Netflix is planning to raise prices… again

Definitely don't go to fmhy.net and definitly don't join the !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com community. Also don't visit torrentgalaxy.to, 1337x.to or solidtorrents.to. You probably also wouldn't want to check out rutracker.org or therarbg.com.

Saving your comment to remember what sites to avoid.
- Save offline or bookmark in case it gets deleted.
  Also share it when you can in other places so people know what pages to avoid.
  Arghh
- I posted another comment with a ton of useful media sources to avoid. You might want to save that comment as well.
Please do not do this. It's illegal and you could end up getting free movies and tv shows.
It'd be a damn shame if you accidently downloaded cloudstream, an android app that allows you to download and watch offline, or just stream nearly any show or movie. I wouldn't recommend the super stream source, as it almost always has a version available. Also, just in case, maybe don't download tachiyomi to allow you to read any comics, manga, or graphic novels you want. It also has shitloads of hentai and pulls from almost every website imaginable.
And avoid Anna's archive, as it has tons of ebooks which might(I'm not a lawyer) actually just be legal?
- And definitely avoid libgen and scihub, lest you accidentally learn something new without paying the exorbitant fees.
- You the real MVP.
- Cloudstream says you need to install sites from repositories in order to stream. What sites or repositories should I avoid at all costs?
You absolutely should not subscribe to a VPN before not visiting any of those sites. I can't recommend www.privateinternetaccess.com or www.expressvpn.com at all, clearly having never used them. They're also useless for circumventing cell network limitations on video quality. Completely useless, otherwise I'd use them to subscribe to a cheaper lower data tier but still get 4k video.
- please also don't check about protonVPN.
Also, stay away from usenet and definitely don't use the arr apps to automatically download your favorite shows and movies.
- Any guide on how to find the usenet groups? I'd hate to stumble upon them accidentally, so it's best to be prepared.
- Btw, you should also never get a seedbox to torrent anonymously. You also need to stay away from private trackers.
Thanks a lot for telling us which services to avoid. You're a lifesaver.
Imagine if people set up a Plex/Jellyfin after visiting those sites to have their own streaming service setup. Pure madness!
- After learning how to do it on lemmy.world/c/selfhosted ! Madness
Thank you for your service and I will never visit those websites.
Also definitely dont look into setting up sonarr, radarr, prowlarr, and overseerr in combination with Plex or jellyseerr in combination with jellyfin. Otherwise you could find yourself with an extremely low touch automated downloading and organizing system that you can let your friends log into to request movies and shows without them needing to bug you at all for it to be downloaded in your preferred quality, size, codec, etc and automatically show up in Plex/jellyfin as soon as it finishes downloading, all renamed and sorted into folders as you please. That would be horrible.
So like what's the actual deal with pirating content nowadays? I remember in the early 2000s it was don't seed and don't torrent just-released content and you won't get caught. Are the companies more rigorous nowadays? Are they going after people and you really do need a VPN? Can you torrent content at a human-watchable pace (like a show or two a month, maybe a movie or two a week) and no one's going to notice you?
- Depends on the country. In the U.S., instead of chasing users themselves, they have leveraged the Internet providers to act as enforcers. If you torrent something they first send you notice of violation from your Internet provider.
  If you continue to torrent, they can
  cancel your service or the copyright holder can start legal action.
  Honestly, I would never torrent anything anymore. There are great webpages that offer streaming for no cost.
- Just get a VPN and torrent like normal in the 2000s. Nothing has changed. Seeding is not really a big deal anymore because everyone's internet speeds are so fast.
- I personally love QBtorrent and the built in search engine, plus if you look for it there are block lists you can quickly install into it that blocks you from connecting to known IP addresses of copyright enforcers but I'd still recommend a VPN anyways for good measure from your ISP but those are cheap and easy too.
  I definitely seed a lot more than I did in the 2000s but I have fiber and unlimited data so that's an easier ask.
  There are supposedly great private torrent sites but I've been ok with the ones everyone else uses and haven't figured out if I need to do different.
- They generally ignore it unless you become excessive and then they just warn you, nothing horrible. But if you do it over a VPN, they can’t do anything. Or do it from a cloud instance from Amazon, or Google, and then download the files locally from there.
i wouldn't download a car because i have no space, but i would stream it.
Be careful putting that stuff on lemmy. Big studios aren't afraid to sue
Definitely don't set sail on the seven seas
I unironically love that fmhy.net's site would work well in Gopher.

