How many streaming services are you subscribed to?

[Schilkeman 964]

7 hours ago, Jay said:

Paramount+ to Roll Out Premium and Ad Tiers in Multiple Markets

So what we're getting is on-demand cable. Something we've had for 15 years.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

Not sure if this has already been posted/discussed. But I agree with every bit - no matter how many streaming services there are, I will always want my favourites on DVD or Blu-ray.

 

Particularly as Amazon just announced that Prime members will now see ads during movies/shows, and only if we pay them a further £2.99 do we continue to get the same ad-free privilege. I use it far more for the free delivery and I actually started to watch quite a few FreeVee things (free with ads) so I'm not as furious as some out there, but it does further indicate a trend of more and more things being behind a paywall.

 

I stopped watching Outlander when they started a Starz subscription and I'm sure that somewhere in Amazon Towers, someone has discussed how many subscribers they'd lose if things like The Grand Tour and Clarkson's Farm (pretty much the only streaming things I still watch) were behind another subscription.

 

Of course, the other frustrating thing the article focuses on is their 'licensing agreements' rubbish and I've seen loads of cases where a movie is on Prime but only for X more days. Given how we're all carefully considering how to spend our entertainment budgets, it surprises me a little that they haven't worked out how to get some stability in their offerings. Had I not gotten Prime mainly for the shipping, I'd have cancelled by now.

[Edmilson 7,466]

After all, we all need to fund Bezos's trips to outer space.

 

Quote

Mark your calendar: On Jan. 29, Amazon will unleash what one top advertising executive calls a “tornado” that will “upend” the streaming video landscape. The company will flip a switch and turn on ads for all of its Prime Video viewers. Users will have the option to pay $3 a month to remove the ads, but as the executive quips: “Almost no one will do that, are you kidding me?”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/amazon-pay-tv-bundle-1235783792/

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

10 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

After all, we all need to fund Bezos's trips to outer space.

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/amazon-pay-tv-bundle-1235783792/

Happy to pay if he promises not to come back… maybe take Elon with him. Make a day of it. 

[Edmilson 7,466]

Disney+: Now the home to both Marvel and DC superheroes.

 

It's Not An April Fool's Joke, Three DCEU Movies Are Now Streaming On Disney+

 

 

 

[mstrox 6,651]

Ditching content exclusivity and licensing some titles to other services is a great way to make some money in streaming, which is bleeding bleeding bleeding.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I'm finding DVDs/BDs an increasingly desirable thing given many streamers' inability to keep a particular title on their service for more than 5 minutes.

 

I guess it's more stable with Disney as they own the rights to their own stuff, but when Netflix and Prime can't keep consistent catalogues due to licensing agreements changing all the time, I tend to start looking on the used marketplace for things. At time of writing, the Hobbit movies (for example) are on Prime, but I have low confidence they'll still be there in 6 months.

[mstrox 6,651]

I rewatch things so rarely that there’s no value in the cost or physical space of owning something on a disc for me.  I’m happy to stream or rent, or buy a cheap digital copy if it’s something off the beaten path.  I think the only discs I’ve bought in the last four years have been, like, old holiday specials that are only available for my kid to watch on disc.

 

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

WB has been doing that with Netflkx for years.

 

It's just funny that these films are on there. Haha

[Richard Penna 3,694]

The major things I bought in the last 5 years or so are the Johnny English/Bean movies, Oceans (all four), the Conjuring universe, and the two most recent Alien movies.

 

I tend to want a physical disc when I really like a movie or franchise, and I got the Bean films on Blu-ray as I got a sense that it was getting difficult to find copies and an exchange store over here has some at a steadily increasing price (meaning they don't have a ton left). That same place has a lot of lower demand BDs going for £1-1.50 or so; often less, so sometimes I buy one if I just want to watch a film a second time, as it's obviously vastly cheaper than renting a stream. By that method I discovered that the Hangover trilogy was a bit meh second time round, but it cost about £2 for all three.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

9 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

The major things I bought in the last 5 years or so are the Johnny English/Bean movies, Oceans (all four), the Conjuring universe, and the two most recent Alien movies.

