this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/6302705

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[–] [email protected] 236 points 9 months ago (7 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 84 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The entire selling point of cable was no signal loss and ad free... Then the point of satellite was more options and ad free. Those sneaky ads keep finding their way in.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Ads is basically free money for broadcasters. And since greed is the main motivation - the dissension seems to be rather easy for them.

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[–] [email protected] 182 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Yo-ho, all together, hoist the coooolors high...

[–] [email protected] 99 points 9 months ago

Yup, streaming has just become cable v2. I dusted off the VPN and went back to that. As a famous someone once said:

Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem

If the experience with piracy is FAR superior to streaming you can guess which way I'm going to go....

[–] [email protected] 74 points 9 months ago (7 children)

Pirating is work. Streaming was convenience.

The less convenient streaming is, the more likely I’m willing to work.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 129 points 9 months ago (4 children)

What I want to know is how much money could insurance companies (cough, Liberty Mutual, cough) POSSIBLY be saving people when they are buying ads on every video on Youtube.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I always wondered what if someone started an insurance business that didn’t spend billions on advertisements, it just offered genuinely lower rates. When you sign up you have to sign something promising you’ll tell 2 other people.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago

"We can't lower prices! Look at how much we have to spend!!"

Points at billions in ad slots being watched by mostly AI now

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (13 children)

That’s what you’re seeing. Not what I’m seeing. Welcome to the wonderful world of targeted ads.

I only get Doctor Drew telling me stuff is a metabolism killer.

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[–] [email protected] 119 points 9 months ago (7 children)

It is worse than broadcast.

If you learn anything about screenwriting, there are certain patterns and structures you follow (like acts in a play) to accommodate commercials, like to build suspense and keep the viewer interested and not changing the channel.

Streaming never had this, if you look at shows written for these platforms. The writers either ignored or didn’t even know about these conventions.

Now adding commercials later, it is even more annoying to the viewer as the original material was not meant to accommodate them.

Streaming just keeps fucking up. I already canceled my netflix. I’m on basic cable for network tv and I just pirate everything else.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wait... They add advertising in the middle of shows? I thought it would be at the beginning, between episodes, on the UI, etc.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months ago

Nope, it's classic ad breaks, but since the shows weren't made expecting them the ads just appear suddenly every X minutes instead.

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[–] [email protected] 114 points 9 months ago (14 children)

Okay, I need to say it: having an ad for your own programming is still an ad.

Paramount. I'm looking at you, Paramount. I don't want to watch your shitty movie/TV show/whatever about the shitty mom from the His Dark Materials series losing another kid. Stop playing the same goddamn ad for it before every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Especially since you feel the need to double whatever goddamn volume I have set in the opening to the ad. I pay for the subscription, I already bought your product. Fuck off with your shitty ad.

I mean, others do it too and it pisses me off, but I'm on Season 2 of TNG and I may just have to get it some other way and canceling Paramount because that ad has started really getting to me.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago

When a company gets that hostile in their design to their paying customers is when I start advocating for flying a Jolly Roger.

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[–] [email protected] 88 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (7 children)

Just here to remind everyone while piracy is important, it's also very important to teach the less tech savy among your acquaintances how to pirate too. Conglomerates only learn when their bottom line is effected after all, so teach all your friends how to hoist that black flag.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

IF you go down that route, there needs to be a warning: Do it properly, use a VPN if you are torrenting, get a usenet account if you want fast speeds that encrypts the connection and so on - basically, teach it correct. Because some countries or rather law agencies WILL hunt you down if they even get some hint of your actual IP-Address...

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Used DVDs at pawn shops and thrift stores ftw.

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[–] [email protected] 87 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I had subscriptions to 4 different streaming sites. They pull bullshit and I cancelled. I now watch everything on one site with better quality streams and no commercials for the cost of a nice vpn. I didn't drop them because I can't afford it, I dropped them because their service sucked and I'm not going to deal with or support that BULLSHIT.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Paid services with ads are unconscionable and should not be supported, but I do watch Tubi or Pluto sometimes, and it's not nearly as bad as the amount of ads I see on my parents' screen with cable

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago

Agreed, in my experience Tubi and Pluto both have very reasonable length, good quality ads. I declined to re-up on YouTube TV for NCAA football season this year specifically because I can stand their ads. At that price tier, they honestly expect me to sit through My Pillow ads??

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm using this streaming service called Sonarr+plex. No ads so far.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Kinda, Plex still changes my homepage with their ads once in a while

[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (12 children)

One of many reasons to use Jellyfin instead of Plex.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I dropped prime after the announcement... Who's next?

[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What pisses me off is that I signed up for a year last summer. This change should not have happened for people who already paid for Prime.

With shipping getting worse, yeah ... I'm cancelling that.

Guess Bezos doesn't have enough money.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Are you even getting two-day shipping anymore? I canceled Prime last year because my non-Prime items were arriving well before my Prime ones, with Prime sometimes taking two weeks.

With their sucky shipping, having to navigate a minefield of cheap trash-tier products, and now their video service getting riddled with ads -- I think if Amazon were just being introduced to the world in its current state, no one would even use it. We'd consider it a joke.

All Amazon has going for it anymore is that it's known and people use it out of habit.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Because they HAVE to increase their share values year after year; just making billions isn't good enough, they have to make more billions compared to the last year.

It's truly pure greed, as streaming was amazing when it first started, and Netflix was making a killing even back then. But now, nope, fuck you all, we want more and more until we can't squeeze anything more out from you.

It's why I've increased my kodi/real debrid usage over the past few years

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (11 children)

I haven't used streaming services in a couple of years. Now I'm just doing all piracy and watching it through my Jellyfin server

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (5 children)

I'm amazed that they have any customers paying to listen to ads. I wont stand for it and I find it surprising others would.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

And it's a heave-ho-hi-ho, comin' down the Bay

Stealin' films and movies and all the other games

And it's a ho-hey-hi-hey, corpos bar your doors

When you see the Jolly Roger on Francisco's mighty shores!

Well, you'd think the local corpos would know that I'm at large

But just the other day I found an unprotected RAR

I snuck up right behind them and they were none the wiser

I copied their film and shared it, and screwed the advertisers

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

I let all my streaming subscriptions die off when my debit card expired this year and I haven't looked back. Gaming is cheaper and more entertaining. All the new movies I would want to watch never make it to streaming services anyway (without an additional rental fee)

[–] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago (4 children)

That's all fine and good but I want to point out so everyone can watch out for this - sometimes if you have a subscription and your card expires or gets lost/stolen and replaced, companies can somehow get your new card info without you giving it to them and keep your shit active. So you can't assume that a new card will take care of old subscriptions that you totally forgot about. You have to check your statements.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago

Got Disney plus subscription for free through some other stuff I need to have, but it's the ad supported standard plan, you pay and still get loads of ads. Even with the subscription I just download stuff for my Jellyfin.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Stop supporting greedy bastards that are trying to push hard psychological manipulation down you throat, only for you to buy so shit no-one needs.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

🏴‍☠️

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (3 children)

So are commercial randomly placed, or are the shows paced to have commercial breaks like the old tv days?

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