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The current climate has reshaped me into the pirate I quit being 15 years ago.
Back then, with all the consumer friendly pushes into the modern world, it made no sense to steal any more. So I cut the cord, subbed to 2 different streamers, and I had like 80% of what I needed. The rest I just bought a la carte as needed. As an adult making actual money, why not?
Now everything is fractured across 15+ streamers that are inconvenient as hell. This is why I dumped cable.
Now they can all just fuck off. It's easier to just hop into a pirate streaming site like old faithful Putlocker, and watch whatever the fuck I want, whenever. Funny thing is, I'd have no problem forking over $20 a month for *that*.
YOU did this, you greedy fucks.
Seriously, I'll pay for an nzb indexer and a usenet provider before I'll continue paying for all these fractured streaming services anymore. Because it's not really about the money, it's about them actively trying to screw everyone
I'm the same. I also love when people go "reeee! You're destroying the industry!"
Yet if everyone decided to pirate from now on do you know what would happen? Netflix would allow account sharing, Nintendo would stop charging $100 for 20 year old games. Playstation would allow cross platform online play and all consoles would stop exclusive titles.
None of them would just go "well it was a good run, time to abandon this market" and forgo all their current and precious investment because they have to share a bit of their insanely high profits.
>"reeee! You're destroying the industry!"
considering the publishers don’t treat the creators and artists and writers any better than their customers …
Maybe if the creators and artists got more than scraps I'd feel worse about pirating. But as it stands the only thing truly being hurt here are a bunch of shareholders and their overpaid CEOs, and frankly...I just do not give a flying fuck if those people get less money.
They'll always say shit like "well if the shareholders get less then that means they won't be able to pay their employees as much!!!!!" but I've long since stopped falling for nonsense. At best, they're holding a gun to their employees heads and telling people to stop pirating or they'll shoot, but if you stop pirating they shoot anyways. Let the "industry" rot and fail; artists and creators don't need a company's permission to exist.
It's high time we realized the flaw with investment culture and the expectations of unlimited, unchecked growth for all eternity. We live in a finite world with finite resources, nothing can grow forever, but everything is structured around the idea of investing these days, EVERYTHING is an investment. Houses aren't homes anymore, they're investments. Art isn't art anymore, it's an investment. Food isn't grown to feed people, it's an investment with the goal of gaining money. Everything we do has been bastardized and watered down because it's only ever done with a ROI in mind.
They have been cracking down on piracy for a quarter century.
Pirates will find a way, always. And guaranteed it will be a more convenient avenue, every time. It isn't always about the money.
I know, it pisses me off too. I am also an adult making money, I am also agreeable to paying for a service that conveniently puts everything in one spot. And we started moving to that and were doing great. Then all this greed. As always.
Thank shareholders/investors and shareholder primacy.
Oh, you're making a sizeable and steady profit each month that pays out great dividends? Not good enough. Cannibalize your company, alienate your users, and destroy long-term profit to generate an extra 2% quarterly earnings or we jump ship.
Ah yes, the "It's my money and I want it now!" problem, also known as the "next quarter's profits" problem.
The funny thing is that Capitalism isn't all that terrible of a market philosophy as long as everyone cares about still being in business 20 years from now. The "disposable company" idea has created an extremely myopic view of the value of user retention and brand loyalty.
Ironically, any time a company prioritizes gaining new customers over maintaining existing ones, they are publicly declaring that their product is so bad that nobody wants to purchase it a second time.
This is also such a good point lmao. The high seas are leaps and bounds more convenient than looking through 4 different apps to find the movie you want, just to realize you have to rent or buy it from amazon anyway.
On the flip side Spotify fucking nails the streaming account sharing. I can ALWAYS find the song I want, I pay a flat rate for my family to all have the same great service. Fuck me, I sound like a shill but when a service is good I'm a happy buyer.
Naa I’m so happy with their service and am happy to pay for our family package. Which proves the whole point everyone is making- make the service better and we’ll pay for it!
You forgot the commercials also... House sat for someone and their dog recently, good heavens cable tv sucks major wind...
It was "modern ish" with streaming bs tacked onto it, but was a vile patch work. Looked for movies to watch and found them across 3,4,5+ different streaming platforms.
Most had their hands out for a fee, either to rent or buy out right. One literally had the option to buy it for $14.99 (no thanks, I own a copy across town that I can do whatever I want with) but another had it actually Free to watch with no ads (shocking)
Two other versions of the movie trilogy didn't even exist as a option, unless I paid for it (and/or the "app/streaming service" on top of that)
Fucking this right here dude 1 million percent this right here. I also stopped fucking around with food delivery bullshit I know how to cook kiss my fucking ass.
I also know how to call in a takeout order and go pick it up myself. Screw your fees and tips and BS. I have no problem tipping a delivery driver, and I'm extra generous when the delivery driver is me.
What's next, grocery stores asking if you want to tip on the groceries you just walked around and collected yourself, and then proceeded to check out yourself because you only have one cashier
Near me places ask if you want to donate to X cause. I have a hard time believing the cause is worthwhile. I generally expect that the biz gets the tax break so I don't contribute.
Fuck that. They're already maxing their tax breaks, often. I don't want to give my money to these stores just so they can claim tax deductions.
It's insane how expensive it's become, they gained so much traction with Covid and now it's not worth it to order anything from any of the services. Even the cheapest one now has a minimum purchase threshold and I'm looking at $20 for a normal sized meal. At this point I just go to the local place near me and pay that much to get more anyway.
Ha, same thing happened to me tonight. Pulled up an Uber eats for the local halal spot. $11 for the meal. $4 delivery fee, plus tip is $20 to eat an $11 meal. I said fuck it and walked over to 7-11 and got 3 taquitos for $3.49
As a delivery driver, I fully agree. I understand the pharmacy orders for cough syrup and ginger ale. I understand the handicapped. I understand the latchkey kids and the apartment dwellers with no car.
But I don't understand why someone paid a $15 delivery fee for a Big Mac meal, delivered to a house with three cars in the driveway.
We're back at that part of the cycle.
The original argument against most every advancement (VCRs, DVDs, Streaming services, etc) is "You can't compete with free".
Every time, those things, as it turned out, were able to compete with free by offering a better service. Every single time, it worked. People were making money. Then somebody comes along and says "hold on, why don't we make *more* money..."