 

I tend to want a physical disc when I really like a movie or franchise, and I got the Bean films on Blu-ray as I got a sense that it was getting difficult to find copies and an exchange store over here has some at a steadily increasing price (meaning they don't have a ton left). That same place has a lot of lower demand BDs going for £1-1.50 or so; often less, so sometimes I buy one if I just want to watch a film a second time, as it's obviously vastly cheaper than renting a stream. By that method I discovered that the Hangover trilogy was a bit meh second time round, but it cost about £2 for all three.

I don't tend to buy much on Blu-Ray these days, typically reserving those for films I really like or have a special meaning for me (usually in terms of the music, i.e. the HTTYD trilogy and ST:TMP, that kinda thing). However, I do always have a quick skim through any Blu-Rays they may have in charity shops just on the off chance there's something of interest. They used to price them quite a bit higher than DVDs but now they're usually 50p or something.

 

We also subscribe to Cinema Paradiso for discs by post which has a pretty decent selection, albeit not as wide ranging as the much missed Lovefilm which seemed to have almost every DVD ever released (including lots of things I imagine nobody ever borrowed).

 

Our local library has a pretty large DVD collection to borrow (for free of course) which includes a number of more obscure things like filmed plays and other stuff that I guess could be counted as educational. However, they haven't moved to Blu-Ray yet, presumably on the basis that pretty much everyone has a DVD player but Blu-Ray is still too niche (maybe?!). I'm amused that you still have to unlock DVD cases when you borrow them... I hate to break it to them but I'm pretty sure most DVDs are worth less than a book these days.

[Edmilson 7,466]

Pretty much this

 

[Faleel 5,355]

[Edmilson 7,466]

*cues Zimmer's Pirates of the Caribbean theme*

[Faleel 5,355]

2 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

*cues Zimmer's Pirates of the Caribbean theme*

Nah

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

On 03/04/2024 at 11:14 AM, Tom Guernsey said:

We also subscribe to Cinema Paradiso for discs by post

 

I didn't know such services still exist. How much do you have to pay per rented blu?

[GerateWohl 4,370]

We have a great selection of movie bluRays and DVDs at the public library around the corner.

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

4 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

We have a great selection of movie bluRays and DVDs at the public library around the corner.

 

With lots of greasy fingerprints on the playable side of the disc?

 

On 03/04/2024 at 11:14 AM, Tom Guernsey said:

I'm amused that you still have to unlock DVD cases when you borrow them

 

What do you mean by unlock?

[GerateWohl 4,370]

25 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

With lots of greasy fingerprints on the playable side of the disc?

Exactly! It can be a little frustrating watching a movie half way through and then the image freezes and the movie gets stuck because it is unreadable. Sometimes the discs look like they have been used as beer mat for a decade.

But you can be lucky.

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

2 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Sometimes the discs look like they have been used as beer mat for a decade.

 

What's wrong with people...

[Sweeping Strings 2,363]

On 04/04/2024 at 4:32 PM, Edmilson said:

Pretty much this

 

Ha, I saw this on Facebook but didn't notice each of the era-relevant cartoon characters on the guy's tee before. 

Wasn't the discs-by-post thing the origins of Netflix? Names LoveFilm back then, if memory serves.  

[GerateWohl 4,370]

25 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

What's wrong with people...

Not surprised facing the inability of many adults to appropiately use a public toilet.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

  

12 minutes ago, Sweeping Strings said:

Wasn't the discs-by-post thing the origins of Netflix? Names LoveFilm back then, if memory serves.  

 

Yep, I rented a heck of a lot of DVDs and Blu-rays from LoveFilm, and was very disappointed when they stopped as they had pretty much everything. Particularly as you could see all the extras and special features and generally see how good the release was, and I'm fairly sure I bought a few Blu-rays after having rented them.

