Tech’s broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap::Some tech is getting pricier and looking a lot like the older services it was supposed to beat. From video streaming to ride-hailing and cloud computing.
We should have seen this coming. I remember the early 80s when cable was the new hotness, and it was cheap, with no ads unlike broadcast television. That was its major selling point.
Then over the next decade the ads crept in, and we were all paying for cable with ads, even though the whole point had been no ads. Then the price skyrocketed and the ads remained.
Steaming was always going to follow the same path. Cheap with no ads at first, then adding ads, then skyrocketing prices, then crazy prices with ads too.
They know as long as all of them raise their prices, where are we gonna go? They have exclusives. We can’t just take our money elsewhere.
The alternative is simple. The seven seas are calling out to you. :)
Or read a book, or do literally anything else.
Books would have ads.
Not if Anna has anything to say about it…
Aye matey.
Wait, there was a time when cable didn’t have ads???
Yeah, because you were paying for it. Where as broadcast was free over the air.
What’s surprising to me is that anyone didn’t see this coming. The ideal of online streaming being cheaper and better was very alive and well when Netflix was the only streaming service. However, I started to note that some content from specific copyright holders started getting removed from Netflix and from that single indicator, I saw this happening…
I could almost see them gearing up to launch their Netflix competition service which would be analogous to channel “packages” on cable. You get the Netflix package for x, y, and z shows, the $studioG package for shows a, b, and c, etc etc. Creating the exact problem that we’re trying to eliminate with going to streaming. From that moment, I committed myself to sail the seven seas and download all my own Linux ISOs. It seemed like everyone else couldn’t see what I saw, and nobody cared. Then it happened… HBO, Hulu, Prime video, Paramount+, Disney+, etc, all came out of the woodworks, and now this.
My argument is that the MPAA needs to learn the same lesson that the RIAA did after the Napster lawsuits. Some people who were “sued” by the RIAA actually fought back. Most couldn’t because they didn’t have the money to pay for a drawn out legal battle, so they settled, but a few brave souls fought back… The story is long but it’s clear to me that the RIAA learned a very important lesson: it’s not profitable to sue everyone who pirates their content; and if you look at the music industry now, there’s very little piracy, and almost everyone has a music subscription service, whether Spotify, Apple music, tidal, YouTube music, or something else. Anyone without a subscription generally suffers through ads, with very little difference between which service you use (at least, regarding what’s available), or how you use it… There’s still people pirating the music (far fewer than in the days of Napster), and still people buying physical media, but long term, they’re safe from going under from P2P sharing. The vast majority of consumers are paying for the content either through ads or subscription and all music is available on all services.
The MPAA is still hard headed about all of this. Disney is trying to fix the problem by buying everything up, so other studios are forced to have their work on D+, because the big D bought them… I’d argue that Disney is doing a better job at squashing video media piracy than the MPAA… The problem right now is that the various video streaming services are all run by the studios that publish the content on them. A truly third party streaming service (that is not also a competing studio) is needed, who can license content from everyone… Most won’t license their content to a third party service because it’s not as profitable compared to running their own service… So we’re stuck. If the MPAA stepped in and made such a service, and not-so-politely asked the various studios to license their content to it, then made it affordable, I would hang up my black hat and skull flag and never look back.
The chances of this happening are so small that I’ll just go ahead and order a new flag… My current one has been flying for so long it’s looking a bit sun-bleached.
I have zero hope or expectation of this happening, and bluntly, if it did, whether we admit it or not, I think most of us would hang up our hats and relent, because it’s far easier to simply pay a (reasonable) monthly fee than to do all the crap associated with getting it another way. They won’t, so yo-ho-ho.
It’s economics 101, prices will rise to what the market will bare… Unfortunately the market is irrational and has access to credit cards.
As long as current economic/cultural model exists, there is no escape from advertisements. Consumerism can’t thrive without advertisements and any technology that gets mass adopted is perfect venue for that.
Today, its only entertainment platforms which are infected with this bug, tomorrow it’ll be your car, fridge and anything which needs internet connection(almost every home appliances).
None of those things need Internet access. They are doing this so that you’ll own nothing. Cars are a good example here. Why in the world would they introduce heated seats that are subscription based? Because they don’t want to sell you or me a car anymore. They are looking forward to self driving autos, and intend to sell fleets to cities and corporations. You and I will rent the cars much like a cab, but now the manufacturer can still make money charging $1 to roll down the windows, $5 for the radio, $7 for A/C, etc…
You say “broken promises” I say “the plan all along” and “bait and switch”.
Yep. The business model has always been “Lure them in and stifle competition with a low initial cost. Then when we have the market we can jack up the price.” Enshitification at its best.
A lot of these things were proudly unprofitable, which is basically their way of getting around anti-trust violations. If they had a revenue stream to make the business profitable (outside of investors handing them more cash) then they’d be hit with anti-trust lawsuits for offering services at a loss in order to drive the competition out of business. But instead they just convince investors to hang on long enough to achieve the same goal, then raise their prices when they’ve got too much power to fail.
The thing about unregulated capitalism is it will always fuck over society in favour of sociopaths. Unregulated capitalism rewards sociopaths because it focusses on profits above all else – shareholders get stupidly rich only if they don’t care about the damage done to workers and the public, sociopaths who don’t care about such damage can promise the highest profits, and that’s rewarded by a hyper-focus on the bottom line.
