To Subscribe Or Not To Subscribe, That Is The Question: Paid Streaming Services

[Irlandesa]

And Hulu is increasing its price again.  I might drop it after Only Murders is over for the season and pick it back up for The Bear or the next season of OMITB.

[Anela]

39 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

And Hulu is increasing its price again.  I might drop it after Only Murders is over for the season and pick it back up for The Bear or the next season of OMITB.

I've just received an email about this. We're already paying over $19, I think. It's all too much now. 

[SoMuchTV]

9 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

This is 100% why I'm going to let Hulu lapse at the end of my year-long Black Friday 2023 deal.  $1.07 a month is waaaaay too much to pay to put up with shit like this.

 

7 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

And Hulu is increasing its price again.  I might drop it after Only Murders is over for the season and pick it back up for The Bear or the next season of OMITB.

I get Hulu "free" with my mobile service, where I'm grandfathered in on a plan that's a pretty good deal.  If that ever changes, Hulu would be relegated to the services that I add/drop depending on what's currently available that I want to see (Netflix, Apple), or wait until I get a deep discount deal on (Peacock, Paramount+).

[tessaray]

Other than OMITB, I'm starting to side-eye Hulu. I have the $20 ad-free deal with it and Disney+, which is good because together they are only a few dollars more than either alone. But right now there isn't much on Disney that I want to watch. 🤷‍♀️ 

Edited September 14 by tessaray

[StatisticalOutlier]

9 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I might drop it after Only Murders is over for the season and pick it back up for The Bear or the next season of OMITB.

I'm so pissed off by them that I'm not even going to bother to watch any of the borderline programs I put in "my stuff."  If I allow them to treat me like this, they'll continue to treat me like this.  Maybe I'll cancel before my last $1.07 payment is due.  That'll show 'em!

Seriously--if they treat Only Murders like this, something I never watched but I know is one of their most popular productions,  then I don't want to have anything to do with them.  I definitely don't want to be reminded, every time I watch a show, of their slobbering desperation to keep me from exiting their platform, even for a minute.

Actually, I'm glad this was brought to our attention, to remind me how much I hate Hulu.  I just went through my entire "my stuff" on there and anything that is on Kanopy or Hoopla, I added it over there.  I have limited borrows on those, and always figured I'd put up with the Hulu version because it's "free," but nope.  I'm left with just a few things I can't get elsewhere, and seeing my drastically trimmed "my stuff" list on Hulu makes me happy.  I'll knock those out and then say adios, and cherish my time with Reservation Dogs.

 

[StatisticalOutlier]

So I'm watching the Kristen Stewart Princess Diana movie on Hulu and 45 minutes in it goes to commercial.  Then after this commercial break it starts a NEW movie, the one with Tom Hanks playing Mr. Rogers.  The hell?

So I hit the "back" button and resume the Diana movie, picking it up where I left off, and it plays the last few seconds before the commercial break that led to Mr. Rogers (she's gobbling some pastries in the kitchen), and then I get a screen that says this movie is intended for mature audiences, like when the movie first started.  Then commercials play, and then it starts showing the movie Together.  The hell? 

So I go back and navigate to the Diana movie again and resume it, and there she is gobbling pastries in the kitchen again, and it acts as if it's going to commercial but it doesn't, and picks up where Together was when I hit the back button.

So I stopped Together and resumed Diana, and there she was gobbling pastries again, but this time I got a split second of the next scene, where somebody is walking in a foggy garden, and then I got the "intended for mature audiences" warning, and then commercials.  And then?  Some gory documentary called Dead Asleep. 

The thing is, I have this going through a standalone DVR so I can replay all of this to confirm what happened in what order.  And this is why I do that--so I don't get halfway into a movie and have it glitch.  Plus it helps me verify that I'm not losing my fucking mind.

ETA: I'm a glutton for punishment.  I tried it one more time and got another split second of the person walking in the foggy garden, and I'm guessing it's Diana.  Then commercials, then...the movie Pig starts.

