So, Disney + is going to start imbedding commercials…
- Thread starter NakedMoleRat
- Start date
Too Much Garlic
Master Member
So, you are comparing, in most cases, a private individual with a multi-billion dollar company who took their ball and went home, resorting to extortion tactics to allow people to view their movies and TV-shows while they make free money with adds off their own stuff, like a petty little brat?
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Yup, but strangely I miss the innocence. I always got volunteered to climb up and turn the antenna with my grandfather yelling out directions. Each 3 VHF stations had slightly different directions and UHF just opposite. Loved it! Man we were stylin’ when our color behemoth arrived with a motorized antenna rotator! Disney+ vs. six yr olds on 2 story roofs? Hmm…tough one!
Bigdaddy
Master Member
No I'm not, nor am I using hyperbolic terms like "extortion" or "petty little brat" to inflame emotions.
If a streaming service owns the rights to a show or movie that an individual wants to see, then that individual has to decide if it's worth it to pay what the service decides to set the price at. It has nothing to do with extortion or brattiness.
It actually seems kind of petty to complain about ads and subscription fees, pay it or don't watch. It seems really simple although maybe not satisfactory if a viewer feels entitled to watch whatever they want for free.
Starganderfish
Well-Known Member
One difference with that scenario of course is that generally we weren’t paying for those ad-packed stations. Free-to-air TV had a lot of ads but it was … free. We’re starting to get the same level of ads but being charged for the privilege.
It’s not solely about greed, though that does also play a part. All of the streaming platforms are now also studios, generating content. They’re creating shows and movies to air on their platforms.
We’re fine paying for movie tickets or renting Videos/DVD’s. No-one objected to the old-style studios charging for their content. The streaming studios are just doing the same. All those Star Wars and Marvel TV shows airing on D+ (whatever we may think of them) cost money to make and are not earning much revenue from ticket sales, home video releases or syndication deals.
Compare that $15 a month streaming subscription and how much content it gets you, to a single $15 movie ticket, or however much cable tv packages cost.
Just playing devils advocate and showing that every argument has two sides…
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Lord Boron
Sr Member
I’m certainly not paying for the privilege of watching mind numbing commercials! I only activate a streaming service when there’s something I want to watch, and then cancel when I’m done. Just canceled HBO because House of the dragon just ended. I’ll probably get Disney for month and binge watch Andor, then cancel that. The only one I keep long term is Amazon for the free shipping.
Master Boda
Sr Member
Sometimes one can get away with the free trial and not pay anything.I have done that a few times,binge what I want to watch then cancel before the free trial ends.
As much as I think it is a good idea to take the free trials and/or just get the service for 1 month and then binge watch what you want, I can't help but think that the streaming services will find a way to block you from getting and canceling it multiple times.
Yeah, but watching television didn’t require us to pay a monthly fee. If streaming TV was free, I would happily sit through their ads.
Well, my cable tv requires a monthly fee and I still have commercials there, lol. So I see streaming services as an extension of cable. I pay steaming fees to see their exclusive content, not to avoid commercials.
cboath
Master Member
The problem to me at least is that enough is never enough. If I invest a million bucks in a company and it pays off in time and keeps making me money, that's great. It gets annoying when they just keep upping the price because to those investors, profit isn't enough, it has to continually go up and up and up. Same margins are not acceptable, we have to grow and grow every year. It gets to raising prices for the sake of raising prices.
Disney isn't on that list, but they're making big profits too and yet you still have investors publicly whining that the company isn't doing enough to profit off it's customer data.
You think McDonalds and whomever have those Apps you can order off - and they give special deals in the app because they're nice? They're harvesting your data to sell for extra money. That's the entire purpose of it. Yet the cost for the product (the food) continually goes up. Enough, is never enough and that is the problem.
It's changed from provide a good product at a fair prices, to providing the cheapest product humanly possible without giving a crap about the people who do the work while generating the absolute most profit humanly possible. How that isn't a turnoff to everyone, I don't know. Most of these places have little to no respect for their customers or their employees, but we're supposed just accept it as business. This is what happens when we let companies buy all their competitors with impunity. We are systematically removing the competition aspect of business. Their is no 'market' when they're is no real competition.
cboath
Master Member
Technically the cable company sells nothing but access to a selection of channels owned by someone else. You pay for them bundling the channels and making them available to you, not the content directly. Small, but distinct difference. The more apt comparison is your internet bill that allows you to access the streaming services vs the cable companies cable box.
Streaming service is you paying the service for access to their content directly.
Axlotl
Master Member
*There is no market when there is no real competition.
Sorry - pet peeve. I agree with the rest of your post 100%.
Bigdaddy
Master Member
I agree with the bulk of what you're saying with the exception of the above statement.
I don't know that anything has changed, your description of the current state of affairs is exactly what capitalism is and always has been. There ARE individuals and organizations are that provide a good product or service at a fair price (completely subjective assessment for each person). There are also individuals and organizations that fit your second description (also subjective), both situations have existed for as long as markets have. I don't see anything new about the situation other than perhaps my own awareness about economics.
When is enough, enough? I'm sure everyone has a different opinion about it, that's the problem with blanket statements about "greed" (not talking about anyone specific). Many people would say being a millionaire is enough and getting to billionaire is greed. Others might think being a millionaire is too much, it really depends on how an individual frames their own morality and ethics.
If I win the billion dollar Powerball I promise to buy all of us D+ subscriptions at the no ads tier... except myself, not really interested in what they have, even for free.
cboath
Master Member
That's probably true to a degree, just if you go back, say 50 years, there was less of the screw everyone give me my money aspect.I agree with the bulk of what you're saying with the exception of the above statement.
I don't know that anything has changed, your description of the current state of affairs is exactly what capitalism is and always has been. There ARE individuals and organizations are that provide a good product or service at a fair price (completely subjective assessment for each person). There are also individuals and organizations that fit your second description (also subjective), both situations have existed for as long as markets have. I don't see anything new about the situation other than perhaps my own awareness about economics.
When is enough, enough? I'm sure everyone has a different opinion about it, that's the problem with blanket statements about "greed" (not talking about anyone specific). Many people would say being a millionaire is enough and getting to billionaire is greed. Others might think being a millionaire is too much, it really depends on how an individual frames their own morality and ethics.
If I win the billion dollar Powerball I promise to buy all of us D+ subscriptions at the no ads tier... except myself, not really interested in what they have, even for free.
As more and more companies go public to cash in, and more and more get bought reducing competition, the level of ruthlessness goes up and up. You're right, there's always been ruthlessness. But now, with consolidation and everything else, there simply vastly more people under the ruthlessness grip than there has been before. A big reason the middle class keeps declining.
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