 

What's just occurred to me is why Netflix (and others) clearly have a long-term issue with licensing agreements with the studios for streaming when they could rent out films/series/etc to their heart's content as long as they had the disc. Evidently the licensing model must be very different for streaming.

[Tallguy 3,398]

2 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

  

 

Yep, I rented a heck of a lot of DVDs and Blu-rays from LoveFilm, and was very disappointed when they stopped as they had pretty much everything. Particularly as you could see all the extras and special features and generally see how good the release was, and I'm fairly sure I bought a few Blu-rays after having rented them.

 

What's just occurred to me is why Netflix (and others) clearly have a long-term issue with licensing agreements with the studios for streaming when they could rent out films/series/etc to their heart's content as long as they had the disc. Evidently the licensing model must be very different for streaming.

 

When Netflix started they just bought discs just like we would and rented them out. (So it seems anyway.) Then as they got bigger they started getting the same kinds of discs Blockbuster would get, i.e. movie only, no extras. Often with an annoying message that you could get the extras if you went and bought the discs.

 

I don't know anybody who said "Goodbye cable, I've got VHS." Those would be two separate media services. VHS for movies. Probably not shows - even I wasn't paying the kind of money it would take to get all of Star Trek on VHS. Nevermind the shelf space! And for taping things off of TV. Then cable / TV for watching what was "on".

 

Hell yes I said "Goodbye VHS / Laserdisc, I've got DVD now!"

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I never saw a rental disc that had the special features stripped - certainly I never saw any messages that a feature was unavailable. Add that to the list of dumb ideas studios have made in the name of wanting more money from you.

 

This weekend I received two things - the complete Alan Partridge box, as I'm constantly watching compilations on YT and finally decided it would be easier to just own the damn thing. Also the blu-ray of Shrek as it has a certain nostalgic importance to me and it was getting oddly difficult to find even a used copy in the usual places (I've never owned it in any format), whereas other animated movies of the period don't seem to suffer similarly.

 

Now due to streaming I've found a lot of movies from the 90s and 00s are very difficult to find on Blu-ray whereas DVD copies are littering the planet. Hence Shrek is the first case where I decided to get a copy while available, and it won't be the last. I also have an external USB DVD drive set to region 1 so that it doesn't matter if I have an American-sourced DVD (and I have several).

[Sweeping Strings 2,363]

I'm old enough to remember when it took about six months after its big-screen release for a movie to get a rental release, and 3/4/5 years after that before it was on TV. 

Probably why I still find it notable when 'terrestrial' TV has premieres of movies that really aren't that old ... Channel 4 had The Lost City on Sat night and Top Gun : Maverick on the previous one, both summer '22 releases.     

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

On 04/04/2024 at 4:32 PM, Edmilson said:

Pretty much this

 

Totally sympathise. I always imagined that streaming would be like in Star Trek where they just have anything in the database and you'd be able to access it... such a fool! I do, however, highly recommend JustWatch (https://www.justwatch.com/) which at least gives you a fighting chance of finding stuff, even if it's just to pay to watch it. It has a website and an app, all free (although obviously there's a paid for option, but the basic is more than sufficient for most people I'd guess).

 

4 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I didn't know such services still exist. How much do you have to pay per rented blu?

There's a range of options. You can either have a certain number of discs per month or a certain number of discs at a time. We currently just have 1 disc at a time for £10.99 a month and I guess you could probably get through 5 or 6 discs a month, maybe more, if you lived in the UK (as we're in Guernsey, post takes longer and I think they sometimes get stuck in customs for a couple of days). We were previously on 2 discs at a time for £14.99 a month but didn't watch them that quickly. Not as good as Lovefilm where we used to have 4 discs at a time for the same (or less), but a good alternative to streaming for hard to find things.

 

4 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

With lots of greasy fingerprints on the playable side of the disc?

 

What do you mean by unlock?