Unregulated capitalism rewards ruthless cost-cutting, treating people like robotic assets, slash-and-burn corporate policies, and a culture of near-slavery.
Adding new tech only makes inhumane policies easier to implement. It’s why people like Musk have more money than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes. When the goal is to maximise profits at all costs, of course the consumer will get fucked. That’s rather the point.
E: in short, prices will continue to increase as these people try to find the ceiling. Ps: there is no real ceiling.
Oh, I don’t know about that. I think Musk as a unique ability to spend money.
Although prices are rising, the same work conditions remain for the workers, or get even worse. Take Uber for example. But the company will blame “regulations” from the government as the cause of rinsing prices, not its own greed.
LONG LIVE PIRACY!!!🏴☠️🏴
YO HO FIDDLE DEE DEE!!
Tech never promised anything. They cut the price for people to be dependent to them and then rise the price.
It’s just basic capitalism.
It really is crazy that you can have venture capitalists operate at a loss for a decade just to change the entire infrastructure of society to be dependent on them in the future. Really undermines any kind of microeconomic common sense that is supposedly the basis of capitalism.
Just goes to show that wealth distribution is so fucked if a small group of people can burn billions of dollars on essentially a bet. Just because they have enough bets placed that they know some will payoff.
It was the free hit to get you hooked and dump your cable subscriptions. Now they have you and they’re going to increase costs every year from here on out and then start with advertisements because fuck you you’re going to pay it anyways.
Joke’s on them. I cut it all out
That was my first thought. Guess I just won’t watch anything and go back to reading books.
To be completely fair, Netflix basically invented the successful tv replacement streaming business model and it’s not their fault that every media ruined it by starting their own. Media companies screwed us, not tech companies.
I spent a week on vacation and finally saw ads again. It did give me a very small list of TV shows that I will download from the internet. It also made me realize that the US has way too many ads for drugs and lawyers willing to sue anyone and anything for you.
wondering if i should say this but at one point i pirated so much that i have to use will power to stop watching stuff.
i mean 🤷♀️ at least it was free lmao
I wonder how much price increases stem from a lack of creativity in finding more nicer ways to be profitable, and overall inefficiency of their operations
Yes
Capitalism being capitalism.
And we still don’t have flying cars!
Thank god! When I look how baddly people act on our roads I REALLY don’t want them to have the ability to fly around as easily.
It wouldn’t be so bad if we’d actually take away the privilege when people fuck up… But it makes more money to just ticket people and let them keep on fucking up.
Streaming is still much cheaper than cable.
Assuming netflix vs cable in my xountry… Yeah I know which one has better value.
That’s the thing though, it’s not Netflix vs cable anymore. It’s Netflix + Disney + Prime + whatever other streaming services have the shit you actually want to watch. And when you add it up, it’s just like cable packages. The only advantage is it’s all on demand.
If you add them all up, it’s still cheaper than cable. They either need to create another service or two or raise prices like 20% more before it goes over that amount.
Plus ad free for the most part… For now at least.
The goal is surely to capture every human need and package them as obnoxious subscriptions.
Rentiership is the goal of every capitalist.
Hotels >>>>> Airb&Bs
My bigger beef is with a centralised platform taking enough of a cut that they can buy whole neighbourhoods to rent out.
Ehh… I have a family and there’s something to be said about getting an air bnb with a kitchen and not having to worry about your kids being too loud
I’ve seen some pretty shit hotels.
I can’t cook food in a hotel though. Also they kinda suck with kids.
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I lived and travelled in Europe for 6 years and never saw a hotel room with anything more than a kettle. Actually no I saw a couple of more hostel type places that had a common kitchen. Still not great for families though.
Streaming is not as expensive as cable. And Uber is a better experience.
This is REALLY not the case everywhere.
Toss in like 3 streaming services, which is pretty typical coverage for what most people want to watch, you are at cable costs.
And I dunno if you’ve been in an Uber lately in a larger city in the US, but literally in the last year we’ve gone from people driving nice clean modern cars, to people driving late 90s/early 00s hoopties that are dirty, stained, and don’t have AC, smell like whatever thing was in there before, etc.
The issue is paying for three streaming services, one is already way more choice and variety you get with cable. And I don’t even just mean the quality of the car, I mean being able to request an Uber on an app and have someone pick you up in a few minutes instead of having to look up a cab companies number then call 30 minutes in advance to talk to a dispatcher and eventually have a taxi show up.
That’s not true. With every production company spinning up their own stuff, you can easily end up having to subscribe to 2 or three just to watch Star wars (Disney plus) AND Star trek (CBS)
Having variety doesn’t mean having everything. A grocery store has a lot of variety but not everything, similarly cable doesn’t have everything. A lot of the biggest shows on Netflix have been Korean, usually US cable doesn’t have those.
bro we used to have everything without paying out the nose. that’s the whole point lmao, way to miss it.
Except “we” didn’t have everything, Netflix selection was more US focused, that was it.
In Chicago the Uber experience is far superior to cabs. Can’t even find cabs anymore.
that seems more like a problem of uber killing cabs than cabs killing cabs
Better than what lol in my city there’s cabs everywhere that are cheap fast and easy. i dread when uber type service arrives
My home city definitely is not, you had to call cabs to get one.
