Technology

No worries, I wasn't paying anyway!

🏴‍☠️ 🏴‍☠️ 🏴‍☠️

and thus began the second golden age of piracy

🪢 Heave-ho! Thieves and beggars!
Never shall we die! 🏴‍☠️

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 📈📈📈

Oh well, there's plenty of space for all of ya here on the high seas, welcome aboard, mateys!

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

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!"

We can go start pirating again

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.

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.

🏴‍☠️

The era of piracy has returned. 🏴‍☠️

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 ✨🙏

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."

Lol wut. My streaming torrents have never been better!

It's incredible to watch them kill their own golden goose

Music is next.

The shitshow will continue. I think it has just begun.

arrr, matey

There's no way the model is sustainable once everyone starts their streaming platform.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Haven't sailed in a while, DM me tips on how to get my vessel sea-worthy again! 🏴‍☠️🦜

Popcorn time :D

I never left the 7 seas matey

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.

Everyone is willing to stop paying for the content, but very few are willing to boycott it instead.

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

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.

My use of Kodi and debrid says otherwise.

Arrrrrrr mateys sail on in the water of the high seas is fine!