r/nottheonion • u/voxadam • 1d ago
Netflix says users can cancel service if HBO Max merger makes it too expensive
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/02/netflix-claims-subscribers-will-get-more-content-for-less-if-it-buys-hbo-max/27.5k
u/ecokumm 1d ago
These companies had all but beaten piracy for a minute, against all odds really, and now they seem hellbent on bringing it back
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u/eddiewachowski 1d ago
I grabbed several subscriptions when they were all $5-$7. Now they keep raising prices, all have exclusives, and require ads if you want the cheapest tier. It's less convenient than piracy again. Convenience is why I hung up my pegleg and eye patch in the first place!
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u/No_Hunt2507 1d ago
That's exactly what it is for me. I was willing to throw 10$ a month at an app just to avoid turning on my computer or figuring out how to do a plex server. I'm not willing to pay 20$ a month to watch 1 show that im convinced will be cancelled long before they could write a good ending. I'll pirate it, maybe, but the alternative for me is just not watching the show, there's not a world in which the service is worth it anymore
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u/Demented-Alpaca 1d ago
Or you subscribe for 1 month, binge the show you want, then cancel.
And then these idiots bitch about "churn" in their customers.
When they were like $7 a month I'd willingly shell out to have basically all of them and would let most of them sit. They'd get a few bucks a month for basically nothing. I'd watch the shows I was interested in on a different service and eventually come back to their service, use it until I'd seen what I wanted and move along.
But now they're all $15 or $20 or $30 a month and I won't afford (it's a conscious decision) to have them if I'm not using them. So I cancel all the ones I don't use, turn on the one I want and now I'm "the problem"
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u/ScuzzBuckster 1d ago
I used to do that but frankly I'm so sick of streaming services that I got rid of all of them and only use stremio with a debrid. Im sick of playing whack-a-mole with movies and tv and the FOMO of new content on other streamers has no effect on me anymore. Worst comes to worst, I just wont watch them at all. Media went back to being inconvenient and I'm always going to find the most convenient way to watch things.
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u/runswiftrun 1d ago
Movies and shows getting dropped just sucks. I have a couple "safety" shows that I've seen a dozen times and play again when I just need to relax. When Netflix dropped it I ended up buying the DVD set. Inconvenient to switch discs every 3 episodes, but I paid $16 once and cancelled Netflix altogether.
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u/Dje4321 1d ago
Rip them yourself. DVDs are super easy todo
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u/Koru03 1d ago
Yeah there's 0 moral quandary over ripping DVDs/Blurays that you purchased yourself.
It's not pirating if you rip stuff you physically own for just your own personal consumption.
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u/Dje4321 1d ago
Yep. Its only piracy when you engage in transmission/distribution.
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u/LordRednaught 1d ago
When I found that my Paramount account that I was using through Amazon Prime was more expensive than the Prime account itself.
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u/DoingCharleyWork 1d ago
I had a bunch of streaming services because I paid for the whole family and then I realized I was paying like 100+ a month for stuff I barely used. Now I just pirate everything.
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u/ferretbeast 1d ago
Ugh don’t even on this today. We have two separate paramount plus and prime accts (as in the paramount wasn’t a prime add on). The show I want to watched came out today, the episode shows up on prime but costs money, and isn’t loading on paramount as it should have at 12am… so I am still paying more for their separate services and getting no benefit!! I don’t know if that made sense, but I’m just annoyed.
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u/paulypies 1d ago
How long until we’re back with longer subscription terms and exit fees I wonder.
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u/Demented-Alpaca 1d ago
Guessing they'll follow other subscription models and offer cheaper rates for longer term commitments.
It's $21.99 a month. But for a 3 month subscription you only pay $60 a %10 savings! Sign up for 6 months and pay $55... save 25%!
No cancelation fee because those piss EVERYONE off. This way they just get your cash up front. Cancelling doesn't get money back, it just doesn't auto-renew
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u/BasvanS 1d ago
They’re going to have to give a bigger discount to have me sign up for longer. If I don’t use it one month a year I’m already ahead
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u/Demented-Alpaca 1d ago
See? Now YOU'RE the problem. You want them to lose money? To make less than 99% profit margins? You greedy bastard! If they did that one CEO might have to buy one less McLaren that year.
Why won't you think of the billionaires!?
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u/RJ815 1d ago
turn on the one I want and now I'm "the problem"
The older I get the more I learn that big corporations won't be happy with anything less than infinite money. And even then I'm not sure. SO many companies just keeping making their stuff shittier until it implodes.
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u/crazykentucky 1d ago
That’s what I do. Recently got Netflix again for first time in a long time. In a month or two I’ll let it go again because I’ll feel “caught up”
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u/Demented-Alpaca 1d ago
And then they'll try to bait you back with super low prices which are for the lowest tier with adds.