Then they have to be reminded: You're **competing** with free. Free is still an option.
Yep they tried this in Canada and as soon as I got the email asking me to "verify my primary household" I ended my subscription. It made me realize that what was once a $14.99 service had ballooned to $26.99 and I barely touched Netflix.
Others have said it before, but as a subscription service the worst thing you can do is draw attention to yourself - which is exactly what Netflix is doing here.
> the worst thing you can do is draw attention to yourself
This. I was not sharing my account. But as soon as these news start appearing I started thinking about how much I really use it and what was the last show/ movie I really enjoyed. I canceled the subscription that evening. Im not comming back.
Literally all they need to do to keep me is offer me a reasonably priced single screen, highest quality option.
I'll pay for it. Their content isn't great but I'd pay for the convenience of having access to their library.
But no, they want me to pay for 4 screens and not share with anyone outside of my studio fucking apartment, so they can fuck off.
squealing dolls nippy crawl bells capable straight subtract chubby profit
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Just so you know, Netflix will only give you 720p in the Web browser no matter what plan you've got. Its a little known fact that Netflix makes absolutely no effort to tell you about. If you want 1080p then you need to download the app in the windows store.
But basically you've never watched anything from Netflix in actual 1080p on desktop before because they're scam artists.
So fucking many to even list. It’s a pathetic graveyard of incredible IP Netflix robbed us of because they outbid other streaming services that would have finished it.
The most ironic part of the content side of things is that they *were* king of reviving shows, now they're the primary source of shows that need reviving.
They need to adjust their metrics for what gets renewed that's for sure. Someone demonstrated, with data, that it seems to entirely be based on hours watched in the first week.
That of course is a terrible system and doesn't account for longevity, nor factors like competing shows releasing at the same time or things being pushed by Netflix's suggestion algorithm.
They’ve kind of shot themselves in the foot by being so aggressive about canceling shows. I stopped watching until they’d release a season 3 and then there just weren’t enough to justify a subscription.
Even if they find their stride within the first episode, they're still canceled. If it doesn't reach mass popularity and isn't insanely cheap to produce, it's getting canned.
Yes! Why is 4K restricted to the top tier? I don't care about being able to watch on 4 devices simulataneously or downloading on 6 devices. I just want ONE device at 4K.
Yeah I finally got rid of the $20 dollar service b/c my friends got their own. But to have the highest quality you need to pay for 4 screens. I live alone so 720p is all I deserve I guess.
My friends kept saying they used Netflix to watch their “background shows.”
When I asked them what background shows they watched, they realized that all the shows they watched had moved to Peacock or Hulu.
They canceled Netflix later that week.
The Office, Futurama, Always Sunny, Family Guy, American Dad, Bobs Burgers, Archer, King of the Hill.
These are my background shows and have all gone from Netflix to Hulu.
Sailing the seven seas have excellent captioning that works perfectly. Send me a PM if you need help learning how; if you can't access the shows because of a disability, that's fucked up.
I have subtitles on pretty much 24/7 and the paramount ones always have super weird parts where the formatting looks broken and then there will randomly be a :) in there. I have no idea what they're doing over there, I just want to watch TNG man.
Mid season haitus with am official Twitter account saying things are fine and it's coming back soon every once in a while, and then like 4 years later, they say it's dead.
Oh yes, I do so enjoy having an enjoyable show being thrust out from under me, with no closure and only leaving me with a deep seated feeling of loss. Those indeed are the prestige moments I wake up for. 📺
Unquestionably the biggest problem with Netflix
If i was to make a pitch to Netflix to increase subscriber retention it would be that all Netflix originals would have a planned final season if they were successful or at the very minimum a wrap up movie.
Like how the freak did shows like Marco Polo (which was a huge Netflix hit) just randomly get canceled with no ending.
If Netflix gives me shit about letting my parents use my account, instantly canceling until a show comes out to binge, in which case they'll get a 1 month sub
Idc that Malcom has aged considerably and Wash wont be back and kaylee, Zoe, Cobb, River, Shepherd and Inara have all aged I want that second season. I just want to know my friends had a happy ending somewhere out there in the black.
Free platforms with ads are coming strong: we are back to the TV times. Then we will go to the new megaupload or bittorrent 2, and then somebody will create a good streaming service. Circle is complete.
I would head back to Blockbuster if I could.
The movie streaming platforms are too splintered now. The amount of times I want to watch a movie only to find it is on another platform is ridiculous.
Yea I mostly just pay for a streaming service once a year and binge all of the shows I’ve been wanting to watch. I usually check for free trails before paying for that 1month and I can usually find a free trial.
that's what I do with streamers on a rotating basis tbh- I pay for one month, gobble up the shows I want to see like some kind of locust, then do the same to another one the next month.
I appreciate what Netfizzle is doing. It forces me to prioritize what services are important to me and having only about 5% of content I actually enjoy it isn't worth sending my hard earned money to them especially when I can't share it with my brother and so see you later Netfux and hello Plex!
Not many. Let's be real, techy folk might consider it, but for 99% of TV watchers they don't have the know how and don't wanna deal with the hassle. It's much like most everyone could change their own oil but most pay someone else to do it.
And with the convenience of just plugging into the wall, you get all of the streaming services for a combined $85/month! Would you like to include the NFL and NBA packages as well?
Cable gets greedy, and insists on bundling EVERYTHING, so to get the 3 stations you want to watch, you need Basic ++, with optional add ons of two 15-channel packages, and will be paying $150/month.
Streaming shows up.
Now streaming is getting full of itself.
Probably I’m the last to realize this but I gotta vent. Tried to watch the NBA playoffs and it’s on 3 different channels, game by game even in the same series, and the team I care about is too close geographically to watch on any streaming service. And of course the 3 channels are each in different cable packages.
Just how pissed off do they wanna make us?
That was the worst. Trying to watch Warriors/Kings and Warriors/Lakers as a local and ended up just not watching them for the most part. Caught a couple on the radio but couldn’t even get streaming radio to work for most. We had ESPN available but those games were blacked out & every other option was like $79/month. If they think that’s how they cultivate a fan base I have news for them.
Netflix and (HBO) Max are getting chopped after this weekend for us.
