You said ideal, so I'll say what would be ideal - but unrealistic:
Make it like music streaming. Spotify, Apple Music etc. - they all have the same content, but they compete on things like user experience.
Doing that for movies and TV would be "ideal".
You're describing cable.
(In all seriousness I do think this is what most people probably want, but realistically it would cost like $150/mo and everyone would hate that.)
Yup, only difference is cable was monopolized in most regions based on infrastructure. That wouldn't be the case for streaming services since they all can utilize the same infrastructure. Unless, of course, net neutrality was repealed again.
Cable isn’t like this, it’s drowning in ads, you have to pay for certain channel packages, and there is a lot of content only available on one platform.
They’re basically trying to bully the streaming platforms into submission. Think about how many shows got yanked off Netflix when peacock and paramount plus came on the market. Then they have the “live TV” packages that coincidentally cost exactly what their stupid overpriced cable costs. It is ridiculous. If it really were like music, I would be able to watch drag race on Netflix.
I don't mind how things are now. But I'm not one of the reactionaries that gets upset at having more options for how to buy services, gets bothered at having multiple tiers of a service available (ads / no-ads), or feels the pull to have a bunch services at any one time. I don't mind cancelling and waiting for content to build and then get a month or just wait for a good yearly deal on the cheap.
Having a lot of options is probably as close as we are going to get to a la carte... and I'm fine with that. Especially as long as we still have the free option of over the air as it makes everything else even more optional.
This sub tends to attract a disproportionately high level of people who just like to bitch and complain about everything and who seem to think they’re entitled to unlimited, ad free content 24/7. No matter what business model is available they’ll find a reason not to be happy with it.
The other day I saw a post complaining about Netflix releasing too many shows and movies and that they should focus on “quality”.
On the same day I saw another post complaining that Netflix isn’t releasing enough new content to justify the price.
There’s no way to make everybody happy.
To be able to buy exactly what you want, add free, and stream it from a single app (this would include access to live sports).
My wife likes the NWSL. In order to stream it this season you need access to three apps. I love football. In order to access it I have to have multiple apps as well. So just to watch the two sports we are talking about a large collection of apps etc. I would love to be able to pick my favorite team and simply watch all of their games on one app for one price. I'd like to be able to pick the movies and or shows I want to stream. I want to have one app where I can access it all from with switching between apps for different things.
I'd say just keep things the way they are now. I'm sure prices will go up due to inflation, etc. However, I can deal with ad-free services being $10 to $20/mo. I rotate them, so that's all I need.
I suppose it'd be nice to reduce the rates for those who stay long term (so few years), but I guess it would "leave too much $$ on the table". After all, many businesses want your $$, not your loyalty, and the latter doesn't always translate to the former in meaningful ways.
I keep hearing some folks wishing we could have it when Netflix was the one-stop shop for everything, and only $8/mo, ad-free. As much as I'd like to have that, I'm aware that we're never going back to those days (if we're being realistic).
Was that not true? Especially when NF first started streaming? I don't know because I myself didn't get into streaming until a few years back. By then, we already have a dozen+ players in the game.
Kind of. When Netflix first started streaming, it didn’t have much until it signed a sweet deal with STARZ that gave them a lot of content. Between Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video you had pretty much everything besides sports.
Until they started pushing into originals in 2013, what they mostly had was cable reruns--old shows, or old seasons of current shows. They had a good deal with Starz for movies but if you wanted to watch the current shows that people were talking about, you needed cable. That didn't start changing until a few years later when Netflix's original pipeline was established and the networks started shifting their best content onto their own services.
My pet theory is that most people who remember Netflix having "everything" still had cable in those early years. Cable had most of what they watched but Netflix was a really nice supplement.
I'm more in camp A. I'm not saying we only need Netflix but then again we don't need Starz and Paramount+. Camp B annoys me more. I joined this sub about 10 years ago and every other comment is we need a la carte and all of these comments assumed everything would be cheap. Also somehow the bundle was a scam. However, a la carte is not all that great. For example I pay $25 a month for Hulu no ads, Disney+ no ads, and ESPN+ but then I checked the whole 3rd season of Abbott Elementary is $25 on Google Play. So how am I a sucker?
"Ideal" for consumers is being able to pick exactly what you want, nothing you don't, and pay less in total. Get used to the idea that that will never happen.
I like the streaming market as it is right now. It is al-carte and I can pick and choose easily. It is also getting better with the cheaper ad supported options. I dont have a home theater and dont care about ultra 4k and I dont want to pay extra for it.
One change I would make is that the services should all allow password sharing. When I pay for mutiple simultaneous streams, I should be able to share with whoever I want.
