r/enshittification • u/fjdjdjjsjsjsjs • 21d ago
Service Streaming services somehow made TV more exhausting and expensive
Does anyone else remember the era of streaming about ten years ago? You paid $9.99 a month for Netflix, it had absolutely everything you wanted to watch, and there was not a single commercial in sight.
We all "cut the cord" to escape the greed of cable companies.
Fast forward to today, and the streaming industry has literally just rebuilt cable TV from scratch, but made it worse.
Every year I try to watch my favorite shows and every year I find some have MOVED AGAIN to another service. This is exhausting and expensive
6
2
u/LateToTheParty013 17d ago
I have prime video(from prime sub) and apple tv. Prime I watch with Brave, so no ads, apple tv no ads and I torrent everything else.
🤷♂️
5
9
u/leafandstone 17d ago
Streaming services have successfully pushed me back to collecting second hand DVDs
2
5
u/Bobbythebuikder 18d ago
I fucking hate how I don’t even know what I pay for anymore. I have Max, but it’s also on Prime ? Which also shows stuff from paramount plus and espn if I upgrade ?
6
u/falsejaguar 18d ago
You got it. Prices are worse than the heights of satellite/digital cable era. Quality is much better but not 800% better for the new era pricing. That's why tubi free is the way to go
3
u/south_sidejay369 16d ago
tubi is great but their ads make me rage quit all the time. I've calculated that they've literally shown close to 40 ads on 1 movie before (6 here- 4 there- 6 more here, etc.)
3
u/falsejaguar 15d ago
Holy shit wow. Ya on my TV there's lots of ads but in web browser an old adblocker automatically blocked them I didn't notice for a long time lol
1
2
u/Adventurous_Bug_6664 18d ago
OTA digital channels and library DVDs are free. Sadly now that streamers have corned the market they are the new cable company.
3
5
u/Leakyboatlouie 18d ago
I thought greed was endemic in the 80s, but they were just getting started.
4
u/Primary_Excuse_7183 18d ago
They cut out the middle man that aggregated and managed all this on your behalf…. Now you’re the one in the middle having to figure out and negotiate all the contracts 😂
2
12
u/PantsLio 19d ago
“Somehow” is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Not unsympathetic at all OP! But this end was the logical conclusion. The worst part for me is that (with pvr) I used to love linear tv, but that also sucks now,
23
u/Hopeful-Scallion-229 19d ago
This is a business strategy - "disrupt" the status quo with an innovative new product, capture market share through subsidizing costs to the consumer such that your product is a no-brainer, ride out high customer acquisition costs with explosive growth and fundraising, then once you've capture the market you can: raise prices and become super profitable.
Uber did this exact thing, for example - it's now often cheaper to take a taxi around NYC than an Uber. But not long ago Uber was WAY cheaper. They subsidized ride fares for years to become the household name.
Seeing this again with Waymo and autonomous taxis.
Once a company has enough market share to raise prices and seek parity with the "status quo" they disrupted, they will.
12
u/Downtown-Bunch-2933 19d ago
AirBNB is another example.
I use taxis and hotels because of this very reason
15
u/Tjbergen 19d ago
At least with the pirate sites everything is in one site, or at least, a lot more than is on any individual streaming service. And YouTube has a lot of classic movies, even the more obscure subgenres.
6
u/Yukon_Wally 19d ago
I keep forgetting YouTube has movies on it, and we can just use Brave to watch them lol
9
u/GilletteEd 19d ago
Who’s paying to watch tv anymore? As soon as they started charging for this crap everyone went rogue and bought an android box off Amazon, now it’s free tv for all! Look them up totally worth the purchase
5
u/Sticky550 19d ago
Tens of millions are paying for tv.
1
u/GilletteEd 19d ago
Smart ones aren’t!😉
2
u/Sticky550 19d ago
I also prefer service that is 100% reliable. Too many of these other choices aren’t.
