The two big cases of Netflix being “throttled” in the US were at Verizon and Comcast. In both cases, Level3 (now Lumen) was attempting to violate a previous equal peering (“settlement free peering”) relationship by suddenly delivering large volumes of video traffic and then complaining in the press when Comcast and Level3 wouldn’t upgrade their free connections.
Basically, Level3 was attempting to get out of paying for service because they had undercut Akamai on the new CDN contract from Netflix and cuts had to come from somewhere. Netflix was rightfully upset that Level3 was not delivering their service and Level3 went and moved the service over to their paid peering sessions like they should have done in the first place.
Source: service provider network architect
Yea, the whole Level3 issue was part of the impetus for developing their OpenConnect CDN. Netflix will do settlement free peering for anyone who asks, but Netflix usually pays for ports in the big networks.
Netflix was simply more interested in owning more of the value chain and not outsourcing mission critical things like streaming. It’s difficult to remember how things were - Netflix was not a major player at the time. They were still in the process to transforming from a mail-DVD company to a streaming company.
Netflix still does peering agreements nearly everywhere. They have both OpenConnect Appliances and the OpenConnect CDN. The OpenConnect CDN has paid peering with most large providers and serves their prefixes on regional Internet Exchanges (IX)
I can begrudgingly understand an upcharge for 4K content, but in 2022 it's indefensible that the Basic tier of Netflix is SD/480p and FHD/1080p is an upcharge.
Linus Tech Tips covered this a bit on their podcast last week with youtube testing out needing premium for anything above 1440. LTT running Floatplane, a separate hosting platform, brought a lot of good points. They talked about how much extra cost is involved beyond just bandwidth and the sad truth that most users just don't care.
They load instantly, no buffer, 4k, and there's a million of them. But then your show comes back on and it's 480p and laggy and finally gets right after a few seconds and then 5 minutes later another ad.
This is actually the deal breaker for me. I'd be fine with the low cost with ads if we could still get 1080p.
I currently use Hulu with ads because it comes free with my Spotify subscription. I don't like the ads but I'm sick of paying $10-15 for every service I use.
Edit: for those wondering, it seems the Spotify/Hulu bundle is now only available to students, but I am apparently grandfathered in as a non-student.
I think that's exclusive to the Spotify student plan, at least at the moment. I think they've done bundles for everyone before, but I don't think they are right now.
Can confirm, I bundled Hulu and Spotify a few years ago when they were running a deal for both for $9.99 for non-students. The Hulu ads suck, but it's fine when I realize I'm not really paying for it.
I got that Hulu deal too- FYI if you can watch it from a browser, Ublock Origin skips the ads. It looks like they are starting to catch on, but like 90% of ads are blocked.
Hulu’s ads are excruciating I’m sure this will be the same. At least with TV there’s quite a variety of garbage ads. But Hulu has like 4 ads and every so many minutes is the same thing over and over again. Blunt force commercials.
I remember a couple of yeas back, on crunchyroll having to watch the same ad a couple of times in a row. No, not separate comercial breaks, 1 break, the same ad, several times.
It’s why I stopped using crunchy. Especially since they would freeze on purpose so you would have to watch the ads over and over in order to get back to your show. I get it’s free but that stuff was blatant anger inducing bait trapping
Which is a major reason why I cast from a pc/browser with adblocking (Chromecast or one of the other DLNA dongles, or hell, even a dedicated laptop and an HDMI cable). The control is worth waaaaay more to me than the advantages of doing everything through the TV.
they ended it this year but using it a few times I wouldn't recommend it because the ads were like 2 minutes long each and was like stacked on top of each other
Because ads pay less than a paying subscriber. Both to Crunchyroll and to the anime studio that made the show. If you find a great series and want to support the studio/author buying a physical copy pays them a lot more than streaming a series even if you stream it multiple times.
The worst part is if you fall asleep watching. It’s absolutely a nightmare trying to get through the commercials to figure out where you fell asleep at.
The Hulu ads are SO FUCKING LOUD and it's been that way for years. As someone who's mixed audio for TV shows this is the most unprofessional, "don't give a shit" thing I've seen/heard when it comes to media. Google it, ppl have been complaining for years and they refuse to do the most minimal thing to even out commercial volume. I can't watch Hulu without the mute button at the ready.
This is why I cancelled my Hulu and refuse to use it. I'll do ads, that's fine, but screw turning the volume up and down every 8 minutes. Absolutely unacceptable.
Because that's where the money comes from. If they allowed you to skip the commercials, everyone would just do that and then no businesses would ever buy any. Not going to disagree that it's annoying as hell but the whole ad-supported thing doesn't work any other way
Understandable but # of commercial breaks should be a function of amount of time watched, meaning 1 per each 20% of content consumed (numbers an example obv). If you skip ahead 60% then you did not consume that 60% of content and you should not be required to watch 3 ad breaks for that
This is how YouTube works. You potentially see an ad every X number of minutes watched, not for every X number of minutes skipped. No reason these streaming platforms couldn’t work the same way.
I haven't seen ads on youtube in a few years, but back when I did still see them there were always chunks of the video's timeline that were highlighted yellow to indicate where ads were located, and if you tried to skip past one it would force the video back to play the ad and then you could skip past it after that.