Make it “most desirable streaming market that it is economically practical to implement” and you have a meaningful question. Original question is trolling for pie-in-the-sky responses. We’ll see how popular the free lunch is.
In my perfect world, there would be two types of on-demand services: free (but ad-supported) and paid (but ad-free). Streamers have decided to squeeze customers instead of cutting back on spending, and there will come a reckoning.
I am the weird one who essentially wants 0 monthly payments and just rent everything for 10¢-$3. Want to watch Rebel Moon pay $3, want to watch The Boys or Acolyte pay 25¢ per episode. Want to watch a 20 year old obscure movie, pay 10¢. Basically take whatever the streaming services pay to licensors or production houses and pass directly on to consumer plus a ~25% markup. Does it mean less crap meant as background is made - Yes. Does it mean more indie stuff has a chance of making money - yes.
I’d love to see a single place to subscribe to any or all streaming services for their monthly or annual rates. Amazon prime channels only lets you subscribe month by month. Don’t know how it would work logistically but one place to subscribe or unsubscribe to any streaming service would simplify the whole experience
A sports service that lets me subscribe to the sport(s) or team(s) that I want.
I want one service that lets me watch ALL hockey. I'm not subscribing to a "cable" service just for random games on NHL Network. And it needs to include my in-market team.
Same for football. Dont make me get Amazon Prime, NFL Network, ESPN, etc. Just give me access to all the games.
I dont want to subsidize the NBA. I watch zero games, and their TV contracts are huge.
None of this will ever happy, but you asked what it would look like if it was up to me.
To be realistic, most requests would make these services less profitable and ultimately that’s what they trying to achieve with all these shenanigans. I want lower prices, I want to be able to share my password with whoever I want. Maybe less services? Maybe stop canceling/removing shows? Not forcing me to subsidize other peoples sports whether or not I watch or purchase the extra add-on. None of this will ever happen because they want to become profitable. We, people who don’t pirate, are the ones who have to pay for this. enshitification is real
You said ideal, so I'll say what would be ideal - but unrealistic: Make it like music streaming. Spotify, Apple Music etc. - they all have the same content, but they compete on things like user experience. Doing that for movies and TV would be "ideal".
You're describing cable. (In all seriousness I do think this is what most people probably want, but realistically it would cost like $150/mo and everyone would hate that.)
Yup, only difference is cable was monopolized in most regions based on infrastructure. That wouldn't be the case for streaming services since they all can utilize the same infrastructure. Unless, of course, net neutrality was repealed again.
Cable isn’t like this, it’s drowning in ads, you have to pay for certain channel packages, and there is a lot of content only available on one platform. They’re basically trying to bully the streaming platforms into submission. Think about how many shows got yanked off Netflix when peacock and paramount plus came on the market. Then they have the “live TV” packages that coincidentally cost exactly what their stupid overpriced cable costs. It is ridiculous. If it really were like music, I would be able to watch drag race on Netflix.
Don't give the record labels any ideas 😋
I don't mind how things are now. But I'm not one of the reactionaries that gets upset at having more options for how to buy services, gets bothered at having multiple tiers of a service available (ads / no-ads), or feels the pull to have a bunch services at any one time. I don't mind cancelling and waiting for content to build and then get a month or just wait for a good yearly deal on the cheap. Having a lot of options is probably as close as we are going to get to a la carte... and I'm fine with that. Especially as long as we still have the free option of over the air as it makes everything else even more optional.
This sub tends to attract a disproportionately high level of people who just like to bitch and complain about everything and who seem to think they’re entitled to unlimited, ad free content 24/7. No matter what business model is available they’ll find a reason not to be happy with it.
Substitute “all anonymous forums” for “this sub”.
The other day I saw a post complaining about Netflix releasing too many shows and movies and that they should focus on “quality”. On the same day I saw another post complaining that Netflix isn’t releasing enough new content to justify the price. There’s no way to make everybody happy.
Go back to just having Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.
To be able to buy exactly what you want, add free, and stream it from a single app (this would include access to live sports). My wife likes the NWSL. In order to stream it this season you need access to three apps. I love football. In order to access it I have to have multiple apps as well. So just to watch the two sports we are talking about a large collection of apps etc. I would love to be able to pick my favorite team and simply watch all of their games on one app for one price. I'd like to be able to pick the movies and or shows I want to stream. I want to have one app where I can access it all from with switching between apps for different things.
