That's funny, my first reaction is to talk about gun control.
Other countries have mentally ill losers who play violent video games and post idiotic rants on the internet. Other countries don't have the murder rate America does. What is the one and only difference? Gun control. Hard to kill a lot of people at once when you have to do it with a knife. Rocket science this is not. We need to get rid of the corrupt politicians who the NRA have in their pocket or this will never end. Discussing anything else is pointless. Save your thoughts and prayers. Useless.
This is correct, with one caveat: the losers won't be "signing on" with the winners, they will be bought up by the winners, or at least their good brands will be. For example, CBS is probably too small and too limited to make it. Apple needs big brands and they have plenty of money to throw around. Apple buys CBS, maybe leaves the broadcast portion behind like Disney left broadcast Fox behind, and just keeps the good stuff - namely big brand names like Star Trek and Twilight Zone. Apple can hire people to make content under these brands so they don't even need production capability, Just the brands will do.
Really when you get right down to it, what corporations will battle over is exclusive rights to big brand names. For everything else, they can hire the tech and creative people to create the platforms and churn out content - but if you don't have the legal rights to Star Trek, Star Wars, etc, you can't slap that brand on whatever you make and reap the huge rewards regardless of whether the crap you are making actually deserves it.
This is more like driving to McDonald's for a Big Mac and Burger King for a Quarter Pounder and Wendy's for whatever they call their burger. If you really need to have a specific type of burger (and several of them at once), then yeah you have to hit them all.
But Netflix, Amazon and all the rest have - or will have - the equivalent of hamburgers, fries, shakes, etc. In fact they all have several in each category. Netflix does this now: here's the cop show row, here's the British murder mystery row, here's the row of stuff for teen girls.
if you just want a good prestige drama or a good cop show or a good supernatural thriller and don't much care about the specifics of whether the pickles are sweet or sour and what the secret sauce tastes like, then you can stick with whatever McDonald's or Netflix is offering and ignore the similar offerings at Amazon/Burger King.
Channels like SyFy or BBC won't matter much in the future (don't matter to me now) because streaming services can make everything those channels do. Netflix in fact is doing an end run around the BBC and going direct to the people who make BBC content. That's how they created The Crown and Our Planet - those are made by people who used to make stuff for the BBC but Netflix is paying them more, so...
The streaming "sector" is oblivious to this problem because the "sector" has no mind, no will and no budget or mandate to do anything. The entities that do possess these things are called corporations. Collectively they may make up the streaming sector but they act individually and their motivations and money are put towards their individual good.
Nobody cares about the collective good of the sector. They are all engaged in an existential struggle to kill off competitors and emerge as one of the 4 or 5 corporations that survive in the end to dominate global streaming. I can take a guess at what those names will be, but nobody is just going to meekly accept their fate is to lose and be gobbled up by a bigger, stronger fish. They just have to fight it out.
In the end, these global streaming behemoths will have mutually exclusive libraries composed of only content they own. Any independent content producers that remain after consolidation will have to enter into exclusive contacts with the behemoths if they want their content seen at all.
Consumers may want one central repository of content - convenient and reasonably priced - but that will never happen. Imagine what happens to that reasonable price when the competitors consolidate down to one. Zoom! To the moon.
But that will never happen either. Let's say Disney gobbles up Netflix, Amazon, AT&T, Apple, Comcast, CBS and Taco Bell for good measure. Then they try to jack up the price. All that does is open a market for a reasonably priced competitor to start churning out attractive content, and we're right back where we started.
As nature takes its course, the number of behemoths that the sector will settle on will be low, but not one. Based on paying customers opting for 2-3 services per household, a lot of overlap in what they like, and easy churn, 4 seems like the number in the end. 5 if we assume some competitors like Apple are just being stubborn enough to stick it out.
Piracy doesn't much factor into this. The winners and how many there are, will be determined by paying customers. But if piracy encourages people to subscribe to a couple and then just pirate what they can't get there, it will accelerate the consolidation that is going to happen anyway by placing an even bigger premium on bigness, big brands, and just being there first - the values that will determine the winners in the end.
