How the Entertainment Industry Solved Piracy, Then Made It Popular Again

Gimpymoo · 1 Jan 2020 at 12:40

An interesting read and in my view, an accurate summary of where we are at.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...stry-solved-piracy-then-made-it-popular-again

I know that mainstream users are happy in their app laden utopia but when people start adding up their subscriptions and realise they are paying close to Sky sub fees in total, it will hit the fan again.

Werewolf · 1 Jan 2020 at 17:09

Several of my friends and I have been saying this for a while, the fragmentation of the content to multiple different supscription services (all at $10/£6 or so) is going to lead to a big increase in piracy again, as people aren't generally going to keep renewing/cancelling subs for a month or two on a dozen different services, nor are they going to subscribe to a service just to watch the one series it has that they're interested in.

I currently have two streaming subs (although Prime is mainly as a bonus for shipping), I'm considering one other because it has a load of new content that won't make it to TV* and works out cheaper than buying the eventual DVD's (if they get released in the UK), I'm not going to sub to the likes of Disney+ purely for one show, nor Starz etc.

*It's releasing a shed load of new content a week and has a huge back catalogue of content that interests me.

Participant · 1 Jan 2020 at 17:17

Music for me is a successful model. You can choose between different service providers based on functionality, features, design, cost, etc. but all them them have all the music.

I wish this could be replicated for video media.

Rroff · 1 Jan 2020 at 17:19

Yeah sucks for video - it was moving away from staggered releases and fragmented services but now moving that way again which is just a pain.

hominid · 1 Jan 2020 at 17:36

Watch for one month, what you want in that time and cancel and then switch to the next service - rinse repeat(sometimes don't watch anything for a few months). Sometimes you even get a free month thrown in once in a while. I pay one subscription at a time but only 4-6 months per year for all 3 services I use.

Gimpymoo · 1 Jan 2020 at 17:37

Participant said:
Music for me is a successful model.

The music industry was DYING owing to piracy. They were scared. Prices dropped and consumption was made easier and they turned it around with both streaming and purchasing models.

The TV/Film industry is in a right mess regarding a switchover to digital distribution.

theone8181 · 1 Jan 2020 at 19:30

I'm guessing disney+/ the mandalorian is a big source of this (myself included), you can't lock stuff behind a PayPal (that's impossible to legally watch in the UK) and expect it to not get pirated. I currently have a sub for Netflix, sky and have 6 month free trial of Amazon prime. I think in total I'm paying 50 quid a month so not too bad, although I've got a login for my parents and they watch a lot of Netflix at their house (probably against Netflix's rules).

mid_gen · 2 Jan 2020 at 08:22

hominid said:
Watch for one month, what you want in that time and cancel and then switch to the next service - rinse repeat(sometimes don't watch anything for a few months). Sometimes you even get a free month thrown in once in a while. I pay one subscription at a time but only 4-6 months per year for all 3 services I use.

This, although I have Prime all year. Netflix is mostly garbage these days so I only sub for a month in every 3-4. I'll sub to Disney+ for a month to watch the Mandalorian.

I do pay for Sky and BT Sports though but that's my luxury as a sports fiend.