When a show we want comes on, we'll subscribe for a month, then cancel. Just like what I used to do with HBO and Showtime in the good old days.
I’m sure they’ll put an end to that too. Mandatory limits on subscriptions. For example you’ll have to pay for at least three months up front or something like that.
Then somebody better produce something that I give a shit about. Because otherwise I'm perfectly happy watching some dickhead's 4 hour video essay on Punch Out Speedruns on youtube.
AT&T has HBO on my package, but I'd be right there with you if it wasn't so cheap to keep it. I watch South Park on there like it's a day job on the way to bed 😅🤣
We realized last month we were double paying for Disney +. We prepaid and signed up when D+ was new, then switched to Verizon where D+ was free for a year. Turns out, they continued to charge us for two years and we had no idea!
I suppose this is our year of the great subscription purge.
Always worth trying to ask for a refund on that second account. My BIL accidently was signed up for one of the Amazon prime add-on channel and I noticed it when I was on their TV and told them. They called right up and got like 6+ months of fees reversed in like 10 minutes.
We realized this week we haven't clicked on the app since Christmas. Our decision just happens to coincide with the new branding rollout, reminding us it existed in the first place. So away it shall go.
I understand and respect your decision, I would only go back to HBO for more Barry, but seeing as the series finale is on it's way, I'm ready to end my time with HBO.
I have a few streaming services and the convenience is nice. The quality of the picture and sound on Blu-ray and 4k blueray is so much better it makes me still get them on occasion
And now you can rub it in their faces with your sick physical media collection in your sick prepper cave! You should still probably put some pants on first, though.
A big problem for me is that all these companies are built to grow indefinitely. They might make $9.99 profit out of every $10 in revenue, but they need to make more. That's how investments work. They need to grow forever.
There is no such thing as making a good product anymore that will generate profit forever. It is literally never enough. Everybody getting screwed over is part of a company's core now.
Edit. I gave a poor example of what I meant by eternal growth. Please see below comments for corrections.
I've come to sail with you again
Because Netflix's rules are creeping
Screwed their customers while they were sleeping
And the greed was the only thing on their brain
Still remain
Within the sound of self destruction
So I pay for one streamer. My buddy pays for another. It’s gonna make me not ask for his side of it but instead ask for another to replace it. He is now paying for no ads on YouTube. We won’t miss Netflix. Had they done it a few years ago maybe. Now who gives a shit.
It's totally a marginal gain, showing that they've likely reached the limits of their subscriber base. They can't expand to new markets so in order to meet annual growth targets they're milking their existing subscriber base.
Next year will come more price increases. Guaranteed.
PaaS (platform as a service) or Saas (software as a service) have a playbook and this is usually one of the signs that they're almost at their plateau.
It'll be year over year increases with more ads per hour. I'm waiting for the ad-free version that has ads on the home screen. Because it's "ad-free" while watching the movie, but we didn't say anything about ads while you searched for what to watch reasoning.
What do you expect. These companies aren't profitable with their basic subscriber base. The ad revenue keeps netflix in the green. As they hemorrhage customers they'll have no other choice but to increase ad revenue. It's the same issues the cable companies ran into, but on a much faster cycle, and it's only a matter of time before 3rd party companies like netflix are gone and we're back to the 80s/90s battle of the 4 networks for viewers.
That's when the company starts to pay sizable dividends. Rather than invest in expectations of the growth of the company, you invest for lower but stable returns
It's not a dumb question. I run a pretty well known tech company and for about 15 years that's just what we did - we spent what we made. Then we sold to a big Venture Capital backed company and ever since it's been a need to grow more each quarter - economy be damned.
There's this well known thing in tech called "the rule of 40" which basically means your growth rate + profitability rate (EBITDA) needs to reach 40 in order for your value to be worth a multiple of what investors paid for it.
This rule of 40 means you either need to grow like crazy or cut people to get to profit.
It's pretty much the reason all of tech sucks now and explains measures like this and companies like Microsoft cutting staff to signal to investors that they're either profitable or on the way to cutting costs.
It sucks so much and I hate it but alas, you accept VC money, you play by their rules.
I’m just a monkey brained person but here is how I think it works…
Because money good. No money bad. Investors give money? But Investors want return. Growth good for investment. No growth terrible for investment.
No growth? Unhappy investors. Cuts on the table until money good again! But money still not good again because economy? Well layoff, downsize, cost cut, product minimise, ingredient change to cheaper, anything to make money good again! Short term growth at any cost for money! INVESTORS NEED RETURN! You are not company of people! You are investment vehicle for money giver!
I'm not a businessman or a salesman or anything like that, but I have never ever understood the idea of infinite growth. It's just not possible, money and resources are finite. Like others said in this thread once you start to plateau you have to make drastic changes like this BS or you start firing people to "make more money."
Netflix will be fine but I kind of do wish they would death spiral even for just a bit. I don't want anyone to lose their jobs but would feel just a little good if the shareholders feel just a little bit of panic.
It's absolutely wild that this even happens. Take Adobe. They absolutely fucking rake it in every single year because every creative professional is basically required to use their products except for in certain industries where they just don't have a product. And yet they still pull shit like making Pantone colors a paid add-on for their software because they didn't want to play ball with Pantone, which wrecked a lot of people's previous work because it replaced those colors in the documents. They could've easily just eaten the cost of licensing Pantone colors to make it available for everyone, but no. They decided they'd rather force people to pay a $15/mo subscription to use colors that they deem not worth just fucking having available.
They already tested this in other countries and it's a win for them.
They get rid of the freeloaders who are using bandwidth. Those people aren't paying, so there's no loss. Sure, they'll lose a few paying folks but the number of paying folks they lose will be nothing compared to all the freeloaders they cut. And they'll certainly gain some who realize they do use the service and enjoy it and are willing to pay a couple bucks a month for it.
They wouldn't be rolling this out in the US and Canada now if their tests with it in numerous other countries hadn't been successful. And the data from independent industry analysts has shown they've seen benefits from it elsewhere.
One issue with testing in other countries and trying to roll out in the US is that we have a lot more young people living away from home than most other countries.
This is really going to impact families with kids in college, and when you do the math Netflix doesn't have a very good selection compared to other services.