Edited September 15 by StatisticalOutlier

[JustHereForFood]

Amazon Prime was supposed to have ads now, but 4 episodes into Rings of Power, I have not seen any. Is it because it's an Amazon production and they are somehow spared or have I accidentally ordered ad-free version? The price seems to be the same as last year for regular version. 🤷‍♀️

[Anela]

46 minutes ago, JustHereForFood said:

Amazon Prime was supposed to have ads now, but 4 episodes into Rings of Power, I have not seen any. Is it because it's an Amazon production and they are somehow spared or have I accidentally ordered ad-free version? The price seems to be the same as last year for regular version. 🤷‍♀️

Was it sponsored by a company? Fallout had no ads, because of that.  

[peachmangosteen]

4 hours ago, JustHereForFood said:

Amazon Prime was supposed to have ads now, but 4 episodes into Rings of Power, I have not seen any. Is it because it's an Amazon production and they are somehow spared or have I accidentally ordered ad-free version? The price seems to be the same as last year for regular version. 🤷‍♀️

When I watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith it didn't have ads either and I too assumed it was because it was a Prime original or whatever. 

[JustHereForFood]

6 hours ago, Anela said:

Was it sponsored by a company? Fallout had no ads, because of that.  

No idea. I didn't even know there is such a thing, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[SoMuchTV]

9 hours ago, JustHereForFood said:

Amazon Prime was supposed to have ads now, but 4 episodes into Rings of Power, I have not seen any. Is it because it's an Amazon production and they are somehow spared or have I accidentally ordered ad-free version? The price seems to be the same as last year for regular version. 🤷‍♀️

I’ve just been watching the latest season of A Very Royal Scandal. First two episodes, on my Vizio smart tv, no ads. Third episode, on a firestick, several ad breaks. I guess I need to pay attention and see if that’s a pattern. 

[possibilities]

Could that be a function of whether or not you are signed in with this or that account?

[SoMuchTV]

58 minutes ago, possibilities said:

Could that be a function of whether or not you are signed in with this or that account?

Was that directed at me (regarding ads on different devices)?  No, I don’t think so. I only have one Prime account, and the show wouldn’t be available without being signed in. 

Not a big deal since the ads, when I do get them, are really quite short. 

[AheadofStraight]

I'm happy to report that the latest episode of Only Murders did NOT pop up with the Hulu issue I complained about last week - at least until the very end. Much better than when 5 minutes were still remaining last time. 

[caitmcg]

On 9/21/2024 at 9:27 AM, JustHereForFood said:

Amazon Prime was supposed to have ads now, but 4 episodes into Rings of Power, I have not seen any. Is it because it's an Amazon production and they are somehow spared or have I accidentally ordered ad-free version? The price seems to be the same as last year for regular version. 🤷‍♀️

I couldn't say, but I've watched several things on Prime since they introduced ads where I have seen them, and a) ad breaks on shows have tended to be quite short, as with the new Netflix ad-supported plan, and b) ads ran briefly before a movie, but not during its actual runtime (thankfully).

[possibilities]

I'm really bothered that Netflix is now blocking access to the site unless you tell them your exact birthday and your gender.

I realize you can lie if you want to, but it still really bothers me.

[shapeshifter]

27 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I'm really bothered that Netflix is now blocking access to the site unless you tell them your exact birthday and your gender.

I realize you can lie if you want to, but it still really bothers me.

If it’s not a medical or financial institution, I give a fake birthday to prevent identity theft. I store the fake birthday with the password. 

[possibilities]

I agree. It's very bad security protocol to give that stuff out for no good reason.

Plus, I don't want them recommending shows to me based on age and gender stereotyping.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

Plus, I don't want them recommending shows to me based on age and gender stereotyping.

I usually only change the year by one or 2. 
Maybe it's just my ad blockers, spam filters, etc., but I seem to get less irrelevant ads now that I'm really old.

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I agree. It's very bad security protocol to give that stuff out for no good reason.

Plus, I don't want them recommending shows to me based on age and gender stereotyping.

I got the impression that Netflix is asking that to figure out which ads to show you and not for show recommendations. I made up a date and decided to make myself non-binary just to mess with them. 

[Dimity]

10 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

If it’s not a medical or financial institution, I give a fake birthday to prevent identity theft. I store the fake birthday with the password. 

Same.  I've been doing this for years.  I don't care why 'they' want this information.  I do usually give the right gender I admit but even then it's really a none of their business kind of thing.  Plus I am lazy, I usually just do Jan 1 and whatever year I randomly scroll down to.