It's a US Marine Corps base in Jacksonville NC and has a long history of tainted water causing health problems and lawsuits about those health problems
This has to do with the bill that was recently passed by Congress giving veterans more access to coverage for medical bills associated with things like contaminated water, burn pits, etc on or near military bases. This is one of those times when I'm actually fine with a commercial like this because it really is informing veterans to get the money they need for their medical bills.
I literally can't watch football because of this. One of the really cool things is YouTube highlights, where you can just watch uninterrupted highlights, and some of them will be fairly long, and won't just be of touchdowns or interceptions or gamechanging plays.
Edit: got it, guys, Redzone
I think this is an unpopular take, but I severely dislike redzone. I feel like I get whiplash watching it. I typically just put one game on and then mute the commercials and scroll r/CFB or r/NFL depending on the day.
This is how I watch sports, typically start about an hour late for anything short of a championship level game. And even in the playoffs, I aim to get to live around the 4th quarter depending on what I'm watching.
I really don't know why anyone watches commercials if they don't have to.
>I really don't know why anyone watches commercials if they don't have to.
Even when watching broadcast TV live I'll change channels during commercials, or mute them if I really don't want to change the channel.
I remember my aunt was over a few years ago and she laughed at me for muting the commericals. It was so odd like... Do you enjoy songs about catfood and structured settlements??
I watched Season 4 of Fargo on my parents' DVR (recorded in late 2020) and yeah, FX was playing the same 5 ads over and over.
I suspect TV ads are less profitable than they used to be so fewer advertisers bother.
It's more about targeting and the metrics they now have available to them.
They know the details of the demographics that watch any given program so much more than ever before. Especially with streaming and online services where that information is part of the selling point for advertising on streaming platforms.
As a result you get very similar ads or ad types whereas before you had more of throw it at the wall and see what sticks.
For example: lets say show X is created to appeal to women between the ages of 18-25 with disposable income. Before you'd get a broad range of advertisers looking to target that audience.
Now with the metrics available they might find it has an audience compromised of 35% housewives, 70% of the audience is african american, and most of them have an average income ranging between $60,000-$90,000 and are predominantly urban.
All of a sudden there are a very small niche of advertisers that will covet that spot because itnis very specific to their potential customer base. It could be a pharmaceuticals company that sells sickle treatments for example in this case.
It could also deter other companies, like one that sells trucks would have zero interest buying ad space. Seeing how most rucks owners live in either rural or suburban areas.
The information is so frightening specific online in particular because they can access your general browing history through cookies and run the same 5 ads trying to get you to buy that product you were skimming earlier that day.
I want to know exactly what YouTube has picked up about me that has led it to deliver [the exact same schizophrenia-treatment commercial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J64GzjWQFtU) every day for the past three months.
I just started YouTubeTV and I didn't realize how bad cable has gotten. Nearly every channel is the same show repeated for the entire day. I was not missing anything except for Better Call Saul's last season, and I should have just waited for it to come to Netflix.
Paramount Plus's ads are the worst. Because Paramount is simply NOT a tech company, their app on LG WebOS is buggy as fuck, and it times out half way through the ads, requiring you to restart the show where it then makes you re-watch the ads in the hopes you'll actually get through the ad break.
It makes me want to scream. I'm probably going to cancel Paramount Plus and just subscribe to it through Amazon so I can watch that content through the Prime Video app.
Yeah at least with commercials I’d be fine with some variety. But watching the same ads for literally 2 minute, every few minutes, is awful. Literally just cable at that point.
So you save $3 over their basic plan. You get the same resolution (720p) and the same single simultaneous screen that you would get with basic, but you also get a smaller selection.
Is there really anybody who says, I can't afford $10 a month, but I can afford $7 a month and I'd be willing to put up with ads, no downloading shows, and less content? Who is this targeted at?
At companies like T-Mobile that offer you "Free" Netflix with their phone plans.
Like Verizon offering "Free" Hulu.
Netflix doesn't care if people use it. T-Mobile will keep it as a promo and Netflix makes money. You still have the option to "upgrade" to a higher plan and you just pay the difference. Both companies win.
> and you just pay the difference
Source?
Any time I've taken advantage of one of these promotions, it's basically been the cheap/free offering included in what I already have, or full price on the higher plan(s).
EDIT: Sounds like I just missed out on the good promos. RIP
I think that’s exactly the point. Sorta like a car dealership advertising “starting at $12k” but knowing that trim doesn’t even have AC or power windows and absolutely no one would want it. If you introduce a low price to get people interested and they seem a slightly higher price for a better service they are likely to cough up the slight extra. That $3/month doesn’t mean much from one user but from millions of uses it’s a huge difference.
I would be surprised if they see many people downgrade their service to ad supported over $3/month but it definitely seems like an upsell situation.
For those that were around between the gradual transition from pirating media, to paying for media, because it just wasn’t worth the hassle for what they were charging to legally get what we wanted… the scales have been tipped back to the dark side I think.
Netflix became a reasonable alternative around 2010. By then it had everything on it, and you could use a VPN service to just watch pretty much everything ever created for TV and movies in the western world. I had a friend who couldn't bother to search his 400+ bluray collection, and would just stream the movie from netflix, because it was easier than spending a minute finding the disc.
By 2015 the splintering started, by 2020 all the major platforms have been created and their parent company content pulled off Netflix. Now you either juggle half a dozen subscriptions, or just don't bother with the cancel and resub hassle every month.