Public figures (sports team owners, players, actors, celebrities, politicians, etc) should get off the internet in any official capacity. Turn Twitter over to the pr pro’s. They can be disciplined and professional about it, having zero emotional investment in anything. It’s just a paycheck to them.
This bullshit again. No all cultures and laws are not "equally valid." Try living in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia or other oppressive states and you might learn to appreciate having actual freedom of speech.
That said, there's nothing stopping people from ditching Facebook if they object to their lack of respect for the First Amendment. I ditched that BS a long time ago or rather never bothered with it. Maybe it's time for everyone to wake up.
Piracy is a reflection of demand. The most popular and heavily marketed stuff gets pirated the most. What's the solution, stop marketing the likes of Avengers Endgame and Game of Thrones?
You got it. Movie theaters are about sensory overload/zap pow/shared fandom, as Avengers Endgame proves. People will mob the theatrers for something like that. Just wait till Avatar 2 and all the rest launch, it will be a circus all over again.
So the question is, what are the Oscars for? Avengers and Avatar? Hey if they want to just honor the zap pow video game type of movie that keeps theaters in business, fine with me. Makes as much sense as handing out statues to whatever arty movie the big time studios throw a big promotional Oscars push behind.
I enjoyed The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs but if it hadn't been easy to get to on Netflix, I would never have seen it. I will go to a theater to see Avengers Endgame (first movie I will have seen in 2019 in a theater) because I know damn well that watching that at home will be absurd. It's made for a big screen in a way few movies are - it's all about sensory overload and stuff getting blowed up real good. THAT is the theatrical experience now, whether Steven Spielberg or Hellen Mirren want to admit it. They aren't paying customers. The paying customer has spoken.
Movie theaters have to coexist with streaming as an entertainment outlet, and here's why: DISNEY. Theatres are fully dependent on Disney blockbusters to keep them alive. And now Disney is jumping into streaming in a big way, launching Disney+ and buying Hulu 100% so that eventually it will be Disney+Hulu as the Netflix competitor. Add in Amazon, Apple and AT&T all churning out content and it's obvious streaming will be by far the dominant form of entertainment consumption in the future. If Disney decides to crunch the theatrical window between its theatrical launches and streaming, movie theaters will have no ability to push back. The mouse rules all.
Theaters have to live with this by offering something streaming doesn't, namely a superior theatrical experience but not the type that clueless Hollywood elitists like Helen Mirren and Steven Spielberg assume. It's the experience that is driving monster ticket sales for Avengers Endgame: the social experience of a blockbuster launch of a movie with a huge shared fandom, and enough zap and pow that yes, in this case your little home theater setup isn't going to deliver the goods.
The theatrical experience counts for a narrow range of movie types that are about sensation and sensory overload, not about art or thinking. So, the types of movies that theaters are for are not the same as the ones that deserve the fancy pants awards. And that is a problem for the awards people and nobody else. The paying customers will pay for what they want, and get what they want: zap pow at the movie theater, art and thinking and everything else on streaming at home (or on the go, on a mobile phone).
Well sorry to break it to you, but the way streaming is going to work is, all the money will end up going to a small roster of global streaming behemoths, who both make and distribute their exclusive and non-overlapping libraries of content.
And brand names are going to be golden, which is why Disney is going to make out like a bandit when they launch Disney+. The content glut will make brands more valuable than ever because people just get confused by too many options. Show them a recognizable brand, and the confusion is instantly solved.
Piracy doesn't much matter. People will subscribe to Disney+ for the kids and for convenience. If it's a few bucks a month, who really cares?
What it probably means is that yes, more content is being consumed but not necessarily for a higher price. The industry itself is making $$$ but fewer corporations are the ones benefitting and that number is going to fall further.
So the future is: lots of people consuming lots of content for cheap and the money funneling to a small number of content producers/distributors which make insane amounts of money while most of the entertainment industry crunches down to oblivion.
Not sure why this comments section is all about discussing piracy. Piracy is a side issue in this. Frankly I think piracy is a side issue in general. There's always been piracy, through the rise of Netflix, then Amazon, now Disney is going to join the streaming party, probably one or two others. Piracy isn't stopping them one whit. Who cares about piracy? Maybe some corporate lawyers and trade associations, that's about it.