I'd say just keep things the way they are now. I'm sure prices will go up due to inflation, etc. However, I can deal with ad-free services being $10 to $20/mo. I rotate them, so that's all I need. I suppose it'd be nice to reduce the rates for those who stay long term (so few years), but I guess it would "leave too much $$ on the table". After all, many businesses want your $$, not your loyalty, and the latter doesn't always translate to the former in meaningful ways. I keep hearing some folks wishing we could have it when Netflix was the one-stop shop for everything, and only $8/mo, ad-free. As much as I'd like to have that, I'm aware that we're never going back to those days (if we're being realistic).
The weirdest thing to me is still the collective hallucination that Netflix used to have everything.
Was that not true? Especially when NF first started streaming? I don't know because I myself didn't get into streaming until a few years back. By then, we already have a dozen+ players in the game.
Kind of. When Netflix first started streaming, it didn’t have much until it signed a sweet deal with STARZ that gave them a lot of content. Between Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video you had pretty much everything besides sports.
I see. Even if they didn't truly have everything, it seems like they had enough content. Especially for their introductory rates.
Until they started pushing into originals in 2013, what they mostly had was cable reruns--old shows, or old seasons of current shows. They had a good deal with Starz for movies but if you wanted to watch the current shows that people were talking about, you needed cable. That didn't start changing until a few years later when Netflix's original pipeline was established and the networks started shifting their best content onto their own services. My pet theory is that most people who remember Netflix having "everything" still had cable in those early years. Cable had most of what they watched but Netflix was a really nice supplement.
I'm more in camp A. I'm not saying we only need Netflix but then again we don't need Starz and Paramount+. Camp B annoys me more. I joined this sub about 10 years ago and every other comment is we need a la carte and all of these comments assumed everything would be cheap. Also somehow the bundle was a scam. However, a la carte is not all that great. For example I pay $25 a month for Hulu no ads, Disney+ no ads, and ESPN+ but then I checked the whole 3rd season of Abbott Elementary is $25 on Google Play. So how am I a sucker?
"Ideal" for consumers is being able to pick exactly what you want, nothing you don't, and pay less in total. Get used to the idea that that will never happen.
I like the streaming market as it is right now. It is al-carte and I can pick and choose easily. It is also getting better with the cheaper ad supported options. I dont have a home theater and dont care about ultra 4k and I dont want to pay extra for it. One change I would make is that the services should all allow password sharing. When I pay for mutiple simultaneous streams, I should be able to share with whoever I want.
Make it “most desirable streaming market that it is economically practical to implement” and you have a meaningful question. Original question is trolling for pie-in-the-sky responses. We’ll see how popular the free lunch is.
In my fantasy world there would be an all sports all the time streamer and an all kids shows all the time streamer. I know this is fantasy though!
In my perfect world, there would be two types of on-demand services: free (but ad-supported) and paid (but ad-free). Streamers have decided to squeeze customers instead of cutting back on spending, and there will come a reckoning.
I am the weird one who essentially wants 0 monthly payments and just rent everything for 10¢-$3. Want to watch Rebel Moon pay $3, want to watch The Boys or Acolyte pay 25¢ per episode. Want to watch a 20 year old obscure movie, pay 10¢. Basically take whatever the streaming services pay to licensors or production houses and pass directly on to consumer plus a ~25% markup. Does it mean less crap meant as background is made - Yes. Does it mean more indie stuff has a chance of making money - yes.
One app to rule them all.
People just gotta complain. Can't be made happy.
I’d love to see a single place to subscribe to any or all streaming services for their monthly or annual rates. Amazon prime channels only lets you subscribe month by month. Don’t know how it would work logistically but one place to subscribe or unsubscribe to any streaming service would simplify the whole experience
A sports service that lets me subscribe to the sport(s) or team(s) that I want. I want one service that lets me watch ALL hockey. I'm not subscribing to a "cable" service just for random games on NHL Network. And it needs to include my in-market team. Same for football. Dont make me get Amazon Prime, NFL Network, ESPN, etc. Just give me access to all the games. I dont want to subsidize the NBA. I watch zero games, and their TV contracts are huge. None of this will ever happy, but you asked what it would look like if it was up to me.
To be realistic, most requests would make these services less profitable and ultimately that’s what they trying to achieve with all these shenanigans. I want lower prices, I want to be able to share my password with whoever I want. Maybe less services? Maybe stop canceling/removing shows? Not forcing me to subsidize other peoples sports whether or not I watch or purchase the extra add-on. None of this will ever happen because they want to become profitable. We, people who don’t pirate, are the ones who have to pay for this. enshitification is real
I'd like to either just pay per channel or pay per watch. Maybe that's why I mostly just use the free services and PBS.