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Comment by radley | Hacker News Reader

I feel like this is the result of the major streaming services cutting back on original content due to production costs, the 2023 strikes, and winning the broadcast fight.

Initially, streaming had to compete with broadcasting's long seasons by producing the equivalent amount of content, spread between more shows, with higher-quality production but much shorter seasons. Now streamers are providing fewer shows and only semi-annual seasons. It ends up leaving a lot of open viewing time with nothing fresh to watch.

YouTube also has the advantage of people making highlight reels of the most popular movies and series. We get out-takes, behind the scenes, bloopers, best quotes etc. Streaming services haven't figured this out (yet). I've never watched The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on TV, but I watched almost every monologue on YouTube.

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Streaming services in general have become terrible.

What once was on ~3 platforms is now on ~10+ platforms. They constantly shuffle around who has what, new promising series are constantly killed because if they don't instantly become a worldwide sensation and the prices are rising non-stop.

At some point I just said screw it and left all of them.

I'm not sure the economics of big budget TV series work anymore unless you catch lightning in a bottle so I understand them cutting prod costs.

YouTube's economics are just so much better. YT provides no up front payment for content. The channels are almost infinite, microtargeted to everyone's interest. And the payout is proportional to the success of the content, and paid AFTER the audience has viewed. TV on the other hand has to make big bets before they know whether a show will be a hit.

I've had a TV for years but don't have cable and never watch broadcast. My TV is just a large ipad.

> major streaming services cutting back on original content due to production costs

Are we sure about that? Apple seems to keep making more and more TV shows instead of focusing on technical debt. Last I knew my phone didn't work right with Apple Intelligence or whatever "Siri" is supposed to be but we're on season 4 of whatever a Ted Lasso is.

I never get this argument. To see themselves without fresh content, I reckon people would have to expend at least some 4 hours every single day watching tv. Anyone watching this much TV should instead cut it down, it is fucking too much time wasted.

So much of the expensive "original content" is just crap. I'm happy the days when there's 20 minutes of new quality "original content". Most days there's nothing.

It’s not just about content funding. YouTube creators make content for any interest - and can compete for a small audience, while Netflix shows have to have mass appeal to recoup costs.

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