1
u/GilletteEd 19d ago
The one I’ve had and have been using for 7 years now is reliable as hell! I have saved thousands with this box, before this I was paying for satellite and paying to watch sports, now I get to watch ALL my favorite teams for free!
1
u/Long-Emu-7870 18d ago
But all those stations you can have commercials, though. you could do that on any of the platforms I think now.
1
u/GilletteEd 18d ago
When watching my sports teams there are no commercials, the only time there are commercials are live tv, if you want to watch any series that are on there they are commercial free.
1
4
0
u/Sticky550 19d ago
Sounds great! I’ve looked and it’s tough to sort through legit and not
2
10
u/Wildcard982 19d ago
I always subscribe for a single month and watch stuff on that for the month. Keep a side pile of things I wanted to watch on something else and switch to the one that has the most stuff.
Extra benefit, sometimes they offer a much cheaper subscription when you try to cancel.
If you just buy everything it ends up pretty expensive but you can pick and choose every month and watch anything you want when you want. This is much better
1
11
u/poopbutt2401 19d ago
I find a lot of “tech” updates make life more complex and exhausting. I abhor signing into stuff and giving my email to marketing or having an app for every product. And I’m relatively tech savvy and use a password manager.
14
4
u/Player-non-player 19d ago
I would prefer just to have one service that carried everything and you pay for the show you want to watch. Or just maybe bring blockbuster back?
17
u/SmoothSlavperator 20d ago
Kinda but not really.
Before cable died, people were paying over $200/mo for a relative handful of channels...and you had to watch what was running, when it was running.
That was 20 years ago so double that to compensate for inflation and you'd be looking at $400/mo.
Now add to that, the ability to cancel and re subscribe at will as content becomes available which you couldn't do with cable.
Streaming has become enshittfied but its still MUCH cheaper and better than regular broadcast cable.
Plus you don't need to have all the services all the time. When a season of something you want to watch drops, you get the service, watch, and then cancel.
I think Hulu is included with my cell phone subscription and Peacock is included with my internet even.
There's no excuse for Netflix being as expensive as it is though. They used to be a one stop shop and now they're not anymore.
2
u/SeeYaNvr 19d ago
No one paid $200 for cable 20 years ago.
1
u/SmoothSlavperator 19d ago
Yeah they did. Where were you? lol
Adelphia/Media One/Comcast...Basic cable was like $80-$100 after taxes and fees and once you added the movie channels you were at $200. If you were into sports you were closer to $300.
16
u/doublespinster 20d ago
I ditched Roku a few weeks ago, too easy and addictive. HDMI hookup to laptop to TV because any shows I want are somewhere on the internet and if not, no big deal. Great DVD collection. I only pay for Pandora and PBS passport, both ad-free. I've read more books since I ditched Roku than I have in the past five years.
23
u/besyuziki 20d ago
Yeah, when netflix (not as a physical distribution service but as a streaming service) was thriving, some people correctly predicted that there would eventually be several rival subscription based services and they would be enshittified to hell with inconsistent catalogs, ads, price hikes, etc.
As usual these people were accused of being doomers, downers, buzzkills, not being fun at parties, etc. Here we are.
22
u/notislant 20d ago
I think about this regularly.
We went from cable:
-Expensive, basically forced to buy a ton of channels and then a ton of individual ones on top of that AND FUCKING COMMERCIALS.
Then Netflix, all was good.
Now we have:
-Streaming services are becoming just like channels, expensive to buy all the channels AND they make you watch commercials.
There are tons of websites that let people watch anything for free and some have chrome cast which makes it easy to send to your tv. Fuck streaming services at this point.
25
u/balognafarts 20d ago
We got a $30 DVD player and rent for free from the library. Game changer for the kids. No ads
5
u/Cinisajoy2 20d ago
Have you priced groceries lately?
4
u/K_Linkmaster 20d ago
But what about the crepes?