The greater access to content that streaming gives people will increase demand across the board, across the world. Cable and broadcast were always too rigid and expensive and restrictive.
Just wait till all the content producers have their own streaming services and can deliver content direct to customers in exchange for a credit card number. That kind of radical efficiency is what's driving the explosion in content. Reduce overhead and more money is freed up for content production.
Plus investors smell blood in the water and are in a frenzy throwing money at streamings servcies. I dunno if you guys follow the markets but Disney is doing a dog and pony show on Apr 11, after which I expect their share price to rocket. More money to make more content, which attracts more subscribers and more investor money, etc.
And don't worry about an annoying explosion of streaming services. As long as subscribers go for just the biggest handful of services, and that's what they certainly seem to be doing, the number of eventual winners will be limited as the winners gobble up the losers. More industry consolidation to come. Right now, everyone is jostling for position in order to become one of those few winners or die trying.
Most people definitely have a limit to the amount of hoops they will jump through for content. Can't get a certain acton movie? Watch a different one instead. Some people are very fussy and want only certain titles but most folks are far more flexible. Which is why a few big streaming services will end up with all the paying customers, despite not having the rights to all the brands. Netflix can't touch Star Trek or Star Wars brands, but that doesn't prohibit them from inventing their own space opera dramas which hey might actually be better. Who knows? Let them make a half dozen space opera series and let's see if one might actually be pretty good.
There's never been a time when video streaming had "everything" for $10 or any price. That would be Netflix. I've had Netflix streaming since almost the start and never dropped DVDs, which I still have, and have used consistently all those years. Because streaming has never been anywhere close to comprehensive but the DVD library is far better. And as the content production goes through the roof, Netflix streaming just falls farther behind proportionately even though it's also growing in sheer volume.
I think the far more common reaction is: I look for what I want on Netflix, Hulu, maybe Amazon if I get that too. If I don't find it, I forget about it and watch something else that suits my mood instead.
Most people don't really demand to see this or that thing. They want an action flick, a comedy, a sci fi adventure, etc. Some folks are very wedded to a brand, such as Star Wars, and won't accept The Expanse as a substitute (even though The Expanse is objectively better). But other than a few monster brands, mostly owned by Disney and AT&T now, media is fairly interchangeable and that's what'll keep down piracy.
Pirates are fussier than most folks. I increasingly think what drives piracy is simply that some people care more about others about media in general. The people who don't care much don't bother to pirate anything.
Here's the thing, the streaming industry isn't going to lose sales. What's going to happen is that the streaming industry will become a handful of global behemoths that make insane amounts of money while the also-rans just a step below the behemoths face extinction. The whole thing is going to crunch down to a small handful of winners, with a lot of losers who end up with nothing.
Everyone is terrified of this. Nobody wants the fate that awaits the losers, which is on display for us right now, in hatchets being taken to the workforces of Fox and Time Warner after being purchased by Disney and AT&T respectively. That's what happens in consolidations like this. You keep your job if you work for Disney and AT&T before the merger. If you work for the company being merged, you are far more likely to be fired.
Nobody is just going to happily watch their jobs vanish. A lot of jobs will vanish, but we can expect the future victims to fight this, and they will fight it by trying their best to transition to the new world, like CBS is doing. Probably won't work, but at least they are trying.
The amount of choice has definitely exploded compared with the old days of one extortionate bill for cable. I can remember having 500 channels and struggling to find anything worth watching. Just Netflix alone does a far better job of providing watchable stuff, for about a tenth the price. Netflix, Amazon etc are making shows that would never have been made for cable. What cable outlet would have ever made The OA?
If you absolutely must have access to everything, there's always DVDs. Netflix has much more stuff on DVD than streaming and the library has an astonishing range of DVDs for free. I always try to mention that in discussions like this. Check your local library, you might be very surprised.
A metaservice that, say, automates the churn process any of us could implement with some effort and inconvenience (January is Netflix, February is Amazon etc) would certainly be worth a small uncharge. If churning through 6 services with 2 months apiece per year is an average cost of say $14, then Apple could charge us $15 and have a tidy business for themselves.
