Streaming giants have banded together for lobbying power
Streaming giants have banded together for lobbying power
www.theverge.com Streaming giants have banded together for lobbying power
Netflix and others look for power in numbers.
181 comments
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Corporations: hey guys, let's unionize so the government doesn't exploit us.
Employees: hey, can we als...
Corporations: NO.
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Collective action for we, not for thee.
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Can't wait for this bullshit to get denied because writers/actors are already striking.
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every pirate related theme song getting increasingly louder in the background
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I just bought 16 TB to expand my media server :)
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You must have a lot of Linux ISO backups. Doing your part to preserve open source software history.
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I have a feeling part of their plan is to sink all the pirate ships.
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Nintendo has been putting anti-piracy protection in all of their consoles since the NES in the 80's. Every single one was cracked eventually. Oh, but surely they must be getting better? Nope, the Switch was cracked less than a year from release.
And Nintendo controls the hardware in this situation. Streaming services do not.
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Yo-ho, all together, hoist the colors high. Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!
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Yar har, fiddle de dee Being a pirate is alright to be Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free You are a pirate!
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It sounds terrible but I still love it
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ALESTORM INTENSIFIES
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Just call it what it is: bribing power
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Pretty sure it's more or less a cartel at this point.
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Collusion*
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streamers are currently being forced to reckon with their profitability — or lack thereof.
Netflix's 2023 2nd quarter revenue: 8.1 billion dollars BTW
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Brace yourself for a tidal wave of corporate apologists rushing to point out that “revenue isn’t profit!,!”
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...but it's not. And I really think people either don't understand that or they are intentionally misrepresenting the situation.
Being level-headed and fact-driven isn't "corporate apologist", it's how you maintain integrity and don't derail your own movement by being dishonest about shit that doesn't even matter.
It's like when Trump lies about his golf games. No one cares about his golf games but it makes you realize that if he's willing to blatantly and badly lie about something so trivial, he's probably also lying about absolutely everything else about him that might even remotely appear negative.
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On a tangent, and nothing to do with you, but I don't like how these streaming companies are being called "streamers". Streamers are those people streaming on twitch, not a company like Netflix damnit.
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To be clear, revenue does not equal profit.
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Net income doesn't equal profitability either. Companies scale their costs, including stock buybacks, based on revenue. https://ycharts.com/companies/NFLX/stock_buyback
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The slow march back to cable is unstoppable.
Pirate everything. Share everything.
Piracy is an access problem, not a consumer problem.
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It turns out cable wasn't some unique product or way of doing things, it's just the natural form media delivery takes under capitalism. Streaming services are convergently evolving to take that shape too.
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I mean that's not even a little correct.
Streaming allows you to watch videos on demand, and allows you to choose from a littany of providers, where you were previously limited to whoever laid cable in your neighborhood.
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Welcome back to the high seas mateys!
🏴☠️
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I even upgraded my pipe to fiber so I can share Plex with my friends and family. Built a machine with 16TBx6 RAID. Cost me a shit ton more than a year of all the streaming services but fuck them.
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cost me a shit ton
Yes but now you have an elephantine Silicon Schlong
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Yar har lobby at me. I do what I want cuz a pirate is free.
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Already downloaded 4tb of movies and shows :)
Don't forget to seed!
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My average seed time is well over a year. Private trackers love me.
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Was talking with a friend over lunch about this. I don't mind paying for media, but the greed I'm seeing from the streaming services now makes me feel like the more ethical choice is to pirate content and just contribute directly to the arts where I can.
They're getting to the point where they think that just because they have the platform and the licenses, they can soak their customers. Only a matter of time before the ad men move in. Anyway, fuck all that
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Get rid of them. Socialize their service. Host all content at media.gov and take costs out of taxes. We could pay artists more, have 0 ads, all for like $15 per paycheck. Those taxes would fund grants for artists and cover platform costs. No ads. No corporations.