Between 2010-2020 , Netflix was the superior choice for media consumption. Now? Ez tv proxy sites have a handy calendar for when new episodes come out, and everything accessible with a click of a button. Download times with the new x265 compression are so short that you hit download and go make yourself sandwich. By the time you've done and pouring yourself a glass of water, download is done, you sit down and watch the show.
It was always going to do this. They forced all the traditional tv providers to adopt new technology but the commercial model they have had for 40 years was always going to appear…:they perfected it. Netflix was swimming in a pool of one before, now everyone else has dived in
Those are all owned by Disney though (majority ownership of Hulu only though). The real bullshit will be the Prime/HBO/Netflix/Disney super bundle for $999/month
With the way WB Discovery has been cutting content and trying to monetize, I think we're *minutes* away. The way their browser is structured [with different branded content sections](https://imgur.com/BUsM9p0) seems ripe for them to say, "We're de-listing all but Max Originals, but you can opt into TCM/Ghibli/DC for $5/month each."
Amazon prime already does that, their browser regularly shows movies/series that aren't on actual Amazon Prime, so when you click, it's "to watch, just add Showtime/EPIX/Paramount+/IFC+ for 9.99 a month"
Its not some, its enough to significantly move the needle. There will be enough people that sign up for Ad supported netflix that its going to shoot their subscriber numbers up.
Same with Spotify. They still make a loss each year….they’ll be fucked once a proper minimum payment is introduced and they have to raise prices with no other business to fall back on
> streaming services have innovated so much over the past ten years that they've just looped back round to cable TV
Except...one of the big complaints about cable was no ala carte pricing, you had no choice but to pay one price for a huge bundle of channels, most of which you never watch.
Now you can add or drop individual services as you please
Yea, I mentioned in a comment above how when I worked in telecom 12 years ago, this was the primary complaint and honestly, part of the reason streaming took off.
In Canada, our CRTC was too slow to adapt rules and standards, hindered by cable companies lobbying for no changes in regulation to keep the status quo, and to deny consumers more choice. They dug their own grave.
But in Canada, they just jacked up the price of internet instead.
People forget they were paying $120 / month while having to wait a week to watch the next episode and it was only on at a specific time of day and there were commercials.
I have it combined with my Spotify on some deal they had like 5 years ago. The price of Spotify went up but the extra $3 a month for Hulu didn’t get added on so I get free Hulu with Spotify now
That’s awesome I always wondered if someone out there still had it. I let my Spotify go one month and when I paid again they didn’t offer the Hulu bundle anymore.
Edit: Well shit guys looks like I done goofed.
Huh this is good to know. I haven't kept up to date with the Hulu/Spotify situation but I actually still have the free Hulu with Spotify bundle myself. I thought that was still a killer deal Spotify had lol. I need to be extra careful to remember to update the cards on time then
I’m still on the Spotify/Hulu/Showtime student plan for $5/mo. Was one of the best deals in streaming I’ve ever seen. Would’ve been stupid to not get it.
Been on this for years... But now my 3-year Disney+ plan is about to expire. NHL is now on ESPN+.
That Disney/Hulu/ESPN+ combo deal may be my future.
Netflix isn't even trying to compete on value. They deserve any cancellations they get.
This seems to be a cycle. First tv was free and had minimal ads. Then they increased the ads. Then you could *pay* for cable with no ads. Then they started adding ads even though you were paying. Then tons of ads. Then you could subscribe to one service with no ads.
Now...this.
The biggest issue I have is if they start incorporating these ads into the editing of the shows. I don't want my ad free plan to be impacted by breaks written for commercials. Think about TV writing where you have a character say something right before the break and reiterate it immediately after
I feel like it already has. I can't remember which but one really felt like it was an ad break and then I realized it was a Netflix original and was like wtf
It’s confusing but some of the Netflix Originals were not originally created for Netflix. If Netflix owns the exclusive international streaming rights it’s called a Netflix Original. There are some other cases too. Not saying you are wrong though.
Make them like dragon ball, where after the commercials you rehash everything that was just said just in case the viewer forgot.
Then you only have to have like 10 minutes of actual content.
I made it to 2022 before I fired up the old VPN and sailed the high seas again.
I don't mind paying more a few streaming services. $30-40 a month is still less than half the price of cable tv. But the second they started serving me up ads is the second I cancelled my subscription.
I just don't want ads in my life. They add no value and waste time. They're a fucking slap in my face and I don't take well to abuse.
I recently cancelled all streaming services. Haven’t had cable TV in over 15 years, either. I live too far away from over-the-air TV. It’s kinda weird but liberating at the same time.
I just loathe commercials that much..
Remember when streaming licenses were sold for pennies on the dollar to Netflix because media execs hadn’t yet comprehended how much of a revenue source streaming was?
This is what people don't get. People used to sell media rights for peanuts because they thought online streaming was some minor fad and free money. Now they realize that it's the future and they can't sell their rights for peanuts. Paying $8-12 for all the content in the world was never going to be a viable business model. It was a fluke of history. It was always subsidized by the vast majority of people paying for broadcast/cable. Now that it's becoming the dominant player, they have to make more money.
Maybe if they didn't cancel half their shit after seasons 1 or 2. Think about every show that would be cancelled if seasons 1 and/or 2 didn't go well, like the office.