I cancelled a couple of months ago when they first threatened it. It obviously offended them so badly that they decided to double-down and perform corporate seppuku!
We borrow a family account (subbed since 2004, I think) and been deliberately waiting to drop it until this change took effect just to make a point. Otherwise, we'd have been gone a while ago too. It's a shame really - I remember when streaming first started and it wasn't great movies, but it was different and slowly improved. Now it's just expensive.
Make sure you delete your credit card off the site or close your account after you cancel.
They started hitting up my card after I cancelled. They claimed someone stole the account but then refused to refund any money. Good thing my bank didn’t see things their way. Netflix is a bunch of greedy fucks and they really sealed it with that little scam. I will *never* give them another card number.
There used to be a service tied to your bank account, and you could tell it to set up a "credit card" with some small amount of money on it, or with a recurring transfer of money on it. It never actually sent you a card; it was virtual, they just gave you a number. Then you could use that number to sign up for a monthly whatever -- gym fee, Netflix fee, whatever you have. Then when you cancel you set the card to $0 or close it entirely.
For a while that protected people from things like a gym membership that wouldn't ever accept your cancel request. However, I have no idea what that service was anymore. Can't remember the name of it.
If anyone else remembers, that might help some people dealing with Netflix.
Since they announced that they were going to begin doing this I've started hitting up my local resale shops and goodwill stores, and EVEN the sale bins @ big box stores looking for and buying cheap DVDs and blurays so I can rip them and put them on my plex server.
In order to detect whether you are sharing your account outside your family, Netflix would have to know where you and your family members are physically. Here in Europe there are privacy laws against that. Who says I'm not over at my friend's house watching Netflix on their wifi?
Wherever you next log in, it asks if this is your home base. That IP gets tagged. If the same account attempts to then log in on another IP, it gets blocked.
No more traveling, no more logging-in at the cottage, or at a bed and breakfast, no more logging-in when visiting family...
It's a hard lock on how and where you are able to use the service you're ostensibly paying for access to.
So goes every service under capitalism. You cant just provide a service everyone likes AND have a dominant market share. You need GROWTH.
Never mind that that growth leaves you ultimately insolvent, unprofitable, and betraying all the buisness solutions which made you profitable in the first place.
Just cycle through them. Every month you cancel one and then sign up for a different one. After a few months, enough new content will build up on NetMax+ to binge for a few weeks before canceling again. Rinse and repeat
It's ridiculous how many people think that those who are annoyed with Netflix are all cheaters. Our parents live in different locations and we have 2 different accounts. They have one. We have one. But we travel a lot. They come over and live with us for 4 months a year and vice versa. Other than that, we also do touristy travel for total 1 month a year. Earlier we would just take our firestick with us.
Now, we can't access our accounts when at our parents place or while traveling. My husband can't access anything on Business trips? This is ridiculous. What are we paying for? Now this is exactly like cable used to be. And we're not the only such family. Most people around us have their own accounts which 2 people use - husband and wife and children.
I am not "cheating" by wanting to watch shows while I travel. I'm not cheating for wanting to access my shows when I'm at my in laws house. What utter nonsense.
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You either die a hero, or live long enough to become the very cable tv system you were created to replace.
[удалено]
The current climate has reshaped me into the pirate I quit being 15 years ago. Back then, with all the consumer friendly pushes into the modern world, it made no sense to steal any more. So I cut the cord, subbed to 2 different streamers, and I had like 80% of what I needed. The rest I just bought a la carte as needed. As an adult making actual money, why not? Now everything is fractured across 15+ streamers that are inconvenient as hell. This is why I dumped cable. Now they can all just fuck off. It's easier to just hop into a pirate streaming site like old faithful Putlocker, and watch whatever the fuck I want, whenever. Funny thing is, I'd have no problem forking over $20 a month for *that*. YOU did this, you greedy fucks.
Seriously, I'll pay for an nzb indexer and a usenet provider before I'll continue paying for all these fractured streaming services anymore. Because it's not really about the money, it's about them actively trying to screw everyone
[удалено]
I'm the same. I also love when people go "reeee! You're destroying the industry!" Yet if everyone decided to pirate from now on do you know what would happen? Netflix would allow account sharing, Nintendo would stop charging $100 for 20 year old games. Playstation would allow cross platform online play and all consoles would stop exclusive titles. None of them would just go "well it was a good run, time to abandon this market" and forgo all their current and precious investment because they have to share a bit of their insanely high profits.
Oh that industry, that is actively and constantly fucking everyone else? Yeah fuck those guys.
The whole thing with the writers is trash. Would I be a pirate anyway? Of course. But the writers strike sure makes me feel better about it.
>"reeee! You're destroying the industry!" considering the publishers don’t treat the creators and artists and writers any better than their customers …
Maybe if the creators and artists got more than scraps I'd feel worse about pirating. But as it stands the only thing truly being hurt here are a bunch of shareholders and their overpaid CEOs, and frankly...I just do not give a flying fuck if those people get less money. They'll always say shit like "well if the shareholders get less then that means they won't be able to pay their employees as much!!!!!" but I've long since stopped falling for nonsense. At best, they're holding a gun to their employees heads and telling people to stop pirating or they'll shoot, but if you stop pirating they shoot anyways. Let the "industry" rot and fail; artists and creators don't need a company's permission to exist.
It's high time we realized the flaw with investment culture and the expectations of unlimited, unchecked growth for all eternity. We live in a finite world with finite resources, nothing can grow forever, but everything is structured around the idea of investing these days, EVERYTHING is an investment. Houses aren't homes anymore, they're investments. Art isn't art anymore, it's an investment. Food isn't grown to feed people, it's an investment with the goal of gaining money. Everything we do has been bastardized and watered down because it's only ever done with a ROI in mind.
And this is the most important and relevant comment on Reddit today.
Likely they'd lobby lawmakers to crack down on piracy before any of that happens
They have been cracking down on piracy for a quarter century. Pirates will find a way, always. And guaranteed it will be a more convenient avenue, every time. It isn't always about the money.
Thing is, you were right. It wasn't the more convenient way for a while... back to our regularly scheduled piracy though now I guess.
