Disney+ and Hulu Ad-Free Pricing Going Up in October, Password Sharing Crackdown Coming

[Abazigal]

On another note. Could anyone see these streaming services going away completely? Like all these companies and networks joining up to make a new type of cable/streaming hybrid? Costing the consumers more, of course. I think remember some pundits saying streaming isn’t or can’t be profitable or sustainable at the current prices. I do also see the return of piracy in large numbers though.

I have a few theories -

1) We may see a lot of these streaming services consolidate over the next few years as the unprofitable ones exit the market. I won't be surprised if Netflix ends up being the last man standing. Once upon a time, I thought Disney would be able to keep Disney+ around as a loss leader to funnel users towards their merchandise and theme parks, but it seems Disney has done a lot of damage to their brands over the last few years. So even the long term viability of Disney+ itself seems like a big question mark.

2) Like music streaming, video streaming only may be viable as a platform feature that is owned and funded by large tech companies who have the money to fund it indefinitely (eg: Amazon, Apple, Google).

3) There's just too many ways for people to spend their time these days. If there's nothing good on tv, I can always play a game on my Nintendo Switch, watch someone game on Twitch, scroll on social media, even watch a 1-hour video of some Japanese lady cleaning her house on YouTube. A dearth of good content simply isn't the huge deal it may have been 10 years ago.

The real irony would be if people don't even bother pirating your shows, viewing it as "too much work" compared to say, streaming the next video on my YouTube recommended feed.

 

[Zest28]

Can you find any links that show that it’s illegal?

Streaming services do not stop others having streaming services. Disney is not taking up any physical area that blocks consumers from going to Netflix. You can still pay for Netflix and exercise your consumer choice.

Physical cinemas might have an argument but that’s like saying and Apple Store is an anti trust issue because they stop Google selling their products in the same location….

Physical locations are rented by stores and companies for that very reason! Disney could make their own retail chain and only sell Disney merchandise and it would be perfectly fine. Why is a cinema any different?

The day the Supreme Court killed Hollywood’s studio system | Constitution Center

Today marks the anniversary of an important Supreme Court case that helped to end the Hollywood studio system and fuel a young television industry in the late 1940s.

constitutioncenter.org

There was a court ruling of the United States vs Paramount, as they had a monopoly position and used that to control movie theaters.

Apple Store is not anti trust, because the content on the Apple Store is available in other stores. Most of the software / apps on Apple Store, you will find on Android. And in the Apple Store, Google apps are available too.

 

[JamesMay82]

Long term It’s cheaper to just buy digital or physical. More so on kids products when they are just re watching movies over an over again.

however, my kids are just obsessed with you tube. It’s a battle to get them to watch a movie.

 

[MacMikePro]

What kind of dumb logic is that?

So if I buy 4 apples and share one with my friend, did my friend “steal“ an apple? Should my friend go into the store and buy an apple himself? The logic doesn’t check out.

Again, password sharing is something Netflix knew about for a decade and encouraged on twitter. it was on NF to set the precedemce early on. But instead they encouraged it, then backtracked later on. It was a good move on their part right? They could ONLY gain from this as existing account holders would likely not cancel and the people without accounts would either have to buy or go without.

Me personally, I never intended on spending 20+ per month for a service that has very few new shows I’m interested in. And if people do, they are just feeding into a problem of corporate GREED. Yes, GREED. Companies do exist to me money, but there comes a point where it becomes anti-consumer and normalizes anti-consumer practices across the board.

Your analogy does not work at all simply because your 4 apples are a finite number. A better analogy would be if you paid for an all-you-can-eat buffet for yourself and then let your friend just come in and eat whatever they want as well, which that would be stealing and is very obvious as to why buffets do not allow that.

And before you say "4 apples is like 4 screens" that doesn't work either because it's actually "unlimited screens but 4 screens at the same time". The rules are very clear that the 4 screens need to be in the same household because obviously a business isn't going to want to allow an unlimited amount of people sharing one single service designed for a single household.

Honestly Netflix should have never allowed password sharing to begin with because all it did was cause a bunch of entitled crybabies who think it *should* work that way, but that's insane. People just need to realize they need to pay for something they want, it's just the way the world works, and be grateful that Netflix turned a blind eye for as long as they did.