Honestly very few discs have had any issues. Fingerprints can be wiped off and only a couple have had scratches that makes them skip (none have been totally unplayable), but no worse than renting from Blockbuster I'm sure. The unlock of DVDs from the library is a magnetic thing that locks the case shut, a bit like the tags they have on clothes to stop people pinching them. As I said before, I assume it's a holdover from when DVDs were expensive, but I don't imagine they are worth stealing.

3 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

Ha, I saw this on Facebook but didn't notice each of the era-relevant cartoon characters on the guy's tee before. 

Wasn't the discs-by-post thing the origins of Netflix? Names LoveFilm back then, if memory serves.  

Yes, I loved Lovefilm... fucking A*****n.

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

15 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I don't imagine they are worth stealing.

 

If they're OOP and hard to find, I guess.

[Tallguy 3,398]

13 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I always imagined that streaming would be like in Star Trek where they just have anything in the database and you'd be able to access it...

 

I call this my Plex server.

 

Streaming is well enough for titles that we say "Hey, what's on?" But I'd never rely on it for titles that are important to me. (Yes, I'll buy the Strange New Worlds discs eventually.)

 

Well. I suppose there is a certain amount of complacency on my part. I don't have Person of Interest or Rebels on disc. I should really be taking a more adversarial approach and grab things while I can.

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

19 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

There's a range of options. You can either have a certain number of discs per month or a certain number of discs at a time. We currently just have 1 disc at a time for £10.99 a month and I guess you could probably get through 5 or 6 discs a month, maybe more, if you lived in the UK (as we're in Guernsey, post takes longer and I think they sometimes get stuck in customs for a couple of days). We were previously on 2 discs at a time for £14.99 a month but didn't watch them that quickly. Not as good as Lovefilm where we used to have 4 discs at a time for the same (or less), but a good alternative to streaming for hard to find things.

 

A bit expensive, I'd say. I'll stick with my strategy of purchasing films I want to see on sale. Mostly £4-5 a film, or occasionally more.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

One thing I note is that if you're prepared to pay you can watch nearly anything, and I did actually buy a movie called Secret Life of Bees from Prime when it was my book club's selection and it was only a few £s to buy (unfortunately I disliked the movie as much as the book).

 

The problem though is that even when fully paid for, you're still at the mercy of licensing agreements so if I understand correctly, if Amazon loses their agreement for the movie you've lost access even though you paid for it. Hence I'd never buy a streaming movie for something I cared about.

 

Hence I'd be a lot more open to a service where you paid the fee and then got to download a full HD file (20GB or so doesn't take too long on a good connection) but I suspect no studio will ever allow that because it leaves the door wide open for you to just give that file to someone else. Closest I've seen is a performer over here who films most of his shows and puts full HD copies on his website for sale.

 

Hence for films that are important to me for one reason or another, I have to own the disc.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

52 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

If they're OOP and hard to find, I guess.

True although I can't imagine the average library DVD borrower being someone so attuned to such things...

 

51 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

I call this my Plex server.

 

Streaming is well enough for titles that we say "Hey, what's on?" But I'd never rely on it for titles that are important to me. (Yes, I'll buy the Strange New Worlds discs eventually.)

 

Well. I suppose there is a certain amount of complacency on my part. I don't have Person of Interest or Rebels on disc. I should really be taking a more adversarial approach and grab things while I can.

Well we have quite a bit in iTunes that's ripped from DVD which leads me to...

 

50 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

A bit expensive, I'd say. I'll stick with my strategy of purchasing films I want to see on sale. Mostly £4-5 a film, or occasionally more.

...yeah, it can be, but I usually rip DVDs and put them in iTunes and watch them at leisure. To be fair, these days our list is down to have a couple of dozen films on blu-ray but we add stuff fairly often. I don't know how it would compare to the cost if we rented via streaming, but it's more for the stuff that isn't available at all and, as much as anything, I'd be disappointed if Cinema Paradiso closed down completely so I don't mind spending a modest amount to support it and have access to stuff that isn't otherwise available.

