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Max Planning to Crack Down on Password Sharing
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Nice data dump on current services. It is definitely useful for anyone going through the hell of trying to reconfigure their consumption expenses. I went through that last year when I moved and decided I didn't want to pay for cable TV anymore.
Your analysis, however, omitted a big thing: You have to add the cost of a reasonable internet connection into the cost of the streaming services. Streaming services don't provide the transmission medium, only the data. Cable provides both. When you add the cost of the ISP to the cost of the streaming services, you are back up to cable levels. Ironically, in many localities, the local cable company is the best choice for ISP. So, the cable companies have a fair chance of getting your dollars even when you don't want them to.
And the cost of electricity.
Most people will have broadband and electricity anyway for uses other than streaming.
Well, they have to pay for their CEOs massive salaries and bonuses somehow. They aren’t making money right now. they can’t reduce executive pay, that would be ridiculous. Gotta get those subscriber numbers up!
Sorry if my image is large, I’m on an iPad and it’s not giving me all the options I would normally have
Sorry if my image is large, I’m on an iPad and it’s not giving me all the options I would normally have
I get Max through
True for electricity. Content consumption, though, is the killer app for the Internet for most people. So, it is arguable that they have internet for the other uses they may get from it. That said, your point is well taken.
True for electricity. Content consumption, though, is the killer app for the Internet for most people. So, it is arguable that they have internet for the other uses they may get from it. That said, your point is well taken.
What is or isn't worth watching is very subjective. Someone may find much more desirable content on those 85+ channels for $40/month than they would on the seven streaming services for $50/month I listed in a previous post...or vice versa.
Which is why I've been saying it's not as simple as saying cable is more expensive or streaming is more expensive.
Comparing streaming to cable isn't apples to apples either as we're taking about potentially very different types and amounts of content.
Which is why I've been saying it's not as simple as saying cable is more expensive or streaming is more expensive.
The total compensation (salary, stock awards, bonus, etc.) for the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO last year was around $50 million. If the entire $50 million was eliminated and split among the current 110 million Max subscribers, each one would get around 4 cents per month. The CEO's compensation is pretty meaningless in the big picture.
When I dropped DirecTV Stream, HBO Max basically became my cable provider in the sense that they had 90% of what I was watching on Stream, such as HGTV, Food and Magnolia. So for me, the annual cost of an HBO Max subscription was a bargain because that wouldn't have covered even two months of what I was paying for Stream toward the end.
They can split that money among the artists that make their content. Seems weird to think about it in terms of subscriber discount. I'm willing to skip the 4 cents.
Considering how many people there are in the end credits of just one movie or TV episode, they all might end up getting 4 cents.They can split that money among the artists that make their content. Seems weird to think about it in terms of subscriber discount. I'm willing to skip the 4 cents.
Everybody in our house has familiarised themself with the new terms and conditions
lol, I bet. Lots of them are contractors, though, and got paid their fee and don't work for Warners.
I'm just complaining about the obscene money those guys make while struggling to turn a profit. My company is ruthless. If a new VP joins, rearranges a bunch of stuff and it didn't work? They are gone quickly.
The account sharing doesn't bother me as much as Netflix because there isn't much to watch on Max. When there is a good show, I wait for the show to air, let all episodes accumulate, then cancel a month later.
Plus a decent amount of Max/Warner stuff is now on netflix. Even the ad supported tier.
Yeah, such as Ballers. I think that undermines the value proposition. If I don't need to subscribe to ______ to see _____ because I can see it on ______, then why would I? I want to watch Weeds, but it's no longer on Showtime, so now I have one fewer reason to add Showtime to my Paramount+ subscription.
Lately I've been buying DVDs like crazy: a dozen or more each month. The used ones are dirt cheap ($5-$10) at Vintage Stock, Amazon, Hamilton, pawn shops. friends-of-the-library sales and even antique malls. Everything from the Rockford Files and The Wire box sets to Gone Girl and Black Rain. Pretty soon I won't need to subscribe to any streaming services except for niche plays such as This Old House Insider.
MAX?
"Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate."
Another one of those brands that will forever be "formerly known as" what people actually call it.
That's why I switched from DirecTV to DirecTV Stream. Same content, half the price. No DVD box or RG-58 coaxial cables required, either (AT&T uses CAT-6, from a fiber switch on the next block). Unlimited cloud DVD, too! The only outdoor cable I use is the one from our rooftop antenna to the set. If the streaming service goes out, we can watch the free over the air content (and believe me, in Chicago, there's plenty of that, and lots of it is in uncompressed 4K, and there's a very visible difference, my friends).If one takes their time examine pricing you can always find lots more content via internet VoD hosts then any of these TV plans could provide in a year, each month.
Most of the cable providers had already moved to supply on-demand libraries before most of the current streaming services had even started. They already learned this lesson early on. And we look at it now, with the exception on Netflix and Hulu, it’s still all the same media/cable companies of old who own and operate the streaming services. Same ****, different box.
I get MAX included with my AT&T wireless subscription. If not for that, I wouldn’t subscribe to it unless I had a show I wanted to watch and the time to binge it and a few other things all within a one month payment. My family’s current watch habits are rather sparse…. We’re busy. My parents watch it the most, but still not much. They live in a different state, but are on the same phone plan that I pay for, along with our two kids — in college, one just now living back at home, the other not.
According to the AT&T service agreement, the HBO MAX included is for all members of the plan, but it’s really annoying as everyone has to use the primary account log-in to access it. I wonder how this is going to play out. It’s just included as a perk with our AT&T, it’s not even a separate line item on our bill or anything like that.
They can split that money among the artists that make their content. Seems weird to think about it in terms of subscriber discount. I'm willing to skip the 4 cents.
My point was that the CEO's "massive salary and bonus" you were referring to is pretty meaningless in the big picture. The CEO's salary is a tiny portion of the company's overhead that includes employee costs, content production and acquisition costs, etc. etc. etc. Therefore, the company's cracking down on password sharing would have very little to do with covering the CEO's compensation.