Streaming Service Apocalypse

[Tasty]

As streaming services balkanize and it becomes more and more difficult to keep track of what the fuck is where the fuck, it’s time for a new thread.

Some news to start the thread off:

Variety: HBO Max and Discovery Plus Will Be Combined Into One Platform

Discovery — which is about to become Warner Bros. Discovery within the next month, when its merger with AT&T’s WarnerMedia closes — has confirmed its plans to combine its current streaming service Discovery Plus and WarnerMedia’s HBO Max into one service, rather than offer the two platforms as a bundle.

If they can do this without raising prices... And they fix HBO Max's apps... 🤯

[OnlyRegret]

Funimation and Crunchy merging sure cleans things up a bit

[BIONIC]

Funimation and Crunchy merging sure cleans things up a bit

lol weeb

[Potato]

You think you've got it bad? Try adding in regional licencing and it's confusing as fuck.

[Tasty]

Just got an email Netflix is gonna be more expensive than Hbo soon. $15.49...

Bye bitch.

[therealdeal]

You think you've got it bad? Try adding in regional licencing and it's confusing as fuck.

God bless a good VPN

[chronovore]

You think you've got it bad? Try adding in regional licencing and it's confusing as fuck.

That's a nightmare job for me. Tracking what is and isn't available on each service, based on region? No, thanks.

JUSTWATCH.com has a decent service that helps to track that stuff. AppleTV's built-in stuff fails to account for Amazon's regional differences, and gets lost when launching from "Continue" -- but that's down to Amazon having the absolute worst app available.

[OnlyRegret]

Just got an email Netflix is gonna be more expensive than Hbo soon. $15.49...

Bye bitch.

they really do those hikes rapid fire, riding the inflation excuse

[Bebpo]

Just got an email Netflix is gonna be more expensive than Hbo soon. $15.49...

Bye bitch.

4k is $20!

Yeah, I unsubbed

[Uncle]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

https://www.wcostream.com/ for literally everything animated

random sites for other specific things you want to watch like https://watchalwayssunny.com/ or https://watchseinfeld.com/

[close]

[Tasty]

Cancelled netflix and cruncyroll now Hbo is my only friend

[Tasty]

https://deadline.com/2022/04/warner-bros-discovery-merger-closes-altering-media-landscape-1234997171/

🥳

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

https://www.plex.tv/blog/end-the-streaming-struggle-with-plex/

will tell you whats streaming where in addition to streaming any shit you just end up pirating anyway to a tv

[Tasty]

Some WBD news for y'all.

Protocol: HBO Max execs knew their apps were flawed. They launched them anyway.

Deadline: Warner Bros Discovery Town Hall - CEO David Zaslav Tells Oprah Winfrey How Merger Came Together, Addresses CNN’s Future, Looming Staff Cuts

Hollywood Reporter: David Zaslav’s Warner Bros. Discovery Empire Takes Shape - Less Red Tape, More “Accountability”

[Tasty]

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/report-hbo-max-overtakes-disney-and-hulu-as-the-third-largest-streaming-service-in-the-u-s/

👀

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

The Prime Video that comes with my Amazon Prime subscription is all that I need.

Netflix peaked a decade ago before everyone and their dog launched their own subscription service. Also it was at $9.99/month.

[Tasty]

The Prime Video that comes with my Amazon Prime subscription is all that I need.

Eww Bezos and eww Amazon's design and UI language.

[chronovore]

The Prime Video that comes with my Amazon Prime subscription is all that I need.

Eww Bezos and eww Amazon's design and UI language.

THE WORST APP.

[Tasty]

The Prime Video that comes with my Amazon Prime subscription is all that I need.

Eww Bezos and eww Amazon's design and UI language.

THE WORST APP.

10 years running.

[Tasty]

https://twitter.com/MacRumors/status/1516525995703996418

https://twitter.com/IGN/status/1516519164491575311

https://twitter.com/stopthecap/status/1516509655027040259

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1516511640635813890

[OnlyRegret]

Well, unless you get people to start paying for 2 accounts apiece, can only climb so high
gotta say, it's funny they're getting walloped for not being able to go up infinitely consistently

[james]

The Prime Video that comes with my Amazon Prime subscription is all that I need.

Eww Bezos and eww Amazon's design and UI language.

THE WORST APP.

I used to think that.

And then I signed up for the free year of Paramount Plus.