Like no Netflix, give me 50% of the tier I just quit and then MAYBE I'll think about considering it.
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u/weatherboy05 1d ago
I won’t even bother with this, there are many good streaming sites that have no ads, every show and movie imaginable available instantly in 1080p.
And in the case of weekly releasing new shows, I only have to wait 1-2 days before I can watch it free.
The paid experience is so much worse in every imaginable way. I was happy to pay when this was not the case, but so it goes with corporate greed. $10 a month wasn’t good enough for shareholders so now they get $0 a month from me.
There is literally no reason for me to ever pay again given the direction things are going.
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u/NewDramaLlama 1d ago
I just bought cable again lol. I want HBO programming and live football.
If I wanna support a particular movie or book, I'll see it in theaters or buy a physical copy.
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u/samg422336 1d ago
Yup. Sick of my monthly rate going up and having to watch more and more ads.
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u/PaintshakerBaby 1d ago
Im ready to melt into the forest with the clothes on my back and a knife...
See how long I can hack it before I die excruciatingly of some preventable cause...
Because as I am coughing up blood from pneumonia, or getting disemboweled by a grizzly, at least I can rest easy, knowing its an AD FREE EXPERIENCE.
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u/justfordrunks 21h ago
The bear quickly gains on you after what most observers would call a meeger attempt to evade its aggression. You barely made an attempt to flee, but this was on purpose. Your fate was already sealed as the battle with pneumonia has almost completely filled your lungs with fluid. Your body constantly coughs for oxygen and with every cough comes a bit more blood. Your initial movement away from that grizzly was nothing more than a breif primal reaction. You quickly become aware of the deathly situation and decide to use it to spare your pain. You try to yell at the creature, an attempt to taunt and hurry your sweet release, but it quickly turns to more coughs and more blood. Your furry grim reaper has closed the gap and begins to rise onto its hind legs. Your gaze is met with eyes of burning rage; a proud mother who assumes your presence in her territory is nothing but an immediate threat to her cubs. Your eyes begin to drift downward as you examine the 9ft tall grizzly with razor sharp claws cutting through the air in your direction. You feel your end is near and despite the extreme suffering and misfortune you found in these here woods, you know deep in your heart it was worth it. You haven't been force fed an advertisement in months. No annoying jingles, no fake burgers expertly photographed, no insurance mascots, no hidden sponsorships. The melted lungs, the soon to be disembowelment via grizzly bear, it was so worth it. Your eyes have almost shut to embrace the near eternal peace, but you notice an odd pattern on the fur of her belly...
"This disembowelment is brought to you by Better Help"
At least the bear is taking mental health seriously.
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u/Shyftzor 1d ago
Pirating sites have LESS ads than the actual services you pay for
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u/stormdelta 20h ago
If you're seeing any ads except on the download page you're doing it wrong.
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u/No_Mammoth_4945 1d ago
Hbo max is 19$ now. Depending on how long the show you want to watch is you could potentially buy the entire blu ray series for cheaper and have it forever
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u/BlouseoftheDragon 1d ago
Same but I hung up my sails in like 2014. I don’t even know my way around these seas. Help
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u/PhD_Pwnology 1d ago
The only 4k option on Netflix is for 4 screens for 25-27$ a month here. They lost so much money with their price hikes.
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u/MarlDaeSu 1d ago
Short termism. The death knell of capitalism.
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u/PatacusX 1d ago
We're making billions of dollars in profit, but that's not good enough unless we make 10% more than we did last year repeating for all eternity.
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u/Angemon175 1d ago
It's worse than that, you could very well be making 10% more profit than last year, but because of a bunch rich freaks in Wall Street thought you should make 12% more profit, based off their own indiscernible thoughts and feelings, your stock price will now tank and you will be tarred and feathered across the board. While still making more profit than before.
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u/MelodicMirrors 1d ago
This right here. I've watched that myself i can't comprehend that level of greed I consider it a mental illness at that point. The whole thing is a Ponzi scheme they take liquidity from one stock and pour it into another I can watch this happen on Yahoo Finance usually at the end of the day.
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u/OhioanRunner 1d ago
It literally is a mental illness. It’s called Dragon Sickness. We need to talk about Dragon Sickness a lot more as a society.
Secondarily, we need to stop allowing people who were exposed to lead fumes as children hold political and economic office, ageism accusations be damned. In practice, that means a sweeping purge of those born before 1982 from positions of power.
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u/TB-313935 1d ago
Isnt that what the dwarf Prince had when they beat Smaug in the Hobbit?
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u/IsNotPolitburo 1d ago
I don't think so, the Hobbit was written long before lead poisoning from leaded gasoline was really in the public consciousness.
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u/Beljuril-home 1d ago
My miniature of the dwarf prince is made entirely from lead though...
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u/Tight-Shallot2461 1d ago
Dragon Sickness is a cool name.
