Sigh. I don't want to, but...

FoxEye

FoxEye

FoxEye

Caporegime
Joined
17 Feb 2006
Posts
29,263
Location
Cornwall
Firstly, I like to pay for my entertainment, and have done for years. I'd much rather be legal than be downloading stuff for free.

Sadly, with TV series it's much, much harder to be legal, isn't it. Either the stuff I want to watch is plain not available outside the US, or it gets licensed to one "exclusive" provider in the UK. Ultimately meaning it's a PITA to watch stuff legally, without shelling out $$$ for multiple subscriptions, to Lovefilm, Netflix, Blinkbox, BT or whoever has what I next want to watch.

Why make it such a hassle? I'm happy to pay something, but I'm not putting up with constantly swapping between providers or proxying my way on to US Netflix (which is still illegal anyhow). And I won't pay for subs to all these companies - one should be enough. I honestly feel sorry for those of you who follow football, and have to shell out for Sky *and* BT, to get the full season...

Ultimately, I'm feeling like my lack of choice is making the choice for me, and despite my anti-piracy leanings, there is only one place serving the content I want, without the hassle.

How do you guys feel? Does it bother you either way? At the back of my mind I'm thinking that these are all TV series anyhow, and I could have watched them for 'free' on Sky if I'd wanted to.
 
I'll try and watch what I want on Sky, Netflix or whatever, but if I can't find what I'm looking for then I'll look elsewhere. It's their problem for not fully providing it to people who want to watch it legally.
 
I will always buy what I enjoy, and like. But like you there is some things that are just unobtainable, for me it's mostly anime, even most of the LEGAL stuff is blocked outside of U.S (unless you go around it) so it's a right PITA.

Also things that don't get released on DVD/bluray etc.

If they weren't so wrapped up in the legal bits and bobs and actually made it available there would be much less of a problem with pirating.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Pay for Sky :confused:

You're not entitled to watch anything for free if its not intended to be free.
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I do pay for Sky ;) Had I wanted to I could have recorded any of these shows at the time they first aired.

Let's say (for example) I want to start watching The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

GoT is exlusive (in this country) to Blinkbox. TWD is exclusive to Lovefilm... etc, etc, etc.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/homecinema/...nstant-study-suggests-you-need-both-50010180/

To watch everything you'd need subscriptions to Lovefilm, Blinkbox, Netflix, and others. That's ridiculous.
 
And having just checked out Blinbox's price, they want £2 per episode (of 1hr). Crikey, that's rich. £20 to watch Season 1. Forget it!

heh, make that £24. £4 extra for HD :p
 
FoxEye said:
I do pay for Sky ;) Had I wanted to I could have recorded any of these shows at the time they first aired.

Let's say (for example) I want to start watching The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

GoT is exlusive (in this country) to Blinkbox. TWD is exclusive to Lovefilm... etc, etc, etc.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/homecinema/...nstant-study-suggests-you-need-both-50010180/

To watch everything you'd need subscriptions to Lovefilm, Blinkbox, Netflix, and others. That's ridiculous.
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You can get GoT on Lovefilm so far as I can tell...

Anyway. Just wait for the exclusivity deals to run out.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Pay for Sky :confused:
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How does that help when some shows will not even being aired on Sky, or Virgin?

Shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black are exclusive to Netflix online, and I don't think they will ever get aired on any of the standard TV channels.

With Youtube starting their pay channels soon as well, there will probably be more content which bypasses companies like Sky and Virgin, so paying for one service will not mean you get everything any more.
 
Vonhelmet said:
I'm just stating the facts. I torrent things from time to time, but I don't come here looking for someone to salve my conscience and tell me it's ok.
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Nah, it's not that. It's partly to moan and I party to gauge what people think about it. Oh and some of these exclusivity deals last 7 years. Not waiting that long ;)

It's a real PITA that it's 2013 now and downloading is still the the most accessible way to get TV shows. Steam has solved the problem for PC games. 100% solved.

Hell I'd buy GoT Season 1 for £5-7. If I liked it I'd buy the other seasons for £5-7 too. But no, you can't do that.

