16h ago

Can't pay, won't pay: streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

www.theguardian.com

Can’t pay, won’t pay: impoverished streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

Comments

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ @lemmy.dbzer0.com

NinjaZ @infosec.pub

42m ago

Can’t pay, won’t pay: impoverished streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

www.theguardian.com /film/2025/aug/14/cant-pay-wont-pay-impoverished-streaming-services-are-driving-viewers-back-to-piracy

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ @lemmy.dbzer0.com

cm0002 @piefed.world

20h ago

Can’t pay, won’t pay: impoverished streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

www.theguardian.com /film/2025/aug/14/cant-pay-wont-pay-impoverished-streaming-services-are-driving-viewers-back-to-piracy

Television @piefed.social

Davriellelouna @lemmy.world

1d ago

Can’t pay, won’t pay: impoverished streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

www.theguardian.com /film/2025/aug/14/cant-pay-wont-pay-impoverished-streaming-services-are-driving-viewers-back-to-piracy

10 comments

They really do bend over backwards to ensure that they have an adversarial relationship with their customer base.
Enshitification, in action.
I've avoided ads for 30 years now, I'm not stopping now. I would happily send shows I watch a couple bucks an episode and still pirate them so I can avoid ads of products I will never buy. But they don't give you a way to do that.
I pirate a ton of shows that I technically could stream but I either can’t be bothered to find my login information or prefer the interface for Plex over the streaming service.
For example, plex not only shows me how much time is left on the video, but also what time that will be. And it doesn’t automatically skip end credits like other services.
- Oh, I really hate when streaming services skip the credits. Especially if they don’t have an option to turn that behavior off.
  
  I especially hate it when I recognize someone and I want to watch the credits to see if it’s really them.
  Though cable wasn’t much better. They’d cram the credits onto a third of the screen and then have something else on the rest.
- Plex allows you to shuffle episodes of seasons, shows or playlist. I never realized how much I missed that when my hardware died and I had a few months between replacement
  
  Oh man, that’s one of my favorite features.
  I’ve got a playlist of [adult swim] shows, a playlist of anime, one I call TV Land which has old sitcoms, one for 90s sci fi, and a bunch of others. Putting them on shuffle gives me a similar experience to cable without the commercials.
  I’m amazed a streaming service hasn’t added user-curated playlists yet.
yohoho
I never watch TV. This week we had to force ourselves to have family nights and watch a Netflix movie. Yeah they're screwed.

10 comments