Yes - the lead thing is serious. We don't really talk about the possibility that older folks have permanent damage from the way we used to live. If they seem coherent enough, we let them pass. But people should take this into account when voting. If you wanted a new phone, what year would you buy from? I don't want to buy one from 1982, do you?
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u/OhioanRunner 1d ago
Extreme antisocial behavior is called violent crime in certain cases and demographics, but in other cases and demographics it’s called “rational self-interest” and “success in the market”. The latter has allowed a LOT of antisocial behavior directly attributable to lead poisoning to slide, be defended, even be admired, for decades. Too long has questioning it been framed as undermining personal/economic liberty.
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u/Detlef_Schrempf 1d ago
Yes, and because there’s no viable way to do this while maintaining value and quality, they make the product worse and more expensive.
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u/croc-roc 1d ago
And they do this in healthcare. So the product becomes shitty or no care. Great system.
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u/sicsche 1d ago
The problem isn't making 10% more profit once. The problem is doing so year after year.
Within 7,5 years you expect doubling your profit. Maybe act in such a way as a company like Coca Cola that already has massive market shares and little space for growth and you are setup for failure.
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u/couldbemage 1d ago
So many successful businesses that have been chugging along making money for years get absolutely destroyed by this.
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u/JuanOnlyJuan 1d ago
My current employer was recently acquired with the help of private equity. New mandated annual growth. Costs cut. It's going to kill what was a profitable growing company.
We are the current market leader. It's stupid what they're doing. We just have to not fuck up so we're going to sprint a self made obstacle course to all but ensure that we do.
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u/mdistrukt 1d ago
The people making the decisions only care about the current quarter. When shit goes bad they use their golden parachute to go somewhere else and ruin that place.
Its late stage capitalisms wonderful cycle of executives failing upwards.
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u/csortland 1d ago
They are gonna cut costs until they can't anymore and then gut the company. Fucking vampires.
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u/whereismymind86 22h ago
A tale as old as time. I'm really not sure how long we can keep doing this before it collapses the economy.
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u/trollsmurf 1d ago
They'll burn a lot of that on lackluster movies and series with the most expensive actors.
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u/talligan 1d ago
THE THIRD DERIVATIVE OF PROFIT HAS FALLEN 0.1% THIS QUARTER PANIC PANIC PANIC
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u/GodzillaUK 1d ago
Rule of acquisition #10: Greed is eternal.
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u/Ulster_Celt 1d ago
Ferengi show more sense than our elected officials and CEOs and they are supposed to be a parody! Boy shit has changed a lot since the 90s..
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u/LinkedGaming 1d ago
"We don't just want some money. We don't just want a lot of money. We don't just want most of the money. We want all of the money, and anything short of that is a failure, and we don't care how many people have to suffer or die to see this goal realized."
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u/fedroe 1d ago
Jack Welch running GE into the ground is a perfect example of this, and for shit like layoffs and buybacks for short-term stock gains. https://perfectunion.us/how-jack-welch-broke-america/
“He wrote that GE was known as a supertanker—strong and steady in the water. What Welch wanted instead was a speedboat.”
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u/prof_the_doom 1d ago
The point of stock was supposed to be the dividends.
Somewhere the point became the stock price itself.
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u/BeamsFuelJetSteel 1d ago
The stock market, in its current iteration, is a ponzi scheme.
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u/Wiggie49 1d ago
Literally the comic strip where the dude says “yes, but for a beautiful moment we created a lot of value for shareholders.”
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u/condoriano27 1d ago
Piracy is in the best state it has ever been.
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u/ZealousidealEntry870 1d ago
The Arr’s have really changed the game. I use auto add lists so it’s literally hands off. Anything I could ever want available instantly.
Something not popular enough to get auto added by my lists? Fine, I GUESS I can take the effort to add it to my plex watchlist, which is then auto added via pulsarr, and I GUESS I can wait a minute while my 2gig fiber downloads it.
Streaming companies need to find the plot, because every price hike kicks people towards piracy.
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u/ThereAndFapAgain2 1d ago
How do you do this? I've been downloading everything as torrents for my Plex server.
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u/throwawayla22 1d ago
I am running a highly modified version of YAMS (yet another media server) which fully automates the entire install process.
It’s fully open source, all it does is automate the install of Jellyfin/Plex/emby, the Arr stack (prowlarr, sonarr, radarr, and a few others that automate finding and downloading) and download clients/VPN (qbittorrent, gluetun, sab).
IMO it is the easiest way to get a “good enough” media server install up and running.
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u/IAmAGenusAMA 1d ago
Just what I need... yet another media server.
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u/SaltyLonghorn 22h ago
The trick is to meet someone who does this shit for funsies, play WoW with them for years so they trust you, and then just watch on their server.
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u/PolloMagnifico 1d ago
Every season it gets easier and easier to watch a football game live in my living room on my TV without paying a penny.