P.S. you already pay taxes on media through various 3 letter institutions and licensing. It's not different from what we have other than eliminating the things we all dont like.
Watch the video. Benn Jordan has done a lot of the heavy lifting for us. This lobby exists to stop that from ever happening and nothing more. Fight them to the death.
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$15, that sounds like so much...now let me refuel my truck up and buy another beer.
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How do we socialise these globally important services? Let's say the Americans socialised all of the services we use heavily every day here in Europe. Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc etc.
How will that affect our access to these now internal US National Services? How will it affect our rights and ability to take those services to court - now taking the US State to court instead, when they do something bad?
How does that increase my rights as a consumer, rather than stifle them?
You're forgetting that the USA doesn't live in a bubble. Other countries exist. This is a global issue.
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Well, we would have the content we own. We would pay to lease the content we don't. If any non US residents want a media.gov account, they can pay for one out of pocket what Americans pay in taxes.
Problem solved.
It increases your rights as a consumer because it consolidates the location and entity at/to which you pay for that content. You get all the content in one place as opposed to via 12 different accounts.
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If I’ve learned anything about corporate lobbying groups it’s that they only exist to fuck you and ruin any legislation that attempts to protect you from them.
Eat shit SIA.
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Corps form "unions" and use money gained by preferential treatment by government to create propaganda shitting on unions.
Funny that.
No wait, infuriating. That's the word.
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They cry about the "free market" and then run to the Government to ask for "protection".
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Could they, instead, band together to offer a service that’s more user friendly than piracy? I suppose bribery is cheaper and easier.
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They did, it was called Netflix.
Then the Netflix rates went up while everyone pulled and splintered content onto their own services and then started shuffling it around.
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It would be such a wonderful thing wouldn't it? Now where was I again about profits and squeezing the customers?
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but muh maximum profits
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What you're asking for is a monopoly. It rarely is cheaper or easier. Sometimes, when heavily regulated, it could be. But history shows most of these are eventually privatized and deregulated and then we know what happens.
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Don’t put words in my mouth. Industries get together and set standards and form partnerships all the fucking time. It’s as much a “monopoly” as this lobbying project is.
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The streaming market is splintered to max and oversaturated by content. The bubble already burst and now people are cordcutting again or fleeing to independent content. Absolutely nobody wants ads back and all companies do is push them on users for ever more revenue. The model only worked because it wasn't as inconvenient and full of ads as traditional paytv/cable.
So now we've gone full circle and back to lobbies who at some point will undoubtedly create streaming-packages that will include a certain set of partenered services. Can't wait for the +1000€ per year -T-mobile-package-plan! Apart from Spotify who have kept their "affordable music streaming for 9.99€" promise over the last 10 years....the motion picture models have just become more expensive and user-unfriendly!
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Spotify also recently raised their proces, but tbf they kinda had to with the inflation. The depressing thing is that creators are rewarded for borting. (See slightly Sociables "the dark side of spotify" vid for indepth)
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but tbf they kinda had to with the inflation.
So, they used inflation as an excuse to charge people more money for an already-profitable product?
Wow.
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My parents are paying for YouTube TV through their T-Mobile subscription 🤦♂️
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"Guillotine sales soar as citizens band together for lobbying power"
One can dream
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Kind of lobbying I can get behind.
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What's the famous quote? Something about how a capitalist will sell you the rope from which you plan to hang them? Something like that?
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Lobbying should be fucking banned.
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It is far more likely that remarks against lobbying will be banned, because someone would lobby for that.
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It's still a useful mechanic to be able to influence government policy in between elections. Not all lobbying is pushing for this dystopian stuff, this is just what ends up in the news.
In Canada anyone can review federal and provincial lobbying activity. Eg:
https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/app/secure/ocl/lrs/do/clntSmmrySrch?return=true&time=1695867498006
I'm guessing there is something like that for the US.
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Vote in representatives that will ban it.
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In theory yes, but in practice extremely rich lobbyists will buy up enough votes to not ban it. Sorry, I mean "successfully lobby against it legally".