I dust off my robe and wizard hat.

Plex is a great streaming alternative. Cancelling Netflix pays for the upgrade to gigabit Internet. Hard drives are cheaper now than ever. Usenet access remains safe and speedy. The DIY community for automation is thriving.

Is that the Jolly Roger coming in to port? Welcome back old friends.

Worth checking out Jellyfin as well
- I MUCH prefer Jellyfin to Plex. Jellyfin seems to have active development whereas Plex is more interested in adding in a ton of "features" (aka garbage) that I never ever wanted and continues to leave YEARS old bugs out in the wild. I think it won't be long until Plex enshittifies itself to death. They clearly have a financial situation that is not aligned with its users.
- I tried but the technical gap from Plex to Jellyfin was too intense for me to try and make work at this time of my life. Plex works well for my purposes and I paid for the phone apps when needed ($6 per device I think).
  I admire and support Jellyfin as FOSS and hope I can jump on when I have more time to make it work.
- I can't for the life of me get HW encoding working with Jellyfin. Plex was just plug and play.
  i7-11800H
- worth checking out until you get to the cry for developers that they posted yesterday. fuck switching my media serving to a dying platform
Yep. Finally got Radarr and Sonarr with overseerr setup this summer because I need a GUI solution for my family. It’s been working pretty great so far!
- I have the same but the one thing I can't get working is accessing overseer from outside the network (ie internet). I've read guides of course but at some point they start talking about domains and certificate signing and I start to have a siezure.
Is there any links/guides on how to get into the usenet side of things? I've been using torrents forever but people keep saying usenet is safer.
- Google/learn about/consider these things
  VPN, Usenet provider (i.e. EasyNews), Usenet indexers (i.e. NZBgeek), Usenet client (i.e. NZBget), Managing your library (Sonarr, Radar, Prowlarr, Filebot),
  Media server & streaming (i.e. Plex, Jellyfin)
  I watch through my firestick or android phones
  I might be missing something, but there are lots of guides once you figure out what you're looking for. A little technical know-how makes things go smoother and faster though.
- Also, what makes Usenet safer?
- I second this and I’m in the same boat as you
- Running a VPN makes torrenting just as safe and you'll be paying a subscription fee for Usenet so it's a wash in my opinion.
Plex is cracking down on pirated content. They can't do anything locally (yet) but they sent out a mass email about two weeks ago saying that anyone that hosts a Plex server in the cloud (they didn't specifically mention Hetzner, but that's who is largely being affected) will lose access on October 12th.
- That's because people were creating their own 'streaming services' using pirated content and selling access to it using Hetzner servers, which is very bad for all parties involved because it brings a lot of negative attention when actual profits are being generated from distributing pirated material.
- People thought hosting copyrighted content on someone's cloud and making it available to others was a good idea? 🤦🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️
  This is why we can't have nice things.
- Plex is cracking down on pirated content.
  I'm just as jaded and cynical as the next guy, but I think that this is a mischaracterization of that email. People were hosting Plex servers with thousands of users and terabytes of pirated content on Hetzner and selling access. I don't read them taking action as a signal for them blocking local libraries in the future.
- That’s their entire userbase. Bold call haha
- Good to know, hopefully this creates a drive to make alternatives a little more user friendly to set up
- Gotta sell out to get more VC cash somehow /s
Got any names in particular? I’ve been looking at Usenet for a long long time and I think I’m going to finally get serious about it
- Sure, check through this comment thread as a few have already been mentioned.
Stremio + Real Debrid is definitely not worth investigating. Avoid it at all costs. Keep giving these media companies more money. All the money. Disney needs your dollars.

the capitalists are unable to understand that the "eternal growth" their books mention is not feasible in real world and in fact it is a bug. There are physical upper limits that cannot be overcome. There will not be unlimited people that will always enrol in a new subscription. They need to somehow understand that at some point a company may reach their ceiling. This is not reason to do whatever panic change in order to show growth in the numbers. It will just not happen.

Ah but when the prices can't go any higher they can always remove content, paying their suppliers less and getting cheaper hardware. I wish I was joking but these are the options that are left.
- "Do we really need all these CDNs everywhere?"
"And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds left to conquer."
-- H. Gruber.
The thing is, they do know this. They are perfectly willing to drive a company into the ground on the promise of annual growth, and they'll dump it the moment it cannot serve them monetarily.
Lies!
It's mathematically possible to have infinite growth as long as it's in nominal terms and you have infinite inflation!
(Joke aside, ponder on why central banks have a positive non-zero inflation target...)