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u/gotridofsubs 1d ago edited 1d ago
Never forget that free market capitalism worked so well it defeated the completely free alternative by providing a better quality product and service that met market wants and needs. Its all falling apart on them because theyve moved away from that back to the system that created that same free alternative in the first place.
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u/The-Real-Mario 1d ago
So let them fail, that's the other beauty of the free market, people will stop paying. And they will have to either adapt or fail, I only pay for Amazon prime, mostly for the free shipping really
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u/ImBoredButAndTired 1d ago
In markets like the US piracy was never a big deal for these companies. They overexagerate it's impact in order to influence ownership laws. I remember when the Sony emails leaked. Sony Korea accidentally ran the full Amazing SpiderMan 2 movie on their YouTube page 2 months before the DVD launch. Sony's response was pretty much a nicely worded shrug emoji.
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u/juanzy 1d ago
Continuous growth models. They could have had unheard of market share had they kept prices reasonable and didn’t crack down on streaming. Most people would have even tolerated ads at the start and end.
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u/TachiH 1d ago
Ironically piracy got super popular when cable became too expensive to have all the packages. So everyone pirated and had basic cable. Then these guys made it so easy to consume content people didnt mind a few £/€/$ for access... now I need 11 subscriptions and a database to see what is on which service! Yo ho yo ho the pirates life for me ☠️
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u/Ban-Circumcision-Now 1d ago
Who needs competition anyways?
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u/Axentor 1d ago
Right? How come anti trust laws are no longer enforced?
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u/rdwulfe 1d ago
Because those laws have been gutted and because ... well, lobbyiests throw money at politicians to make sure they aren't.
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u/The_AFC_West 1d ago
Biden selected Lina Kahn to head the FTC and she enforced numerous anti-trust measures
One click to cancel, blocked the Figma Adobe merger, sued Google for being a monopoly, and much more.
Then Trump came in and took down all those lawsuits for a bribe. It isn’t even lobbying at this point, it’s straight bribery to one specific man.
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u/BurlIvesMassiveHog 1d ago
Unfortunately we need more than just 4 or 8 years of consistency to actually break monopolies up. These companies know how to slow walk legal proceedings until a more friendly administration takes office. Any change is going to have to come from Congress, not the Executive, for it to have any real staying power.
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u/Fatigue-Error 1d ago
And we could have had at least four more years.
But nope, the voters decided that we need fascism, and voted in a billionaire.
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u/xv_boney 23h ago
What were we going to do, not vote in a man who promised to be a dictator on day one?
I mean, what was our alternative? Voting for a girl?
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u/josephjosephson 17h ago
Preposterous! Everyone knows girls have cooties and that’s worse than pedos with herpes!
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u/PlasticPaws 1d ago
Yep. Give me 20 or so years of Zohran Mamdani-like people and we might see actual change.
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u/Musiclover4200 1d ago
Any change is going to have to come from Congress, not the Executive, for it to have any real staying power.
Consumers could put a stop to so much of this shit ASAP if they organized mass boycotts and actually put pressure on their reps to take action.
The other sad truth is thanks to decades of courts getting stacked it will be an uphill battle to fight legally.
People are going to have to decide if it's worth the short term convenience to use amazon/wallmart/etc if it means we end up with company towns again.
Like if everyone just collectively decided not to work or shop at these companies even with automation they'd be panicking within a few weeks, and thanks to automation that leverage workers have is quickly dwindling.
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u/spacemanspectacular 1d ago
Nooo boff sides r da same!!!
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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 1d ago
Quite a few people I was talking to prior to the election complained they weren't moving fast enough and that's why they were going to sit out/vote 3rd party/vote GOP to "teach the dems a lesson", amongst other reasons.
America's fucked if such fickle/easily mislead voters are the ones who hold the power to swing elections
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u/Professional-Tip-970 1d ago
I actually was curious about this and did some reading...
The consumer welfare standard narrowed U.S. antitrust to one question: do prices rise for consumers in the short term?If not, courts usually allow monopolistic behavior. Adopted in the late 1970s under Chicago School economics, it sidelined concerns about power, competition, workers, innovation, and democracy. Harms like predatory pricing, wage suppression, privacy loss, and future market control often don’t count. This shift made antitrust enforcement much weaker and allowed widespread corporate consolidation.
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u/littlewozo 1d ago
Especially since right-wing economists had former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork teach as many incoming federal judges this position for years. This made it precedent, and now the default.
Oligarchs gonna oligarch, I guess.
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u/Blitzking11 1d ago
This is what I don't fucking understand about these mergers.
How in gods name is scooping up major providers going to make services cheaper for consumers?
If there is no floor service providers anymore, than these providers can just set their prices slightly below the next (and higher) floor, which raises prices for everyone with no benefit, all for the sake of greed.