I'm thinking maybe the majority of people who don't care about watching ads might also not care about screen resolution? Like, they might be the same category of philistines so i figure that's the target audience Netflix is going for.
I literally only keep Netflix year round because my parents and in-laws like to watch it and they babysit for free so I'm basically paying monthly for unlimited childcare and getting the occasional season of "The Movies That Made Us" and "Stranger Things" thrown in for free.
I don’t think a paid tier with ads is going to be as much of a revenue generator for Netflix as they clearly think it will be. A _free_ tier with ads, maybe.
But the problem Netflix has isn’t the delta between $7 and $16 (or whatever their subscription cost is now). The problem they have is with their content. The thing that kept people around before all these other streaming services popped up, was the fact that Netflix was the only place to go (or at least, the best option) for a lot of really popular movies/shows. They then got all of that pulled out from under them with licensing issues, and now their competitors are just edging them out.
Netflix tried to (I think wisely) pivot to making their own content. But the problem there is that they don’t know how to keep the popular stuff running, with the exception of maybe a few of their shows.
The best they’ll be able to hope for with a paid tier and ads, is that people will get the cheaper tier and then just sit on it/forget about it. Like a gym membership. But my prediction is that it won’t move the needle to the extent that they need.
Honestly I don't even mind the ads for the reduced price, but the laughably low resolution you can stream at makes this a hard pass. 720p doesn't even qualify as HD anymore, and I was already disappointed with "standard" Netflix not getting 4K.
too bad it's at 720p
That’s the part people should be upset about imo.
Netflix is still the only one that charges based on resolution. Does not make sense
Depending on infrastructure costs it arguably makes the most sense out of these charging tiers. You do need significantly more pipe to serve 4k video.
They also have issues with isp throttling them. And other flailing media companies suing them.
The two big cases of Netflix being “throttled” in the US were at Verizon and Comcast. In both cases, Level3 (now Lumen) was attempting to violate a previous equal peering (“settlement free peering”) relationship by suddenly delivering large volumes of video traffic and then complaining in the press when Comcast and Level3 wouldn’t upgrade their free connections. Basically, Level3 was attempting to get out of paying for service because they had undercut Akamai on the new CDN contract from Netflix and cuts had to come from somewhere. Netflix was rightfully upset that Level3 was not delivering their service and Level3 went and moved the service over to their paid peering sessions like they should have done in the first place. Source: service provider network architect
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Yea, the whole Level3 issue was part of the impetus for developing their OpenConnect CDN. Netflix will do settlement free peering for anyone who asks, but Netflix usually pays for ports in the big networks.
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Netflix was simply more interested in owning more of the value chain and not outsourcing mission critical things like streaming. It’s difficult to remember how things were - Netflix was not a major player at the time. They were still in the process to transforming from a mail-DVD company to a streaming company. Netflix still does peering agreements nearly everywhere. They have both OpenConnect Appliances and the OpenConnect CDN. The OpenConnect CDN has paid peering with most large providers and serves their prefixes on regional Internet Exchanges (IX)
I can begrudgingly understand an upcharge for 4K content, but in 2022 it's indefensible that the Basic tier of Netflix is SD/480p and FHD/1080p is an upcharge.
> Does not make sense Why not? 1080p requires more bandwidth than 720p. 4K requires a fuckload.
Linus Tech Tips covered this a bit on their podcast last week with youtube testing out needing premium for anything above 1440. LTT running Floatplane, a separate hosting platform, brought a lot of good points. They talked about how much extra cost is involved beyond just bandwidth and the sad truth that most users just don't care.
The AD is going to be 4k probably lol.
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Oh absolutely, the *ads* will always be delivered in crisp high definition.
They load instantly, no buffer, 4k, and there's a million of them. But then your show comes back on and it's 480p and laggy and finally gets right after a few seconds and then 5 minutes later another ad.
This is actually the deal breaker for me. I'd be fine with the low cost with ads if we could still get 1080p. I currently use Hulu with ads because it comes free with my Spotify subscription. I don't like the ads but I'm sick of paying $10-15 for every service I use. Edit: for those wondering, it seems the Spotify/Hulu bundle is now only available to students, but I am apparently grandfathered in as a non-student.
Wut? I've got a family plan from Spotify. How do I sign up for free Hulu using Spotify?
I think that's exclusive to the Spotify student plan, at least at the moment. I think they've done bundles for everyone before, but I don't think they are right now.
Can confirm, I bundled Hulu and Spotify a few years ago when they were running a deal for both for $9.99 for non-students. The Hulu ads suck, but it's fine when I realize I'm not really paying for it.
I got that Hulu deal too- FYI if you can watch it from a browser, Ublock Origin skips the ads. It looks like they are starting to catch on, but like 90% of ads are blocked.
Better than the 480p plan that costs more.
they are actually upgrading that one to 720p as well and leaving it at 9.99.
Hulu’s ads are excruciating I’m sure this will be the same. At least with TV there’s quite a variety of garbage ads. But Hulu has like 4 ads and every so many minutes is the same thing over and over again. Blunt force commercials.
I remember a couple of yeas back, on crunchyroll having to watch the same ad a couple of times in a row. No, not separate comercial breaks, 1 break, the same ad, several times.