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Streaming has ultimately taught me how little I 'need' to watch since it trains you to really only seek out a couple things per service. I've also become very advertisment sensitive being blessed with tools to avoid that and companies honeymooning people for a while with fewer ads compared to what cable did.
Obviously, the dipshits are springing their 'trap' but I'm not bullish on the strategy of forcing consumers to suddenly tolerate a return of ads everywhere and always on entertainment. I just see folks running away again/further disconnecting from traditional media.
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Yup. The high seas are looking more attractive every day.
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And the tools to emulate the good parts of streaming with a home setup have never been better.
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The search for something to watch and to evaluate what streaming service I should subscribe for the next 2 months or so has become so tedious and the overall quality so low that I'm simply giving up on them as a whole. The price increase and ads weren't even necessary to drive me away. They only ensure I will not come back.
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Laws like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which features overly broad definitions of the platforms it targets and has troubling privacy implications thanks to surveillance requirements, could sweep companies like Netflix or Disney up into its dragnet.
Streaming companies are usually pro-net neutrality, and that’s been a difficult concept for lawmakers and regulators in DC to fully grasp.
For those that read just the headline. Not everything is black and white.
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Every now and again, their interests align with the average person.
But make no mistake, the companies forming a coalition like this for one or two good causes won't make up for the long term damage it will no doubt cause.
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It doesn't matter; they're controlling media and entertainment and that makes them always bad regardless of any extenuating circumstances.
All of those problems can be solved by breaking apart all of those corporations, putting all modern franchises in the public domain and legalizing pirating. Change the law solely for our benefit and not theirs. If they don't make content anymore, great; we'll shut off their shitty AIs and make shit ourselves like we were supposed to be doing the whole time.
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It felt inevitable at some point this was going to happen after they got caught off guard by the strikes to make sure that it never happens again, but the fight is not over yet.
It's more important than ever then for you guys to support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike, fight for workers, and fight for unions.
Otherwise, they'll just keep squeezing and squeezing, until there is nothing left.
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Can't support the WGA strike as it's over.
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Yay
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Hello https://jellyfin.org, transmission, radarr and sickbeard
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I think this is why net neutrality is so important. Back in the days the electromagnetic spectrum was not as heavily regulated as it is now. Technically anyone with the technical know how could set up a broadcasting station. Then CBS, ABC, NBC all got together and did exactly what these companies are doing. They banded together to make it harder for the average person to get access to technology. This is their primariy goal. To give their companies priority at the network level (seconds matter) and also, most likely what they want is to 1. Find ways for their content to be regulated differently and be sold as network packages 2. Probably allow their content to be delivered through means that require people pay THEIR ISPs. Now, i will be honest. I have not read the article but i knlw this has been the intended goal for many years.
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Yea, the logical next step is sadly for the streaming services to just buy the ISPs with the amount of money they have and lobby so they can block Torrent, Usenet and VPN traffic to stop piracy. Most people will keep paying for the services whilst there's signs of this happening because they actually believe all the "you wouldn't steal a car, so why would you steal the 9th shitty Star Wars spin off series" propaganda. Then they'll block porn tube sites too, for the children of course. The first one to do it will get all of the Christians on-side immediately who will accuse the others of being evil and allowing such awful filth so the others will quickly follow suit. After time passes I'm sure they'll bring out their own almost porn type content that will prove very popular. I could be wrong, but it'll be interesting to see how things turn out.
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Checkout streamio
You'll definitely stop paying these streaming giants.
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Thanks, going to check this out.
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Dude everything on that site was pay for or made you go different apps and pay subscription. Streamio is BS.
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Streamio is not for regulars.
I'll give you a hint- torrentio
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Is it legal? I don't want to go getting into illegal stuff
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Let's call it "Grey area". If you know what you're doing.