But the problem here is, that means Apple has the relationship with the customer, the credit card numbers, and invaluable data on customer behavior. My bet is that the streaming wars in the end come down to a fight to control customer data.
This will all end up with 4 or 5 major global streaming services because consumers only opt for 2 or 3 paid services at a time, and they ignore or pirate the rest. Probably far more just ignore content they can't easily get, given the insane abundance of it all.
Who has time for all that stuff? Time, not cost is the gating factor and piracy won't create any more time than you already have. That's why piracy won't be much of a factor in how this is all going to shape up. Netflix, Amazon and Disney will be certain; AT&T and Apple possible; CBS maybe if a couple of the others falter; Comcast unlikely. Hulu will be bought by Disney to become their grownup content platform. Now we just wait a couple years for it all to transpire. Huge companies will make billions and billions of dollars. Piracy will continue. Doesn't really matter.
On the post: Why Is Our First Reaction To Mass Shootings To Talk About Censorship?
That's funny, my first reaction is to talk about gun control.
Other countries have mentally ill losers who play violent video games and post idiotic rants on the internet. Other countries don't have the murder rate America does. What is the one and only difference? Gun control. Hard to kill a lot of people at once when you have to do it with a knife. Rocket science this is not. We need to get rid of the corrupt politicians who the NRA have in their pocket or this will never end. Discussing anything else is pointless. Save your thoughts and prayers. Useless.
On the post: The Streaming TV Sector Still Doesn't Realize Exclusives Will Drive Users Back To Piracy
Re: Re:
This is correct, with one caveat: the losers won't be "signing on" with the winners, they will be bought up by the winners, or at least their good brands will be. For example, CBS is probably too small and too limited to make it. Apple needs big brands and they have plenty of money to throw around. Apple buys CBS, maybe leaves the broadcast portion behind like Disney left broadcast Fox behind, and just keeps the good stuff - namely big brand names like Star Trek and Twilight Zone. Apple can hire people to make content under these brands so they don't even need production capability, Just the brands will do.
Really when you get right down to it, what corporations will battle over is exclusive rights to big brand names. For everything else, they can hire the tech and creative people to create the platforms and churn out content - but if you don't have the legal rights to Star Trek, Star Wars, etc, you can't slap that brand on whatever you make and reap the huge rewards regardless of whether the crap you are making actually deserves it.
On the post: The Streaming TV Sector Still Doesn't Realize Exclusives Will Drive Users Back To Piracy
Re: Re:
This is more like driving to McDonald's for a Big Mac and Burger King for a Quarter Pounder and Wendy's for whatever they call their burger. If you really need to have a specific type of burger (and several of them at once), then yeah you have to hit them all.
But Netflix, Amazon and all the rest have - or will have - the equivalent of hamburgers, fries, shakes, etc. In fact they all have several in each category. Netflix does this now: here's the cop show row, here's the British murder mystery row, here's the row of stuff for teen girls.
if you just want a good prestige drama or a good cop show or a good supernatural thriller and don't much care about the specifics of whether the pickles are sweet or sour and what the secret sauce tastes like, then you can stick with whatever McDonald's or Netflix is offering and ignore the similar offerings at Amazon/Burger King.
Channels like SyFy or BBC won't matter much in the future (don't matter to me now) because streaming services can make everything those channels do. Netflix in fact is doing an end run around the BBC and going direct to the people who make BBC content. That's how they created The Crown and Our Planet - those are made by people who used to make stuff for the BBC but Netflix is paying them more, so...
On the post: The Streaming TV Sector Still Doesn't Realize Exclusives Will Drive Users Back To Piracy
The streaming "sector" is oblivious to this problem because the "sector" has no mind, no will and no budget or mandate to do anything. The entities that do possess these things are called corporations. Collectively they may make up the streaming sector but they act individually and their motivations and money are put towards their individual good.