[Ohiopirate02]

45 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Same.  I've been doing this for years.  I don't care why 'they' want this information.  I do usually give the right gender I admit but even then it's really a none of their business kind of thing.  Plus I am lazy, I usually just do Jan 1 and whatever year I randomly scroll down to.

I also use January 1st, but I make sure to not use my brother's actual birth year. I usually am too lazy to go much further than the 90s when I have to scroll. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

I have to be honest. I've NEVER had to provide that information when I had Netflix. Yes, I cancelled it a couple of months ago due to the new price hike and tiers.

[Bastet]

15 hours ago, possibilities said:

I'm really bothered that Netflix is now blocking access to the site unless you tell them your exact birthday and your gender.

I realize you can lie if you want to, but it still really bothers me.

I just accessed Netflix yesterday (via the app, not the site) for the first time in a while and it did not ask me any of that, but the account is in my mom's name and I just have a profile within it, so maybe they required that information of her. 

Whenever dealing with an entity that wants my birth date but has no business knowing my birth date, I use one that combines the birth dates of my three close friends in the order I met them so it's easy for me to remember -- my friend from childhood's month, my friend since junior high's date, and my adult friend's year. 

Gender usually has a "prefer not to answer" option (although maybe these days they think non-binary covers that and no longer offer it) and I'll pick that unless for some reason I want them to know the data they're gathering is from a woman, not the man they'd probably assume based on stereotyping.

[possibilities]

I know it's piddly, but I feel like having to make up a birthday might be the last straw on my streaming camel. I will probably do it, but not today, which is the first time they've asked.

I wonder what ads I'll see. I sometimes do websearches for stuff I'm not actually interested in, just to change the ads I wind up looking at. Right now I actually like the ads I'm seeing (the algorithm seems to figured out my actual tastes) but recently they were showing me "bras for seniors" and they couldn't have been farther from my interests if they'd tried.

Video ads are probably a different thing, though. I wonder if Netflix uses the same ad services as some other places, or if their data is independent and the ads they show are contracted with them individually. 

Edited October 4 by possibilities

[Zella]

I cancelled Netflix at the beginning of this year and haven't missed it, so this isn't something I have to worry about now, but my go-to when online accounts ask for birthdays is also to usually make one up. Though sometimes my lies catch up with me because I can't keep all the fake dates straight. LOL

[Bastet]

20 minutes ago, Zella said:

Though sometimes my lies catch up with me because I can't keep all the fake dates straight. LOL

I thought about doing different ones for different sites, and recording the fake birth date along with my username and password (and account number, if applicable) in the log book I have of those things, but it was an uncommon enough ask I just decided to use the same one for all.

[Zella]

23 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I thought about doing different ones for different sites, and recording the fake birth date along with my username and password (and account number, if applicable) in the log book I have of those things, but it was an uncommon enough ask I just decided to use the same one for all.

In retrospect, I wish I'd done that! I always stick with August as my birth month, but the days were always different. And really the only one I remember is my real one. 😂😂😂

[possibilities]

I will definitely have to write it down. There is no way I remember it otherwise.

Maybe I'll make one up in the 18 to 49 demo, since that's apparently what advertizers value. That way, my viewing choices will carry more weight?

Do streamers follow the same values as broadcast? Do they use Neilsen? And have those values changed since whenever it was I learned that was the age group that matters?

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

Do streamers follow the same values as broadcast? Do they use Neilsen?

They don't need Neilsen.  They created the apps people use to watch so they can see exactly what people watch, when they watch, how many times they watch, how they watch, whether they binge, and even when they give up. 

As for what audience is most valuable to the streamers, it depends.  Subscribers of any age are valuable to them, but they also know that if young people make subscribing a habit, they're most likely going to continue the habit throughout their adulthood.

And now that they're selling ads on some tiers, who knows if the demos are more valuable to the streamers. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

They created the apps people use to watch so they can see exactly what people watch, when they watch, how many times they watch, how they watch, whether they binge, and even when they give up. 

They can probably hear any conversations you have while watching, too.

As for what birthday to use, I used to do random ones and got permanently locked out of some account because I couldn't provide my birthdate.  My sister suggested I use the birthday of someone I know, and use that one all the time.  An old friend of mine popped into my head, so I use her birthday. 