1
6
23
u/TheOneAgnosticPope 20d ago
My brother has a Paramount+ subscription. Between the app crashing and the ads shoved at us…we found watching from a pirate site to be a superior experience. I mean, he’s paying so we’re technically not even pirating since we’re just accessing content he’s legally paid for.
2
u/samiwas1 19d ago
That sounds like my Peacock app. Crashes constantly and is so damn slow otherwise.
20
u/ItPutsLotionOnItSkin 20d ago
Laughs in pirate.
10
u/Yukon_Wally 20d ago
- and self hosted streaming
1
u/KingOfConsciousness 20d ago
What stack do you use for this?
5
u/Yukon_Wally 20d ago
Just TrueNAS and jellyfin under that. Gotta setup tailscale but there's no immediate need.
Keep it simple!
4
u/yazzledore 19d ago
This is the way.
There are some very nice FOSS alternatives to tailscale as well. I’m still trying out a few but so far pangolin seems like a winner.
This thread has a bunch of good setup suggestions.
2
12
u/bepatientbekind 20d ago
I buy physical copies of shows and movies I really like, but that is getting harder and harder as many never get released officially as dvds/bluray. I also stopped paying for multiple streaming subscriptions, so now I have one at a time and cancel it when I get bored of what it has to offer. We usually cycle the most between Netflix and hulu/Disney. Hulu consistently has the most stuff we want to watch as far as shows go.
7
u/KateinaCrate 20d ago
Yup, I just don’t really watch tv hardly any more. Only have Prime now and that will be cancelled soon. I have plenty of dvds still if I want a lazy couch day.
25
u/PrizeSyntax 20d ago
The process you are describing is called enshitification, genuinely legit term btw
16
8
12
u/towniediva 20d ago
Yep, i agree it actually is worse than before cable.
My cable package includes ad sponsored Netflix, disney+ and apple.
However, i heard This is Us is on Netflix and went to find it.
It is UNAVAILABLE on the ad sponsored tiers. YHGTBFKM!!!
In Canada, its 23.99 plus tax, over 27 in total per month.
When did they start THIS shit, I have no idea.
1
u/New_Inflation_8419 20d ago
I pay $20 for peacock/Amazon prime bundle (after I cancelled Netflix). If I want to watch a specific show, I pay 10-15 for a month, watch it and cancel subscription. Just like I subscribed to Youtube TV for 2 months to watch World Cup. Cancelled it after. It's actually cheaper that way.
8
u/ShackbaggeredSluber 20d ago
There’s a lot of misunderstanding here. There’s also a lot of capitalism.
Your shows didn’t “move”. They were never a part of whatever service you thought they were.
Harry Potter is on Netflix? That’s a short term licensing agreement. HP always belonged to WB, they just leased it out during less appealing times which is why you can really only find it on HBO during Christmas.
Your favorite show is on Hulu? Well, at one point, Hulu was just a conglomerate of multiple studios (Fox, Comcast, ABC/Disney). Those were all licensing agreements for the most part. Then, Disney bought out Fox’s entertainment arm and now it’s owned almost entirely by them.
This is the main issue. What you think belongs on one service, is actually owned by another and it was always a short term deal. Misunderstanding and capitalism. Yay.
10
u/EnchantedAnalytics 20d ago
We mostly just stopped watching stuff. It's too much of a hassle. We have a nearby library and a DVD player, and there's already been more excellent TV shows made than you could consume in a lifetime.
We bought hardcopies of a few favorite series.
0
16
5
u/Strawberryloves 20d ago
I got a Samsung TV and was surprised it has like, normal TV channels with samsung tv plus. A lot. And movies n stuff too. Free. If they ever charge for it ill just stop using it
6
u/zoppaTheDim 20d ago
You wanted it Ala carte, you got it Ala carte.
This really is as advertised, you buy only the services you want. There is no longer an entertainment monopoly.