When will the greed stop? At what point will these corporations realize that the average American is completely stretched thin financially and will have to cease unnecessary expenses? They’re all just shooting themselves in the foot.

"When will the greed stop?"
Never
- It‘s laughable to expect corporations to act against their only purpose. As soon as a company sells shares it takes the route of infinite growth which is impossible. First they grow their user base and once they start to inevitably stagnate, they start milking their costumers, shaving off features and laying off workers in order to grow their income. It is really the only way for them to remain existent when the market is saturated. They cannot stay in business when they make billions a year when these billions aren‘t even more billions than last year. You can‘t attract new investors that way and therefore cannot continue to exist. Enshittyfication only just started. It cannot possibly get better when they can‘t expand their user base, only worse. They know they will self destruct eventually, but that doesn‘t matter as long as shareholders get their piece of the cake and jump ship to sink the next one. Just being a massively profitable company is bad business if you‘re not growing. That‘s the state of capitalism we‘re in.
- When the platform dies.
  “first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. “
  Source
- Incorrect.
  It will stop when our species exterminates itself out of greed.
  Climate change will probably only thin our numbers by the billions as a result of of the owner's greed, but then they want to profit off AI, and CRISPR, and innumerable other potentially profitable means to our self-extinction.
  The greed will stop when all the humans are dead almost certainly by our own hands, and humans are actively working to accomplish this.
As consolidation continues corporations do not need to compete on prices as there are no alternatives. Yes people will pirate but they’ve already lobbied vendors to embrace DRM and governments to make it illegal so that makes it as annoying as possible.
- Are we reading the same thing? Netflix has more competition now than it ever has. When Netflix had cheaper prices when it has no competition than it does now. Piracy has been making a huge resurgence as well.
Oh you sweet summer child....
America is founded on greed and power, it'll never stop.
As long as people pay for it and they make massive profits through it.
I mean, look at the last situation in which netflix addressed account sharing. Their user number actually increased because of it from what I have read.
Those people that can't afford it will most likely switch to a less expensive tier and then probably see ads. I have seen that recently with my father who wasn't even bothered or annoyed by the constant ads while watching a single episode.
- I don't understand how people are ok with ads? They annoy me so much. It's wasting your time so it can attempt to manipulate you into buying stuff with the money you can't afford to spend.
When enough people cancel. Keep paying, they'll keep raising the price.
We keep saying this but they keep profiting more and more every time lol. Remember when everyone on reddit was gonna quit Netflix for the password sharing block? Ya, their users increased afterwards.
- To be fair, we only have their word for how many subscribers they have.
AND KILL THE AMERICAN DREAM THAT ANY MAN CAN BE KING?! might as well just side with those broke natives /s
They’ll stop if everyone sailed the high seas.

Price of WD red HDD's about to go up too

Storage right now is probably as cheap as its gunna get for a while, good time to stock up
- Well... New tech should make higher storage densities mainstream again in 1-2 years. Seagate just released 32TB HAMR drives for commercial use

We should all know that Netflix's method of "throwing money at the wall and hope one of the shows becomes a hit, cancel immediately after a season if it doesn't work out" is completely unsustainable at this point, as this kind of dehumanizing disposablilty of production is the exact " industry disruptive" approach to expect from a bunch of arrogant Silicon Valley techbros, so this cost increase should not come as a surprise.

Many long running shows have had pretty bad first seasons, "Parks and Rec", the US version of "The Office", and "The Simpsons" comes to mind, and these shows would never have even gotten off the ground if Netflix was running them, because as with all industries, it takes a while for people to find their footing and get to know each other to work together effectively.

The real sad part is, the industry that has copied Netflix's "disruptive" approach are now finding out that the emperor has no clothes and are desperately trying to pass the cost off to anybody else for their own survival, which is why it is more important than ever to fight for the dignities of the people who worked on your favorite shows for your entertainment.

