Movie Streaming

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Stewball
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Movie Streaming

Post by Stewball »

Movie streaming really came into its own in 2020, driven of course by the shutdowns. But I draw the line at paying for any more than two services (Amazon Prime and Netflix). It's the late-comers like Disney and Apple who be wanting their monthly pound of flesh but who've only had one movie each that I really wanted to see over the last 6 months, ("Soul" & "Greyhound"). Yeah I know I could sign up for the free trial periods, watch them and then cancel--but then I'd have to put up with the hassle, and maybe a tinge of guilt. I mean would it kill them to offer a la carte for the limited demographs such as myself, or make blu-rays available?

CosmicMonkey
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Re: Movie Streaming

Post by CosmicMonkey »

Cable costs like $60/month. The big appeal of Netflix in the beginning is that it offered the same amount of content as cable for $10/month, and you could watch stuff whenever you wanted without a DVR. If all the same content is now being divided between 5 or 6 streaming services that all cost in the $10-$15, then we're just back were we started.

But no one is gonna subscribe to more than two or three services, and all these media companies haven't realized that. There's no way all these services are gonna be around 5 years from now. Some will have to fail.

Velvet Crowe
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Re: Movie Streaming

Post by Velvet Crowe »

I mean, let's be real here, streaming services have been dominant throughout the last decade. When something offers this much at such a low price, it's certain a better alternative to pay $10 a month for a library of movies than it is to pay $10-20 for the recent film release.

Mentaculus
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Re: Movie Streaming

Post by Mentaculus »

CosmicMonkey wrote:
Sun Jan 10, 2021 9:13 pm
But no one is gonna subscribe to more than two or three services, and all these media companies haven't realized that.
I guess I'm alone, here. If a service has a particular value above and beyond simply having films on a digital "shelf" for me to watch whenever, I will subscribe for access to that content. (That said, I also don't have cable and don't care to so that's not a baseline cost for home entertainment content.)

I'm in the US but I have:
Netflix
Disney+
Hulu (ad-supported came bundled with my cell plan... sure, why not)
Amazon Prime Video (like above, I only have this because I have had Prime for ages, and this was a bonus)
+ AMC+ Subscription as a part of APV (all AMC plus Sundance Now, IFC Unlimited, and Shudder content; mostly Shudder for horror)
Mubi (curated niche content)
Criterion Channel (curated content)
kanopy (through local library - some HBO docs, Criterion and classic releases)

But to the OPs point most aren't going do this but for me IMO the dark horse is AVODS services. In this quarantine I've had more mileage out of PlutoTV, Tubi, Crackle, and Midnight Pulp than a lot of the stuff I do pay for. Peacock's going this route and that's way smarter than something like CBSAllAccess, which I still paid for and still gave me ads and I still cancelled because their content was awful and the ads pissed me off. The companies that let you choose your level of engagement through levels of paywall may be the path forward.

iconogassed
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Re: Movie Streaming

Post by iconogassed »

Mentaculus wrote:
Mon Jan 11, 2021 8:33 pm
The companies that let you choose your level of engagement through levels of paywall may be the path forward.
A good point, reflected in other distinct ways media is consumed these days, like Patreon and crowdfunding.

What it says about the state and likely course of things is not good.

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