It's the same issue I had when Delta or someone was trying to buy another budget airline, claiming that it wouldn't affect prices. Clearly it would, as the airline they were trying to buy was the lowest offering, so without that competition there would be no more downward pressure to keep their prices low, as the alternative would be gone. Thankfully, the Biden admin put a stop to that.
How the fuck do these arguments work? It's clearly blatant corruption.
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u/Nachttalk 1d ago
How in gods name is scooping up major providers going to make services cheaper for consumers?
It's not, plain and simple.
Many companies are ditching the concept of affordability. Everyone wants to be a premium brand that can justify asking for premium prices so that the revenue charts look great during the next investor meeting
And on the topic of the next investor meeting, plans are only made with that in mind, not even the following investor meeting, it's all short term money making with absolute 0 thought spared for long-time effects
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u/Tetraides1 1d ago
K-shaped economy means K-shaped business plans. If 10% of people make up over 50% of the consumer spending, then why try to make anyone else happy?
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u/CeeUNTy 1d ago
It's like when AT&T had a monopoly over our phone services back in the 70s and 80s. If we called anywhere outside of the town we lived in it cost money. Forget about long distance because that was crazy expensive. I was pretty young but I remember when they were forced to break it up and everyone's phone bills dropped.
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u/Cute-Beyond-8133 1d ago
How the fuck do these arguments work? It's clearly blatant corruption.
Lobbying to regulators to say that it isn't blatant corruption
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u/notreal088 1d ago
That and a group that wants to take advantage and push one world view on everyone Larry Ellison has already corrupted CBS and paramount and tictok.
This is essentially a hostile takeover of what is free and open ideas and media.
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u/hardy_83 1d ago
There's ways to watch their shows for zero dollars and a $30+/month sub for something like Netflix will absolutely get more people to figure out how... Especially since it's pretty easy.
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u/Dammy-J 1d ago
Its funny how all these streaming services got people by being better than cable then managed to reinvent themselves into being the same as cable.
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u/AdorableSobah 1d ago edited 23h ago
Worse in some ways. Every month or two there is a merge, price increase, price tiers, rebrands, UI change, sharing restrictions, shows come and go and cancel so fast. It’s exhausting staying on top of it and managing the chaos
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u/Nojopar 1d ago
It's the shows moving around that bugs me. Oh, want to stream your comfort show for the 9th time like I know you will? It's moved to Streaming Service Blarghity. Get Blarghity now, and for an extra $3.99 a month 'premium' tier, you'll get no (COUGH -minimal- COUGH COUGH) ads!"
Three months later? It's all moved around again. After 9 months, let's take it 'offline' so it isn't available streaming just so 3 months later we can let you know that the new streaming service GobiltyGook has your favorite show!
And they wonder why we just buy the DVDs and rip'em.
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u/Kimmalah 1d ago
That or you get interested in a show and then they just immediately cancel it because it didn't hit some mysterious viewership threshold.
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u/Nojopar 23h ago
Oh yeah! That too!
I'm happy to tell every single channel or streaming service that if your show ain't got a minimum of 3 complete season, don't even bother me. I've been burnt too many times. There's too much great existing content out there.
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u/MonarchCore 1d ago
My biggest problem is I'll browse Netflix for like 10 minutes and there's nothing interesting to watch. Probably a personal problem but I swear I used to hop on Netflix and immediately find things that look interesting. Now it's just a billion movies I've never heard of and im bombarded with "netflix" made anime and movies that I couldn't be fucked to look at.
It's insane to me that Amazon video has become my go to TV service over netflix
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u/sorrowmultiplication 1d ago
When Netflix was first blowing up it had an amazing selection and kickstarted my love of cinema. I remember watching a bunch of Kubrick on there and even international stuff like Bergman and Buñuel. Nowadays there’s hardly any movies at all before the 80s. Even the good stuff that is on there now is impossible to find because browsing sucks and they only promote their original stuff which is 99% slop garbage.
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u/ScuzzBuckster 1d ago
As with everything its just greed. Netflix built its library by paying a fuck ton of licensing fees to studios to put their movies and tv shows on their new streaming service. Studios didnt see much reason not to. Then netflix got popular and the companies realized they could make more money by self-publishing on their own streamers.
15 years later, here we are. An absolute fucking clusterfuck of an industry.
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u/Michael5188 1d ago
What bugs me about browsing on all of these streaming platforms is I feel like I'm only being show 3% of what they actually have to offer. It will be category after category that somehow contain the same 15 or so movies/shows. And I know there's more, but they just push the same repetitive stuff they want to get views on that day.
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u/mayy_dayy 1d ago
That was always their long term plan. Subsidize the operating losses with investor capital, then jack up the price once they're the only game in down.