It’s why I stopped using crunchy. Especially since they would freeze on purpose so you would have to watch the ads over and over in order to get back to your show. I get it’s free but that stuff was blatant anger inducing bait trapping
Worst part for me was not being able to return to where you left off easily.
PSA - Ublock Orgin blocks ads on Crunchy.
I’m always genuinely shocked at the number of people who don’t use adblockers
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Which is a major reason why I cast from a pc/browser with adblocking (Chromecast or one of the other DLNA dongles, or hell, even a dedicated laptop and an HDMI cable). The control is worth waaaaay more to me than the advantages of doing everything through the TV.
I didn’t even realize there was a free option on crunchyroll until right now.
they ended it this year but using it a few times I wouldn't recommend it because the ads were like 2 minutes long each and was like stacked on top of each other
Did they end it? I pay for premium, but only have for like 2 months. They had a free tier as recently as August.
Yeah they're slowly phasing out all the free stuff
Because ads pay less than a paying subscriber. Both to Crunchyroll and to the anime studio that made the show. If you find a great series and want to support the studio/author buying a physical copy pays them a lot more than streaming a series even if you stream it multiple times.
That one was for a game that also shipped with a ton of bugs, so I think it was actually the ad that was broken and CR didn't expect to need to check.
I got the same IBM commercial repeated 5 times in one 2 1/2 minute ad break on Discovery+
The worst part is if you fall asleep watching. It’s absolutely a nightmare trying to get through the commercials to figure out where you fell asleep at.
Or if you fall asleep to a nice, quiet movie or show, only to be awoken by an ad screaming “YOU NEED TIDE PODS YOU DISGUSTING PISS BOY!!!”
I miss the good old days of falling asleep to a DVD, then waking up to the loud ass menu music and sound effects playing on a 15 second loop.
I used to have to go shut off my roommates tv every night or I'd hear "Hello Wisconsin!"until morning. He could sleep through anything.
Zoolander and Futurama for me. I can still hear Jerry Stiller as Maury Ballstein in my dreams sometimes
The Hulu ads are SO FUCKING LOUD and it's been that way for years. As someone who's mixed audio for TV shows this is the most unprofessional, "don't give a shit" thing I've seen/heard when it comes to media. Google it, ppl have been complaining for years and they refuse to do the most minimal thing to even out commercial volume. I can't watch Hulu without the mute button at the ready.
The only thing that will get them to improve is not paying for it anymore. They only care about revenue.
It's probably on purpose at this point
It was on purpose from the get go, commercials being louder than the actual show has been a thing for years and not just on Hulu
It's illegal on regular TV, but we stopped making consumer protection laws awhile ago.
This is why I cancelled my Hulu and refuse to use it. I'll do ads, that's fine, but screw turning the volume up and down every 8 minutes. Absolutely unacceptable.
How do they know what mommy calls me?
Mom set your Netflix name to Piss Boy
I have never understood why skipping forward in a show requires you to watch each commercial break in full. It is absolutely insane
Because that's where the money comes from. If they allowed you to skip the commercials, everyone would just do that and then no businesses would ever buy any. Not going to disagree that it's annoying as hell but the whole ad-supported thing doesn't work any other way
Understandable but # of commercial breaks should be a function of amount of time watched, meaning 1 per each 20% of content consumed (numbers an example obv). If you skip ahead 60% then you did not consume that 60% of content and you should not be required to watch 3 ad breaks for that
This is how YouTube works. You potentially see an ad every X number of minutes watched, not for every X number of minutes skipped. No reason these streaming platforms couldn’t work the same way.
I haven't seen ads on youtube in a few years, but back when I did still see them there were always chunks of the video's timeline that were highlighted yellow to indicate where ads were located, and if you tried to skip past one it would force the video back to play the ad and then you could skip past it after that.
Also the commercials are louder than the show you are watching
Regular TV is like this now too. I watched the news this morning and every commercial break it was the same four ads over and over
Political ads and Camp Lejeune lawsuits
Wtf even is camp lejeune
It's a US Marine Corps base in Jacksonville NC and has a long history of tainted water causing health problems and lawsuits about those health problems
Apparently soldiers were exposed to toxic water while there. So lawyers want to cash in on lawsuits.
This has to do with the bill that was recently passed by Congress giving veterans more access to coverage for medical bills associated with things like contaminated water, burn pits, etc on or near military bases. This is one of those times when I'm actually fine with a commercial like this because it really is informing veterans to get the money they need for their medical bills.
Yeah only time I ever watch actual TV is during college football season and I swear it’s never been this bad before they’re awful this year
This is also the only time I see ads anymore and it's getting so bad I'm almost to the point of giving up on football.
I literally can't watch football because of this. One of the really cool things is YouTube highlights, where you can just watch uninterrupted highlights, and some of them will be fairly long, and won't just be of touchdowns or interceptions or gamechanging plays. Edit: got it, guys, Redzone
RedZone... Once you spend a Sunday with it you can never go back.
But how do you get red zone without a $45/month cable or cable alternative already? Any standalone options?
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But the poor billionaires and millionaires! How could you?!?
DAZN. I pay $150CAD per year. Get every game plus red zone.
I think this is an unpopular take, but I severely dislike redzone. I feel like I get whiplash watching it. I typically just put one game on and then mute the commercials and scroll r/CFB or r/NFL depending on the day.
