Streaming Is Cable Now
theverge.com
theverge.com
Cable is dead for majority of folks because it is full of ads and not because it had legacy content. It didn’t help but it wasn’t the sole reason.
Also, maybe an unpopular opinion, but maybe the film industry shouldn’t go after the same actors and actresses who earn millions of dollars per episode. So many individuals who have great talents being pushed aside due to this mindset.
Having the same actors over and over kind of breaks the 4th wall for me. I would prefer to see new faces, every single time. I don't get why people get so obsessed with a specific set of actors.
They have a way of just getting people to show up. I think there's a bit of a feedback loop here, but the industry has just recognized the value of certain key players. A list celebs will get a bare minimum views (mitigate the worst) as well as have a ton of potential to get wide audience (lots of potential in the investment).
It's a competitive industry, and while that doesn't eliminate the possibility of overpayed "glamour jobs", they would have gotten rid of them if possible.
similarly touched on in January by The Verge:
Netflix is turning into cable TV
Despite all the cost, tons and tons of ads. Well beyond anything we'd dream of accepting today.
On top of that they would intentionally play absolutely nothing a solid 10-50% of the time. Even prime hours were used to dump garbage absolutely no one wanted to see.
Things are moving in that direction, and I'm looking for new forms of entertainment. Still, it's shocking how poor the value was. Reminded of paying $20+ for one song.
The one benefit of it is there are movies and shows on there I end up liking a lot that that I feel I wouldn’t discover elsewhere. Sometimes looking for something interesting is a lot of work, and just putting a movie on I’ve never heard of can be rewarding.
One thing I think is interesting, though: older folks who were used to cable barely cared about streaming, it was like they didn’t even notice how mass media advertising every few minutes was so intrusive and mind numbing that you could almost hear your brain dying.
The youngest generation that grew up with YouTube before their parents let them mess with Netflix in the den was actually conditioned the same way.
The generation in the middle is the most horrified now: we saw the world actually improving, noticed it, and saw it snatched away. I bet lots of us are retreating to audio books for our main entertainment. and probably that will soon be on the enshittification track with ads injected as if it were a podcast.. just wait until the catalogs are beefed up and the competitors are all consolidated.
Also don't forget Sponsorblock, in-video ads are equally or more annoying than preroll ads.
The one thing I can't watch anymore is sports because the announcers read micro-ads during the game. Those can't be skipped like regular commercials.
And the war continues.