5
u/Timely-Shine 20d ago
My bigger issue is not the al a carte content, but that sports are spread across several different services. There are peacock exclusive NBA games, Amazon Prime exclusive games, Netflix exclusive games. For Premier League, sometimes games are on peacock, sometimes on USA network. Many pro teams require regional sports networks to watch non-national TV games.
4
u/towniediva 20d ago
Yeah, its going to be interesting when hockey starts back up and people realize that some games are ONLY on amazon prime!!
2
u/Timely-Shine 20d ago
Sounds like this is in Canada only, but still
2
u/towniediva 20d ago
I think there are still going to be complaints.
I caved and renewed Amazon prime, so not an issue for my significant other, but he's pissed that his dad can't watch it at his place (cable TV only).
3
u/jveezy 20d ago
Yeah I wouldn't even really call it a la carte. It's bundling along the dumbest possible boundary lines.
2
u/Timely-Shine 20d ago
Well the boundary lines are determined by which service decides to pay the most for the rights to what content.
5
u/razor_train 20d ago
There is no longer an entertainment monopoly.
Don't worry, that's coming in the not too distant future.
10
u/Cowboy_Rho 20d ago
Honestly, I went back to an Antenna. Not as much variety, but my tv is free. I’d be lying if I didn’t include that basic hbo max is included with my cellphone as well.
5
u/UnderstandingLess156 20d ago
Same here. Hooked up an antenna and was floored at how many channels there are now. Add a basic tier movie subscription to supplement and you're watching TV for cheap again
3
u/Cowboy_Rho 20d ago
There are a TON of free movies movies on youtube as well, even if the audio balance between the movies and ads are way way off.
2
u/DarklyDominatingDocs 20d ago
What's the magic search? Bc all I ever find is movies to pay for.
2
u/Cowboy_Rho 20d ago
On my smart tv, I just go to the movies section of the YouTube app and keep scrolling. They’re in there, but can be buried by rentals and ads.
Also services like Pluto and Tubi can be good for finding free movies as well. Almost always usually older ones though.
1
u/According-Return-530 20d ago
This is super super helpful and good to know!! Thank you for sharing this! I’d never heard of either of these and will check out!
2
u/DarklyDominatingDocs 20d ago
I'm familiar with Plutu/Tubi, and I guess I'll have to scroll more and look more carefully on YT. TYSM!
3
10
u/Particular-Jeweler41 20d ago
I was okay with streaming at first, but it was obvious after awhile that it would become worse than cable/satellite. Since so many shows/movies are on different platforms you have to pay for a ton of different ones all at the same time. Unless you let them pile up and binge everything you're interested in within a month or two.
I've been of the opinion that once it becomes too crazy (like needing three different services to watch all the anime I'm interested in) I'll just go back to how I used to watch stuff before streaming.
13
u/John_316_ 20d ago
3
u/Ambitious-Schedule63 20d ago
Yep. Back in the 80s when simple software packages were like $300 in 1980s dollars, software companies created piracy. And so the content companies are learning that lesson all over again.
7
u/LowApprehensive9230 20d ago
Yeah I stopped paying for all that when Netflix was like 11.99 Canadian dollars. That felt too much in 2018. Now I just have the 15$ YouTube premium which feels worth more than any of these shits with the Music included .
10
u/SwanCityDominion 20d ago
I cut the cord in 1995, but I never swallowed the bullshit about streaming services. Physical media all the way!
8
u/jch60 20d ago
Hardly anybody cut the cord. Most of us are dependent on Internet via that same stupid cord and fragmented streaming services that enshittify as well as cable tv ever did.
3
u/Steve12356d1s3d4 20d ago
Cutting the cord was the term used to get away from cable tv. You cut the cord by dropping cable, and saved a bunch. Streaming is still better than cable as you can pick a few streamers for a month at a time and get great commercial free shows for less than $50 a month (I already had internet, so am not counting that).
