As Amazon becomes the latest platform to push an ad-supported tier, TV writers greet this retro model with frustration and, in some cases, disdain: “I thought 'Nine Perfect Strangers' with commercials was horrible,” says David E. Kelley of his Hulu show with breaks.
Even if the creators weren’t pissed, the entire selling point of streaming was on demand, ad free, and a large library to choose from. Every single streaming service that subdivided Netflix and Hulu’s content shares have reneged on that entire concept by creating smaller libraries, making them unaffordable, and now they’re shoehorning in ads if we won’t cough up more money.
It’s almost like a moral imperative to pirate from these fuckers.
Don’t forget that on-demand is being reduced as well now that many platforms are trickling out episodes for their marquee shows at a weekly rate. Looking at you Apple.
There is a simple solution for that. Rotate your services every 3 months, watch the entire season and only come back when there’s something to watch.
Quality over quantity is something streaming services can’t do. There’s so much shit shoved in our faces that I find myself watching less and less. Is a crash on the horizon or can the market sustain the number of active participants?
It’s a real shame because piracy is bridging the service gap which the industry themselves managed to eliminate, albeit briefly, only to introduce it again.
If you trust any corporate media concern to not succumb to enshittification, then you deserve to watch your stupid commercials. You paid for the privilege because you enabled the abuser.
I prefer to get what I pay for and I pay for nothing, media-wise. If I watch ads, it’s because I’m watching something like the Super Bowl with my OTA DVR that’s playing on network TV. It’s free, so OK - commercials. If I’m watching anything else, it’s on my Plex server and there are no commercials.
I do pay for entertainment. I pay for experiences, like going to the movies, going to live rock shows, going to performances or exhibitions - all IRL - but that’s about it. I might consider paying for other entertainment options but there is one thing I won’t ever do: I won’t pay for media that I don’t own and I won’t watch commercials for media I paid for.
Edit: look at all the butthurt. Go ahead and keep paying through the nose then if you like it so much. I’m sure all the millionaires and billionaires who profit off your largesse will continue to treat you with the same kindness as they have in the past.
“People deserve to be exploited because they dared to use a convenient, affordable service.”
Seriously, what a bad take. It’s not like I gave them all my passwords and Power of Attorney! It’s fine your budgeting decisions work for you, but you shouldn’t cheer on companies providing a bad experience to customers that “trusted” them…
You understand that someone has to pay for that entertainment shit you use to kill your time with? You are literally shitting on people who are paying for you.