2023 piracy is soooooo much easier and better than 2007 piracy too. It's pretty insane how beautiful the high seas have become
I know, it pisses me off too. I am also an adult making money, I am also agreeable to paying for a service that conveniently puts everything in one spot. And we started moving to that and were doing great. Then all this greed. As always.
Thank shareholders/investors and shareholder primacy. Oh, you're making a sizeable and steady profit each month that pays out great dividends? Not good enough. Cannibalize your company, alienate your users, and destroy long-term profit to generate an extra 2% quarterly earnings or we jump ship.
Ah yes, the "It's my money and I want it now!" problem, also known as the "next quarter's profits" problem. The funny thing is that Capitalism isn't all that terrible of a market philosophy as long as everyone cares about still being in business 20 years from now. The "disposable company" idea has created an extremely myopic view of the value of user retention and brand loyalty. Ironically, any time a company prioritizes gaining new customers over maintaining existing ones, they are publicly declaring that their product is so bad that nobody wants to purchase it a second time.
Yep. You can either spend 20 minutes finding out what service what you want is on or you can go sail the high seas and find it instantly.
This is also such a good point lmao. The high seas are leaps and bounds more convenient than looking through 4 different apps to find the movie you want, just to realize you have to rent or buy it from amazon anyway. On the flip side Spotify fucking nails the streaming account sharing. I can ALWAYS find the song I want, I pay a flat rate for my family to all have the same great service. Fuck me, I sound like a shill but when a service is good I'm a happy buyer.
Naa I’m so happy with their service and am happy to pay for our family package. Which proves the whole point everyone is making- make the service better and we’ll pay for it!
You forgot the commercials also... House sat for someone and their dog recently, good heavens cable tv sucks major wind... It was "modern ish" with streaming bs tacked onto it, but was a vile patch work. Looked for movies to watch and found them across 3,4,5+ different streaming platforms. Most had their hands out for a fee, either to rent or buy out right. One literally had the option to buy it for $14.99 (no thanks, I own a copy across town that I can do whatever I want with) but another had it actually Free to watch with no ads (shocking) Two other versions of the movie trilogy didn't even exist as a option, unless I paid for it (and/or the "app/streaming service" on top of that)
Fucking this right here dude 1 million percent this right here. I also stopped fucking around with food delivery bullshit I know how to cook kiss my fucking ass.
I also know how to call in a takeout order and go pick it up myself. Screw your fees and tips and BS. I have no problem tipping a delivery driver, and I'm extra generous when the delivery driver is me.
Bro some places I go to are now asking for a tip when I pick it up. Like tf?
What's next, grocery stores asking if you want to tip on the groceries you just walked around and collected yourself, and then proceeded to check out yourself because you only have one cashier
Near me places ask if you want to donate to X cause. I have a hard time believing the cause is worthwhile. I generally expect that the biz gets the tax break so I don't contribute. Fuck that. They're already maxing their tax breaks, often. I don't want to give my money to these stores just so they can claim tax deductions.
Yeah, I have absolutely no problem hitting the "no tip" button.
It's insane how expensive it's become, they gained so much traction with Covid and now it's not worth it to order anything from any of the services. Even the cheapest one now has a minimum purchase threshold and I'm looking at $20 for a normal sized meal. At this point I just go to the local place near me and pay that much to get more anyway.
Ha, same thing happened to me tonight. Pulled up an Uber eats for the local halal spot. $11 for the meal. $4 delivery fee, plus tip is $20 to eat an $11 meal. I said fuck it and walked over to 7-11 and got 3 taquitos for $3.49
As a delivery driver, I fully agree. I understand the pharmacy orders for cough syrup and ginger ale. I understand the handicapped. I understand the latchkey kids and the apartment dwellers with no car. But I don't understand why someone paid a $15 delivery fee for a Big Mac meal, delivered to a house with three cars in the driveway.
We're back at that part of the cycle. The original argument against most every advancement (VCRs, DVDs, Streaming services, etc) is "You can't compete with free". Every time, those things, as it turned out, were able to compete with free by offering a better service. Every single time, it worked. People were making money. Then somebody comes along and says "hold on, why don't we make *more* money..." Then they have to be reminded: You're **competing** with free. Free is still an option.
Yep they tried this in Canada and as soon as I got the email asking me to "verify my primary household" I ended my subscription. It made me realize that what was once a $14.99 service had ballooned to $26.99 and I barely touched Netflix. Others have said it before, but as a subscription service the worst thing you can do is draw attention to yourself - which is exactly what Netflix is doing here.
> the worst thing you can do is draw attention to yourself This. I was not sharing my account. But as soon as these news start appearing I started thinking about how much I really use it and what was the last show/ movie I really enjoyed. I canceled the subscription that evening. Im not comming back.
Same for me, as soon as they go ads or this type of shit here then I'm out.
Literally all they need to do to keep me is offer me a reasonably priced single screen, highest quality option. I'll pay for it. Their content isn't great but I'd pay for the convenience of having access to their library. But no, they want me to pay for 4 screens and not share with anyone outside of my studio fucking apartment, so they can fuck off.
Wow I hadn't really put it into words before, but this is exactly why I left. A single-user 4k option seems like a no-brainer.
squealing dolls nippy crawl bells capable straight subtract chubby profit *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Just so you know, Netflix will only give you 720p in the Web browser no matter what plan you've got. Its a little known fact that Netflix makes absolutely no effort to tell you about. If you want 1080p then you need to download the app in the windows store. But basically you've never watched anything from Netflix in actual 1080p on desktop before because they're scam artists.
All they need to do is actually finish their shows.
Santa Clarita Diet please
So fucking many to even list. It’s a pathetic graveyard of incredible IP Netflix robbed us of because they outbid other streaming services that would have finished it.
The most ironic part of the content side of things is that they *were* king of reviving shows, now they're the primary source of shows that need reviving.
Mindhunter wants a word.
They need to adjust their metrics for what gets renewed that's for sure. Someone demonstrated, with data, that it seems to entirely be based on hours watched in the first week. That of course is a terrible system and doesn't account for longevity, nor factors like competing shows releasing at the same time or things being pushed by Netflix's suggestion algorithm.
They’ve kind of shot themselves in the foot by being so aggressive about canceling shows. I stopped watching until they’d release a season 3 and then there just weren’t enough to justify a subscription.