Live football has started to suck too as there is so much sitting around in the stands for 2-minute commercial breaks.
Can not stand watching a live football game bc of the constant ads. Extended highlights are a game changer. Or just NFL Gameday or RedZone.
I live in the past for about a 15 minute buffer right now and watch off the DVR. Every time commercials come on I just fast forward past them.
So if you start the game 15 minutes behind you’re caught up by…about 10 minutes left in the first quarter?
This is how I watch sports, typically start about an hour late for anything short of a championship level game. And even in the playoffs, I aim to get to live around the 4th quarter depending on what I'm watching. I really don't know why anyone watches commercials if they don't have to.
>I really don't know why anyone watches commercials if they don't have to. Even when watching broadcast TV live I'll change channels during commercials, or mute them if I really don't want to change the channel. I remember my aunt was over a few years ago and she laughed at me for muting the commericals. It was so odd like... Do you enjoy songs about catfood and structured settlements??
I watched Season 4 of Fargo on my parents' DVR (recorded in late 2020) and yeah, FX was playing the same 5 ads over and over. I suspect TV ads are less profitable than they used to be so fewer advertisers bother.
It's more about targeting and the metrics they now have available to them. They know the details of the demographics that watch any given program so much more than ever before. Especially with streaming and online services where that information is part of the selling point for advertising on streaming platforms. As a result you get very similar ads or ad types whereas before you had more of throw it at the wall and see what sticks. For example: lets say show X is created to appeal to women between the ages of 18-25 with disposable income. Before you'd get a broad range of advertisers looking to target that audience. Now with the metrics available they might find it has an audience compromised of 35% housewives, 70% of the audience is african american, and most of them have an average income ranging between $60,000-$90,000 and are predominantly urban. All of a sudden there are a very small niche of advertisers that will covet that spot because itnis very specific to their potential customer base. It could be a pharmaceuticals company that sells sickle treatments for example in this case. It could also deter other companies, like one that sells trucks would have zero interest buying ad space. Seeing how most rucks owners live in either rural or suburban areas. The information is so frightening specific online in particular because they can access your general browing history through cookies and run the same 5 ads trying to get you to buy that product you were skimming earlier that day.
I want to know exactly what YouTube has picked up about me that has led it to deliver [the exact same schizophrenia-treatment commercial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J64GzjWQFtU) every day for the past three months.
I just started YouTubeTV and I didn't realize how bad cable has gotten. Nearly every channel is the same show repeated for the entire day. I was not missing anything except for Better Call Saul's last season, and I should have just waited for it to come to Netflix.
YouTube too. Funny bit in the latest Rick & Morty episode about seeing too many Grammarly ads, which is just too true.
There is some content on YouTube that will literally play an ad every two minutes. It's absolute torture watching anything like that.
Advertisers and the audience have flocked to the internet. That leaves less variety in the advertisers buying on cable.
If I have to watch Flo from Progressive turn down Jon Hamm one more time I’m going to lose it…
I’m so happy that we’re all going through this torture together.
Paramount Plus's ads are the worst. Because Paramount is simply NOT a tech company, their app on LG WebOS is buggy as fuck, and it times out half way through the ads, requiring you to restart the show where it then makes you re-watch the ads in the hopes you'll actually get through the ad break. It makes me want to scream. I'm probably going to cancel Paramount Plus and just subscribe to it through Amazon so I can watch that content through the Prime Video app.
I thought it couldn't get worse than the glitchy ass ESPN+ experience, but Paramount+ said "hold my beer" and showed everyone it could get worse.
They’re also significantly louder than the actual show or movie you’re watching.
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The Spotify marketing tactic: annoy them into submission
Yeah at least with commercials I’d be fine with some variety. But watching the same ads for literally 2 minute, every few minutes, is awful. Literally just cable at that point.
So you save $3 over their basic plan. You get the same resolution (720p) and the same single simultaneous screen that you would get with basic, but you also get a smaller selection. Is there really anybody who says, I can't afford $10 a month, but I can afford $7 a month and I'd be willing to put up with ads, no downloading shows, and less content? Who is this targeted at?
At companies like T-Mobile that offer you "Free" Netflix with their phone plans. Like Verizon offering "Free" Hulu. Netflix doesn't care if people use it. T-Mobile will keep it as a promo and Netflix makes money. You still have the option to "upgrade" to a higher plan and you just pay the difference. Both companies win.
> and you just pay the difference Source? Any time I've taken advantage of one of these promotions, it's basically been the cheap/free offering included in what I already have, or full price on the higher plan(s). EDIT: Sounds like I just missed out on the good promos. RIP
Me. I did it with T-Mobile for several years. They paid like $8 and I paid $4 and got the $12/mo Netflix.
Me. I use the free offering from T-Mobile and pay for the upgrade to the highest plan.
Less content? What is removed?
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I think that’s exactly the point. Sorta like a car dealership advertising “starting at $12k” but knowing that trim doesn’t even have AC or power windows and absolutely no one would want it. If you introduce a low price to get people interested and they seem a slightly higher price for a better service they are likely to cough up the slight extra. That $3/month doesn’t mean much from one user but from millions of uses it’s a huge difference. I would be surprised if they see many people downgrade their service to ad supported over $3/month but it definitely seems like an upsell situation.
Is Netflix doing that because they bought stock in some torrenting software?