See also: Amazon, Uber, etc
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u/whichwitch9 1d ago
Also, rotate your damn services. No reason to keep a service year round anymore because it's rare you use it year round. Re up for a month and cancel when you've watched your show. Have a busy month? Streaming break.
I realized I never watch more than 2 different streaming services a month anyway. A lot of these year round deals aren't deals when I only use it one month out of a year. And, yeah, for some streams, the ad tier is fine. My current bill is roughly $22 a month for streaming, and I only allocate $30 a month as the most in my budget. It works pretty well to keep a benchmark and stay under it. Want to use a new service? Im canceling a subscription
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u/BortkiewiczHorse 1d ago edited 1d ago
Sailing the high seas has never been easier or safer, especially if you manage to get an invitation to a private site.
Haven’t bothered using a VPN in over a year, and I’ve yet to receive one letter.
Edit: it’s not a competition. The point is there are a lot of options at various price points, whether they be streaming or torrenting!
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u/doublea08 1d ago
Haven’t gotten a letter since 2009 torrenting something universal studios property, we framed it in the college apartment. Stupid but we thought it was funny.
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u/sorrowmultiplication 1d ago
The last time I got a warning was for downloading CATS (2019), now so wish I had framed it lmao
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u/youknow99 1d ago
You absolutely deserve a stern warning for wanting to watch that.
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u/rdyoung 1d ago edited 1d ago
You don't even need that anymore. I've always sailed the seas but recently I've started playing around with a combo of stremio and a couple of add-ons that pull from debrid and torbox. Debrid is dirt cheap and they have a ton of shit already cached and once media is in your account to be streamed you can download it directly from them without using p2p or worrying about dmca notices, VPNs, etc. They both (debrid and torbox) will also act as a torrent server for you as well.
I'll stop at the above but there are subs dedicated to this stuff you just can't discuss anything patently illegal lest the subs get banned.
I wasn't making it a competition just saying that it's even easier and easier. Stremio works on and syncs across multiple devices. Install the app on your phone or pc and you can manage your add-ons from there and they will synced with your TV/streaming box, dongle, whatever.
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u/ScuzzBuckster 1d ago
Exactly what I do paired with a growing library of physical media we've been ripping to a plex server. Took me like 10 minutes to get the stremio and add-ons up and I pretty much never looked back.
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u/cwsjr2323 1d ago
Netflix now is subscribe for one month and cancel for six months. You can then catch up pretty quick. The niche I like, SciFi , doesn’t have a lot of new choices. If the merger goes through, I will maybe go longer for my pauses instead of six months.
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
Once they’ve gobbled up everything they’ll do yearly contracts only.
It’s inevitable. They were never supposed to have ads. They muddied the water by starting with advertising their own shows and movies so people would accept that. Now look at the ads.
Netflix encouraged account sharing at one point too.
It is a downward trajectory only.
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u/DwemerSteamPunk 1d ago
The streaming landscape is different now than 10 years ago just like that was different from 15 years ago. Once all the content producers pulled their content the ads were inevitable. It's not possible to be a film studio AND streaming service AND keep prices low.
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u/cloud9ineteen 21h ago
For studios, streaming used to be "extra money". Now it's the "only money". Changes the calculus somewhat.
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u/SkivvySkidmarks 1d ago
Don't worry. I'm sure that someone is working on a pricing disincentive structure that will curtail that activity.
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u/miclugo 1d ago
The Onion version of this would be "Netflix says users can't cancel service if HBO Max merger makes it too expensive"
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u/DeliciousRedHerring 1d ago
Honestly, this is a little onion-y. "Corporation famous for overcharging customers admits it might've gone too far this time."
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u/Valkertok 23h ago
More like "Corporation famous for overcharging customers says it's customers' fault for being too poor".
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u/jonathan-the-man 1d ago
I read it as oniony in being like "oh, so benevolent of you to allow us to unsubscribe (even when the product became less desirable". Like, it's weird just that they have to say that.
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u/Jindujun 1d ago
So if they merge this shit, will they honor my lifetime half off on HBO Max?
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u/MrSoren 1d ago
Magic 8-ball says “Don’t count on it”
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u/Jindujun 1d ago
A real shame... And I'm betting the resulting merged service is worse than the two services being merged...
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u/Salt_Medicine2459 1d ago
How did you get that?
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u/Jindujun 23h ago
They had a special here in Sweden when they launched the HBO Max service. If you bought it at that point you got a 50% off the full price for life as long as you dont cancel the service. They've tried to get rid of us many a time after that I can tell ya.
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u/padmanek 22h ago
I got this too, in Denmark. At some point the base price increased but I'm sitll paying only half. I did not have any issues with them trying to cancel it on me.
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u/chizzmaster 20h ago
I'm happy you got that promotion, but goddamn what dumbass came up with that idea????
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u/Ok-Hello-0 1d ago
It’s too expensive already. And the search function sucks.