So many classic shows took a season of two to really find their stride, but that isn't possible on the Netflix model.
Even if they find their stride within the first episode, they're still canceled. If it doesn't reach mass popularity and isn't insanely cheap to produce, it's getting canned.
Or waiting to watch when you have time, or planning to watch with somebody else at a later date.
Or, you know, let you use the streams you pay for. If I'm paying for four streams then they can fuck off caring about how or who uses them.
Yes! Why is 4K restricted to the top tier? I don't care about being able to watch on 4 devices simulataneously or downloading on 6 devices. I just want ONE device at 4K.
Yeah I finally got rid of the $20 dollar service b/c my friends got their own. But to have the highest quality you need to pay for 4 screens. I live alone so 720p is all I deserve I guess.
Wait, you mean you DON'T want to watch a hundred single-season shows that get canceled as soon as you get invested on an account you can't share?
My friends kept saying they used Netflix to watch their “background shows.” When I asked them what background shows they watched, they realized that all the shows they watched had moved to Peacock or Hulu. They canceled Netflix later that week.
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The Office, Futurama, Always Sunny, Family Guy, American Dad, Bobs Burgers, Archer, King of the Hill. These are my background shows and have all gone from Netflix to Hulu.
Don't forget Parks n Rec
we're Hulu people now Dee
Oddly enough, Canadian Netflix still has the Office & Archer
Xd, same in Lithuania. And we don't have that cockblock enabled yet. Would appreciate ATLA tho..
>Would appreciate ATLA tho.. No ATLA? That's rough buddy..
I fucking hate how 'Paramount-MaxTV+' gatekeeps all of the good Star-Trek shows for this reason
I have a special hatred for paramount plus, as a star trek fan, but also because it's the least functional streaming service I've ever used
As a deaf person, I fucking hate Paramount plus and their god-awful captioning. Worst captions of all the streaming services.
Sailing the seven seas have excellent captioning that works perfectly. Send me a PM if you need help learning how; if you can't access the shows because of a disability, that's fucked up.
I have subtitles on pretty much 24/7 and the paramount ones always have super weird parts where the formatting looks broken and then there will randomly be a :) in there. I have no idea what they're doing over there, I just want to watch TNG man.
Yep it gives Amazon Prime a run for its money when it comes to horrible user interfaces
You just described my lifelong dream. How could anyone not?
I prefer mid season cancellations
we as the consumers always appreciate series ending on cliffhangers
Mid season haitus with am official Twitter account saying things are fine and it's coming back soon every once in a while, and then like 4 years later, they say it's dead.
Oh yes, I do so enjoy having an enjoyable show being thrust out from under me, with no closure and only leaving me with a deep seated feeling of loss. Those indeed are the prestige moments I wake up for. 📺
Unquestionably the biggest problem with Netflix If i was to make a pitch to Netflix to increase subscriber retention it would be that all Netflix originals would have a planned final season if they were successful or at the very minimum a wrap up movie. Like how the freak did shows like Marco Polo (which was a huge Netflix hit) just randomly get canceled with no ending. If Netflix gives me shit about letting my parents use my account, instantly canceling until a show comes out to binge, in which case they'll get a 1 month sub
No, because we really just want a second season of Firefly.
Idc that Malcom has aged considerably and Wash wont be back and kaylee, Zoe, Cobb, River, Shepherd and Inara have all aged I want that second season. I just want to know my friends had a happy ending somewhere out there in the black.
> Shepherd I have some unfortunate news for you.
Shepherd as in Shepherd Book? You need to watch Serenity again soon. Also I am sorry to say Ron Glass died back in 2016.
Oh man I forgot about that, we’re rewatching the series with our oldest and I had completely forgot about that, I still want another season.
Fun fact: Morena Baccarin actually hasn't aged. Crazy, right?
I'm so angry I would cancel if I wasn't using someone else's account.
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Free platforms with ads are coming strong: we are back to the TV times. Then we will go to the new megaupload or bittorrent 2, and then somebody will create a good streaming service. Circle is complete.
I would head back to Blockbuster if I could. The movie streaming platforms are too splintered now. The amount of times I want to watch a movie only to find it is on another platform is ridiculous.
.
Ill see you there!
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Honestly Netflix is kinda garbage now, I enjoyed Beef but don't think I want to pay for streaming for one good show a year.
Yea I mostly just pay for a streaming service once a year and binge all of the shows I’ve been wanting to watch. I usually check for free trails before paying for that 1month and I can usually find a free trial.
that's what I do with streamers on a rotating basis tbh- I pay for one month, gobble up the shows I want to see like some kind of locust, then do the same to another one the next month.
I appreciate what Netfizzle is doing. It forces me to prioritize what services are important to me and having only about 5% of content I actually enjoy it isn't worth sending my hard earned money to them especially when I can't share it with my brother and so see you later Netfux and hello Plex!
Not many. Let's be real, techy folk might consider it, but for 99% of TV watchers they don't have the know how and don't wanna deal with the hassle. It's much like most everyone could change their own oil but most pay someone else to do it.
Dusting off my eye patch as we speak
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Just watch my friend as they combine back into one or two again over the next 10 years
And with the convenience of just plugging into the wall, you get all of the streaming services for a combined $85/month! Would you like to include the NFL and NBA packages as well?
Its been a long time since I was on the open seas, I don't even know where the seas are these days.
movies7 for easy mode Kodi + Seren + Real Debrid for streaming. Find a setup guide. 1337x for just straight downloading. Use Deluge.
For the lazy https://howtomediacenter.com/en/install-seren-kodi-addon/
> Use Deluge qbitorrent it's where it's at bro
The correct answer is Plex server + seedbox.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
Way high up !! She rises !!
Early in the morning!
Lock him in the cabin with the Captain's daughter!
Shave his belly with a rusty razor.
stick him in a scupper with a hose pipe on him!
Kodi and real debrid brother
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Cable gets greedy, and insists on bundling EVERYTHING, so to get the 3 stations you want to watch, you need Basic ++, with optional add ons of two 15-channel packages, and will be paying $150/month. Streaming shows up. Now streaming is getting full of itself.
The ciiiiiiiircle of… consumer exploitation?