 

I don't know if it's ever been tried, but I always thought that a DVD/blu-ray rental place for charity could work, but more in the style of a book swap than an orderly rental place. Basically people "buy" the disc for a couple of quid and, if they want to keep it, they can, but if not, they can bring it back and someone else can rent it. If you had a decent database, you can see what was in stock so people could browse online as well as come into the store. Maybe it wouldn't work, but rather than every charity shop having a few dozen discs, it could be one big store with a much bigger collection that people could also feel free to add to. Plus, you know... charity.

[Tallguy 3,398]

Yeah, try and watch 28 Days Later at the moment. (At least in the USA.)

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

2 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

One thing I note is that if you're prepared to pay you can watch nearly anything, and I did actually buy a movie called Secret Life of Bees from Prime when it was my book club's selection and it was only a few £s to buy (unfortunately I disliked the movie as much as the book).

 

The problem though is that even when fully paid for, you're still at the mercy of licensing agreements so if I understand correctly, if Amazon loses their agreement for the movie you've lost access even though you paid for it. Hence I'd never buy a streaming movie for something I cared about.

 

Hence I'd be a lot more open to a service where you paid the fee and then got to download a full HD file (20GB or so doesn't take too long on a good connection) but I suspect no studio will ever allow that because it leaves the door wide open for you to just give that file to someone else. Closest I've seen is a performer over here who films most of his shows and puts full HD copies on his website for sale.

 

Hence for films that are important to me for one reason or another, I have to own the disc.

All reasonable. Let's face it, if streaming services start to piss people off too much, people will just go back to file sharing. Kinda feels like the streaming services are getting to that point quicker and quicker at the moment, what with things disappearing too quickly - especially when it's the studio's own content, which always struck me as one of the significant bonus features of subscribing to Disney or Paramount or whatever - as well as the password sharing crackdown and the increasing cost of each service.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I understand the password sharing crackdown - that's much more blatant receipt of something you haven't paid for.

 

But things disappearing off services after a period is the killer for me. I'll always remember watching Kingdom of Heaven on some platform a few years ago and due to its length, I went to bed with about 5 minutes to go...... not realising that it was the last day they had it! I went back the next morning to watch the last 5 minutes and it either wasn't there or they wanted money.

 

My response? I liked it so I bought the director's cut Blu-ray. The fact that that's a solution to that problem in 2024 is not good, and if the streamers and studios don't find a way of keeping movies on their services far more long term, then as you say, it goes back to piracy - the very thing streaming was addressing at one point.

 

I like the idea of buying digital movies in place of discs, but again, the killer is you need to let me own a file of that download. I've given you money to buy it - you don't get to just remove it from me when you're bickering with the studio again. That's not my problem.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

I understand the password sharing crackdown - that's much more blatant receipt of something you haven't paid for.

Agreed although, in defence of those annoyed by it, some services (Netflix I think) did make a point of saying how much they didn't care a few years ago but.... now they do. In fairness, the cost of adding an extra household to your account means you could quite reasonably spread the cost across a few family households. Both my parents and sister's family have most of what we have... really should suggest it.

 

2 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

But things disappearing off services after a period is the killer for me. I'll always remember watching Kingdom of Heaven on some platform a few years ago and due to its length, I went to bed with about 5 minutes to go...... not realising that it was the last day they had it! I went back the next morning to watch the last 5 minutes and it either wasn't there or they wanted money.

 

My response? I liked it so I bought the director's cut Blu-ray. The fact that that's a solution to that problem in 2024 is not good, and if the streamers and studios don't find a way of keeping movies on their services far more long term, then as you say, it goes back to piracy - the very thing streaming was addressing at one point.

That is super annoying. I got about halfway through the 4th season of Babylon 5 on Amazon's advert services (before they fully embraced having an advert tier - can't remember what they called it, think it was in association with IMDB) but it suddenly wasn't on that any more and I had to pay to watch the rest. Funnily enough, as B5 had kinda reached the end of the main story before the show was unexpected extended for a further season, I was less inclined to rush to pay to watch it any more so still haven't seen how it ends!

