Streaming services decline for first time!

[JAS84]

It probably also doesn't help that what used to be like a tenner a month for a one stop shop has now reached Sky-level pricing for multiple separate services if you want access to most of the desirable content. At least you can drop and resubscribe as you see fit, but it's definitely lost its sheen

Good point. In the 2000s (after the cable-exclusive Carlton channels closed, and before Netflix launched) if you had Sky, you had pretty much all TV available in the UK. Now though, the content is scattered. A lot of programmes on the streamers would've previously gone onto Sky. Disney closed their channels down, and Sky Atlantic will go the same way once they lose the HBO shows (and they will, once the current contract expires). Wouldn't be surprised if Warner Bros Discovery (the newly combined owner of Eurosport, Cartoon Network, TCM and HBO) end up closing down some other channels too. The situation will only get worse for Sky.

[Brekkie]

Just covered this with a phone in on 5 Live and people just seem to be wising up to the fact they're paying for content they just don't watch, or watch so little of it's not worth justifying the subscription.

See Netflix are talking about a lower price tier with advertising again but not sure that is the solution. As much as the cost of living crisis is focusing minds at the moment I think most people are willing to pay if they feel like they're getting the value from it and pay that little bit more for ad free.

I think seeing what you're getting is also important and perhaps where the non-linear option is disadvantaged. Having a visible schedule where there are 2-3 shows a week worth watching airing over a couple of months suggests it's worth keeping the subscription. Having the same series on Netflix dropping around once a month may leave you feeling you're being short changed for the rest of the month.


Choice is also a factor too and arguably too much original content is just as big a problem as not enough when it's impossible to consume everything you might be interest in. BritBox may be at the back of the pack but there is something quite nice in logging in and being able to see their original offerings with ease and know if you wanted too it would be manageable to watch them all in a short space of time.

[telebox2001]

With Netflix I don't feel I get value for money - and having a 4K TV naturally I end up paying top whack because there's no way I'm watching in SD, if I wanted to do that, there are, er, "ways" of consuming the content! So I have to pay to use it on more devices at once than I actually own.

At least with Amazon I get the deliveries etc. and then the TV side of things is a bonus. If they ever decouple that from Prime I'm sure they'd lose subscribers very quickly.

I'm on the fence with ads. Most people tolerate them on YouTube and the commercial PSB VOD services. For example, I can live with ads on All4 because of the depth of content which I don't have to pay for. On the other hand, will that cause quality to suffer?

[Brekkie]

I guess to an extent it's what people are used too.   With All4 (and ITV Hub) most people will put up with the ads rather than shelling out an extra £3.99 a month, but I think with Netflix most people would find the ads really disruptive in content they previously viewed without it.   Certainly felt that way when NOW TV introduced them (and without a price cut!)


Not sure if it's the same with the other FTA providers but the best way to lighten the ad content on All4 is just to watch loads back to back.   The first thing you watch will have pretty much full breaks, but the more you watch the shorter the breaks get.   I was watching a few things last night and ended up with just one ad and the sponsor bumper in Derry Girls.

[XIII]

With Netflix I don't feel I get value for money - and having a 4K TV naturally I end up paying top whack because there's no way I'm watching in SD, if I wanted to do that, there are, er, "ways" of consuming the content!  So I have to pay to use it on more devices at once than I actually own.

At least with Amazon I get the deliveries etc. and then the TV side of things is a bonus.  If they ever decouple that from Prime I'm sure they'd lose subscribers very quickly.

I'm on the fence with ads.  Most people tolerate them on YouTube and the commercial PSB VOD services.  For example, I can live with ads on All4 because of the depth of content which I don't have to pay for.  On the other hand, will that cause quality to suffer?

You can get Prime Video separately but it's better to get along with the other Prime perks. 

I've been watching a lot of content on Pluto and IMDb TV and the content on offer isn't great but it is watchable and I think people will happily watch episodes of Judy Justice because it's free whereas they would feel ripped off if they had to subscribe to it.

[Brekkie]

See IMDbTV, which it feels like only launched a couple of months ago, is rebranding as Freevee.

https://informitv.com/2022/04/13/imdb-tv...n-freevee/

You can find some forgotten gems on the free services though.

[Neil Jones]

See IMDbTV, which it feels like only launched a couple of months ago, is rebranding as Freevee.

https://informitv.com/2022/04/13/imdb-tv...n-freevee/

You can find some forgotten gems on the free services though.

Last September actually in the UK. It's been available in the US for the last three years.