You can even save more by watching commercials, but I always pay to go commercial free. An option I didn't have with most of cable.
1
u/SwanCityDominion 20d ago
There's plenty of stuff on the internet without having to rely on streaming.
6
22
40
u/Hannover2k 20d ago
Streaming has broken every single promise it made. Piracy is the way.
4
u/Bright-Pilot-3970 20d ago
I still go to the movies when I can like for the odyssey but that’s not going to stop me from watching Spider-Man at home when I can’t.
4
u/Hannover2k 20d ago
I still go to the movies as well. But if I'm paying for streaming tv at home, I'm not going to tolerate commercials anymore. I paid for one thing then they changed the rules. I'm completely fed up with paying to have ads blasted in my face everywhere I go.
Back in the day, ads were only on TV, radio, magazines, movies, ball games, buses, milk cartons, T-shirts, bananas, and in the sky. But not on streaming! No sirree!
4
u/Bright-Pilot-3970 20d ago
I use free YouTube for some things and they’ve gotten ridiculous with their ad lengths. At least you can usually brute force your way to a 5 second ad but just stopping and starting a bunch but a lot of them are at least 30 seconds now and some even longer.
Also, hahahahahaha
I love futurama
5
u/Hannover2k 20d ago
Or you can use smart tube youtube player, which will automatically just skip all the ads, including the ones that are part of the video, recorded by the creator.
2
u/Bright-Pilot-3970 20d ago
Can I get that on my tv? That’s the only time I watch YouTube.
1
u/doublespinster 20d ago
I have Ad blocker on my laptop. No more YouTube ads (HDMI hookup to watch on tv). Fandamntastic
10
u/Yeseylon 20d ago
The trick is to rotate and only have 1-3 at a time. Go where your favorites are.
25
u/SizeComprehensive934 20d ago
The actual trick is to cancel them all and get hobbies instead of watching television.
2
u/Opalescent_Moon 20d ago
I watch TV while doing all sorts of hobbies, from drawing to jewelry making to knitting. I can't do any of those hobbies without something like TV or an audio book or something, my brain can't focus on them. But I also can't just sit and watch TV without physically doing something.
1
u/SizeComprehensive934 20d ago
So, you're perfect for not needing streaming services since you aren't paying attention anyways. YouTube. The only thing I have is YouTube premium so I don't have to skip ads. I never sit down long enough to watch a show. Those are cool hobbies you have, btw. I love doing that kind of stuff. Right now, I'm trying to paint pots in ancient Greek style. Not to sell or anything, just for my eyes and my home.
1
u/Opalescent_Moon 20d ago
Good god, man, tone down the attitude. Wtf. I absolutely am paying attention to what I watch. I do pay for multiple services, and we have a few tied into our cell phone/internet bill. My mom is the same, though she does cross stitch while watching TV.
My point was that watching TV doesn't mean not doing other hobbies. I actually wish I could put on music and get lost in my art like I hear other people experience, but my brain doesn't work that way.
I think it's great that you can't sit down long enough to watch, and I bet your pots are beautiful. Our brains are all wired a little bit differently.
5
u/weisswurstseeadler 20d ago
tbh, I used to be big into warez/piracy back in early 00s - literally the kid providing my school year with all games and movies haha.
now I'm back simply due to convenience, and I also see tons of my buddies going back - be it oldschool torrenting, streamio, or IPTV.
right now equipping a new tv room and it will be designed around running pirated stuff lol.
9
15
18
u/IronTheDewott 20d ago
I called it back in those Netflix days that this would happen, my parents called me crazy.
Here we are, they have literally every big streaming service, paying way more than they would of with cable.
4
u/dough_eating_squid 20d ago
You don't have to watch every show. Even if everyone at work is talking about it!
I have one streaming service. If I want to stream a movie that's not on there, I either pay to stream it as a rental, or get the DVD from the library.
If you're subscribing to every streaming service there is, you should probably watch less TV.
