As Amazon becomes the latest platform to push an ad-supported tier, TV writers greet this retro model with frustration and, in some cases, disdain: āI thought 'Nine Perfect Strangers' with commercials was horrible,ā says David E. Kelley of his Hulu show with breaks.
Even if the creators werenāt pissed, the entire selling point of streaming was on demand, ad free, and a large library to choose from. Every single streaming service that subdivided Netflix and Huluās content shares have reneged on that entire concept by creating smaller libraries, making them unaffordable, and now theyāre shoehorning in ads if we wonāt cough up more money.
Itās almost like a moral imperative to pirate from these fuckers.
The entire selling point of cable was no signal loss and ad freeā¦ Then the point of satellite was more options and ad free. Those sneaky ads keep finding their way in.
Ads is basically free money for broadcasters. And since greed is the main motivation - the dissension seems to be rather easy for them.
But itās not greed! Itās increasing share holder value! /s
Damn right! Itās somebody elseās greed! Totally different.
How is it even attributed to singular ads for example ? Isnāt that kinda impossible ?^^
Donāt forget that on-demand is being reduced as well now that many platforms are trickling out episodes for their marquee shows at a weekly rate. Looking at you Apple.
I much prefer the trickle of releases to a lump season dump.
It allows time to digest, discuss and catch up throughout the release schedule if youāre invested in the story. You can convince your friends to watch a few episodes to catch up and then watch the end of the season together. You can read fan theories online, formulate your own, and overall each weekly episode can result in a lot of engaging fun interactions.
With a series dump you have to binge it and wait for others to do the same in order to talk about it. The whole time youāre actively avoiding spoilers from friends/coworkers and avoiding reading about it online. The end result is you disengage from the fandoms/communities while you are getting through the show, which to me takes a lot of the fun out of a big show.
I compare the difference between Stranger Things and GoT. To me these are probably two of the most significant pop-culture releases in the last decade or so.
Game of Thrones resulted in hundreds of thousands of theories every week online and in public. T-Shirts were made based on popular online theories that never panned out in season. You would rag on friends who guessed the plot twist wrong and deify those who got their predictions spot on. Especially in my demographic the two months GoT was on was all about GoT.
Stranger Things on the other hand, while still wildly popular hits differently. Itās much more of a build up to release, a week or two of āman that was awesomeā followed by āI hope they make the next season soon.ā Retroactive discussions happen for a while, but the discussions and the hype fizzles much more quickly.
If I want to watch a trickle release show in one dump, I still can, I just wait until the whole season out, reactivate the subscription. Then I binge it.
For me itās much more fun to have an episode or two a week and build momentum through a season than it is to set off a one time firework.
There is a simple solution for that. Rotate your services every 3 months, watch the entire season and only come back when thereās something to watch.
Quality over quantity is something streaming services canāt do. Thereās so much shit shoved in our faces that I find myself watching less and less. Is a crash on the horizon or can the market sustain the number of active participants?
Itās a real shame because piracy is bridging the service gap which the industry themselves managed to eliminate, albeit briefly, only to introduce it again.
If you trust any corporate media concern to not succumb to enshittification, then you deserve to watch your stupid commercials. You paid for the privilege because you enabled the abuser.
I prefer to get what I pay for and I pay for nothing, media-wise. If I watch ads, itās because Iām watching something like the Super Bowl with my OTA DVR thatās playing on network TV. Itās free, so OK - commercials. If Iām watching anything else, itās on my Plex server and there are no commercials.
I do pay for entertainment. I pay for experiences, like going to the movies, going to live rock shows, going to performances or exhibitions - all IRL - but thatās about it. I might consider paying for other entertainment options but there is one thing I wonāt ever do: I wonāt pay for media that I donāt own and I wonāt watch commercials for media I paid for.
Edit: look at all the butthurt. Go ahead and keep paying through the nose then if you like it so much. Iām sure all the millionaires and billionaires who profit off your largesse will continue to treat you with the same kindness as they have in the past.
āPeople deserve to be exploited because they dared to use a convenient, affordable service.ā
Seriously, what a bad take. Itās not like I gave them all my passwords and Power of Attorney! Itās fine your budgeting decisions work for you, but you shouldnāt cheer on companies providing a bad experience to customers that ātrustedā themā¦
You understand that someone has to pay for that entertainment shit you use to kill your time with? You are literally shitting on people who are paying for you.