I also never give my real name on anything that doesn't have a payment associated with it, and have come up with some really crazy names.  Which is kind of hilarious because my real name is Smith.  But my aliases are always quite exotic.

[StatisticalOutlier]

I'm going through "my stuff" on Hulu to make sure I've recorded everything I'm interested in before cancelling it a month before the Black Friday anniversary, saving myself $1.07.

There's a 2023 Japanese movie directed by Wim Wenders called Perfect Days that's on Hulu, and I was checking other services to see if I can get it there instead.  So I go to Kanopy and use the remote to laboriously type it in using arrow keys, and it brings up a mess of titles but not that one. 

But then back  at Kanopy's home screen, I notice a section called "new releases" and what's the first movie there?  Perfect Days.  So I went back and did the search again, and this time clicked through all of the results.  And there it was, #43 out of 48.  The one title that was a 100% match for my search, hidden many screens down.

The first result?  A Perfect Day.  Good work, except it's not the exact match for Perfect Days that is at #43.  The second result?  A 1956 British movie called The Green Man.  Huh??

Turns out it's directed by Robert Day.  So a movie directed by a man named Day is a vastly better search result for "perfect days" than a movie called "Perfect Days."

I can't believe how bad the search function (I use the term loosely) is.

[possibilities]

I thought the reason they value the 18 to 49 demo is that advertizers have found that younger people don't have much money to spend and older people are set in our ways and not as likely to be influenced by ads. So that middle range of 18 to 49 is who is targeted by ads. 

And shows are crafted to attract the demo advertisers want, because the more of them you have, the more your ad space is worth.

[StatisticalOutlier]

I forgot to mention that Kanopy, with its execrable search function, is the service that libraries pay for to provide streaming to their patrons.  The irony is painful. 

[Ohiopirate02]

32 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I forgot to mention that Kanopy, with its execrable search function, is the service that libraries pay for to provide streaming to their patrons.  The irony is painful. 

It's a lot of fun as a librarian having to explain to patrons how to search on our various online platforms or how unintuitive they really are. The worst part is when these services employ librarians for different things like curation but not in UX (looking at you Overdrive/Libby). 

[StatisticalOutlier]

7 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

It's a lot of fun as a librarian having to explain to patrons how to search on our various online platforms or how unintuitive they really are.

I feel for y'all, but Kanopy's search function couldn't be more intuitive--there's a search bar, so type the name of the movie in the box.  The problem comes with pesky expectations, like the search will find the movie with that exact name and display it higher than #43 in the results.

FWIW, I tried putting it in quotes and got the same results. 

[Ohiopirate02]

On 10/5/2024 at 9:20 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

I feel for y'all, but Kanopy's search function couldn't be more intuitive--there's a search bar, so type the name of the movie in the box.  The problem comes with pesky expectations, like the search will find the movie with that exact name and display it higher than #43 in the results.

FWIW, I tried putting it in quotes and got the same results. 

That is not really a pesky expectation unless the title you are looking for does have 40+ valid results. My experience says that is rarely the case and interfaces like Kanopy will show you "more relevant" results before the title you are seeking. The hows and whys of relevant is what makes the platform unintuitive in my opinion because that is always proprietary and cannot be tweaked by anyone. 

[chitowngirl]

On 10/5/2024 at 12:51 AM, StatisticalOutlier said:

I also never give my real name on anything that doesn't have a payment associated with it, and have come up with some really crazy names.  Which is kind of hilarious because my real name is Smith.  But my aliases are always quite exotic.

Regina Phalange? Anastasia Beaverhausen?

[Quof]

My Starbucks name is Monica Falula Geller.  

[shapeshifter]

Lately on Hulu when I'm watching an episode, 
at the end of the last commercial break,
instead of returning for the last 10 or so minutes of the episode,
it switches to an episode from a different show. 

Anyone else getting this experience? 

Fortunately when I click the go-back button on my Roku remote, I can then pretty quickly arrow down to the episode I was watching and "resume" watching.

[SoMuchTV]

3 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Lately on Hulu when I'm watching an episode, 
at the end of the last commercial break,
instead of returning for the last 10 or so minutes of the episode,
it switches to an episode from a different show. 

Anyone else getting this experience? 

