OP-ED: Why I Think Streaming Has Made a Mistake

Full OP-ED here!

Max here with an Op-Ed, people. Shouldn’t be a long one, but hey, it’ll give you some content while waiting for the cover reveal for Starforge! More on that later (it deserves its own post). For now, today’s Op-Ed.

So, if you haven’t heard, Disney has joined the ranks of streaming services announcing price hikes. In this case, it’s Disney+’s first while for others such as Hulu or ESPN it could just be written away as “yet another price hike.” In addition, Disney unveiled that Disney+ will now have advertising! Just like everyone wanted!

Of course, no one wanted this. But one thing has become clear over the last year or two of the so-called streaming wars: For many of the companies involved, the goal is merely to return to the most profitable section of entertainment they can think of, AKA cable.

Don’t believe it? Look at how they’re rolling out advertisements. Did you know that cable television was advertisement free originally? That’s right! Originally, you were paying to not have ads like broadcast television did. But once the audience was captured, the ads rolled in, until cable television became an advertising service more than an entertainment venue. After all, why collect money from one side of the equation when you can collect it from two sides of the equation? Double-dipping! American business ingenuity at its finest!

Disney very clearly has its sights set on the old ways, with how they excitedly push “bundling” Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN in one package for a “reduced” rate. Nevermind that there are advertisements now, look how good a deal you’re getting! Similar is happening with Netflix and other streaming services as CEOs seek to return to the golden age of captive television piggy banks.

The problem as I see it, however, is that it just won’t work. Because the market that let that golden piggy bank exist no longer does.

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Comments

[Wild Zontars]

Adding advertising to a (previously ad-free) paid service? Someone has forgotten lessons we've already learned:

“One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue,” explained Newell during his time on stage at the Washington Technology Industry Association's (WTIA) Tech NW conference. “The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.”

Streaming: variable quality, no local copies, costs money, includes ads.

Piracy: high quality, local copies, free, no ads.

Netflix is already getting hit with this:

Despite the availability of more legal streaming options than ever before, TV show and movie piracy are on the rise. Increased fragmentation in the streaming landscape paired with high costs is driving people to illegal options. According to data from piracy tracking company Muso, Netflix content is now good for 16% of all piracy traffic.

[...]

“[F]aced with an increasingly fractured streaming landscape, the consumer does the math and realizes that having access to all the shows they want to watch is not a justifiable expense when their grocery bill has doubled and they’re cycling or carpooling to work to save money on fuel,” Chatterley says.

“And in the absence of a one-stop shop like Spotify is to music lovers, and now that piracy sites have evolved to become sophisticated, easy-to-use experiences, people who have never resorted to piracy before are finding it more appealing than ever. Everything you could ever want to watch, all in one place, only a few clicks away and all for free. What’s not to like?”

[A.P.O.N.I.]

5679291
What's often forgotten is that a lot of what holds piracy back is it actually feeling like piracy. There are apparently stores in the world, most of whose products are stolen goods being resold. I doubt the patrons view it as buying stolen goods; for them it's just going to the store.

[Timuri]

I used to have Netflix and Funimation for various anime shows, but canceled both some half a year ago. I realized that I was watching maybe 2hrs of content between both sites over the course of a month, so it just wasn't worth it. I would rather just buy a physical copy if I want to watch something anyway.