Claims it will increase original productions by 70%. Prime itself was previously announced to have 50% increase in original productions. And they jacked the price up by $20 in the US.

All these services are pouring money into their original content like there's no tomorrow. Which is all very nice but a) who's got the time to watch all this stuff, and b) who's going to have time to create decent content for it? This all starts with the writing and a decent idea. If you don't have the team, the talent, the resources, the time to write something decent because everybody's knocking out other work on a cheap and cheerful basis, then as said above all that's going to happen is the end result will be a poorly written, badly executed piece of crap packaged in "the look" that's so common now - which isn't an indication of quality.

[XIII]

See IMDbTV, which it feels like only launched a couple of months ago, is rebranding as Freevee.

https://informitv.com/2022/04/13/imdb-tv...n-freevee/

You can find some forgotten gems on the free services though.

Last September actually in the UK.  It's been available in the US for the last three years.

Claims it will increase original productions by 70%.  Prime itself was previously announced to have 50% increase in original productions.  And they jacked the price up by $20 in the US.

All these services are pouring money into their original content like there's no tomorrow.  Which is all very nice but a) who's got the time to watch all this stuff, and b) who's going to have time to create decent content for it?  This all starts with the writing and a decent idea.  If you don't have the team, the talent, the resources, the time to write something decent because everybody's knocking out other work on a cheap and cheerful basis, then as said above all that's going to happen is the end result will be a poorly written, badly executed piece of crap packaged in "the look" that's so common now - which isn't an indication of quality.

I don't think it's a bad thing to invest in original content but I wonder if a fewer, bigger, better approach is the way forward for streamers. 10 great series or movies stand out more than 20 mediocre series or movies.

[James2001]

The Thief his Wife and the Canoe had a completely different presentational style to what I expected.

Can't believe it began with the cliche "You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation" bit!

[telebox2001]

Just started catching up on the Darwin drama. Going back to "house styles" - what's with the "faux letterbox" thing? Almost like a widescreen version of 14:9 in the analogue days.

[XIII]

Just started catching up on the Darwin drama.  Going back to "house styles" - what's with the "faux letterbox" thing?  Almost like a widescreen version of 14:9 in the analogue days.

You mean 18:9 or 2:1? That's used a fair bit these days both in TV and film.

[telebox2001]

The Thief his Wife and the Canoe had a completely different presentational style to what I expected.

Can't believe it began with the cliche "You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation" bit!

Just started catching up on the Darwin drama.  Going back to "house styles" - what's with the "faux letterbox" thing?  Almost like a widescreen version of 14:9 in the analogue days.

You mean 18:9 or 2:1? That's used a fair bit these days both in TV and film.

Yes, I do - sorry.  It's late! 

I'm not a fan of it for television TBH; it wastes part of the screen.  In the cinema when you have a giant screen, it's different.  But with television  you're not only working with much smaller screens, in this day and age of streaming a lot of those will be tablets, computers and mobiles.  As a result I'm a firm believer that you should fill the full picture and not have "dead space" so to speak.

[Neil Jones]

Except it's not "dead" space. It's supposed to be like that when you see it on a 16:9 frame.

Believe 2:1/18:9 is the standard for 4k production. If the TVs available can't display the full height because its a wider picture then it will always have black bars. whether 8k TVs will "fix" this remains to be seen.

For years films/movies were made typically in 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This generates massive black bars top and bottom on a smaller screen like a TV. TV is just sort of catching up to that. Before widescreen was a thing a lot of this when seen at home was the so-called "formatted to fit your TV" bodge, which just boiled down to a 4:3 cut-out pan-and-scan.

18:9/2:1 is no more wasteful than 4:3 material on a widescreen TV, surely?

[telebox2001]

No, and I get that argument. I'm personally a fan of filling the space and would rather watch a pan and scan as opposed to letterbox in the olden days. The only thing I tend not to do at home is "zoom" 4:3 material as with it almost certainly being SD, it doesn't look pretty when blown up further.

[Brekkie]

Just started catching up on the Darwin drama.  Going back to "house styles" - what's with the "faux letterbox" thing?  Almost like a widescreen version of 14:9 in the analogue days.

You mean 18:9 or 2:1? That's used a fair bit these days both in TV and film.

Makes you wonder if it is about picture size or whether it is an artistic choice to have the black bars.  No doubt if we had a widescreen style switchover from 16:9 to 2:1 programme makers would then go to 2.35:1.


Back to Netflix and see $50billion has been wiped off their share price since they announced the loss of 200,000 subscribers - which really only equates to around $25m a year.