Holy shit it's bad.

[Polident Hive]

For years I assumed the Amazon experience stunk because of the LGTV app. Amazed when I learned it’s somehow worse on a firestick 4K. How.

[chronovore]

It's also shit on AppleTV. Gotta love it when there's built-in OS stuff for a UI and a dev says, naw, we'll just have our generalist engineers put something together that works equally poorly on all platforms.

[Tasty]

gotta say, it's funny they're getting walloped for not being able to go up infinitely consistently

[Tasty]

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/warner-bros-discovery-lays-off-cnn-cfo-suspends-marketing-spend-axios-2022-04-19/

CNN+ not long for this world. Might be cancelled quicker than Quibi.

[VomKriege]

Well, unless you get people to start paying for 2 accounts apiece, can only climb so high
gotta say, it's funny they're getting walloped for not being able to go up infinitely consistently

Though to be fair I wonder what expectations Netflix itself operates on publicly. They, Amazon and Apple are dumping just absurd amounts of money in producing original content (with some amount of returns hoped for) and you'd think people would know infinite massive growth is not a thing but well....

Biggest takeaway for me (who canceled Netflix a few months ago because of price and actual use) is that the whole economic model is probably not working all that well if it relies on account sharing they won't tolerate and with dozens of services fighting for video (and more for general media consumption) at 10+€/$ a piece.

[VomKriege]

It's also because times are tough but I'm more and more looking at free/non paying subcriptions content right now. They exist and it's a blessing but obviously that also skews what you have access to.

I know it's legally a lot more complex than to say it but I wonder if a "global licence" (basically scaling up the tax for public TV/radio for internet realities) wouldn't be a solution and a lot more viable than the future where you pay for half a dozen services.

[james]

If we can pay $10 a month for all the music on earth, why cant we do the same for TV

[Kurt Russell]

If we can pay $10 a month for all the music on earth, why cant we do the same for TV

Because it costs about 50x as much to make and as Netflix are finding out, people don't re-watch stuff unless they really like it, making it incredibly expensive to produce a library with enough of a constant flow of fresh content to ensure that there's something new to watch.

[james]

If we can pay $10 a month for all the music on earth, why cant we do the same for TV

Because it costs about 50x as much to make and as Netflix are finding out, people don't re-watch stuff unless they really like it, making it incredibly expensive to produce a library with enough of a constant flow of fresh content to ensure that there's something new to watch.

Counterpoint: Enough TV has been made that you dont need new content. Get some Drew Carey Show on there and youre set for a year

[Joe Molotov]

Finally I can cancel my Netflix account that I share with my parents and be like "sorry, Netflix doesn't allow account sharing anymore".

[Madrun Badrun]

If we can pay $10 a month for all the music on earth, why cant we do the same for TV

Because it costs about 50x as much to make and as Netflix are finding out, people don't re-watch stuff unless they really like it, making it incredibly expensive to produce a library with enough of a constant flow of fresh content to ensure that there's something new to watch.

Counterpoint: Enough TV has been made that you dont need new content. Get some Drew Carey Show on there and youre set for a year

Counter-counter point:  Just watch the Drew Carey Show forever on loop. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, Wayne Brady should have been the lead in the Drew Cary Show. 

[close]

[Kurt Russell]

ngl, if somebody legally replicated the 24-7 channels they have on IPTV, I think that would be a hit.

I'd pay a few Shekels for a 24-7 King of the Hill Channel.

[Uncle]

I'm a weirdo but I rewatch stuff all the time, but I do it while doing something else, usually playing vidya

just have a constant seinfeld, or always sunny, or mst3k, or redlettermedia, or cool podcast running in the background

it's hard for me to watch something new because I want to devote all my attention to it, if it's rewatching/listening then it's ok to hit an intensive part in the game and realize you missed 20 minutes of the show

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

When I signed up for Netflix, it had a mixture of a bunch of recently aired / ongoing US TV boxsets (stuff like Gotham, Shameless, Its Always Sunny, etc) a bunch of classic US TV boxsets (your Breaking Bads but also your Losts, your House, your Alias, your Star Trek etc as well as some older stuff like Mission: Impossible), and a selection of decently rated original shows (Orange Is The New Black, the Marvel TV stuff).