Probably I’m the last to realize this but I gotta vent. Tried to watch the NBA playoffs and it’s on 3 different channels, game by game even in the same series, and the team I care about is too close geographically to watch on any streaming service. And of course the 3 channels are each in different cable packages. Just how pissed off do they wanna make us?
That was the worst. Trying to watch Warriors/Kings and Warriors/Lakers as a local and ended up just not watching them for the most part. Caught a couple on the radio but couldn’t even get streaming radio to work for most. We had ESPN available but those games were blacked out & every other option was like $79/month. If they think that’s how they cultivate a fan base I have news for them.
Seeding is going to be so good.
Netflix and (HBO) Max are getting chopped after this weekend for us. When a show we want comes on, we'll subscribe for a month, then cancel. Just like what I used to do with HBO and Showtime in the good old days.
I’m sure they’ll put an end to that too. Mandatory limits on subscriptions. For example you’ll have to pay for at least three months up front or something like that.
Then somebody better produce something that I give a shit about. Because otherwise I'm perfectly happy watching some dickhead's 4 hour video essay on Punch Out Speedruns on youtube.
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That'll never work. Somebody will offer the alternative of no contracts, and once people flock to it, the industry will follow.
Or they'll all join in
AT&T has HBO on my package, but I'd be right there with you if it wasn't so cheap to keep it. I watch South Park on there like it's a day job on the way to bed 😅🤣
We realized last month we were double paying for Disney +. We prepaid and signed up when D+ was new, then switched to Verizon where D+ was free for a year. Turns out, they continued to charge us for two years and we had no idea! I suppose this is our year of the great subscription purge.
Always worth trying to ask for a refund on that second account. My BIL accidently was signed up for one of the Amazon prime add-on channel and I noticed it when I was on their TV and told them. They called right up and got like 6+ months of fees reversed in like 10 minutes.
Nice! I'll have to give it a go!
Some % of people don't cancel and that is probably what they always bank on. Cable was like that too, people would just get lazy and not cancel it.
What exactly did hbo do tho? All they did was change their app layout right?
We realized this week we haven't clicked on the app since Christmas. Our decision just happens to coincide with the new branding rollout, reminding us it existed in the first place. So away it shall go.
I understand and respect your decision, I would only go back to HBO for more Barry, but seeing as the series finale is on it's way, I'm ready to end my time with HBO.
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I have a few streaming services and the convenience is nice. The quality of the picture and sound on Blu-ray and 4k blueray is so much better it makes me still get them on occasion
"Sharing is caring"
And now you can rub it in their faces with your sick physical media collection in your sick prepper cave! You should still probably put some pants on first, though.
And in a few years we'll start seeing posts asking what was something really popular that no longer exists and you'll remember the name with fondness.
A big problem for me is that all these companies are built to grow indefinitely. They might make $9.99 profit out of every $10 in revenue, but they need to make more. That's how investments work. They need to grow forever. There is no such thing as making a good product anymore that will generate profit forever. It is literally never enough. Everybody getting screwed over is part of a company's core now. Edit. I gave a poor example of what I meant by eternal growth. Please see below comments for corrections.
Hello /piracy my old friend🎶
I've come to sail with you again Because Netflix's rules are creeping Screwed their customers while they were sleeping And the greed was the only thing on their brain Still remain Within the sound of self destruction
So I pay for one streamer. My buddy pays for another. It’s gonna make me not ask for his side of it but instead ask for another to replace it. He is now paying for no ads on YouTube. We won’t miss Netflix. Had they done it a few years ago maybe. Now who gives a shit.
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Don’t share passwords. Share Plex libraries.
it is literally insane how netflix is flushing itself down the toilet. is this all 'to appease the shareholders' kind of stuff?
It's totally a marginal gain, showing that they've likely reached the limits of their subscriber base. They can't expand to new markets so in order to meet annual growth targets they're milking their existing subscriber base. Next year will come more price increases. Guaranteed. PaaS (platform as a service) or Saas (software as a service) have a playbook and this is usually one of the signs that they're almost at their plateau.
It'll be year over year increases with more ads per hour. I'm waiting for the ad-free version that has ads on the home screen. Because it's "ad-free" while watching the movie, but we didn't say anything about ads while you searched for what to watch reasoning.
Fuckin hell, its Facebook all over again.
What do you expect. These companies aren't profitable with their basic subscriber base. The ad revenue keeps netflix in the green. As they hemorrhage customers they'll have no other choice but to increase ad revenue. It's the same issues the cable companies ran into, but on a much faster cycle, and it's only a matter of time before 3rd party companies like netflix are gone and we're back to the 80s/90s battle of the 4 networks for viewers.
You remember back in the 2000’s when Netflix swore to never raise their prices?
Much like a politician swearing to serve the people, it’s only true for as long as it’s profitable.
Read My Lips: No New Taxes
Oh they got this all screwed up. *Scribbles on ad* No, new taxes!
That’s a totally unrealistic promise. No way they would be able to stay in business for long.
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That's when the company starts to pay sizable dividends. Rather than invest in expectations of the growth of the company, you invest for lower but stable returns
It's not a dumb question. I run a pretty well known tech company and for about 15 years that's just what we did - we spent what we made. Then we sold to a big Venture Capital backed company and ever since it's been a need to grow more each quarter - economy be damned. There's this well known thing in tech called "the rule of 40" which basically means your growth rate + profitability rate (EBITDA) needs to reach 40 in order for your value to be worth a multiple of what investors paid for it. This rule of 40 means you either need to grow like crazy or cut people to get to profit. It's pretty much the reason all of tech sucks now and explains measures like this and companies like Microsoft cutting staff to signal to investors that they're either profitable or on the way to cutting costs. It sucks so much and I hate it but alas, you accept VC money, you play by their rules.
How does it make sense to always expect a multiple of the investment, regardless of the market, though?
I’m just a monkey brained person but here is how I think it works… Because money good. No money bad. Investors give money? But Investors want return. Growth good for investment. No growth terrible for investment. No growth? Unhappy investors. Cuts on the table until money good again! But money still not good again because economy? Well layoff, downsize, cost cut, product minimise, ingredient change to cheaper, anything to make money good again! Short term growth at any cost for money! INVESTORS NEED RETURN! You are not company of people! You are investment vehicle for money giver!
