The era of cheap streaming is officially over

www.cnn.com The era of cheap streaming is officially over | CNN Business

It’s the end of an era.

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The era of cheap streaming is officially over

www.cnn.com /2023/08/10/media/disney-plus-streaming-prices-reliable-sources/index.html

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This is the best summary I could come up with:
The disruptive streaming model birthed by Netflix that dangled all-you-can-eat menus of films, shows, and endless entertainment without pesky advertisements for extraordinarily low prices came to an official close on Wednesday.
Disney boss Bob Iger announced during the company’s quarterly earnings report that the Magic Kingdom will once again hike Disney+ prices for the second time in less than a year, increasing the monthly cost of its ad-free plan $3 to $13.99 in October.
When Iger launched Disney+ in 2019, the chief executive said he had intentionally set the price of the service well below competitors “to reach as many people as possible with it.”
But Wednesday’s move to significantly bump prices, marked an acknowledgment by Iger of the media giant’s intent to squeeze more revenue out of streaming by pushing consumers to the advertising-supported plans, which have proven to be more profitable.
When Netflix first offered its pioneering service for only $8 a month, millions of people signed up, eager to have access to the company’s expansive catalog for just a fraction of the cost of the traditional cable bundle.
That served as the genesis of the streaming era, with legacy entertainment companies such as Disney racing to launch their own direct-to-consumer products at unsustainably low costs.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
- It's all about ads to them, and I will do anything in my power not to see ads of products I am not interested in.. which is pretty much anything being advertised to me.
  Canada has advertising restrictions, notably drug commercials and until recently: sports betting. I wish they hadn't allowed those, they're the worst and since we're a new market every single site is advertising up here.
  
  Ads, and the fucking invasive data farming that follows it, are the bane of modern existence.
  
  Be thankful you don't have the drug ads. They're an infestation down here. The companies advertise the crap out of a drug that costs the patient 3-4k+/mo, it enters the doctors subconscious so they're more likely to recommend to the patients, pharma company makes bank, the lawsuits roll in right around the time the copyright on the brand name ends (they're all shit drugs and barely more effective than placebo, yet with knarly side effects), they close it down and let the generic manufacturers fight it out while they pump the next shit pill or shot. Rinse and repeat.
  Sports betting needs to go too, but I bet they'll just move those into shows like big tobacco did.
  
  We have them, but they're not allowed to say what the drug is. So only certain drugs bother, like Ozempic, but entire commercial is just everyone asking "Have you heard about Ozempic?" "Talk to your doctor about Ozempic"
  They can't say what it treats or side effects etc. I like old game shows from the 70s so I'll sometimes pick up an IPTV sub so I can watch the US gameshow channel, and then cancel shortly after because all the commercials are either drug commercials on repeat or mesicaid commercials on repeat. Its terrible.
  
  I watched an over the air TV show recently, and they rolled an ozempic ad every single break. I would rather watch an hour of the save the children or ASPCA ads to be honest.

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