Nowadays, it doesn't even fucking bother with most of the Us TV stuff that was its biggest draw, so outside of Better Call Saul, there's nothing ongoing from anyone else I give a shit about, most of its 'back catalogue' they also don't give a shit about so that's gone to other streaming services (most noticably Amazon Prime hoovering everything up thats not intended to pad out the launch of a Single Channel Subscription Service later) so - again, outside of Breaking Bad - its basically the Star Trek boxsets which are clearly on borrowed time, and a lot of their original shows are shovelware shit, or when they do have something good they cripple it by splitting it into two so they can stretch it out beyond a free month sub.

I haven't cancelled yet, but I am on their most ghetto possible 'one screen only and only in SD' tier - one more annual price hike without an associated increase in quantity or quality (because, honestly, both have been slipping) and I'm done.

I get for long term sustainability they need suites of shows that they and only they own the rights to and can never leave the service, but spend some of your fucking profits buying older shit thats not currently broadcasting, or renting back catalogue syndicated stuff.
Theres a ton of 60s/70s/80s/90s shit that must cost fucking pennies to licence, and I might not sign up to a streaming service for old episoes of Knight Rider or Baywatch or Quincy or wtfever, but its stuff I can mindlessly rewatch while doing other shit and it adds to the overall 'reasons to stay subscribed'. Especially given I don't have access to most of the US ad-supported streaming services which do this exact same thing.

[jorma]

i feel netflix has never been better since they started focusing on non 'murican content a bit more a few years ago, i think 50% of my suggestions are "foreign" at this point.
still pay for the 4k premium version and still think it's cheap, especially in a historical context that goes beyond the streaming era

also netflix used to be just marvel, which i liked in the beginning but in the end i wasn't sad to see it go
sure, some old shit but i just get that from a torrent or whatever if i need it.

i have access to a shared hbo account as well, but i only ever need it for their flaghip releases
all the other services are pointless and if they ever release somehing i want to see i'll just download it from elsewhere

[chronovore]

When I signed up for Netflix, it had a mixture of a bunch of recently aired / ongoing US TV boxsets (stuff like Gotham, Shameless, Its Always Sunny, etc) a bunch of classic US TV boxsets (your Breaking Bads but also your Losts, your House, your Alias, your Star Trek etc as well as some older stuff like Mission: Impossible), and a selection of decently rated original shows (Orange Is The New Black, the Marvel TV stuff).

Nowadays, it doesn't even fucking bother with most of the Us TV stuff that was its biggest draw, so outside of Better Call Saul, there's nothing ongoing from anyone else I give a shit about, most of its 'back catalogue' they also don't give a shit about so that's gone to other streaming services (most noticably Amazon Prime hoovering everything up thats not intended to pad out the launch of a Single Channel Subscription Service later) so - again, outside of Breaking Bad - its basically the Star Trek boxsets which are clearly on borrowed time, and a lot of their original shows are shovelware shit, or when they do have something good they cripple it by splitting it into two so they can stretch it out beyond a free month sub.

I haven't cancelled yet, but I am on their most ghetto possible 'one screen only and only in SD' tier - one more annual price hike without an associated increase in quantity or quality (because, honestly, both have been slipping) and I'm done.

I get for long term sustainability they need suites of shows that they and only they own the rights to and can never leave the service, but spend some of your fucking profits buying older shit thats not currently broadcasting, or renting back catalogue syndicated stuff.
Theres a ton of 60s/70s/80s/90s shit that must cost fucking pennies to licence, and I might not sign up to a streaming service for old episoes of Knight Rider or Baywatch or Quincy or wtfever, but its stuff I can mindlessly rewatch while doing other shit and it adds to the overall 'reasons to stay subscribed'. Especially given I don't have access to most of the US ad-supported streaming services which do this exact same thing.

Yeah, I was just thinking about how I'd enjoy watching The Rockford Files or Columbo while doing dishes, and lamented that nothing carries them in Japan despite being previously readily available on VHS, then DVD.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

I started using vudu alot more recently, since I found their "free" section.

It's filled to the brim with c-rate softcore sexy time movies I can watch in the middle of the night while having whiskey.

[Skullfuckers Anonymous]

Pour one out for the news!

https://mobile.twitter.com/CNN/status/1517170706345349121

I think this is the fastest death of a streaming service. Even Quibi lasted a few months.

