Shit like this is why I don't feel bad at all for pirating.
They raise their rates by 65% so they can continue to pay Hollywood actors to make crappy forgettable movies for the service
Shit like this is why I don't feel bad at all for pirating.
They raise their rates by 65% so they can continue to pay Hollywood actors to make crappy forgettable movies for the service
Don't forget the 5 BILLION dollars they just gave to WWE, a company that regularly goes to Saudi Arabia. A country so backwards in human rights that they don't allow women to work. So WWE's answer to this was to create a tornament just for the women. Called "The Great Moolah Classic". Only problem with that is, it happened just as the MeToo movement was happening. Now in case you're unaware, womens pro wrestling from the 1950s through the 1980s was dominated by "The Great Moolah".
Btw, I'M not saying she was great. Far from it. Thats just her stage name.
But if you were a woman, and you wanted to get into womens wrestling between 1950-1985 you NEEDED to go through The Great Moolah. Here's the problem though.
You had to live in a camp, where she controlled every aspect of your life from training through retirement. What she did with this control was appalling. She forced them to prostitute themselfs out to not only the male wrestlers, but also the rest of the general public in the area.
These women then had to give 100% of the money to Moolah, or else they'd be beaten.
And that's the tornament they tried to give as the consolation prize for women not being allowed to wrestle in Saudi Arabia. Oh, and when they were forced to change the name, almost IMMEDIATELY, they changed it to The Mae Young Classic. Mae Young was Moolah's best friend, and one of the people who would help beat the other women. That's still what it's called today. When they first introduced the trophy for it, the trophy was intentionally made to look like a vagina. "Here's your make believe trophy for winning a make believe tornament, as a consolation prize for very real restrictions on making very real money, and we shaped it like your genitals. Snickers, who sponsered the tornament balked when they saw their logo would be on that trophy, and they were forced to redesign it to something more generic. The tornament continues to this day.
And that's what Netflix just paid 5 BILLION dollars for. Either 3 or 5 years. I forget which.
Holy shit, do you have some more info or refs for this, this sounds unbelievably fucked up.
From the book The Chronicles of Mad Maxine and from Dark Side of the Ring S01E06.
Disclaimer: I only know what I just looked up. Not a big wrestling watcher personally.
From what I can tell there's two separate titles. The Mae Young Classic had two tournaments in 2017 & 2018. The Great Moolah was announced in 2018, subsequently changing the name to WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal. It also has only had two tournaments, in 2018 & 2019.
As for the logo/trophy, WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal looks like this, and the Mae Young Classic looks like this. I couldn't find any info on previous versions, but if there was one that looked more like a vagina, it might as well be an anatomical model.
Care to share what site you use to pirate? I haven't been in that loop for a while, but all these pricing increases for all these streaming services is driving me back.
Check out FMHY (Free Media Heck Yeah) they have a subreddit (I think) and a website. There's absolutely everything there for pirating.
Netflix has no way to continue growing aside from increasing prices. That is a bad sign. They will just keep squeezing people. Your best bet is to stop subscribing.
Damn near every tech company and major utility provider has no way of growing aside from squeezing.
No matter where you turn you will be getting squeezed, and it'll just get worse every year that regulations don't catch up.
And if the U.S. has it's way, institutional regulation will be a thing of the past as a new wave of unchecked corporate oligarchy begins. And since the U.S's biggest export is crazy, it'll just spread....
Making the future more grim.
The shareholders are seeking to juice the company and throw it away as usual. Users need to see the writing on the wall and move on.
Genius MBA thinking of our time
Yea tbh it's business model is gonna be obsolete.
The bottom line is especially in a trash economy where the rich are bleeding everyone, no one is gonna wanna pay for digital luxuries.
I only shell out for hardware and food.
Netflix removing subscribers. What is their plan, zero subscribers?
Is it opposite day?
They've tested the waters, and people will most probably wind up staying, as their password crackdown demonstrated.
Do you have any data that shows Netflix didn’t lose subscribers in markets where they cracked down on password sharing? I keep seeing people saying this is the case, but all the news stories I’ve read say that Netflix is only adding subscribers in the cheaper markets (like India and South America).
I don't have a source, but it wasn't that Netflix didn't lose subscribers, it was that their revenues grew. Part of that was charging subscribers more, but a lot of that was the new ad-supported plans netted them more money than basic ad-free plans. Which is probably why they're now sunsetting the basic ad-free plans.
Slightly off topic, but starting 2025 they're going to stop providing quarterly subscriber numbers to focus on "other metrics" related to revenue and growth.
remember when the adfree plan for netflix was 8.99?
Yup, and that's when I stopped buying DVDs and pirating. But with standard without ads being ~$15 with less selection, guess what I've gone back to doing?
My biggest beef is that the ad plans also limit your downloads. I use that feature a ton.
So now I just pirate everything.
I joined the Plex server plan, it's better and works everywhere and I don't get price increases or ads
All the shows that I like I've been buying DVD or Blu-rays for, and then I rip them and put them on my Plex server. Just so I can watch some anytime, and not potentially damage the discs.
I don't have to worry about geofencing, Don't have to worry about a price change ever, Don't have to deal with commercials, Don't have to think if the shows that I like are going to disappear and maybe show up on a different provider, and generally higher quality audio and video.
Jellyfin + Wireguard VPN server says hello
Is it that the decade of 0% interest rates and angel funding for startups lulled us into unrealistically thinking we could get unlimited everything for 9.99 per month, or is it that companies are suddenly starting to rip off people?
As an end consumer it's impossible to gauge what is a proper price for entertainment.
Netflix has been profitable since 2003. This is greed.
It's probably the latter.
"Delivering shareholder value" has destroyed numerous companies, and I doubt it'll stop soon.
It's simple really
Is the boss a multimillionaire?
No: No problem
Yes: They're charging more than they need to
As with many things, it really is likely a mixture of both. Very possible that 9.99 was unrealistically low, but the current streaming market and "inflation" smoke screening is also enabling some real squeezing of consumers.
Not me! I gave all these streaming assholes the boot years ago.
Also, on the "standard with ads" tier, they've removed the ability to chromecast.
Wow what a dumb way to basically gatekeep me from even moving to the ad tier.
Not sure if it'd work on Netflix but my wife were pleasantly surprised to A&E and History apps on our apple tv suddenly forgetting how to do ads after I set up adguard home with a few extra filter lists...I did have to ok a few things the list blocked. But the apps work and seem to be adless, at least for now.
Yeah I regrettably* bought a year's subscription to Peacock and was also pleasantly surprised that my PiHole just blocked all the ads.
*This was when they were offering a year for 20 USD. They had advertised world cup streaming but neglected to mention that all the commentary was in Spanish with no English option. I ended up just streaming a Swiss TV channel because it was at least in a language I can understand.
We now have a collection of maybe 400 DVDs (not pirated, legally purchased). Sure, everything we watch is reruns, but there are no commercials.
99% of the shit Netflix has is reruns anyways
If that happens,i'll trakt + jellyfin the hell out of all their shitty shows. Just for kicks.
40 months of PIA is $80. So for $2 a month, you can have it all with no ads and no region locking.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.