Comment on Commercials Are Streaming’s New Norm, and Creators Aren’t Happy: “It’s Almost Worse Than Broadcast”
ZeroCool@slrpnk.net 9 months agoBecause it’s a gradual death-march to pricing out the ad free tiers entirely. Ad free tiers will continue to become more and more expensive so that corporations can turn around and justify removing them by blaming consumers. “We’re getting rid of our ad-free plans due to lack of consumer interest.” it’s corporate gaslighting and it’s happening right now.
iAmTheTot@kbin.social 9 months ago
Then stop paying for the service if you're not happy with it. Vote with your wallet.
Like, corporations need to make money... People understand that, right? They going to try to do things to make money. As a consumer, you decide the point at which the value is no longer there for you.
You're not entitled to streaming services. It's not a human right. I understand that it sucks to be priced out of a service you like.
solarvector@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
Then don’t be part of society is the root of that argument.
Don’t want to be tracked? Don’t use a phone. Or a car.
Don’t want to support exploitative publishers? Don’t read.
Can’t afford rent?
Can’t find a job?
It’s all just blaming people for corporate bullshit.
iAmTheTot@kbin.social 9 months ago
I would not equate any of those things with streaming entertainment, but okay.
For the record, I'm not blaming people. I don't even know how you could read that from my message. Of course it's the corp's fault for raising prices. But as a consumer, you do get to decide when the value is no longer there. No one is forcing you to pay for Netflix.
TheFriar@lemm.ee 9 months ago
The point everyone is making is that this, along with everything else we have the “choice” to consume, is all a greater trend. I’m sure you’ve heard the word “enshittification,” well it was the word of the year and it’s on everyone’s lips for a reason.
Things are getting worse but the price keeps going up. This has long been a trend, called many names, from “shrinkflation” to “enshittification” to “planned obsolescence.” For decades this has been happening. Products aren’t built to last, companies aren’t built to compete with quality. The price seems to go up across the board, but everyone is making cheaper products.
The tipping point for all of this is that corporate profits have been at record highs. Stock buybacks and rising CEO pay and out of control inequality. It’s all part of the same problem: we aren’t the “consumers” as such in this late stage capitalist world. We are being squeezed harder and harder across the board, our paychecks dwindle in buying power…the answer to this isn’t “well, stop paying for Netflix.”
People are pissed because this is one small kernel of the larger problem. We are products and we are the sacrificial lambs for the almighty stock price. We aren’t catered to as an integral part of the capitalist system. We are pushed further and further down to make space for record profits.
They take away account sharing, then they raise the price, then they lay off workers, then they force ads in our face…and then report how well they’re doing. It’s not just about Netflix, it’s not just about ads. It’s about everything. Our very apparent place in this system. We are an integral part of their capitalist system. But we’re treated like fodder. It kind of should piss you off.
LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
I think people are reading the part where you said “corporations need to make money” and are jumping to the conclusion that you’re defending the corporations.
I quit Netflix last summer, and turns out I don’t miss it at all. There are … other free sites of questionable legality for streaming, DVDs at the library, or even just like … feeding the geese at the park instead.
These corporations can sell all they want, but we can choose not to buy. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s what I think you’re saying.
potatogunkelly@infosec.pub 9 months ago
How do you clean your tongue when you finally get it off billionaire boot. Do you need a special cleaning product or like does a regular tongue scraper do the trick? Image
iAmTheTot@kbin.social 9 months ago
Lol I'm anything but a billionaire sympathizer. Billionaires shouldn't exist.
potatogunkelly@infosec.pub 9 months ago
Dude, your answer to excesses of capitalism is “let the market solve it”. The only person you’re fooling is yourself and that only because it is the lowest bar possible
ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
They shouldn’t exist? But you’re ok with the systems that actively reward and sustain the behaviour that creates them?
potatogunkelly@infosec.pub 9 months ago
Dude, your answer to excesses of capitalism is “let the market solve it”. The only person you’re fooling is yourself and that only because it is the lowest bad possible
Lmaydev@programming.dev 9 months ago
They make plenty of money. They’re not exactly poor.
They’re trying to squeeze every penny they can out of people.
iAmTheTot@kbin.social 9 months ago
Yes, they are. I pretty much said that. Stop paying for it and send them a message that the value is not good anymore.
rtfm_modular@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Good concept in theory but consolidation of streaming services to a handful of providers in an $88 billion dollar industry means the reality for most is that you can culturally isolate yourself by not consuming or seek illegal means of getting your entertainment.
Voting with your dollars works for mom and pop shops, but a loss in viewership due to changes in fees was calculated and note in the ledger.
hedgehog@ttrpg.network 9 months ago
Thanks for providing the least nuanced take I’ve heard today
ZeroCool@slrpnk.net 9 months ago
It’s always the same exact same lazy argument with corporate bootlickers.
“DoNt BuY iT!!!1!”
“CorPoRaTiOnS NeEd To MaKe MoNeY!!”
“YoU ArEnT EntTitLeD tO AnYThIng!!!”
“X,Y,Z IsNt A HuMaN RiGhT”
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
iAmTheTot@kbin.social 9 months ago
I think you may be the only person in my life that's described me as a corporate bootlicker.
Apparently telling a consumer to vote with their wallet is somehow pro corporate?
Steve@communick.news 9 months ago
I’m with you right up until the end.
Then I start downloading everything again. 🏴☠️
FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Another way to look at this, is that we were all shoved in to a society with a financial system that basically requires the expenditure of money to get along. If I’m not entitled to the media, why are they entitled to my money? At the end of the day, none of us asked to be here. Since the dawn of time, people have been taking what they’ve wanted and what they’ve needed–be thankful we’re in a phase of society that were taking pirated media and complaining about pricing, instead of taking eachothers lives for survival (which isn’t even universally true yet lol). I would also argue, but not with any conviction, that we need to consume at least -some- of this media to be able to participate maximally in society. Everyone loves movies and media, and if you’re the one person not consuming it, you’re an outcast. Outcasts proverbially die alone away from the warmth of the communal fire. It’s just human nature, tbh
iAmTheTot@kbin.social 9 months ago
They're not entitled to your money.
FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Yeah. The risk of piracy is just the cost of doing business, imo. If you want less piracy, all they have to do is improve price and ease of access. But they’ve already run the numbers and determined that the current price point is where they will see maximum profit. It’s like they’ve approved the “theft” themselves haha