Nobody cares about the collective good of the sector. They are all engaged in an existential struggle to kill off competitors and emerge as one of the 4 or 5 corporations that survive in the end to dominate global streaming. I can take a guess at what those names will be, but nobody is just going to meekly accept their fate is to lose and be gobbled up by a bigger, stronger fish. They just have to fight it out.
In the end, these global streaming behemoths will have mutually exclusive libraries composed of only content they own. Any independent content producers that remain after consolidation will have to enter into exclusive contacts with the behemoths if they want their content seen at all.
Consumers may want one central repository of content - convenient and reasonably priced - but that will never happen. Imagine what happens to that reasonable price when the competitors consolidate down to one. Zoom! To the moon.
But that will never happen either. Let's say Disney gobbles up Netflix, Amazon, AT&T, Apple, Comcast, CBS and Taco Bell for good measure. Then they try to jack up the price. All that does is open a market for a reasonably priced competitor to start churning out attractive content, and we're right back where we started.
As nature takes its course, the number of behemoths that the sector will settle on will be low, but not one. Based on paying customers opting for 2-3 services per household, a lot of overlap in what they like, and easy churn, 4 seems like the number in the end. 5 if we assume some competitors like Apple are just being stubborn enough to stick it out.
Piracy doesn't much factor into this. The winners and how many there are, will be determined by paying customers. But if piracy encourages people to subscribe to a couple and then just pirate what they can't get there, it will accelerate the consolidation that is going to happen anyway by placing an even bigger premium on bigness, big brands, and just being there first - the values that will determine the winners in the end.
On the post: Caterpillar Now Going After All The Cats For Trademark Cancellations
you're banned from the bedroom!
I'm suing Caterpillar for repeatedly peeing on my bed. What's up with that?
On the post: Portland Trailblazers Streisand Stupid Local Article Into National Spotlight For No Reason At All
Use your pr team
Public figures (sports team owners, players, actors, celebrities, politicians, etc) should get off the internet in any official capacity. Turn Twitter over to the pr pro’s. They can be disciplined and professional about it, having zero emotional investment in anything. It’s just a paycheck to them.
On the post: Just Because The Rest Of The World Doesn't Have A 1st Amendment, Doesn't Mean It Can Trample Online Speech
Re: exceptionalism in action once more
This bullshit again. No all cultures and laws are not "equally valid." Try living in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia or other oppressive states and you might learn to appreciate having actual freedom of speech.
That said, there's nothing stopping people from ditching Facebook if they object to their lack of respect for the First Amendment. I ditched that BS a long time ago or rather never bothered with it. Maybe it's time for everyone to wake up.
On the post: Watch: The Latest Avengers Movie Is Already On Torrent Sites, But That Won't Stop A Torrent Of Sold Theater Tickets
Piracy is a reflection of demand. The most popular and heavily marketed stuff gets pirated the most. What's the solution, stop marketing the likes of Avengers Endgame and Game of Thrones?
On the post: Despite Spielberg's 'Get Off My Lawn' Moment, The Oscars Won't Ban Netflix
Re:
You got it. Movie theaters are about sensory overload/zap pow/shared fandom, as Avengers Endgame proves. People will mob the theatrers for something like that. Just wait till Avatar 2 and all the rest launch, it will be a circus all over again.
So the question is, what are the Oscars for? Avengers and Avatar? Hey if they want to just honor the zap pow video game type of movie that keeps theaters in business, fine with me. Makes as much sense as handing out statues to whatever arty movie the big time studios throw a big promotional Oscars push behind.
I enjoyed The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs but if it hadn't been easy to get to on Netflix, I would never have seen it. I will go to a theater to see Avengers Endgame (first movie I will have seen in 2019 in a theater) because I know damn well that watching that at home will be absurd. It's made for a big screen in a way few movies are - it's all about sensory overload and stuff getting blowed up real good. THAT is the theatrical experience now, whether Steven Spielberg or Hellen Mirren want to admit it. They aren't paying customers. The paying customer has spoken.