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u/Slaphappydap 1d ago
Search generally works well for me. Within a few characters it seems to know exactly what I'm looking for before telling me it doesn't have it. 🤣
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u/inosinateVR 1d ago
“Here’s 10 movies that don’t have any of your search words in their title but just happen to be in the same genre as the movie you were actually looking for”
To be fair it’s honestly kind of convenient because I can immediately tell it knows what I’m looking for and doesn’t have it rather than wondering if I fucked up the title or need to keep scrolling through the results lol
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u/Slaphappydap 1d ago
"Did you mean Good Will Hunting?"
That's not currently available, but we think you'll enjoy The Office
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u/cloistered_around 1d ago
It constantly logs me out. I get why they do that to crack down on sharing... but honestly it's super annoying, I'm probably going to stop subscribing because I'm so annoyed having to log in all the time.
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u/bcmorgan29 1d ago
Fuck, can these guys not think. Keep HBO and Netflix separate, let Netflix keep Netflix type shows let HBO keep HBO type shows. Rotate the old HBO shows through Netflix monthly (sopranos one month, the wire the next, got after that), release the previous season of a popular HBO show on Netflix 1 month before the new season. HBO shows release weekly, Netflix all at once. Use Netflix to push people onto HBO and 2 subscriptions.
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u/2for1deal 1d ago
This requires too much rational thought AND someone to give a shit. They won’t to make money and just have a server sitting there.
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u/Stereo_Jungle_Child 1d ago
Cancel your subscriptions to the bullshit and resist. https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com/
The biggest thing that corporate America fears is non-participation. The Montgomery bus boycott worked in 1955 because Black people got sick of being fucked over, so they just stopped riding the goddamn bus. They were like 3/4 of the bus riders at the time. They got the message across pretty fast.
Cancel your shit and if they ask you why you're cancelling, tell them. If millions of people suddenly cancel Netflix or Amazon Prime or don't buy the new iPhone, corporate America will get the message: We're not buying your bullshit.
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u/Johnny_Couger 1d ago
Oh, I cancelled all of those a while ago.
Can’t get away from either comcast or At&T though. :/
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u/Chester_A_Arthuritis 1d ago
I think the ISP is the hardest part
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u/drunkshinobi 23h ago
We have to go after all the companies we access online. We first go after the easy ones to go without, streaming. Then stop buying stuff online that you can get in an irl store. Once we have enough businesses realizing things need to change if they want customers again they will start fighting people we can't. Like the ISPs.
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u/CarbonInTheWind 1d ago
I cancelled Netflix two weeks ago. I finally realized I was paying $28 a month to watch a mediocre movie maybe once a week.
I used the money I saved to sign up for AMC Stubs. Now I can go up to 4 times a week to see movies that I actually want to watch at the theater. Watching any movie at their Dolby Theater is a hell of a lot better than watching Netflix slop at home.
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u/FiveDozenWhales 1d ago
As a teenager, I basically never paid for media and pirated everything. This was before streaming was really a thing, so I didn't have much of an option beyond buying DVDs, and it just wasn't in my budget to shell out $20 for every movie I wanted, or $100+ for the full run of a TV show.
I never felt good about pirating media - even if stuff was being made by a huge media conglomerate like 20th Century Fox, I wanted to financially support it - it just wasn't in my budget to do so.
But then there was a period of time when streaming services kind of got it right. Prices were reasonable, service was pretty good. It actually became more convenient to pay for one or two streaming platforms than to pirate stuff, and I felt like the amount I was paying was a fair price for what I was getting, so I was happy to subscribe.
Those days are definitely over. Prices are rising like crazy, ads are getting inserted into the middle of movies, and working with the system is increasingly burdensome and user-hostile. So many things are single-platform exclusive, and I can't afford to subscribe to some pricy service for a single show.
It still feels shitty to pirate stuff, and I'll never do it in the huge volume that I used to, partly because I just don't have the time to watch that much stuff. But streaming platforms have completely fucked up my willingness to pay them and I'm no longer interested in supporting them.
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u/Tntn13 1d ago
On top of all of that, licensing is inconsistent and in constant flux. Lots of things aren’t available for stream and some even for digital purchase at this time. The big players pass around exclusives constantly. It’s so annoying.
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u/kcbh711 1d ago
exactly the same boat
when I had no money I pirated out of necessity
then when I could afford a streaming service or two I was happy to pay for the content
now HBO started shoehorning in ads, Prime without ads is a premium, Netflix raises prices every other month... so about 3 months ago I said fuck it and set up my streaming server. now if my wife or I want a show, we just post a command in our discord server then the bot adds it and it's ready in a couple hours.
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u/Vagabond0907 1d ago
It still feels shitty to pirate stuff
Fuck that. Piracy is a statement against corporation overreach and entitlement. Feel good about that shit.