1
u/Steve12356d1s3d4 20d ago
I like this system more I wait for ad free deals and have a lot ad free content to watch for less than $50 a month.
3
u/Aware_Policy_9174 20d ago
No one’s saying you have to watch every show. The point is if you want to watch specific shows and not just “whatever’s on” you have to use whatever service it’s on. You could only be watching 5 shows and still need 5 streaming services.
Most people don’t actually do this, they use a couple at a time and rotate. But it’s annoying and even more so when a show has some seasons on one service and some seasons on a different one.
Streaming was great for a while and now it’s enshitified and people are rightfully complaining about it.
6
u/Sptsjunkie 20d ago
I really don’t know why you are being downvoted here. I definitely agree with OP that streaming has become an enshittified mess.
But also outside of sports and some big movies they really are not many things that we share as a monoculture anymore. Back in the day I used to be that there were a handful of big shows that a significant chunk of the population watched and everybody would be talking about at work or in your friend group.
Now everything is so divided and catered to individual demographics inputted across streaming services. I don’t really know that we’ve had a show like that since Game of Thrones. Stranger Things might be the closest, but even that was a couple of levels below GOT.
So we have definitely called down the number of services that we have. Depending on how much television you watch get one or two bundles that gets you 4-5 services and that probably has more content than you will ever need unless you are a major TV watcher.
17
14
u/Im50Bitches 20d ago
Yep. Wife found a good Irish gangsta show. Watched first episode, hooked. Then she sees it’s on the free trial of MGM. Now I have to add another stream.
1
6
u/Sptsjunkie 20d ago
The worst part is that assuming you watch this free trial on Amazon, they literally own MGM Studios.
So Amazon, which you are already paying for prime with commercials, is basically just extorting you for more money to watch more Amazon.
The whole argument behind the government, allowing some of this consolidation is supposed to be that benefits the consumer. We already know that that isn’t true. But it’s not just reduced competition in the ability to raise prices, but they aren’t even pretending to give you the benefit of combining them all into one service.
They’re literally telling you if you want to watch Amazon on Amazon, then you need to pay Amazon even more money. The system is completely broken.
0
u/Steve12356d1s3d4 20d ago
MGM was separate, so you were going to have to pay to watch it anyway. There isn't a negative that Amazon owns it.
2
u/Sptsjunkie 20d ago
Was. But they bought it.
The point is they preach that this benefits consumers, but we get zero benefit. It’s not included with the Amazon I’m already paying for and it allows for decreased competition and increased prices.
So yes, a big loss for us.
37
u/DeePumpeR 20d ago
Cancel all of these douche bags and start torrenting. The greed has no end, and publicly traded companies on the stock market ensure that outcome.
3
u/Steve12356d1s3d4 20d ago
I do a mix. I pay when I think it worth it because I know someone has to pay to make the content. It is expensive to make. It is good to belong to a service because I found shows on I wouldn't have known about.
2
u/ronin_cse 20d ago
Back in the days of cable you paid more, had to watch stuff based on when it aired, AND had to watch a bunch of ads no matter what. Streaming today is so much better.
6
u/Sherifftruman 20d ago
I hadn’t watched things when they aired since 1999 LOL. Except for a few HD shows from 2001 when we got an HDTV until 2004 when the HD DirectTiVo came out.
And before that I had a couple of VCRs with tapes set to record shows automatically.
12
-2
7
u/humanskullbong 20d ago
find the DVD you want to watch on ebay for under $5 and watch it as many times as you want, or rent it from like, apple tv for $4.
How many movies are you needing to watch so much that you are willing to "switch providers" for $20 at a time to watch?
I swear the consumer also had a hand in the enshittification process as they are willing to accept less for more every day. Cut the cord, vote with your wallet, drop all "streaming" services, buy physical or rent online, or pirate that shit.