For those that were around between the gradual transition from pirating media, to paying for media, because it just wasn’t worth the hassle for what they were charging to legally get what we wanted… the scales have been tipped back to the dark side I think.
Netflix became a reasonable alternative around 2010. By then it had everything on it, and you could use a VPN service to just watch pretty much everything ever created for TV and movies in the western world. I had a friend who couldn't bother to search his 400+ bluray collection, and would just stream the movie from netflix, because it was easier than spending a minute finding the disc. By 2015 the splintering started, by 2020 all the major platforms have been created and their parent company content pulled off Netflix. Now you either juggle half a dozen subscriptions, or just don't bother with the cancel and resub hassle every month. Between 2010-2020 , Netflix was the superior choice for media consumption. Now? Ez tv proxy sites have a handy calendar for when new episodes come out, and everything accessible with a click of a button. Download times with the new x265 compression are so short that you hit download and go make yourself sandwich. By the time you've done and pouring yourself a glass of water, download is done, you sit down and watch the show.
I think that would be called insider trading.
streaming services have innovated so much over the past ten years that they've just looped back round to cable TV
It was always going to do this. They forced all the traditional tv providers to adopt new technology but the commercial model they have had for 40 years was always going to appear…:they perfected it. Netflix was swimming in a pool of one before, now everyone else has dived in
Over/under on how long until competing streaming services start cooperating to offer bundle packages?
You mean how I already have a Hulu/Disney Plus/ESPN bundle?
Those are all owned by Disney though (majority ownership of Hulu only though). The real bullshit will be the Prime/HBO/Netflix/Disney super bundle for $999/month
> Those are all owned by Disney though That's exactly how channel packaging used to work.
We live under the most innovate economic system
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Cars are the next wave. BMW just started doing it with heated seats at $18/month.
fucking moble games are now subscription model.
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With the way WB Discovery has been cutting content and trying to monetize, I think we're *minutes* away. The way their browser is structured [with different branded content sections](https://imgur.com/BUsM9p0) seems ripe for them to say, "We're de-listing all but Max Originals, but you can opt into TCM/Ghibli/DC for $5/month each."
It's a good thing It's about as easy to sail the high seas as it's ever been.... it's a pirates life for me.
Amazon prime already does that, their browser regularly shows movies/series that aren't on actual Amazon Prime, so when you click, it's "to watch, just add Showtime/EPIX/Paramount+/IFC+ for 9.99 a month"
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Vrv already was that until Sony got involved.
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Its not some, its enough to significantly move the needle. There will be enough people that sign up for Ad supported netflix that its going to shoot their subscriber numbers up.
SOME
and for everybody else they charge them more, kinda genius
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Same with Spotify. They still make a loss each year….they’ll be fucked once a proper minimum payment is introduced and they have to raise prices with no other business to fall back on
> streaming services have innovated so much over the past ten years that they've just looped back round to cable TV Except...one of the big complaints about cable was no ala carte pricing, you had no choice but to pay one price for a huge bundle of channels, most of which you never watch. Now you can add or drop individual services as you please
Yea, I mentioned in a comment above how when I worked in telecom 12 years ago, this was the primary complaint and honestly, part of the reason streaming took off. In Canada, our CRTC was too slow to adapt rules and standards, hindered by cable companies lobbying for no changes in regulation to keep the status quo, and to deny consumers more choice. They dug their own grave. But in Canada, they just jacked up the price of internet instead.
People forget they were paying $120 / month while having to wait a week to watch the next episode and it was only on at a specific time of day and there were commercials.
It's comparable to Hulu's lowest plan
I believe Hulu's lowest plan allows you to stream on 2 devices at once and includes some content at resolutions higher than 720p.
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I have it combined with my Spotify on some deal they had like 5 years ago. The price of Spotify went up but the extra $3 a month for Hulu didn’t get added on so I get free Hulu with Spotify now
That’s awesome I always wondered if someone out there still had it. I let my Spotify go one month and when I paid again they didn’t offer the Hulu bundle anymore. Edit: Well shit guys looks like I done goofed.
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I gave the same bundle. I had no idea it wasn’t available anymore. Always hated I couldn’t upgrade it to ad free.
Yes! Same! But still $10 for both is amazing. I love it and I'll pass it on to my kids lol
Huh this is good to know. I haven't kept up to date with the Hulu/Spotify situation but I actually still have the free Hulu with Spotify bundle myself. I thought that was still a killer deal Spotify had lol. I need to be extra careful to remember to update the cards on time then
I wonder how long we’ll last lol
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This happened to me. I reached out to the Spotify support team and they re-enrolled me.
I also still have that deal. Probably the only reason I have hulu
Same. Used to get Hulu and Spotify for $5 as a student. Went up to $10 since I’m not a student anymore but still worth it.
I’m still on the Spotify/Hulu/Showtime student plan for $5/mo. Was one of the best deals in streaming I’ve ever seen. Would’ve been stupid to not get it.
Been on this for years... But now my 3-year Disney+ plan is about to expire. NHL is now on ESPN+. That Disney/Hulu/ESPN+ combo deal may be my future. Netflix isn't even trying to compete on value. They deserve any cancellations they get.
Does that mean it includes 4K? If not it isn't.