On the post: Despite Spielberg's 'Get Off My Lawn' Moment, The Oscars Won't Ban Netflix
Movie theaters have to coexist with streaming as an entertainment outlet, and here's why: DISNEY. Theatres are fully dependent on Disney blockbusters to keep them alive. And now Disney is jumping into streaming in a big way, launching Disney+ and buying Hulu 100% so that eventually it will be Disney+Hulu as the Netflix competitor. Add in Amazon, Apple and AT&T all churning out content and it's obvious streaming will be by far the dominant form of entertainment consumption in the future. If Disney decides to crunch the theatrical window between its theatrical launches and streaming, movie theaters will have no ability to push back. The mouse rules all.
Theaters have to live with this by offering something streaming doesn't, namely a superior theatrical experience but not the type that clueless Hollywood elitists like Helen Mirren and Steven Spielberg assume. It's the experience that is driving monster ticket sales for Avengers Endgame: the social experience of a blockbuster launch of a movie with a huge shared fandom, and enough zap and pow that yes, in this case your little home theater setup isn't going to deliver the goods.
The theatrical experience counts for a narrow range of movie types that are about sensation and sensory overload, not about art or thinking. So, the types of movies that theaters are for are not the same as the ones that deserve the fancy pants awards. And that is a problem for the awards people and nobody else. The paying customers will pay for what they want, and get what they want: zap pow at the movie theater, art and thinking and everything else on streaming at home (or on the go, on a mobile phone).
On the post: The Sky Is Rising: The Entertainment Industry Is Thriving, Almost Entirely Because Of The Internet
Re: All or nothing
Well sorry to break it to you, but the way streaming is going to work is, all the money will end up going to a small roster of global streaming behemoths, who both make and distribute their exclusive and non-overlapping libraries of content.
And brand names are going to be golden, which is why Disney is going to make out like a bandit when they launch Disney+. The content glut will make brands more valuable than ever because people just get confused by too many options. Show them a recognizable brand, and the confusion is instantly solved.
Piracy doesn't much matter. People will subscribe to Disney+ for the kids and for convenience. If it's a few bucks a month, who really cares?
On the post: The Sky Is Rising: The Entertainment Industry Is Thriving, Almost Entirely Because Of The Internet
Re: You missed an important point here...
What it probably means is that yes, more content is being consumed but not necessarily for a higher price. The industry itself is making $$$ but fewer corporations are the ones benefitting and that number is going to fall further.
So the future is: lots of people consuming lots of content for cheap and the money funneling to a small number of content producers/distributors which make insane amounts of money while most of the entertainment industry crunches down to oblivion.
Not sure why this comments section is all about discussing piracy. Piracy is a side issue in this. Frankly I think piracy is a side issue in general. There's always been piracy, through the rise of Netflix, then Amazon, now Disney is going to join the streaming party, probably one or two others. Piracy isn't stopping them one whit. Who cares about piracy? Maybe some corporate lawyers and trade associations, that's about it.
On the post: The Sky Is Rising: The Entertainment Industry Is Thriving, Almost Entirely Because Of The Internet
The greater access to content that streaming gives people will increase demand across the board, across the world. Cable and broadcast were always too rigid and expensive and restrictive.
Just wait till all the content producers have their own streaming services and can deliver content direct to customers in exchange for a credit card number. That kind of radical efficiency is what's driving the explosion in content. Reduce overhead and more money is freed up for content production.
Plus investors smell blood in the water and are in a frenzy throwing money at streamings servcies. I dunno if you guys follow the markets but Disney is doing a dog and pony show on Apr 11, after which I expect their share price to rocket. More money to make more content, which attracts more subscribers and more investor money, etc.
And don't worry about an annoying explosion of streaming services. As long as subscribers go for just the biggest handful of services, and that's what they certainly seem to be doing, the number of eventual winners will be limited as the winners gobble up the losers. More industry consolidation to come. Right now, everyone is jostling for position in order to become one of those few winners or die trying.
On the post: Ironically, Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy
Re:
Most people definitely have a limit to the amount of hoops they will jump through for content. Can't get a certain acton movie? Watch a different one instead. Some people are very fussy and want only certain titles but most folks are far more flexible. Which is why a few big streaming services will end up with all the paying customers, despite not having the rights to all the brands. Netflix can't touch Star Trek or Star Wars brands, but that doesn't prohibit them from inventing their own space opera dramas which hey might actually be better. Who knows? Let them make a half dozen space opera series and let's see if one might actually be pretty good.