I could very well be mistaken and please correct me if I am. I remember reading that canning a show before season 3 or so was a way of getting around union costs that kick in for a 'longer' running show. A very anti labor strategy designed to cash in quickly then drop it so Netflix wouldn't have to share the wealth.
- I thought it was a balance between new shows getting better engagement than old shows, and contracts lasting 3 seasons, which required re-negotiations in favor of the talent. Basically a business model hyper-focused on subscriber growth metrics instead of subscriber retention.
Imo they're really poisoning the well. If they pump out shit show after shit show what will happen (and is likely already happening) is consumers wait until the second season for a show releases to make sure they're not wasting their time getting invested into a show that will be canceled anyway. That will then lead to fewer and fewer shows actually becoming successful, eventually leading to people cancelling the subscription because the last time they watched anything (good) on Netflix was 10 years ago.
- I agree, but IMO part of the problem is people watching just whatever to pass time - and this is also going into the stats.
To be frank, I don't think they care about anything else other than keeping people on the platform. Which is not such a bad goal to be had if they tried to achieve that with quality of service, good offering of entertainment, etc. What they are doing is desperately trying to create some long running series where on which people will get hooked and won't be able to leave even if everything else starts sucking. Should this ever happen I think we can fully expect their next step to be reduced amount of licensing towards other shows and movies.
But as you rightly put it, you can't grow forever and ever increasing revenue can only be had in dreams.
- Actually, I don't think they care about retention at all, because to the industry retention = stagnation. They only care about new subscribers because that "shows" growth. They much prefer hearing "We increased subscriber counts by 10%!" over "We kept 100% of subscribers YoY!"

Thanks for reminding me that I haven't even watched Netflix in a minute. I cancelled it. Fuck them.

They're not even slowly raising prices, they are very rapidly raising them. We've reinvented cable.

Last year Hulu went up $1, this year $3.
Which isnt so weird when you realise it's Disney.
Actually, cable didn't even raise prices this fast. We've, unsurprisingly to anyone familiar with capitalism, created something worse.
Perhaps they realized number of people that keeps paying versus number of people who cancel their subscription results in net positive revenue, so they are testing where the line is. All the while trying to fund some new content to get more people to come back.
- I wouldn't doubt there's collusion. It's very convenient that none of these services are taking advantage of this and are seemingly raising all of their prices simultaneously.

Netflix is planning on raising piracy again. 😅

In a 4-D chess move, by canceling everything with no resolution, they've made their shows not worth pirating by making them not worth watching.
- They tapping into the juicy "afraid to commit" market.

I'd be mad but I cancelled last time this happened.

Yea I didn't but I'll cancel this time.
Should make an event with other people. Set a date and cancel all at the same time.
I suck at modding communities but I'd help promote and join any if someone got it going.

But I can only cancel my subscription once, and I already did, months ago.

they outplayed you 😂 you might be paying $0, but you can't stop them anymore from charging you 2x$0 next year
I canceled after they lost Star Trek. And then I never subscribed to the place that does have Star Trek now. Now I'm so annoyed with all of the price hikes that I may only ever subscribe to the high seas going forward. Lol
- My seedbox price has never increased.

Never mind the price, Netflix just doesn't have stuff I want to watch anymore.

Netflix does have good shows, but they're just so few and far in between. I stopped my subscription about a year ago, and haven't missed it. I'll resubscribe this month to watch Fall of the House of Usher, then unsub again just because there's nothing to watch.
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if others are doing this, the streaming companies catch on, and we pay a bulk amount for a season a la early iTunes again
- They also actively pigeon hole users into a small portion of their content, they've been stripping away all search and discovery functionality over the years. They are going down the route of "our algorithm is perfect and knows exactly what you want so why would you want to do anything else"
  I bet there's a ton of content you'd actually enjoy that Netflix will never recommend to you because it's outside of what the algorithm thinks you want to see
- I agree, I just hate that when they do have good shows they cancel it immediately 🤦. I cringed when they canceled 1899 and inside job.
- I'd actually love a streaming service where you just pay like a flat price and it adds it library, the more you pay the longer the rental term up to like a full ownership price and the ability to download. Microtransaction the streaming service which makes me feel a bit yucky but at least I'd have control over how much I spent and you could build a more permanent library that someone else hosts
The ones I really miss are the Ghibli films :/

Ah yes, because derivative reality shows and bottom-of-the-barrel adult cartoons are so expensive to produce.

What the hell happened, you used to be good.

Just cancelled, haven't touched NF since I subbed to HBO (and even that is getting cancelled next month). Maybe its time to try Hulu.