You have to mess around with a whole bunch of subscriptions to services you don't want, find out who's exclusive to who, and then go through all the hassle of cancelling afterwards. Only to have to re-sign up for the next season.

PITA!
 
El_Watcher said:
How does that help when some shows will not even being aired on Sky, or Virgin?

Shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black are exclusive to Netflix online, and I don't think they will ever get aired on any of the standard TV channels.

With Youtube starting their pay channels soon as well, there will probably be more content which bypasses companies like Sky and Virgin, so paying for one service will not mean you get everything any more.
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So then pay for the channels that have shows you want to watch? :confused: And if you can't afford to pay for every channel that has something you want to watch, then prioritise or make more moneys. It's not rocket science.

Or just torrent everything, but don't play dumb about what you're doing.
 
FoxEye said:
It's a real PITA that it's 2013 now and downloading is still the the most accessible way to get TV shows. Steam has solved the problem for PC games. 100% solved.
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Although I am on your side for most of what you say, Steam has not fully solved the same situation with games. There are still games that can't be bought from Steam. Certain EA games were pulled so that they could be sold though Origin.

I think the biggest problem with TV shows, is that up until the internet, the only place you could watch TV shows, was on TV, and the choices were limited to the few main companies (BBC, ITV, C4, SKY), and generally one subscription got you everything. Now you can watch them streaming online as well, there are so many more companies all trying to get your money, and each is buying exclusives to tempt you to their service, it makes it all the more expensive to get everything.
 
Vonhelmet said:
So then pay for the channels that have shows you want to watch?
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But how do I know I will enjoy those two shows on Netflix until I pay for Netflix?

If I pay for Sky, I know there will be content that I will enjoy, because it covers 99% of the TV available.
It is just frustrating that I have to pay twice the price just to cover the extra 1%, plus I have to pay before I can even see if I like that 1%.
It is also not like I can only pay for Netflix to get 100%, because as FoxEye says, their subscription does not cover 100%.

Why can there not be a service with one subscription fee, that guarantees 100% of the available TV produced?
Is there a service that has no subscription fee that guarantees 100% of the available TV produced? Yes, torrents.
 
El_Watcher said:
Why can there not be a service with one subscription fee, that guarantees 100% of the available TV produced?
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Competition, obviously.

El_Watcher said:
Is there a service that has no subscription fee that guarantees 100% of the available TV produced? Yes, torrents.
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Not exactly sanctioned, though. However, it may at least push things forward to a more useful legitimate service.
 
FoxEye said:
I do pay for Sky ;) Had I wanted to I could have recorded any of these shows at the time they first aired.

Let's say (for example) I want to start watching The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

GoT is exlusive (in this country) to Blinkbox. TWD is exclusive to Lovefilm... etc, etc, etc.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/homecinema/...nstant-study-suggests-you-need-both-50010180/

To watch everything you'd need subscriptions to Lovefilm, Blinkbox, Netflix, and others. That's ridiculous.
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Pretty sure lovefilm only has the one season of Walking Dead too.

And I feel exactly the same way.
I'm using the Netflix trial right now and feeling kind of.... Meh, I find the IQ to be rather poor too.
 
i honestly do not see why some people don't pirate tbh, even had one guy on this forum trying to watch a certain show legally in HD and it was literally impossible to do without downloading it illegally. he was adamant he wouldn't pirate it, but he was also adamant it had to be in HD which he couldn't get legally.
 
The thing with these shows that are being produced and shown exclusively online by a content provider, such as Netflix is that its not really enough to get me to sign up to them. (admittedly though I have Sky and LoveFilm).

House of Cards may be the best series ever, but how do I know that without signing up?

In general, for the majority of shows, you tend to catch it on the actual television, then you have the bonus that if an online provider has it, you can watch an entire series.

There isn't really that option with House of Cards (aside from a one off free trial to the service). It will be interesting to see how feasible these kind of shows financed by such providers do in the long term.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
i honestly do not see why some people don't pirate tbh
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In principle I'd like to support the industry. Weighing against this is the blatantly anti-consumer practices of the rights holders.

Competition is supposed to work in our favour, but they've engineered all these exclusive deals and regional licenses with the express intent of milking and/or screwing us as much as possible.
 
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