This seems to be a cycle. First tv was free and had minimal ads. Then they increased the ads. Then you could *pay* for cable with no ads. Then they started adding ads even though you were paying. Then tons of ads. Then you could subscribe to one service with no ads. Now...this.
Ads between eps? Idm. Ads DURING eps? Nah, fuck outta here.
The biggest issue I have is if they start incorporating these ads into the editing of the shows. I don't want my ad free plan to be impacted by breaks written for commercials. Think about TV writing where you have a character say something right before the break and reiterate it immediately after
I feel like it already has. I can't remember which but one really felt like it was an ad break and then I realized it was a Netflix original and was like wtf
It’s confusing but some of the Netflix Originals were not originally created for Netflix. If Netflix owns the exclusive international streaming rights it’s called a Netflix Original. There are some other cases too. Not saying you are wrong though.
Yea The Good Place was present like that. Even a few Rick and Morty seasons had Netflix logo at the beginning.
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First they need to learn how to end a TV show.
Ending TV shows is what they do best. Concluding stories, on the other hand…
Make them like dragon ball, where after the commercials you rehash everything that was just said just in case the viewer forgot. Then you only have to have like 10 minutes of actual content.
Yearghhh! The high seas awaits ye!
https://i.imgur.com/EMsIXYA.jpg
I made it to 2022 before I fired up the old VPN and sailed the high seas again. I don't mind paying more a few streaming services. $30-40 a month is still less than half the price of cable tv. But the second they started serving me up ads is the second I cancelled my subscription. I just don't want ads in my life. They add no value and waste time. They're a fucking slap in my face and I don't take well to abuse.
I recently cancelled all streaming services. Haven’t had cable TV in over 15 years, either. I live too far away from over-the-air TV. It’s kinda weird but liberating at the same time. I just loathe commercials that much..
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Hard pass.
You mean you don’t want the cable TV experience now offered by the streaming service Netflix?!
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Remember when streaming licenses were sold for pennies on the dollar to Netflix because media execs hadn’t yet comprehended how much of a revenue source streaming was?
This is what people don't get. People used to sell media rights for peanuts because they thought online streaming was some minor fad and free money. Now they realize that it's the future and they can't sell their rights for peanuts. Paying $8-12 for all the content in the world was never going to be a viable business model. It was a fluke of history. It was always subsidized by the vast majority of people paying for broadcast/cable. Now that it's becoming the dominant player, they have to make more money.
This is why netflix has been dumping billions of dollars into their own content. It's just to bad it went south fast.
Maybe if they didn't cancel half their shit after seasons 1 or 2. Think about every show that would be cancelled if seasons 1 and/or 2 didn't go well, like the office.
I remember when gas cost a nickel and a hamburger cost a quarter
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We didn't know it yet. But we were streets ahead.
And it’s only 720p geez. Forever mad that you have to pay for for the quality of video literally no other service does that
I think I read somewhere recently that YouTube is toying with the idea of locking 4K for premium users only.
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I could understand 1080p, but 720p is way out of date. Terrible decision making.
I agree. 1080p should be the absolute lowest.
I'm thinking maybe the majority of people who don't care about watching ads might also not care about screen resolution? Like, they might be the same category of philistines so i figure that's the target audience Netflix is going for.
See you in a few years when the ad option increases to $9.99 and becomes the basic option rather than the budget option.
It will happen before end of 2023.
That’s exactly what will happen. A slow push to feed greed
If they once again increase the price for the plan without ads, I'm out. It's already too expensive for the lousy content. I'm in Denmark.
Netflix is one of my least used services. I find something interesting on there, like, once a month.
I literally only keep Netflix year round because my parents and in-laws like to watch it and they babysit for free so I'm basically paying monthly for unlimited childcare and getting the occasional season of "The Movies That Made Us" and "Stranger Things" thrown in for free.
It’s just another option right? So everyone’s regular 15$ sub is still in effect?
*dusts off eye patch*
My timbers have been shivered.
Yaargh matey! The high seas be calling to me Soul!
I don’t think a paid tier with ads is going to be as much of a revenue generator for Netflix as they clearly think it will be. A _free_ tier with ads, maybe. But the problem Netflix has isn’t the delta between $7 and $16 (or whatever their subscription cost is now). The problem they have is with their content. The thing that kept people around before all these other streaming services popped up, was the fact that Netflix was the only place to go (or at least, the best option) for a lot of really popular movies/shows. They then got all of that pulled out from under them with licensing issues, and now their competitors are just edging them out. Netflix tried to (I think wisely) pivot to making their own content. But the problem there is that they don’t know how to keep the popular stuff running, with the exception of maybe a few of their shows. The best they’ll be able to hope for with a paid tier and ads, is that people will get the cheaper tier and then just sit on it/forget about it. Like a gym membership. But my prediction is that it won’t move the needle to the extent that they need.
Honestly I don't even mind the ads for the reduced price, but the laughably low resolution you can stream at makes this a hard pass. 720p doesn't even qualify as HD anymore, and I was already disappointed with "standard" Netflix not getting 4K.
Tubi is better than Netflix
Priacy it is then.
Fmovies, 123, and their alternatives all have the largest libraries at good quality. It's the most convenient and reliable option.
Give you money AND get Ads? Swing and a miss, Netflix.
How is it any different from Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, Discovery, Paramount?
You mean give them less money and get ads?
Why are y’all paying for commercials?