Ad-shittification
Unrealistic, you can see the show in the center.
It was pretty optimistic, as far as dystopian fiction goes.
You know what doesn’t have ads, ever? Pirated movies and shows.
Why pay insane extortion fees for a deliberately worse experience? It’s like paying somebody to slap you in the face instead of enjoying a free, uninterrupted walk in the park.
As long as these satanic corporations continue to be focused on making their services as unusable and expensive as remotely possible - there’s literally no reason to pay for them, other than donating to a pedophile cult.
Woah, woah, woah. Easy there. I don’t think the Satanists want to be associated with these corporations.
Our neighborhood got a new cable operator about a year ago, and they’re great. I can go back and watch any show from the previous 4 days, and skim through all the commercials. I hardly ever watch a show when it’s being broadcast. If there’s a show on tonight, I’ll watch a show that was on last night first, then watch tonight’s show when it’s over, and I can skip all the commercials.
I can also record a ton of stuff.
We went full piracy in like 2002, stayed that way until about 2017, and now in 2026 have reverted to full piracy again. Time to remind them what killed cable.
When The Pirate Bay launched in 2003, I went full piracy then and never looked back.
From an outsider’s perspective, it’s like watching a wild roller-coaster ride from the sidelines. Never understood all the Netflix hype when they first launched their streaming service. Tried it once in the early 2010s and was beyond disappointed; the vast majority of of content I wanted to watch was not on there (and still isn’t).
These days I use Stremio paired with Torrentio and a Debrid service. Instant streams to anything I could ever want to watch, and it’s all there in one place. IDK why people would pay for multiple streaming services when you can just have one.
My conspiracy theory is that Netflix existed as it did for so long to try and kill piracy so they could spring the current corpo hellscape on us; they just pulled the trigger to early.
My dad swore off piracy as soon as netflix was good enough because the price was so low and EVERYTHING was on there (and it was legal). By the time he wanted to get back into it, TPB and his other go-tos were dead, so he still just pays the subscription.
Ive tried to educate him but hes still stuck in corpo hell
What you mean TPB dead? It’s totally still viable.
I’m literally downloading something on it now. 😅
Well, it was converted to an FBI front last time I checked, haven’t bothered to re-check in the last 6 or so years.
Its the only torrent site I use even to this day.
Streaming killed cable though? Streaming was so good and reasonably priced I had no good reason to pirate. Now the streaming services are more jam packed with ads and as expensive as cable was, so it’s back to the high seas for me matey.
Ads killed cable. I still remember having cable briefly in the 80s, we recorded everything on our VCR (anything good) and the best part was those tapes had no commercials.
Granted the cable only had 99 channels max as the two digit red display only had two numbers, but it was glorious.
Ads suck hard, but avoiding them was just one of the plethora of advantages of early streaming. Early Netflix had what felt like infinite content, on demand, for a fraction of the price of cable. That’s why the majority of cord cutters ditched cable; price. Avoiding ads was definitely a factor but it was hardly the main one for most of us.
The modern streaming industry has embraced ads in a way that feels somehow grimier than cable because the ads are targeted and we all know it’s greed that’s put them there.
And there are plenty of ways to get a Netflix like UI for your pirated content.
Plex sucks omega ass
This post sponsored by the Jellyfin gang
Stremio and it’s alternatives work alright
IPTorrents ftw
Not just peacock. Ads are invasive. I watch a game show on YouTube because I can pause it to read the lists. The same gameshow on Prime goes right into an ad when I pause. I hope this was a human dumb feature and not an evil design perk for the overlords. I amend what Shakespeare said…“First, we kill all the advertisers”.
jellyfin doesn’t. and your shows never go to another streamer. oh and you can watch them when the internet goes out. oh and they don’t track your watching habits.
why are you watching
paramountnetflixhulupeacock again?Isn’t Jellyfin something you have to run on your own server? It’s not comparable to normal streaming services in any shape or form.
That’s the point…
It’s very comparable to “normal streaming services”, just better in every way imaginable, provided you set up the backend with supporting services
So it’s like a party where you’re responsible for building the venue, providing the entertainment, the refreshments, and the party itself.
Yeah super comparable.
(Just to clarify I’m not defending shitty streaming services and I sail the seas myself, just can’t stand people with their “iTs JuSt ThAt EaSy” attitudes when it comes to certain things or trying to convince people that don’t have the kind of expertise or resources to do the thing they’re pushing)
ok. you sound fun.
also it’s pretty fuken easy.