Hulu will still show ads for some things, even if you pay extra for ad free. Pisses me off, they're a terrible company. They'll never get another dime from me.
- They're not great, but I haven't seen any ads on ad free. Their interface is weird as hell and it almost seems like they purposely bury things you've recently been watching which is weird.
- No, bullshit. It was like 3 shows due to old licensing. This is not a thing
- No it doesn't. At most it shows what channel produces the show you are watching and when to expect more episodes, and it takes less than 5 seconds
- They used to do that for a handful of shows due to streaming contracts, but last time I checked (~2019) it was literally two shows. Is it more now?
I say we should collectively strike from streaming platforms to send a message. If you want to watch shows, collect DVDs from the library or thrift store and rip them to a USB drive. If you have a newer TV with a built in media player, it can read the video formats on the USB drive for quick access to your favorite shows.
- Yeah cause collective strikes of a vocal minority work out so great in the end lol
- Im at a stage where I am more than happy to pay for really good shows. It really isn't about price, just value. It's just been ages since NF made anything stellar.
  They said about The OA (I loved season 1)...
  Neflix describes The OA as "a big creative swing we were proud to take," but says that when it comes to deciding what to renew and what to cancel, "viewing versus cost" is always what it takes into account.
  This philosophy means we get loads of average crap. They aren't a regular network, why the hell are they acting like it.
  I've said before, because it's linked with delivery, Prime seems to be the only service willing to take risks, and they make some great stuff because of it. HBO seems to be a distant second.
Funny enough I just cancelled my Hulu after they jacked the ad-free price up to $18. It was $12 when I first subscribed about 6 or 7 years ago.
I will say thier D+ and Hulu price doesn't seem bad with the current promotion, but I'm getting D+ currently from family. I've always sailed the seas even when subbed to Hulu, but once D+ starts blocking sub sharing I'll be shoving off for the long foreseeable future once again.
Hulu is my most used service. Honestly I could drop all others and be happy

Argh matey, I'd rather walk the plank than pay those greedy pigs! Tis the high seas for me landlubbers!!!

pigs in plural, yes. How many streaming services are there now? I lost track a couple of years ago.
Username checks out

I've been a Netflix customer for over 20 years. The recent password crackdown and constant price gouging led me to cancel their service yesterday. Yo Ho MF'ers.

I canceled just after the CEO said that paid customers could be getting ads. Knew that was the beginning of the end

Sounds like Netflix is panicking and scrambling. The frequency of their subscription hikes increases and increases. Perhaps they think they can price hike their way out of the dissatisfaction they have delivered to subscribers. Keep trying Netflix, find that magic subscription price point that will surely cover for all the subscribers you're shedding with your idiocy and will definitely not hasten your arrival to 0% revenue. Increasing that price won't lose you more subscribers right? Of course not. Burn Netflix burn.

More like they took on a shitload of very low interest debt back when the fed rate was 0%. Now that the fed rate is 5.5%, they can't just roll over the loans and have to start paying them back.
They're finding the optimal price point. Each time they raise they lose some customers, but their increased revenue leads them to being more profitable afterwards. Eventually the price increases will result in so many people leaving that they'll have to stop.
Problem is, this strategy has exactly one direction: irrelevance. It can take a very long time to get there, but eventually you lose so many subscribers that your competitors have begun eating your lunch. The profits were solid so you didn't care. It's the normal business life cycle, and Netflix is well into the mature phase. We have worse quality and higher prices to look forward to.
- Netflix's lowered revenue growth is the highlight. That's what they and their investors focus on, with subscriber satisfaction being an afterthought. The price hikes haven't shown any effect on that downward trend either. But hey, keep hiking I say. Fires burn bigger when fuel is added and these people can't differentiate water from gasoline. Having washed my hands of this company, I'm looking forward to further scrambling when revenue growth is nil and then negative and the stock drops and drops and the corporatists wail.

it's amazing that they think people are going to continue to pay them at these prices for no content