Fortunately when I click the go-back button on my Roku remote, I can then pretty quickly arrow down to the episode I was watching and "resume" watching.

I haven’t had that, but I’ve been meaning to come here and complain about Hulu - if I miss something when it comes back from an ad break, and I try to rewind 10 seconds or so to catch it, it makes me watch the whole freaking two minute ad again!  I swear it didn’t use to behave that way! I wonder if they’re trying to adjust something with the ad breaks and the problems are related. 

[opus]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

I haven’t had that, but I’ve been meaning to come here and complain about Hulu - if I miss something when it comes back from an ad break, and I try to rewind 10 seconds or so to catch it, it makes me watch the whole freaking two minute ad again!  I swear it didn’t use to behave that way! I wonder if they’re trying to adjust something with the ad breaks and the problems are related. 

I don’t have Hulu but Disney+ has done that to me.

[possibilities]

I also notice that if I click away to look at a different tab or window while the ad is playing, it pauses until I come back. I admit I used to do other things while the ads were running, but now if I do that, they wait til I come back before resuming the ad.

I know they need to monetize the site, but I guess I wish there was a less annoying way to do it.

[Makai]

17 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Lately on Hulu when I'm watching an episode, 
at the end of the last commercial break,
instead of returning for the last 10 or so minutes of the episode,
it switches to an episode from a different show. 

Anyone else getting this experience? 

Fortunately when I click the go-back button on my Roku remote, I can then pretty quickly arrow down to the episode I was watching and "resume" watching.

That happened to me but I didn’t realize and was very confused during the previously for the next episode. It only did for one out of three episodes though. I ran into that a lot last summer when I was binging 9-1-1. 

17 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I haven’t had that, but I’ve been meaning to come here and complain about Hulu - if I miss something when it comes back from an ad break, and I try to rewind 10 seconds or so to catch it, it makes me watch the whole freaking two minute ad again!  I swear it didn’t use to behave that way! I wonder if they’re trying to adjust something with the ad breaks and the problems are related. 

I’ve also had that happen occasionally. 

[SoMuchTV]

Just a PSA for anyone who appreciates the x-ray feature on Prime (where you can press a button and see who the actors and character names are on screen) and wishes that other streamers had the same thing - AppleTV+ now has their version of it. Not sure how long it’s been there; I just noticed it. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 9/14/2024 at 3:50 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Maybe I'll cancel before my last $1.07 payment is due.  That'll show 'em!

I followed through and am pocketing the $1.07 I would have had to pay for the last month of the black Friday deal.  FWIW, it's like Amazon Prime, where when you cancel, the account stays active until the next billing date, which is about the only good thing I can say about the way Hulu operates. 

What's pretty funny is when I was clicking my way through cancelling, it offered me ad-supported for like $2.99 a month or something.  Uh, I still had another 99-cent month available.  If I don't want to pay that, I definitely don't want to pay triple that.  I think the human touch was missing in that bit of code.

[Kel Varnsen]

I was trying to find something to watch last night and it made me realize that I wish Netflix and the other streamers had like advanced search/filter options. Like the kind you see on Gmail or Amazon. Like I would have loved to be able to search action movies I have seen before (and like) that are under two hours. Or other options like search movies by a certain actor that you haven't seen that are less than 5 years old.  There are so many different things you could search by that it's annoying that there aren't more options.

[SVNBob]

7 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

I wish Netflix and the other streamers had like advanced search/filter options.

Not exactly what you're looking for, but these might help:

https://www.netflix-codes.com/

[Shrek]

13 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

I was trying to find something to watch last night and it made me realize that I wish Netflix and the other streamers had like advanced search/filter options. Like the kind you see on Gmail or Amazon. Like I would have loved to be able to search action movies I have seen before (and like) that are under two hours. Or other options like search movies by a certain actor that you haven't seen that are less than 5 years old.  There are so many different things you could search by that it's annoying that there aren't more options.

Try IMBD.com for everything like that, it also tells you where what you're looking for is available to watch. I use their ap a lot if I see someone on the screen & can't remember where I've seen them before, or to settle a dispute with Fiona on some technicality in a movie/show.

[possibilities]

I think on Netflix you can search a person and it will show you all the stuff they've been in that's in the Netflix catalog. I haven't tried it recently, but I've done it in the past.