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You probably unknowingly break multiple laws a day settle down
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It's almost never a pricing issue, but a service issue. They can band together in their bullshit campaign all they want. They're still not getting my money, because I'm not paying 15 a month, to watch one movie with 7 ads, after which they'll also sell my data
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It especially doesn't make sense when you can stream most things for free here: https://fmoviesz.to/
All you need is uBlock Origin.
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Incoming attempts to legislate recordless VPN bans and over the top piracy mitigation strategies instead of attempting to provide better services to their users
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That's called a cartel
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Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
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Netflix and others look for power in number$.
Welcome to the United $tate$ of America, people; Where money is the only thing that matters
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Guess we have to band together then as well.
Don't forget to seed your torrents!
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Imagine missing the point so completely. Streaming, what a joke now.
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You don't need a union, we are all family here.jpeg
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This can only be a bad thing.
They will win and like live nation, will merge with more well placed companies until they are printing their own money.
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Wtf is shudder!?
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Horror and scifi based streaming service.
It slapzzz.
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I think it's a horror movie/series focused platform
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Spot on! The past few years has seen them get bigger budgets and they've pulled off some pretty clever/creepy movies
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AMC, it's just their horror subsidiary channel.
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The new group is led by two former policymakers acting as senior advisers: former Republican Rep. Fred Upton and former Democratic Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acting chair Mignon Clyburn.
Source: https://www.axios.com/2023/09/26/streamers-launch-first-official-trade-group
Mignon Clyburn is Jim Clyburn's daughter. SMH
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Who's that?
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Is good to see the US us finally embracing unions ❤️
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This does not spark joy.
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With our powers combined we are CAPTAIN (old) CABLE!!!!
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These fucks never did learn
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I wish I had never gotten rid of all my dvds
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Buy em back! DVDs are dirt cheap right now (sometimes $1 a pop at flea markets, garage sales, and thrift stores)
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You can do with a better medium that is less bulky and less prone to damage.
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Just get a VPN and download them for free.
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Arrr matey, it be lookin like time to raid an pillage
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Ha hoy capt'n!
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The Expectables.
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Great, now let me pay a single fee for the SIA, and be able to watch anything on any of those channels. I'd happily pay a higher amount for that privilege.
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That's not likely to happen, but if it did, it would be much more expensive and include ads. We're not returning to cable benefits without plenty of the downsides (and, no doubt, some new ones).
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This is honestly what Google should've done with Fiber.
Big tech's lobbyist dollars would have beaten Comcast's with ease.
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I'm such an apathetic consumer of media nowadays.. it'd suck if we all just started going outside again, yknow?
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The mall and downtown are dead
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That's fine, the people in the mall were dead to begin with. Just another outlet for zombie consumerism. There are better places outside.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
The new trade group should give companies like Netflix and Disney a solid foundation from which to deal with current and future regulation by the federal government related specifically to streaming.
The SIA formed as regulators look for ways to deal with a changing entertainment landscape that increasingly includes content creators on social platforms, which these companies don’t necessarily want to be lumped in with.
In addition to Netflix and Disney, Axios lists SIA members Paramount Plus, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, Peacock, TelevisaUnivision, and some small streamers like For Us By Us Network, Vault, and AfroLandTV.
Netflix joined the MPA in 2019 and left the Internet Association, a broader trade group representing Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon that can’t really help streaming video firms with intellectual property fights (and in some cases, could be at odds with them).
Because streaming video companies exist in such a weird limbo between all of these worlds, they could get caught up in legislation that’s intended to target other facets of the internet.
Laws like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which features overly broad definitions of the platforms it targets and has troubling privacy implications thanks to surveillance requirements, could sweep companies like Netflix or Disney up into its dragnet.
The original article contains 366 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 43%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
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So what makes it new? Is it just bringing in digital pure plays like Netflix and Amazon into the fold of TV industry stalwarts like NBC, Disney, and Disco/Warner? Is it new working groups that focus exclusively on digital regulation as opposed to legacy over the air and cable TV?
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I'm really glad I took the time to set up a Jellyfin server recently.
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bing ..
181 comments