WBTV
A meta thread for video streaming services - Netflix, Hulu, Disney, HBO, Warner, Prime, AppleTV, etc
Put me in the bin of people who plan to cancel their subscription whenever the new rules transfer over to Australia. It isn’t as if it is unaffordable, but it’s the principle.
We have four active streaming services shared between three households (my family, my parents, and my sister’s family). With Netflix doing this, I can’t imagine the other streaming services aren’t waiting for the perfect time to copy them. Cancelling my service is the only way I can send some kind of signal to companies that this obsession they have with closed ecosystems, zero flexibility, and data harvesting of my IPs and locations to maximise profit has its downsides.
Limiting the number of simultaneous screens makes sense as it’s about throughput which is costly. Upping the price every couple of years and gating 4k content was also acceptable to me but unfortunate. But policing the IP and location of every login is a bridge too far. I doubt I will even miss it much.
Arrested Development is leaving Netflix on March 15th. Seasons 1-3 are on Hulu… but seasons 4 and 5 were produced by Netflix and won’t be moving over. While the Netflix seasons weren’t very good, still troubling. Season 4 is available to buy while season 5 won’t be available to legally view at all.
I’m sure they will be eventually, either through some type of box set or they will bring it back on Netflix or another service.
I view Hulu and HBO Max to be neck and neck on who has the best library of content right now.
Hulu’s future seems to be up in the air right now. From this article.
Will Hulu even exist a couple years from now?
In September of 2022, then CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek, told CNBC that he’d like to own all of Hulu “tomorrow.” (Disney currently owns 66 percent of Hulu, while Comcast owns the rest.) Two months later, Chapek was out of a job, replaced by the man he once succeeded, Bob Iger. And it sounds like Iger doesn’t share Chapek’s feelings about Hulu: In early February, he told reporters that “everything” is on the table with regard to what Disney might do with Hulu in the future. Perhaps it’ll buy out Comcast’s 33 percent, but it now seems likelier that it’ll sell its 66 percent: “We are intent on reducing our debt,” said Iger.
What that means for Hulu is incredibly murky. It currently stands as one of the most reliable libraries in streaming, but that collection could be winnowed after an acquisition, and should Hulu divorce from Disney, it’ll no longer be the home of FX series, its greatest source of prestige TV. This is still a developing story—everything is on the table—but regardless of what develops, the future of Hulu will have major implications for the Streaming Wars at large. —Andrew Gruttadaro
I don’t see Hulu existing for much longer. It’s already basically incorporated into Disney+ everywhere outside North America. Either it will get absorbed into Disney proper in the US too, or they’ll spin it off (to Comcast so they can merge it with Sky?).
I guess if Comcast buys it, they’ll put the content on Peacock, their own streaming service? Except for all the ABC/Fox/FX/Disney content, which would go to Disney+ then?
Depends how long the existing Hulu contracts last. Same reason we still don’t have HBO Max in the UK.
It would make sense to keep Hulu, as you can put the darker stuff on it. Sort of like how Disney had Touchstone back in the day. You don’t want to mix Mickey with prestige premium cable-like dramas.
They already do everywhere else.
Tried subbing to SkyShowtime.
And just like HBO Max, when using it on PC via browser (they have no windows app), the quality, even on latest and greatest TV shows and movies like Tulsa King or Top Gun 2, is pathetic 720p.
I just can’t comprehend how can they think this is appealing in any way. Why would I pay for 720p when I can get 4K for free? Oh well.
Obviously all PC users are dirty pirates and can’t be trusted with a better quality picture!
They don’t and they don’t care.
But…conventional wisdom tells me corporations care about money! I want to give them my money! But only if I get good product.
YouTube TV going from $64.99/month to $72.99/month in April. No way to unbundle networks to make it cheaper. No thanks.
I guess these streaming services are on the enshittification curve.
Hollywood’s problem is that they have a slew of major guild contracts ending very soon. Writers on May 1, then directors and actors at the end of June. And if they’re not all renewed it’s going to be chaos.
what could be the first strike in 15 years.
The writer’s strike just happened didn’t it? Yeah google says it was 2008. Wait it’s May 1st? International solidarity day? hahaha
I mean, I would say that HBO Max’s future seems up in the air too, given that management seems dead set on making the worst possible decisions for their library and brand.
David Zaslav could not be reached for comment regarding the forthcoming Hollywood guild contract crisis; according to his assistant, he is currently out of the office driving across the US kicking every single subscriber directly in the groin repeatedly. He is expected to return to active work duty after this has been completed.
Everything ends up there eventually, as the financial industry leech becomes an ever greater drain on the real economy.