the ads are minimally intrusive — that is, highly relevant and engaging — they should not detract from the overall user experience
In what universe do ads, no matter how "relevant and engaging", ever not detract from the overall experience?
I've been watching Monk recently, without ads, and it's very interesting how television shows used to be written and edited for commercials. It's dead obvious where the commercials used to be, and even that detracts from the overall experience.
Some shows we've watched spend their time "recapping" after the 'ad breaks", playing same scenes we just saw. Drives me nuts, wastes my time and feels so dated.
Monk doesn't go that far, and it's still obvious. "Here's a joke before commercial!" Pause. Fade back in to a new scene. Pause. "Here's a little cliffhanger before commercial!" Pause. Fade back in to a new scene. Pause.
I always thought it would be a nice addition to piracy for a release group to edit a version of shows that cuts the recaps and makes a more unified episode. I would totally only ever download their releases.
Same, been watching Dead Like Me and Xena: Warrior Princess and it's pretty distracting when it happens.
we were not the customers... we were the product lol...
yeah it hurts, so let's stop allowing ads into our lives as much as possible..
the fact that netflix wants to offer it for free is telling what their core business is turning into...
I hate ads, but sometimes prime puts 2 minutes of ads at the beginning of a show or a movie and then no ads, I'm ok-ish with this, much better than imdb or tubi that play the same commercial every 15 minutes
If I start a stream and it shows that it will have several breaks I stop it and get it from the high seas
I would be fine with that if it was free and didn't reply the ads if I stop and resume.
If I am paying money, then ads are unacceptable.
I just wish they could bundle all the subscriptions into packages or bundles and I could watch the shows at pre-determined times.
Stop it. Executives don't understand sarcasm and you've doomed us all!
It's okay.
Executives got were they are by being smart and making good decisions, not by listening to idiots on the internet.
They could even provide an electronic box (for a nominal fee, or course) that shows me a menu of all the shows and movies that are available and what times they are going to play. That way I wouldn't have to search through a bunch of streaming services. It could all just be in one place.
Why not sell a book that has that information at grocery stores?
Maybe they could add some kind of auto scrolling view that informs what is playing at those times? That'd be handy, sometimes I can't find anything to watch.
Tech bros reinvent broadcast TV.
Told people this years ago when pewdie pie became a millionaire selling ads. Like that was the time to wake up and hate every single one of these content creators for selling out and making the internet the hellscape this is. But no we Revere and emulate these people.
This is a bit unnecessarily tough on independent content creators... what exactly do you expect them to do? Make no money from their content? How would they be able to make a living?
There's no better ad for piracy than the greed of corporations. Don't let ads shit in your head. They disrespect you, you disrespect them.
I have hardware dedicated to blocking ads on my home network.
That will only go so far unfortunately. And network level ad blocking won’t protect you from their ads if they’re served from the same servers the content is.
This is step 86 in the plan. Step 87 is make people pay for the previously free service
Didn't they already had a paid and with ads tier?
Yeah but now the roped in new suckers that didn't know they need the product and the price is now 10 per month
"The enshittifucation will continue until profits improve." --CEOs of Publicly Traded Companies
I'll take "Organizations that made it to the top by doing something different, only to fall under leadership that doesn't understand what made them successful and descend into ruins" for 200, Alex.
Seriously, Jeopardy team - this is a rich category:
Netflix can't do what got them to the top.
Fuck everything about the changes they've made for the last several years, but they were always going to hit a wall when content owners put their content on their own platforms.
It's almost like all these CEOs and MBAs are just shooting in the dark because of the $$$ in their eyes, but the fact remains that the market is no longer responding favorably to their absolute need for year-over-year growth.
"Free ad-supported" makes you no different than a hundred other garbage-tier streaming services.
And in 2 years they'll move to 3 tiers, free with ads, paid with slightly less ads and even more expensive than before but no ads...
If they aren't going to charge for access otherwise then I don't think being ad supported is such a bad thing. Much more honest than subscription pricing and ads in my opinion.
Streaming is just cable
There is one benefit, at least for now. You aren't locked into long term contracts like cable has/had.
Imo that's pretty much the only benefit these days. But I'm also waiting for those 1 year, 2 year, etc "deals" where they offer $1/mo off or something
They will still be selling user data whether you opt for the ad supported tier or not, so get used to that.
If they haven't been doing so for at least a decade, I'm sure their shareholders will want to know why not.
The advertising ouroboros continues to devour itself
My Plex share doesn't care lol
The way the industry is pulling the screws tighter and tighter is just ugly to watch, and it's hard not to be caught out.
I won't support any streaming service that has a sub+ad tier. Ads with no sub or sub no ads, anything else is incredibly greedy and the same as cable TV.
Enshittification? ✔️
Life is stupid. What are we even DOING here???
Building shareholder value, duh.
Do it!
Ill cut subscription to free tier let adblockers do the rest. Profit.
Doesn't this already exist or did I imagine it?
I thought they introduced it years ago
Edit: oh I read again, this time it's free
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