[Pissy F Benny]

who could have seen this coming

[Polident Hive]

Going over what I subbed to. It’s overwhelming as is, so I’m happy with it. Ignoring trials and whatever, I’d be Netflix and HBO Max year round. I’d also acknowledge I don’t have kids and Disney seems great for that.

Netflix. HD tier. Don’t see dropping it. App is everywhere. Quantity over quality. Best content to have as background noise. Great international content.

Amazon. “Perk” of Prime. Wouldn’t be worth it on its own. Crap app. Reacher and James May are the two standout shows.

HBO Max. Leeching from somebody’s regular HBO sub. No idea what is HBO vs HBO Max, but does it matter? HBO has good shit. Plus it has categories for old TCM movies. Would sub if I didn’t have access.

Apple TV. Think I have a trial until 2024. Shows have crazy production values. Highest hit to miss ratio, but no back catalogue. Would sub once every couple months if I didn’t have access.

[Uncle]

I have access to a family member's prime, access to a family member's netflix, access to three co-workers' plex piracy servers, websites like wcostream, and yet I still spend all my time listening to long form analysis of the legacy of kain series
 

[Tasty]

I think this is the fastest death of a streaming service. Even Quibi lasted a few months.

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/warner-bros-discovery-lays-off-cnn-cfo-suspends-marketing-spend-axios-2022-04-19/

CNN+ not long for this world. Might be cancelled quicker than Quibi.

👉😏👉

[Tasty]

Perrette and incoming CNN CEO Chris Licht notified staffers of the decision in a meeting on Thursday afternoon. Licht bluntly told employees it was a "uniquely shitty situation."

[Mostima]

Partisanship aside, I don't know why the fuck anybody would pay for CNN+. Like somehow 24 hours news isn't enough and they want to pay more to hear about the same news?

[VomKriege]

Fox have a sub service (that was lagging too until Tucker Carlson started branding stuff there, similarly as confusing in purpose) so they had to have one. Or so I guess.

[who is ted danson?]

They should lock all 24h news behind a sub. Milk those boomers.

[bork]

They should lock all 24h news behind a sub. Milk those boomers.

Aren't they already doing that with cable and streaming services?

[Transhuman]

Piracy is good, piracy is your pal.

[Tasty]

Piracy is good, piracy is your pal.

Sadface

[Polident Hive]

Tubi is cool for free. It has all of dubbed Iron Chef. You can watch Nagisa Oshima talking about leek flavor in dishes.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

I'm a weirdo but I rewatch stuff all the time, but I do it while doing something else, usually playing vidya

just have a constant seinfeld, or always sunny, or mst3k, or redlettermedia, or cool podcast running in the background

it's hard for me to watch something new because I want to devote all my attention to it, if it's rewatching/listening then it's ok to hit an intensive part in the game and realize you missed 20 minutes of the show

this guy fucks

I'm rewatching black mirror right now because everything seems like too much effort.

[Tasty]

I wish I could somehow convert the lunatical amount of time spent rewatching RLM vids into watching new films... I'd probably watch 1000 films a year.

[Tasty]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/netflix-animation-erased-executives-fired-220251819.html

https://www.thegamer.com/netflix-animation-boss-baby-layoffs-report/

The animation industry...

Netflix...

[bork]

Is Netflix just not in a position to not raise their prices?  I don't understand how doing this, which has led to them losing a ton of subscribers, show cancellations, and firings, is good for them.

[Uncle]

not just that, but attempting to crack down on password sharing, when entire industries continue to handwave this due to all the goodwill it earns them 

[Tasty]

Is Netflix just not in a position to not raise their prices?  I don't understand how doing this, which has led to them losing a ton of subscribers, show cancellations, and firings, is good for them.

Good news! Ads are on the way. Should stymie the price hikes for maybe an extra year.

[Uncle]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/netflix-animation-erased-executives-fired-220251819.html

https://www.thegamer.com/netflix-animation-boss-baby-layoffs-report/

The animation industry...

Netflix...

first I read this and thought damn that really sucks

then I clicked through and realized this means they CANCELED BONE



Bone is amazing and deserves so much better than the treatments it's gotten over the years, like telltale's shitty first attempt at an adventure game before they canceled it and then later died

fuckin hell

[Tasty]

not just that, but attempting to crack down on password sharing, when entire industries continue to handwave this due to all the goodwill it earns them 

Their CEO even actively promoted the practice until like 5-6 years ago