These days you can just ask an LLM to help you step by step. Instead of 10 minutes, it may take a couple of hours to get automated free media forever
I kinda wish we could federate jellyfin instances. Just manually, with friends I trust. Would instantly expand everyone’s catalogue.
You kinda can by just adding remote libraries
It is comparable because they fill the same service.
It just needs more configuration on your end. Unless you can join a friend who has setup their own.
That configuration is a bit of a deal though.
A big part of it is discovery. I discover a lot of movies and TV shows by browsing what’s avaliable. With Jellyfin I need to plan ahead instead of pushing the magic button and doomscrolling until I pick something.
You can rent Plex access, need to find the sites, usually a discord server. So like $10/15 per month for thousands of good movies and shows.
Yarr! Matey! Maybe ye should join us on the open seas!
It’s a broadcast TV corp. Of course, they’re going to lean into the commercials. They were born in commercials, molded by them.
That’s what people don’t understand. Those networks are in the ADVERTISING business, that’s ALL they’re about. The “Content” is just to attract you to the network, let you get comfortable, and hope you’re too lazy to get up and walk away, or even change the channel, when the Advertising comes on.
In a battle between Content and Advertising, Advertising will always win.
VLC and mpv do not.
Note to self: Hi self, you’re awesome! Thanks for not spending all my money on streaming services that treat you like shit, and keep raising prices. I shall continue to not buying peacock…or hulu…or netflix.
“No commercials version, $3 extra…may contain commercials.”
Fuck the core concept of that.
I was on an airplane the other day, the ticket advertised free wifi, but in reality you have to watch ads to unlock minutes.
Edit: should also add the whole time we were delayed it showed ads that can’t be turned off, then when you take off it has a 4 minute unskippable (and undimmable) ad, then they put ads on the little airplane progress screen.
Worst flying experience of my life.
Thank God you didn’t mention the airline, I was really worried your vague post would have context in it
Which airline was this?
yeah I need to know who’s doing this fuckery so I can avoid it
If this had been posted 2 months ago, I’d say “hopefully it’s Spirit or Frontier”. Because I avoid those airlines anyways.
But seeing as it’s being posted now, I’d say we can rule our Spirit.
Hopefully it was Frontier. Because I refuse to fly that airline at all. Though, I think we can rule them out too. They’re too cheap for screens in the seats.
spirit’s a ghost airline now :D
Tell us what airline so we know which to avoid.
That sounds fucking atrocious. Flying can already be stressful, and I usually just try to relax and chill for the whole flight. It’s one thing if a nearby passenger is being annoying. It can make a five hour flight seem like an eternity. Even worse for longer flights.
But to be forced by the airline to watch ads on the screen? Fuck that. I always turn my screen off. I don’t want that in my face.
Icelandair
Damn, I flew with them once well over a decade ago. I had a good impression of them at the time, but I guess that was before capitalism reached its “late-stage”.
That sucks, man…
It’s real cool flying with a toddler that I’m desperately trying to keep away from screens only to have them be forcibly mesmerized by bullshit on screens that can’t be shut off.
plane rides are one of the only places left where the notifications can’t find me
You can put your phone in airplane mode even if you don’t have a flight. I’ve tried; it works! I tell my phone when it’s time to get notifications. The elation is indescribable.
Also scheduled summary and ruthlessly culling notification permissions. The minute an app disrespects my attention and time, their permissions get revoked.
Here’s what you missed! Don’t forget to log in!
Yeah nah
It drives business people insane, that people who have enough disposable income to pay to remove ads, are exactly the high value customers that they can charge more money to advertise to.
Once you have a ‘no ads’ tier, your advertisers know that the only people they’re getting seen by are people who don’t spend money, and they won’t want to advertise with you. But if you make a special “here’s an audience who piss away money like it’s going out of fashion” tier, they’ll triple their spend.
Subscription service huh? Yup.
Arrrrrr
Yo, ho. Haul together. Hoist the colours high.
Don’t do that in Germany. Your ISP will report you.
There are so many ways.
Or just don’t watch. Many of those mass produced shows doesn’t have a single positive contribution apart from stealing people’s time anyway.
Always use protection
Pirate everything
Friends don’t let friends subscribe. If you’re 20 something know this… We fought our way out of bunny antenna TV and cable shows. We left that for freedom to choose to watch anything we could find on the net. Dvx. But tv followed us. Its here trying to reclaim its “lost revenue”.
Cancel, don’t subscribe! Fight for your right!
That is true… But the issue is more widespread than just applying to 20 something year olds. Teenagers also have these exact problems - fighting the industry takes everyone of all ages not just a select few.
or you can just pirate the movie /show somewhere.
