Netflix, Disney+, TVNZ+ etc all happily solved "the piracy" problem because piracy was a mitigation of broadcast TV's anti-consumer distribution business model.

Now these pigs have saturated the market (there are no more non-subscribers to sell to) and bump up their prices without any commensurate lifting service to inflate profit.

All they are doing is pricing people back to piracy.

Time to break out the old Sonarr/Radar stack again.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They don't even do it in a subtle way either. I would be fine with a yearly 3-5% because hell, inflation and everything goes up over time. But they seem to be doing 20-30% increases every other year and it's ridiculous

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's just greed.

Any sustainable business would be finding ways to be more efficient, allowing them to lower retail cost.

Take Amazon Web Services for example the unit price of every service trends down over time because they get more efficient delivering the service.

They add new services for you to buy or lower the cost of existing services to entice higher usage.

But media? Gobble gobble gobble.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And if they're hosting on one of these cloud platforms that is decreasing in cost, then they're paying less for hosting and increasing their profit margin even without the subscription increases. I never made that connection before... Excellent comment.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

100% this. I always picture Agent Smith from Matrix Revolutions - "MORE!" .

I had a brilliant home server set up about 15 years back with a Usenet subscription, SABnzbd Sickbeard, Couchpotato, Sonaar etc. Might be time to check out the modern versions and put something back together. Sigh.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I’ve heard that stremio + real debrid is a convenient setup these days, way easier than all the *arrs

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yep. I setup sonarr, radarr, jackett, overseerr, and whatever the autounzipper is last year when netflix nixed password sharing and haven’t looked back. Streaming stuff is as easy as just adding something to my plex watch list. Sometimes it misses it, so I have to manually add it, but it’s not even that hard. It works for my older parents too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thats a very insightful take, couldnt agree more

[+] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I haven't done it in so long that now I don't know how to do it. Back in the day was lime wire/napster/kazaa... Then I think utorrent and like... TPB, Kickasstorrents... I think you just used a proxy/VPN and we're good to go.

What do the seas look like now? No idea.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's much improved. Check out the *arr suite, sonarr, radarr and prowlarr paired with something like plex or jellyfin.

Everything is automated and it's a bloody game changer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I went the Stremio/Real Debrid route. It's like $3/mo and you can just stream anything you want

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That can't always be the solution. Ya it sucks caving in but it sucks more having to balance your day to day life with a family and having to severely limit what your kids sees because there hasn't been time in the week to download the latest TV craze for them. The typical day to day person just doesn't have a minute in the day to spare ESPECIALLY nowadays. It's fair

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I don't think it's fair when I have to bust my ass as long as I do for pennies while major brands are reaping record profits year over year. Seems more like an unbalanced scales of justice to me. You and I don't have many hours in the day, yet the big dogs who make literally millions per year can go play golf, fly for a vacation for a month, etc. Who's working harder? I'm not asking for the world. I'm asking for fair pay and fair costs. If I'm struggling, my pay is not fair. If you're record breaking profits every year are successful, you aren't setting fair costs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I cut netflix and disney a year back and my kid hasn't mentioned them. age at 5 years old could be a factor - 10 might be different and harder to resist. He's hardly had any media growing up saying that. Wasn't really a planned thing so as with any parenting matters I get its whatever works for your mental survival. I have a couple of seasons of the 3 shows he has watched in the past on a Plex server incase of desperate times. Yaharrrr .

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

memes-11604439

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Amazon and AppleTV+ make up the bulk of my viewing. It's been a while since I've watched anything on Disney+ or Netflix so they're first on the chopping block.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Mainly have (had - have already cancelled) Disney+ for the kids. They love all the Star Wars series, Marvel etc.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You may be able to grab an annual subscription at the old price to lock it in for the year?Have to pay up-front though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nope. The annual prices went up already

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ah that sucks. I assumed it would be the same date as monthly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I paid 🇦🇺$140 for the year a week ago on the au site. What's the annual nz price at the moment?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It says $149.99 for me for 12 months, and $14.99 per month (standard plan). Is the Google Play subscription priced differently?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Google might take a cut for people who pay through their app store.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Oh for sure they do, but it seems wrong to pass that onto users, so that's probably what's happening.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Laughs in piracy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I joined with D+ on day one in the states, locking in a yearly rate. Last September ('23) we were all notified of the yearly price more than doubling.

yo ho ho.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Crap like this is why I went back to sailing the 7 seas

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Yar🏴‍☠️