and Jellyfin are booming, and services like Netflix and Disney+ just made my family and friends to adopt the streaming services faster.
I stop paying two years ago and I've noticed no difference in quality or content.
Thanks Netflix for rekindling my love for the seven seas.
How do you like Jellyfin? I picked up the Plex lifetime membership waaay back in the day and have been using it consistently for the past 5-ish years, but audio (at least in the web player) is so hit and miss - 5.1 down mixing to stereo is always way too quiet no matter what settings I mess with.
I’m back on the high seas, but I’m worried about my ability to discover new shit or when stuff comes back. I’ve relied on my Apple TV to let me know when new seasons start for so long that I no longer have tools to keep track of shit. I literally forget the things I watch between seasons.
I use a notion database to track all the shows I'm watching. Mainly because I have ADHD but it might be useful
Also ADHD, but in the way that systems like that don’t work for me. I’m wholly incapable of keeping up with them and they sap me of all my energy.
This site used to be pretty good for tracking shows. No idea if it still is any good tho. https://www.pogdesign.co.uk/cat/
Look up guides for radarr and sonarr and associated rr's. They can do the heavy lifting for you.
Yep. They just pull things you monitor as they show up in your feeds (in my case Usenet newsgroup indexes)
For example. My wife like Billions, new episode/season came out and it jus popped up in my plex server the other day
Just use seriesguide, simple solution.
No, thanks.. As long as I can download whatever I want whenever I want (add it to nas and watch through Kodi having like Netflix experience), there is no way that those people will get my money. Most of it is just bullshit anyway. And if I like or want to support some quality release I'll go to cinema.
Music is next.
The shitshow will continue. I think it has just begun.
It’s a little different as Spotify/apple/etc don’t produce music and are not trying to out license each other. Really good thing you don’t have to sub to half a dozen music services.
Grateful that they don’t. But they have tried to do it with podcasts.
Spotify “pulled an Apple”, bought Gimlet and moved all their podcasts onto Spotify exclusively. I don’t use Spotify and chose to find alternatives. I’m happy I did.
Isn’t that interesting? Maybe if the studios weren’t allowed to own the TV channels, we’d have more competition and the prices would go down.
Spotify/apple/etc don’t produce music and are not trying to out license each other.
Tidal seemed to try going down this road with exclusives but thankfully none of the others followed.
Same shit definitley happens with record labels on streaming, thank goodnes for indie, kinda killed that a bit
Thank God I listen to DIY punk subgenres
DIY? That must not mean what I think it does.
ETA: It does mean do it yourself. Interesting.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The disruptive streaming model birthed by Netflix that dangled all-you-can-eat menus of films, shows, and endless entertainment without pesky advertisements for extraordinarily low prices came to an official close on Wednesday.
Disney boss Bob Iger announced during the company’s quarterly earnings report that the Magic Kingdom will once again hike Disney+ prices for the second time in less than a year, increasing the monthly cost of its ad-free plan $3 to $13.99 in October.
But Wednesday’s move to significantly bump prices, marked an acknowledgment by Iger of the media giant’s intent to squeeze more revenue out of streaming by pushing consumers to the advertising-supported plans, which have proven to be more profitable.
When Netflix first offered its pioneering service for only $8 a month, millions of people signed up, eager to have access to the company’s expansive catalog for just a fraction of the cost of the traditional cable bundle.
That served as the genesis of the streaming era, with legacy entertainment companies such as Disney racing to launch their own direct-to-consumer products at unsustainably low costs.
Couple that reality with the introduction of ads into streaming and the end product eerily resembles on-demand cable.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Good bot
I never left the 7 seas matey
Indeed. The era of cheap pirated content... continues much as it always had.
Rising prices is just the first stage of enshittification
Popcorn time :D
these numbers are nearly reaching the point where buying seasons of shows on iTunes, which always seemed insanely expensive, becomes the better option for people who watch specific stuff. never thought I’d see the day
Everyone is willing to stop paying for the content, but very few are willing to boycott it instead.
And actually talk to my family? What are you insane?
/s
This makes me wonder what else I can do with my free time. Besides saving money, if I stopped paying for all of these services, I would probably be more active and healthier. A part of me hopes that they increase prices again, and motivate people to be more active.
Yup, you probably will be.
When I dropped Amazon Prime, I found myself ordering less crap, reusing more, and buying higher quality from different vendors. I also watched Twitch less because I no longer had a free sub (though I still use an ad blocker, it just feels more wrong so I just watch less).
Sometimes we just need to give ourselves a little push.
The era of Free Streaming has just begun
The renaissance of free streaming.
It was over the day the studios wanted to have their own services instead of licensing content to Netflix and competitors.
Time to get the old torrent box going agaian
Well, I've canceled everything. Even amazon prime. All I had left was youtube premium and prime. Canceled both this month. Premium stops in a few days and prime will finish out the year. I canceled Netflix something kike 2 years now. I'm back to being a pirate at this point.
My use of Kodi and debrid says otherwise.
I am currently getting my pirating machine back online. To many shows that are not availible on my usual streaming services.
Cancelled Netflix last month. Still have Amazon Prime, but mostly for the delivery. The only video streaming subscription worth keeping is MUBI for now (and Nebula, but that hardly counts).
I'm the opposite. I ditched Amazon Prime because I realized I don't really need the faster shipping and I wasn't using their video platform much anyway.
I still have Netflix and Disney+, mostly because my kids watch them, but I might get away with dropping one off them if I buy a few series on DVD or whatever.
Not sure what the angle of the article is (commenting before reading), but before we even get to the cost of individual services, I became disillusioned with streaming after Final Space was obliterated from existence for a tax write-off, and then hearing about what Disney pulled with Willow, and most recently the un-ordering of a whole second season of Star Trek Prodigy.
What happened with Willow?
Cancelled the series after one season. Damn shame because it showed promise and it was fun to return to the world of Willow.
It probably didn't have the huge ratings investors were hoping for, so it got the axe before it even had a chance.
yaaaaarrr tis cheaper than eva matey
That's because it's not a sudtainable buisness model, I bet for the few actually good productions even donations would be better!
🎶do what you want cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!🎶
They pushed the boundaries people paid up so here we go keep paying
Paid Plex shares are the way to go
Plex shares (I actually use an Emby share) are what streaming should have been after cable.
It's the perfect service, everything all in one spot for a reasonable fee.
I'd pay up to $100 a month for that legally, but instead the studios want to bleed me dry.
So they get nothing.
I use emby too and love it. All content played though emby was downloaded. Is this how you are using emby or so you subscribe to some service for streaming?
Again? How many times has it ended now?
Hotstar disney+ is still $20 a year here in se Asia. Netflix starts at $5/month ($3 for mobile only). Im super curious if these prices ever hit us. I have a feeling they'd just kill the services if they did.
In India those prices are still "expensive" for the average person. India and SE Asia are a huge cash cow so I doubt they'll increase prices right away since they're still trying to bring more users in, but eventually I'm sure prices go up there too.
Time to dust off the old pirate hat...
Couldn’t you just subscribe for a month, download the videos and cancel the subscription? Just slap a new 2 TB hard disk on your computer and start downloading 24/7 until the disk is full. Surely that’s enough stuff to watch for several months.
The normal use case for these apps is you download, then you only have access while you're paying for the service. If you put your plane in airplane mode for Netflix, I believe you have a few days to reconnect or you won't have access to your downloads.
Thats the same as regular pirating with extra steps.
Also that 2TB is going to fill up quick so it's more "downloading 24/1" until it's full.