Some people seem to believe the customers are suckers who will eternally take the price hikes, but even the most gullible fool still doesn't have infinite money. At some point they'll have to cut something or the bank will cut it for them.
Well, back to the seas it seems. It was fun while it lasted. One might as well pay for a VPN instead.
- I'm sure they did the math they've calculated that the increases will offset the loss is subscribers. From the article it looked like the royalties will increase so less subscribers paying more is even more profitable.
- The customers are suckers who will take a lot. Look up skylink satellite tv provider, and their "always free" tier that's currently 6,90€ a month.
  They gave it for free just around the time analog tv was being decomissioned. And after they've captured the large userbase, who couldn't switch back, they pulled the trigger.
- If you go with Mullvad (which is one of the best private VPN providers) you even save some money, as it's just 5 EUR/month. You can also take the 20 bucks that you would have given to Netflix and pay a seedbox company like RapidSeedbox to torrent anonymously.
Every time Netflix changes anything, people freak out and say they're gonna lose all their subscribers.
And every time, Netflix makes more money than before, because they have awesome data analysis and have a very good idea of how many subscribers will leave and how much more money they'll make from the remainder.
I remember when they lost like 4% of their subscribers a few years back and everyone was all doom and gloom, but they'd raised their rates like 15%
- Eventually they'll figure if they can get one person to pay 10 billion dollars a month, they can lose all their other subscribers and still hit their quarterly goals.
But they are
- Exactly. No one I know cancelled. They just had to buy separate accounts while complaining.
- Yeah, this is exactly like the Reddit and Twitter situation. No matter how bad it gets, people don’t care. If they’re used to something, they’ll rather put up with the new bad stuff than changing their habits.
I keep hearing people say this no content thing. Meanwhile I just went through Castlevania, one piece, sweet tooth and Kingdom this past week and there's like 30 shows and movies on my cue
- You enjoyed the garbage fire that was Castlevania? Don't get me wrong, the first season was good enough, but then the writing quickly devolved into a 10 year-old's edgy fanfic, and the animation quality dropped off a cliff.
  If only Konami gave the green light to a japanese studio like Madhouse.

Ahoy mateys...time to set sail on the seven seas.

You know I really should get around to getting a paid tier of proton VPN so that I can have cannons on me ship when I sail the high seas.

Ahoy matey! 'ave ye heard the good news about Debrid services?
- No
Proton vpn is great! I have switched to their ecosystem.long time ago and only thing they could do better is linux vpn. The official linux vpn cannot do any of the new things as for examole windows app.
- The official linux vpn cannot do any of the new things as for examole windows app.
  I believe one examole is 10^(18 + 23) * 6.02214076
- Does the Proton VPN trigger captcha queries with Google searches?
I can’t complain about performance. The iOS and macOS apps are good. I am leaving the country for a vacation soon so we’ll see how it goes.

Yarr harr, matey!
- Yo hooo.

They really want us to cancel? My family only barely decided to keep Netflix after they last raised prices, and now they're doing it again.

Yo ho, yo ho... 🏴‍☠️

Speaking of which, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Stremio* + Torrentio is a thing, and contains the entire catalog of every streaming provider combined. Works on smart TVs too.
- Stremio for the dreamio!
- Because of this comment, I'm converting. Thank you so much! Doesn't seem to hard to figure out and there are plenty of articles online for this. I see a lot of them also add Real Debrid for higher quality and to remove the need for VPN. Anyway, you rock!
we say yoho but we don't say hoe, cause hoe is disrespectful yo...
- Yo, hoe

The juice isn't worth the squeeze

Oh god, I can't find it now but before the whole crackdown on shared accounts someone tried to argue with me that it was worth it. As cutting account sharing would allow Netflix to keep their current prices to undercut competition. I actually bet them that that would not be the case and Netflix would still hike the prices again. I wish I could find them just to say “I told you”.

Might finally get me to cancel Netflix, but who am I kidding, I probably have 6+ hours of it playing in the background daily.

The problem I really have is the lack of 4k without buying a ton of extra screens. A single screen 4k plan would fix 99% of my complaints about pricing.

You could go with YouTube if you want something on the background. Or just ~~pirate the media~~ buy BluRays and DVDs of the shows and movies you rewatch.
- YouTube works for the other 6 hours of content I’m playing in the background. Netflix having long tv series keeps me on the platform cause where else am I going to find 20 seasons of one show easily accessible
5 bucks a month to a reputable VPN provider will get you access to more than you can ever watch.
- Can’t use a VPN while gaming without a high possibility of bans. And I don’t care to pirate. It’s not something I’m interested in doing and takes more time/effort than I’m willing to put in for mindless entertainment.
For background content, I use either Pluto or Live TV on Plex.
It's kinda great that, as an older person, they're replaying all the same stuff what constantly being replayed when I was kid. And there's news and music, etc.
I cancelled my Netflix in 2018. I've signed back in for a single month three times over the past five years to catch up on things I've missed. I had a hard time finding much to watch over those three months.
- Do those have Ads though? I guess I just assumed they did which is why I haven't bothered. I have a lifetime plex sub if it matters
I moved to the $10 720p plan and haven't noticed the drip in resolution even once.
- A huge amount of my watching is done on 55” 4k TVs where the resolution drop is incredibly noticeable. Even 1080p content looks like absolute shit on them most of the time.
  If you watch in a web browser then there is no drop in quality cause the browser version only plays 720p

Gotta pay those writers without hurting profits somehow.