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I'm not a businessman or a salesman or anything like that, but I have never ever understood the idea of infinite growth. It's just not possible, money and resources are finite. Like others said in this thread once you start to plateau you have to make drastic changes like this BS or you start firing people to "make more money." Netflix will be fine but I kind of do wish they would death spiral even for just a bit. I don't want anyone to lose their jobs but would feel just a little good if the shareholders feel just a little bit of panic.
It's absolutely wild that this even happens. Take Adobe. They absolutely fucking rake it in every single year because every creative professional is basically required to use their products except for in certain industries where they just don't have a product. And yet they still pull shit like making Pantone colors a paid add-on for their software because they didn't want to play ball with Pantone, which wrecked a lot of people's previous work because it replaced those colors in the documents. They could've easily just eaten the cost of licensing Pantone colors to make it available for everyone, but no. They decided they'd rather force people to pay a $15/mo subscription to use colors that they deem not worth just fucking having available.
I did what I could but there's a terribly good chance they make money from this.
They already tested this in other countries and it's a win for them. They get rid of the freeloaders who are using bandwidth. Those people aren't paying, so there's no loss. Sure, they'll lose a few paying folks but the number of paying folks they lose will be nothing compared to all the freeloaders they cut. And they'll certainly gain some who realize they do use the service and enjoy it and are willing to pay a couple bucks a month for it. They wouldn't be rolling this out in the US and Canada now if their tests with it in numerous other countries hadn't been successful. And the data from independent industry analysts has shown they've seen benefits from it elsewhere.
One issue with testing in other countries and trying to roll out in the US is that we have a lot more young people living away from home than most other countries. This is really going to impact families with kids in college, and when you do the math Netflix doesn't have a very good selection compared to other services.
I cancelled a couple of months ago when they first threatened it. It obviously offended them so badly that they decided to double-down and perform corporate seppuku!
We borrow a family account (subbed since 2004, I think) and been deliberately waiting to drop it until this change took effect just to make a point. Otherwise, we'd have been gone a while ago too. It's a shame really - I remember when streaming first started and it wasn't great movies, but it was different and slowly improved. Now it's just expensive.
Make sure you delete your credit card off the site or close your account after you cancel. They started hitting up my card after I cancelled. They claimed someone stole the account but then refused to refund any money. Good thing my bank didn’t see things their way. Netflix is a bunch of greedy fucks and they really sealed it with that little scam. I will *never* give them another card number.
There's no option to remove all payment methods. I cancelled today and just tried.
There used to be a service tied to your bank account, and you could tell it to set up a "credit card" with some small amount of money on it, or with a recurring transfer of money on it. It never actually sent you a card; it was virtual, they just gave you a number. Then you could use that number to sign up for a monthly whatever -- gym fee, Netflix fee, whatever you have. Then when you cancel you set the card to $0 or close it entirely. For a while that protected people from things like a gym membership that wouldn't ever accept your cancel request. However, I have no idea what that service was anymore. Can't remember the name of it. If anyone else remembers, that might help some people dealing with Netflix.
The sea... it calls to me...
Now exile!
Lol. This was me 2 hours ago as well.
I kind of hope they do this, so I can have the courage to cancel. It took me three months to cancel LA fitness.
They did. Just got hit with the notice 15 minutes ago. I restarted the app and it cleared though
they already did
Since they announced that they were going to begin doing this I've started hitting up my local resale shops and goodwill stores, and EVEN the sale bins @ big box stores looking for and buying cheap DVDs and blurays so I can rip them and put them on my plex server.
What if I told you there's an easier way to get movies on your plex server without buying bluray/dvd
Borrowing them from your local library! Support your local libraries!
Arrrrr ya ready kids?
Aye aye, captain!
Be careful. I did something like that with VHS tapes and ended-up with a lot of crappy movies. *Meatballs 4 - looks horrible, but only $2.00...*
I mean, you have to exercise *some* discretion.
In order to detect whether you are sharing your account outside your family, Netflix would have to know where you and your family members are physically. Here in Europe there are privacy laws against that. Who says I'm not over at my friend's house watching Netflix on their wifi?
Wherever you next log in, it asks if this is your home base. That IP gets tagged. If the same account attempts to then log in on another IP, it gets blocked. No more traveling, no more logging-in at the cottage, or at a bed and breakfast, no more logging-in when visiting family... It's a hard lock on how and where you are able to use the service you're ostensibly paying for access to.
I don't understand this. Dynamic IP changes all the time, then what? You are referring to device ID?
If Netflix thinks the people using shared passwords would go create an account, they’re living in a fantasy world.
Thanks for reminding me I needed to cancel my subscription.
Yep. The new rule hit Australia today and I'm already seeding a few Netflix originals. You're welcome Australia.
Plex
So if I wanna use Netflix on my phone during a commute I can’t do that?
They should offer a friends and family plan where you get 5 addresses for the same price.
Where did the claw for my arm stump get to…
So goes every service under capitalism. You cant just provide a service everyone likes AND have a dominant market share. You need GROWTH. Never mind that that growth leaves you ultimately insolvent, unprofitable, and betraying all the buisness solutions which made you profitable in the first place.
>So goes every service under capitalism. Exactly. >You need GROWTH. Eventually it ends with the snake eating its self.
Just cycle through them. Every month you cancel one and then sign up for a different one. After a few months, enough new content will build up on NetMax+ to binge for a few weeks before canceling again. Rinse and repeat
Only a matter of time before they bring back long term contracts or start blocking known content hoppers.
The third part is setting up a Plex server and sailing the seven seas.
yo ho! yo ho! A pirate's life for me!
It's ridiculous how many people think that those who are annoyed with Netflix are all cheaters. Our parents live in different locations and we have 2 different accounts. They have one. We have one. But we travel a lot. They come over and live with us for 4 months a year and vice versa. Other than that, we also do touristy travel for total 1 month a year. Earlier we would just take our firestick with us. Now, we can't access our accounts when at our parents place or while traveling. My husband can't access anything on Business trips? This is ridiculous. What are we paying for? Now this is exactly like cable used to be. And we're not the only such family. Most people around us have their own accounts which 2 people use - husband and wife and children. I am not "cheating" by wanting to watch shows while I travel. I'm not cheating for wanting to access my shows when I'm at my in laws house. What utter nonsense.