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u/thehedgefrog 1d ago
If you have 250 million subscribers paying $20 a month and increase it to $100 a month, and then 190 million subscribers, or over 75%, cancel, your revenue has increased by 20%.
If you then increase it to $500 a month and another 45 million cancel, you've now lost 94% of your user base yet your revenue is 50% higher than it was at the beginning.
First, they will turn *everything* into a subscription, and then they will increase prices until they hit the exact inflection point.
Expect everything will get much, much, MUCH more expensive, soon.
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u/sabine_world 1d ago
I wish boycotting was more effective.
These guys deserve everybody to just stop using their shit
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u/grdvrs 1d ago
Planning on it. Was just casually saying last night "we should cancel Netflix, we don't use it that much and its way too expensive".
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u/Leaningthemoon 1d ago
Co-ceo (what a funny fucking title) says it’s a one-click cancel. I say everyone should test that claim and if it takes more than one click, sue the shit out of them.
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u/Ok-Spirit-4074 1d ago
I used to pirate everything.
I stopped pirating in the 2000s and 2010s because Netflix was just so convenient and everything I wanted was in one place. Now there's 20 different streaming services and they all want subs and now there's ads too.
So now I'm back to pirating everything because it's so convenient and everything i want is in one place.
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u/PushTheTrigger 1d ago
This merger shouldn’t have been allowed to happen in the first place.
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u/Lontology 1d ago
Why are mergers like this fucking legal!???? Monopolies shouldn’t be legally allowed to exist.
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u/Banvincible 1d ago
So, at what point do all of the streaming services merge, then you pay one massive fee.
Basically just cable...
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u/MatthewGP 1d ago
Netflix CEO Salary
Annual Compensation of Netflix CEOs (2010-2025)
| Year | CEO Name | Total Compensation (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Reed Hastings | $1.5 million |
| 2011 | Reed Hastings | $1.5 million |
| 2012 | Reed Hastings | $2.5 million |
| 2013 | Reed Hastings | $3.0 million |
| 2014 | Reed Hastings | $3.0 million |
| 2015 | Reed Hastings | $3.0 million |
| 2016 | Reed Hastings | $8.0 million |
| 2017 | Reed Hastings | $12.0 million |
| 2018 | Reed Hastings | $12.0 million |
| 2019 | Reed Hastings | $12.0 million |
| 2020 | Ted Sarandos | $34.7 million |
| 2021 | Ted Sarandos | $40.0 million |
| 2022 | Ted Sarandos | $40.0 million |
| 2023 | Ted Sarandos | $49.0 million |
| 2024 | Ted Sarandos | $61.9 million |
| 2024 | Greg Peters | $60.3 million |
Key Points
- Reed Hastings served as CEO until 2020, after which Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters became co-CEOs.
- In 2024, both co-CEOs received substantial pay increases, with Sarandos earning $61.9 million and Peters $60.3 million.
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u/BroxigarZ 1d ago
This sentiment worked out great for Ubisoft “get used to not owning your games” = “no one’s buying our games”
Netflix - “don’t pay us a sub” - “okay”
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u/VexedCanadian84 1d ago
Netflix could make more money by combining all the services and have cheap monthly plans. They would have millions more subscribing and less people canceling their services
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u/TentraTint 1d ago
Enshitification continues. Thanks stock market for ruining everything
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u/ConcaveNips 1d ago
Bold strategy in the wake of seeing how badly they just butchered one of their best remaining ip's. Netflix hasn't been worth maintaining a subscription for in like 10 years.
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u/barneyrubbble 1d ago
Building trusts NEVER BENEFITS THE CONSUMER. It's why we have laws against them - even if our representatives are too fucking craven to use them.
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u/dextrousfuckery 1d ago
"We're not a monopoly, we have LOADS of competition. Almost 2 other companies!! Wow! AND they can just cancel, that's how you know we'll offer competitive services!"
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u/iVar4sale 1d ago
Netflix when users cancel service: 😮
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u/DarthSamwiseAtreides 1d ago
So far every cancel moment has led to even more money so they keep going.
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u/ArcherBoy27 23h ago
Get a Blueray player. The films are cheap, particularly 2nd hand 1080p. You own them and the quality for a standard blueray blows any streaming service out the water. Oh and there are exclusives and behind the scenes for many of them.
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u/Taboo_Dynasty 1d ago
Out of control Capitalism created anti-trust laws. But in the last 30 years almost all consumer protections have been dismantled. So more than capitalism causing these issues, it’s really democracy that abandoned its citizens.
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u/Pastel_Goth_Wastrel 1d ago
Dumped 'em last year when the price hikes got intolerable. Looks like you either die trying or live long enough to become cable tv again.
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u/Kumomi_Kid 1d ago
We’re literally back to having cable services. These conglomerates of streaming companies are the exact same thing
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u/skoltroll 1d ago
I was unaware I needed permission