Corpos drooling over AI scripts

Already going "hybrid" when it comes to content and Netflix only survived the last round because family members voted "stay". Not sure about the next time, especially since their little fabricated "crackdown" (as if users were doing anything against the rules ...) on sth. that was once not only tolerated, but actively encouraged definitely rubbed me the wrong way.

Streamers are currently benefiting from the actors strikes as no new content is being bought and made while they continue to receive subscription payments for old content.

This, and price hiking is simply greed, nothing more.

There is new content now. But there won't be for awhile. We have had the last season of the Witcher sex education and first season of one piece come out.
- Yes but that was all commissioned before the strikes had started. The crown final season is also included in that list iso it seems like there’s new content but there’s just a delay to it all.

I wonder what this Netflix live action anime ONE PIECE is all about?

The real treasure was the torrents we downloaded along the way.

Don't care, fired them two years ago.

What is even left?

My Jellyfin server.
- And my Plex!
A VPN.
Mullvad is £5/mo. AirVPN is €7/mo.
Both are top tier VPNs. Mullvad has all RAM servers. AirVPN offers port forwarding.
Plex with Sonarr/Radarr/VPN/qBitTorrent is the way to go.
- What's the VPN for? Hitting the seas?

The whole industry is a profit driven capitalistic trap to squeeze as much monies from us as possible. The same companies behind extortionate CD / DVD prices and market control are behind the streaming services. While the coast is still semi-clear and we can pirate what we want, they've slowly infiltrated the governments around the globe and introduced stupid copyright laws so that they can go after the common man. I expect that the future is bleak, with more governments succumbing to the industry's lobbying and making it harder for the average user to pirate, so much so, that we'll be forced to pay as much as they ask us

Raise the anchor! 🏴‍☠️

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
- Shave his belly with a rusty razor!
- stremio with addons ahoy

You literally Google, Kodi or Jellyfin whenever you want, and start building your own media library. Then you can cancel all these crazy subscriptions and just enjoy your shows/ films

Plus you get to have your very own server and host a bunch of other things!

Why join NAVY when you can be a pirate..

Just finished watching Peaky Blinders on Netflix, guess that was the last good show on there, now they keep pushing Beckham and reality shows in my face, like I care about that, can't find anything good. I've cancelled it.

Black Mirror is incredible. You could sail the high seas for that.

Unsubscribed years ago. Haven't missed it.

More reasons for me to get out of streaming subs.. Itturned into what cable was 🫥

Cable is a pipe to get content from TV and Film companies into the home. Netflix was also a pipe to get content from TV and Film companies into the home. The cost of TV and Film isn't magically cheaper on cable or Netflix. TV and Film companies want to get paid, and that cost gets passed on in the subscription cost. Instead of cable being a one stop shop for bundles and packages of everything, you now have to basically have multiple streaming subs that likely add up to the cost of cable.
- what is this?
  opposite of tl;dr?

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Netflix is planning to increase the cost of its streaming service yet again, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The streamer will reportedly issue the price hike a “few months” after the Hollywood actors strike ends, which could happen in the coming weeks.

Just last week, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) ended its strike and began voting on a contract with major Hollywood studios, including Netflix, that could change the business of streaming.

For example, Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, and other services will now have to share streaming data with the WGA under the new contract, allowing writers to see how well their content performed.

Netflix is likely waiting until the end of the strike to raise prices, as hiking up costs when no new content is coming out doesn’t seem like a smart move.

Once both writers and actors are back to work, there will likely be a lot of new shows and movies coming out that Netflix can use to justify the increase.

The original article contains 414 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 59%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Maybe they'll actually start paying actors and writers the residuals they they are entitled to.

It’s still not clear how much Netflix will raise prices, and Netflix declined to comment.

Curious, is there any price hike y’all would consider fair? Serious question.

Depends on if it coincides with raises for working class staff, or there was enough transparency in operating costs and expenditures to be confident it's not just being done for additional profit margins. If the cost of serving video has actually gone up by $2 * subscription count every month, then no problem. I suspect that isn't the case, though.
I think all pricing ends in 99. They can round it up to the nearest dollar

And my desire to have an account has reduced even further. It's already way too expensive, but on top of that we have endless license wars, so the actual consumer will never win. We're playing checkers while they are playing monopoly where every spot is get out of jail for free

Infinite Free Netflix hack:

Sign up for a month and pay. Immediately go and cancel the subscription. It will say the cancellation takes effect in 30 days, however they will actually cancel your subscription in 2-3 days and issue you a refund. In that 2-3 days you can watch Netflix. Repeat.