 

On the flip side, we were watching The Middle (not Malcolm in the Middle, just "The Middle"), which nobody seems to have heard of despite it running for 9 seasons, and that disappeared of Amazon (I think) literally the day after we watched the final episode. We had no idea it was leaving so were quite relieved to have scraped through. Shame though, it was one of those lovely, easy watching, long running sitcoms that provides a nice end of evening watch. Current show that takes that honour is Seinfeld, fortunately still on Netflix...

 

2 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

I like the idea of buying digital movies in place of discs, but again, the killer is you need to let me own a file of that download. I've given you money to buy it - you don't get to just remove it from me when you're bickering with the studio again. That's not my problem.

Quite agree. This thing of deleting stuff when people believe they've bought something should really be illegal. If you've paid for something under the impression that you own it, you should be able to keep it. Of course companies hide behind the 39,105,304,423 (approx) pages of T&Cs to say "well, you really don't own them and we did tell you on page 925,234,234 in 1 point font so you really should have known...". It really ought to be regulated in a way that basically forces companies to say call it a "long term rental" or something. If meat produces can be up in arms about veggie burgers being called burgers, then consumers have every right to be pissed off at companies where "bought" doesn't meant "own".

[Richard Penna 3,694]

A long-term rental is definitely a more appropriate way to see it - all you're "purchasing" is a license to watch the film on their platform for as long as they carry it. In fact, the whole thing is basically just a way for them to get an extra $10 from you to watch a trendy new film, and their carefully-written T&Cs cover their ass if and when they lose the agreement with the studio.

 

Even iPlayer desktop which allows downloads, doesn't actually just give you a file to do what you want with. I believe they're stored in some sort of format that makes them expire after a period. It's all completely around controlling how and when you watch a show - for some reason all these studios are absolutely terrified of allowing you a private digital copy of a show.

 

I'm almost surprised there has never been a legal challenge to Amazon's "purchase" terminology actually, because you're definitely not purchasing anything.

[Schilkeman 964]

Everything is on Ebay, and it's mostly cheap. This stuff only gets expensive when we start thinking we need to own every movie or show ever made.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

12 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

A long-term rental is definitely a more appropriate way to see it - all you're "purchasing" is a license to watch the film on their platform for as long as they carry it. In fact, the whole thing is basically just a way for them to get an extra $10 from you to watch a trendy new film, and their carefully-written T&Cs cover their ass if and when they lose the agreement with the studio.

 

I'm almost surprised there has never been a legal challenge to Amazon's "purchase" terminology actually, because you're definitely not purchasing anything.

Exactly my point. I would hope there's some places where consumer and "reasonableness" laws are written in such a way that if you click to "buy" something, your "reasonable expectation" is that you have therefore bought it and if challenged in court, could potentially rule against the streaming service that they are misleading. I don't mind paying £3 to "rent" a movie to stream for a known period as it's an understood concept, but I only have one film purchased as a download and that's an I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue stage show!

 

Another reason why I only buy music from places where I'm very certainly downloading a digital file which is mine to keep rather than Spotify or Apple Music or whatever.

 

12 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

Even iPlayer desktop which allows downloads, doesn't actually just give you a file to do what you want with. I believe they're stored in some sort of format that makes them expire after a period. It's all completely around controlling how and when you watch a show - for some reason all these studios are absolutely terrified of allowing you a private digital copy of a show.

I highly recommend Get iPlayer Automator if you want to download BBC stuff, works for both TV (including movies) and radio shows. 

[Sweeping Strings 2,363]

The UK's terrestrial channels which are funded by advertising revenue (ITV, Channels 4 and 5) offer a 'premium' version of their on-demand platforms, meaning that you can watch their content ad-free if you're prepared to pay to do so. Otherwise, the programmes/movies will play with 'embedded' and unskippable ad breaks. 

It's all quite weird if you remember a time when these type of channels would've thought providing an ad-free way to watch was absolute madness.