 

[drumcat]

Long term It’s cheaper to just buy digital or physical. More so on kids products when they are just re watching movies over an over again.

however, my kids are just obsessed with you tube. It’s a battle to get them to watch a movie.

60 years ago, people had this argument about Sesame Street. In context, they were WAY ahead of their time. It's just like TikTok for kids before anyone understood it.

 

[Aichon]

Actually it was more like 4.50 a month , it was about 150.00 for 3 years

Quite right. I was conflating it with how much we were budgeting on a monthly basis to be able to afford a 1 year subscription once the three year was up. That was the number I saw every month for three years, hence why it was apparently (and incorrectly) burned into my brain. Thanks for the correction!

 

[JamesMay82]

This thread has got me thinking.. what did we or our parents use to have to pay for HBO, Showtime, Cinemax back in the 90's a month? it was more than 9.99 right?

My current argument is that streaming services are more expensive than the old premium cable channels and now the streamers outweigh the how many premium channels there were.

 

[Wanted797]

The day the Supreme Court killed Hollywood’s studio system | Constitution Center

Today marks the anniversary of an important Supreme Court case that helped to end the Hollywood studio system and fuel a young television industry in the late 1940s.

constitutioncenter.org

There was a court ruling of the United States vs Paramount, as they had a monopoly position and used that to control movie theaters.

Apple Store is not anti trust, because the content on the Apple Store is available in other stores. Most of the software / apps on Apple Store, you will find on Android. And in the Apple Store, Google apps are available too.

This is a very different situation to Disney only putting their content on their own streaming service.

They have no obligation to contract their movies to Netflix, Hulu or anyone else and they have no requirement to host anyone else’s content.

 

[webkit]

This thread has got me thinking.. what did we or our parents use to have to pay for HBO, Showtime, Cinemax back in the 90's a month? it was more than 9.99 right?

My current argument is that streaming services are more expensive than the old premium cable channels and now the streamers outweigh the how many premium channels there were.

Pricing may have varied slightly by cable/satellite provider but back in the mid-1990s, HBO and Showtime would've been around $14/month each, Cinemax would've been slightly less at around $13/month, Disney would've been slightly less at around $12/month, and there were also a few other cheaper "budget priced" premium channels available.

Adjusting for inflation, all of those prices would be about double in today's dollars (e.g., HBO would be around $28/month).

For less money (even with the price increases), today's streaming services typically offer more content, more subscription flexibility (subscribe, cancel, resubscribe anytime), and more viewing flexibility (on demand).

 

[MysticCow]

Long term It’s cheaper to just buy digital or physical. More so on kids products when they are just re watching movies over an over again.

however, my kids are just obsessed with you tube. It’s a battle to get them to watch a movie.

It’s cheaper to use a MAG box and a TV package that allows you to utilize the MAG box’s download feature, but we’re not going to dive into this.

 

[Scoob Redux]

This is literally factually not true and you discredit yourself by saying it.

One joke tweet that doesn't mention Netflix specifically at all a decade ago is not "touted as a feature of their service" especially when the terms literally explicitly prohibited it, always, from the launch of the streaming service.

First, you can't retcon history by proclaiming it was a "joke tweet" when it was nothing of the kind. Second, Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, personally and publicly said password sharing was a "positive thing": CES 2016. Look it up.

 

[ackmondual]

I think paying for a streaming service and still getting ads is absurd. I'll never do it. For broadcast TV it was fine, but when it's on demand and your remote control literally locks you out... Lol forget it. After my Disney+ annual sub runs out, AppleTV+ will be the only streaming service I keep.

I don't mind paying for ads. I do mind when the ads are so awful, I wouldn't use Hulu w-ads even if THEY, paid ME. Esp. since I had to rewatch ads if I rewind past commercial breaks!

 

[Phonesurfer]

Paying for streaming and getting ads too is absurd, the greatest benefit of streaming over network OTA tv was that it was commercial free…Might as well go back to the major networks. As for me, I’m dropping services that are drastically raising fees their for ad free content while they are at the same time reducing content… . with the recent strike reducing content even more, it’s amazes me that they are almost doubling subscription prices. I just dumped Disney +, it almost doubled from last years price…, I’ll dump others too if they go that route…if push comes to shove I’ll watch network tv and rent dvds again, I refuse to pay for reduced content and commercials too!