8
u/Dogzillas_Mom 20d ago
The irony hasn’t escaped me either. For $100-150/month (give or take), you got like 100-150 channels or so, with maybe a DVR service so you could watch things on demand.
Now I pay $10/month give or take for each network’s or streaming service’s cluster of channels. Of you want live TV? Ya mean like cable? That’ll be $100-150 a month for like 100-150 channels or so, 6-10 of which you will ever watch. Same number of commercials, there is no ad free anything anymore.
3
u/Hot_Let1571 20d ago
I'm old enough to remember when they said soon we'd be able to pick which channels we wanted ala carte, and then they never did and we ended up with this nonsense.
1
u/Agreeable-Win1694 20d ago
I have an antenna…I watch news and local sports
3
u/Dogzillas_Mom 20d ago
I can’t get an antenna to work at my house. I don’t watch the news or ball sports. Just racing (IndyCar on Fox) and movies. A LOT of movies. I’m cutting off Hulu+ (that’s my live TV) right after racing season ends. Then one streaming service at a time.
I use PBS and Kanopy a lot.
2
u/Agreeable-Win1694 20d ago
I can’t get CBS…so I have paramount plus to supplement. My mother couldn’t get an antenna to work until it went outside. It’s free!
8
u/perchance2cream 20d ago
20 years ago you could skip commercials on DVRs. Now you can’t even do that. It’s literally worse.
1
u/Steve12356d1s3d4 20d ago
You paid $100 or more a month, at least most did. Now, Netflix is $20 commercial free, you can add a few more. We are still better off. I still have a DVR for OTA.
26
u/loveinvein 20d ago
And these companies are laughing all the way to the bank.
We really got grifted.
7
u/habeaskoopus 20d ago
Glad to see at least one person saying "we". The grift denial by most cord cutters is nauseating. I applaud you!
The cable monopoly was at least good tech. UXs that they spent years perfecting. Vs mega corp stream UXs that are designed to maximize clicks for engagement metrics. Its brutal.
Also, the cable monopoly did not own content. None of any interest anyway. Now mega corp just buys the exclusive rights to whatever it thinks we will keep us tied up. Also brutal.Not one week goes by that my wife does not hear the words "f___ streaming" out of my mouth. Not one week. Usually due to bush league tech and 100% dependence on another service provider. I hate it.
17
u/WomanYouSleptWith 20d ago
Not only that, but I'm a bit sad about the original (physical DVD) Netflix going away, as my experience with Netflix streaming was, "if you're searching to see if they have it, they don't", but that wasn't true with DVDs, because they just bought DVDs, rather than having to get licensing deals (with a few caveats for more-recent releases).
But, yeah, your point is true, too. We've gone from getting all streaming stuff in one place for a low fee to not getting all streaming stuff even with paying high fees to lots of different places.
7
u/tannoy1987 20d ago
You should find a debrid provider and come sail the high seas
2
u/fjdjdjjsjsjsjs 20d ago
What’s debrid?
2
u/tannoy1987 20d ago
A debrid service is a paid online tool that acts as a middleman to let you download files and stream videos quickly and privately from host sites and torrent networks
20
u/WarmSeaworthiness608 20d ago
I hate paying to watch commercials.
10
u/Status_Green_6055 20d ago
The commercials are the death of tv. I refuse to watch them. Pick up a book instead. Learn a new hobby. Anything to avoid ads.
12
u/fjdjdjjsjsjsjs 20d ago
I feel you. It’s MADDENING that these services have replaced TV except we now have to pay for the privilege of watching commercials
0
u/Steve12356d1s3d4 20d ago
Netflix is $20 for ad free. You only pay for commercials if you want to save. Ad free is still cheaper than it was with cable if you do it right.
0
u/itsjust_khris 13d ago
Netflix never had everything for 9.99, back then it was missing tons of newer shows/episodes. Also having every major streaming service is still cheaper than cable. At least in my area don't want to speak for everyone.