The great scam of TV streaming begins

[CivCube]

Welp.

http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/04/26/tcm-and-criterion-team-up-to-create-netflix-for-good-movies

I really love Netflix. I've been a customer from the very beginning, and I think I even have a couple of seven year overdue discs laying around my apartment. I love Netflix's original content. A lot. But at the same time I recognize what has happened to Netflix in recent years - their success has led to studios and libraries no longer being willing to license their material to the service. Why let Netflix have all our [stuff], CBS reasons, when we can just create our own Netflix? What had once been the great unified hope of streaming has become a fragmented mess. Half of us are subscribed to half a dozen different services, a big monthly bill that we couldn't have even IMAGINED a decade ago.

Add another one to the list, and a good one at that. Turner Classic Movies and the Criterion Collection are teaming up to create FilmStruck, a streaming service dedicated to classic, indie and arthouse movies. So it's Netflix for good films. FilmStruck will be the exclusive online home to the Criterion Collection, which means some of the world's greatest cinema will live there. The site will have "hundreds" of titles on launch, including Seven Samurai, A Hard Day's Night, A Room With A View, Blood Simple, My Life As A Dog, Mad Max, Breaker Morant and The Player. These are all very, very good movies.

What will it cost? We don't know yet. I have to imagine it'll be a bit on the pricier side, as this is going to be a niche service. Thankfully I'm in that niche; over the last few weeks I have been contemplating canceling my cable and it was only Turner Classic Movies keeping me tied down. Now that problem has solved itself.

This fragmented landscape, by the way - it's the way it was always going to go. It's probably the future. The evolution of the internet has been the same over the last 20 years - for a hot minute you get things free/cheap until the companies figure out they can't possibly sustain that model anymore. The dream of a Netflix where everything resided was a nice one, but it was always clear that each studio/rights holder was going to set up their own streaming service at some point, otherwise they would be leaving money on the table. We've been cut free from the cable box, but we have still found ourselves in an a la mode subscription world.

Go to filmstruck.com to sign up to be notified of further details.

Just one problem: I'm already paying for the Criterion Collection on Hulu. Once Criterion leaves Hulu for yet another streaming service, I'm essentially paying for delayed broadcast on Hulu, which is only going to get gutted further as more TV studios decide that it's more profitable to stream behind their own paywalls. Say goodbye to pre-existing content on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, say hello to the new normal, a normal that is already under attack by ISP data caps and region-locked licensing.

Books, anyone?

 

[warpus]

This is how piracy happens.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Don't complain to me about Hulu. Canadians aren't allowed to watch that. We also can't watch CBS.com, although they oh-so-graciously allowed us to generate page views and clicks last year to vote in the Survivor Second Chance season. Thank goodness somebody posts the Survivor Ponderosa segments on YouTube, or I wouldn't get to see those, either.

 

[CivCube]

Don't complain to me about Hulu. Canadians aren't allowed to watch that. We also can't watch CBS.com, although they oh-so-graciously allowed us to generate page views and clicks last year to vote in the Survivor Second Chance season. Thank goodness somebody posts the Survivor Ponderosa segments on YouTube, or I wouldn't get to see those, either.

Precisely my point. The fragmentation of content behind several region-locked sites, as well as fragmentation of American users who can even access those sites due to data caps, means TV's golden age is effectively over.

 

[CivCube]

We live in a world where HBO is becoming basic cable, and basic cable is becoming premium.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/05/youtube-could-debut-unplugged-digital-tv-service-in-2017/

YouTube may be the next tech giant to fight for a piece of the television world. The online video company has been reportedly working on a subscription-based online video streaming service called "Unplugged." According to the Bloomberg News report, Unplugged would offer online video and live TV channels in bundles from media providers for a $35 monthly fee.

YouTube has apparently been working on Unplugged for a while. The report suggests that the company started working on a TV streaming service in 2012, but it has since sped up its efforts due to looming competition from companies like Dish and Sony that already have their own streaming platforms. The entirety of YouTube's architecture has reportedly been revamped to support such a service, and it could debut as early as 2017.

YouTube already has its Red subscription service, which lets users stream ad-free videos, watch videos offline, and listen to ad-free music. Unplugged would be different since it would have live TV channels and other exclusive content. YouTube has reportedly been in talks with Comcast's NBCUniversal, Fox, CBS, and Viacom to stream content from those networks, but it has yet to secure any rights. This part of the business has proven difficult for other companies looking to get into TV streaming, including Apple.

YouTube is looking into offering different bundles of TV channels for Unplugged subscribers. The main "skinny bundle" would stream channels from the four US broadcasting networks along with an array of other cable channels, while other bundles would be themed around types of programming, such as comedy channels. This is similar to how Dish's Sling TV works: it offers a basic package of channels including ESPN, CNN, and The Disney Channel for $20 per month, while offering themed packages (such as the Hollywood package including EPIX, SundanceTV, and more) for an extra monthly fee.

While it's been in development for quite some time, YouTube Unplugged won't debut for some months, if it comes out at all. We've reached out to Google, YouTube's parent company, for comment, and will update this story if we hear back.

Of course, when it comes to good shows, premium distinctions are arbitrary and meaningless in the age of new media. This is about protecting the old cable model, and who can blame them when there's not a lot of money made off alternative models. Just look out for yearly contracts being grandfathered in when nobody wants to pay for premium tiers.

Streaming cable channels by themselves is also a dumb idea. The whole point of online streaming is that you can watch what you want, when you want.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I already don't see ads on YouTube.

And if/when this happens, I would expect it to be for American viewers only; as usual, no Canadians allowed.

 

[BvBPL]

Maybe if you want access to the Criterion Collection at any time you should buy its DVDs.