Could be the get fed up with you after the 10th time you try that, and ban you or your IP.
- I’ve personally done it twice. Mostly was trying to actually sign up for a 30 day period to watch a show, but wasn’t planning on letting the subscription run unquestioned like I used to. The price is too high for that. Turns out Netflix is petty. Either you let the subscription run, or they cancel you.

Their greed made me put on my eye patch years ago. And since then I’ve only convinced more to do the same.

Screw these greedy bastards.

that's cool. i haven't had netflix since 2011.

All while they can't make new content from the strikes? They better buy up some gold for shows to binge watch like Battle Star Galactica.

I still have it cause it's free with t mobile.

Only hanging on to an account for my parents' sake now.

Well, if you linearly extrapolate from recent events, eventually they will have a single user who is paying a billion dollars a month for their subscription.

Gave up on netflix some time ago due to lack of good content

Some people will still say it is cheaper than going to cinemas everyday.

I watch Netflix on occasion and share it will my sibling, who watches it a ton. If it does go up any higher, I'm going to have to have them start paying for half. Otherwise, I'll just have to cancel. They don't have enough content to justify me paying anymore than I currently am. I'm mostly on Hulu anyway.

I have been a user for 6 years and I'm tired of it now please stop

Well it's time I learned to sail the high seas. Yaaaarrr.

I would love to cancel it. I almost never watch it and there's nothing I do watch that I couldn't live without. Unfortunately, my mom does watch it constantly, and she'd just sign up for her own account if I got rid of mine, so in the interest of keeping her bills down, I'm kind of stuck. At least I got her to dump Hulu's outrageously overpriced live tv option, so I got that going for me.

Yo ho ho…

All these services from Netflix to Uber are built on understandable foundations. They lose a ton of money in their first phase in order to gain subscribers but sooner or later start looking to turn profit out at least stop the bleeding.

I can already hear the outcry of surprised gamers when Microsoft cracks the whip on their Game Pass pricing, and there will be little to no alternative because they bought out most of the studios and publishers.

shrug.

Netflix's price structure hasn't been a concern for me for a couple of years...

I can't wait for people to removed incessantly about this for a week, and nothing to happen.

Congrats writers union

Does he have licenses to legally stream the shows? If not, this just sounds like piracy for morons.
That seems like a really bad idea, no? Promoting a paid for pirated streaming service? Seems like that's ripe for a lawsuit
I get mine all free here: https://seez.su/
- Seez nuts
  Gottem
rentry.co/megathread cough cough
also the referral program is crazy u can get 10% off ur sub cost per month for every person u invite up to 40% off bill
- Spam your trash resold libraries elsewhere

This shouldn't really surprise anyone, the writers all finished striking for MORE MONEY. Services aren't free, content isn't free. Netflix hires a lot of writers and endless unionized people to make their shows and films. If we all want to be part of making society more equal it does infact come with higher costs for our selves, and I am perfectly fine with that.

You really bought into the entire PR material here. What makes you think the extra profits are going to go to staff? That never happens. Instead it grows the company profits so the shareholders gets richer.
Every company, specially in the US, are keeping their salaries low so the company can make higher profits.
Netflix profits last year was 3.5 billion dollars, and that was one of the bad years.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/gross-profit
WGA Lays Out Costs Per Studio of Their $343 Million Increase to Contract (16 May 2023)
In a new chart, which can be viewed below, the WGA estimated how that $343 million breaks down on a studio-by-studio basis. It estimates that the proposed contract would cost Disney an additional $75 million, or less than 0.1% of its $82 billion annual revenue. It also estimates that Netflix would pay up an additional $68 million, or 0.2% of its $31.6 billion annual revenue.
- Oh ONLY 68 MILLION dollars, not to mention the ever increasing cost of living for all the other unionized cast and crew. I suppose they can totally just absorb those costs, or people should not get cost of living increases right... The company has a little over a 10% profit margin, which doesn't seem egregious to me.
Love the down votes haha... I guess people don't want to actually pay for creators to make content. I don't think the average person has any idea how much content creation costs, nor how time consuming it is.