On the post: Ironically, Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy
Re: Where is the competiton in video streaming?
There's never been a time when video streaming had "everything" for $10 or any price. That would be Netflix. I've had Netflix streaming since almost the start and never dropped DVDs, which I still have, and have used consistently all those years. Because streaming has never been anywhere close to comprehensive but the DVD library is far better. And as the content production goes through the roof, Netflix streaming just falls farther behind proportionately even though it's also growing in sheer volume.
On the post: Ironically, Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy
Re:
I think the far more common reaction is: I look for what I want on Netflix, Hulu, maybe Amazon if I get that too. If I don't find it, I forget about it and watch something else that suits my mood instead.
Most people don't really demand to see this or that thing. They want an action flick, a comedy, a sci fi adventure, etc. Some folks are very wedded to a brand, such as Star Wars, and won't accept The Expanse as a substitute (even though The Expanse is objectively better). But other than a few monster brands, mostly owned by Disney and AT&T now, media is fairly interchangeable and that's what'll keep down piracy.
Pirates are fussier than most folks. I increasingly think what drives piracy is simply that some people care more about others about media in general. The people who don't care much don't bother to pirate anything.
On the post: Ironically, Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy
Re:
Here's the thing, the streaming industry isn't going to lose sales. What's going to happen is that the streaming industry will become a handful of global behemoths that make insane amounts of money while the also-rans just a step below the behemoths face extinction. The whole thing is going to crunch down to a small handful of winners, with a lot of losers who end up with nothing.
Everyone is terrified of this. Nobody wants the fate that awaits the losers, which is on display for us right now, in hatchets being taken to the workforces of Fox and Time Warner after being purchased by Disney and AT&T respectively. That's what happens in consolidations like this. You keep your job if you work for Disney and AT&T before the merger. If you work for the company being merged, you are far more likely to be fired.
Nobody is just going to happily watch their jobs vanish. A lot of jobs will vanish, but we can expect the future victims to fight this, and they will fight it by trying their best to transition to the new world, like CBS is doing. Probably won't work, but at least they are trying.
On the post: Ironically, Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy
Re: 'Requirement' is not 'choice'
The amount of choice has definitely exploded compared with the old days of one extortionate bill for cable. I can remember having 500 channels and struggling to find anything worth watching. Just Netflix alone does a far better job of providing watchable stuff, for about a tenth the price. Netflix, Amazon etc are making shows that would never have been made for cable. What cable outlet would have ever made The OA?
If you absolutely must have access to everything, there's always DVDs. Netflix has much more stuff on DVD than streaming and the library has an astonishing range of DVDs for free. I always try to mention that in discussions like this. Check your local library, you might be very surprised.
On the post: Ironically, Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy
Re: Re: Silos are like weeds
A metaservice that, say, automates the churn process any of us could implement with some effort and inconvenience (January is Netflix, February is Amazon etc) would certainly be worth a small uncharge. If churning through 6 services with 2 months apiece per year is an average cost of say $14, then Apple could charge us $15 and have a tidy business for themselves.
But the problem here is, that means Apple has the relationship with the customer, the credit card numbers, and invaluable data on customer behavior. My bet is that the streaming wars in the end come down to a fight to control customer data.
On the post: Ironically, Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy
This will all end up with 4 or 5 major global streaming services because consumers only opt for 2 or 3 paid services at a time, and they ignore or pirate the rest. Probably far more just ignore content they can't easily get, given the insane abundance of it all.
Who has time for all that stuff? Time, not cost is the gating factor and piracy won't create any more time than you already have. That's why piracy won't be much of a factor in how this is all going to shape up. Netflix, Amazon and Disney will be certain; AT&T and Apple possible; CBS maybe if a couple of the others falter; Comcast unlikely. Hulu will be bought by Disney to become their grownup content platform. Now we just wait a couple years for it all to transpire. Huge companies will make billions and billions of dollars. Piracy will continue. Doesn't really matter.
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