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Netflix Puts AI Ads in Paid Tier: Pirate Everything at This Point (www.youtube.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It's the way of all subscription based entertainment. To increase profit eventually the choice comes down higher subscription fees or introduce ads.

And once ads are there, it's a one-way street. Until adpocalypse.

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[+] [email protected] -14 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Advertising isn't the problem. And before I get my balls cut off, I'll back away slowly while explaining myself....

We've always paid for ads. Back in the old days you paid for a cable subscription and got to watch ads every 15 minutes. That's not a new phenomenon. Hell, television was designed around the advertising break. The entire one hour series 5 part script model was created with the "cut to ad break" in mind. You think about your CSI:Miami "sunglasses of justice" stinger, or your fourth ad-break plot-twist as the Romulan war bird uncloaks and the music dun-dun-duns into a commercial for cheese-its...

That's not a problem in and of itself. In fact I kind of miss it when shows were written that way. Heck, Tubi and Pluto TV do it and no one complains about that. And if Netflix wants to add those back into their free tier, more power to 'em.

But advertising is not about getting served a few commercials every fifteen minutes anymore. It's literally in front of the content, within the content, etc... It's not about "hey look, it's an ad break, let's go refill our 7-up and take a piss", it's inlaid with the content, as well as taking up as much, if not MORE time than the actual content itself. and THAT'S part one of the problem.

Part two is the fact that if you're going to make more money by making me pay for your service AND watch advertisements, you better damn well be giving at least some of that new money to other creatives that are MAKING those advertisements. Make a commercial with actors and actresses; pay them. Hire a writer to create ad-copy, just like we used to do. But if you're going to charge me AND make me watch lazy shit you made with A.I. slop, than THAT is where I'll happily take my ship and head onto the high seas.

I'd be perfectly happy to sit through two or three traditional advertisements every fifteen minutes just like we did in the old days. But what I WON'T stand for is watching five minutes of lazy A.I. ads after every five minutes of actual content and be expected to PAY for the service on top of that.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

There are no ads on the CD I bought from the merch table at a concert last week.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

What old age are you talking about? Television was not invented in the 2000’s.

And if you don’t like ads, then that is the problem.

Regardless, Netflix has historically been delivered without ads which many seem to like. You do you, take a break and watch some ads every 20 minutes, but I won’t, and will especially not pay to do it.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

Just because something always used to be some way doesn't mean it's automatically acceptable.

TV might have been designed for the ad break but what if it wasn't? You give Star Trek as an example, and here in the UK growing up I watched TNG episodes on BBC2, which is a tax-funded station without adverts. Did the lack of adverts make my childhood TNG experience worse? Personally I'd say it made it better.

Even in the cable TV age, to have adverts in something you are paying for is still horrible, and to me it's unacceptable.

I will do everything in my power to not expose my brain to a barrage of advertising, and that includes not using any service where I have to subject myself to it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

Also, I don't know how it was in other countries, but I remember that pay-tv services in Italy didn't have ads during programs and films, but only between the programs. It was a way better experience.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

This person seems to think that CSI Miami pioneered the format. So of course it easy to find examples of them being wrong. CSI Miami wasn’t even the first CSI. So I am sure they can’t remember that premium cable channels that don’t have commercials exist. Let alone that public broadcasting doesn’t have commercials.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 weeks ago

Already doing it

[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 weeks ago (16 children)

Stremio is everything I could ever want and more.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I love it, but I wish there was a way to still seed while using it.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Yep, link it with real debrid As you are, sailing the seas in style.. Great UI. Evan has a calendar to keep track of your series.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Trakt too 🫡

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago

Way ahead of you, Mr. Rossmann.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (13 children)

I totally get the anger with Netflix. I fucking hate them as a filmmaker. But I really don't think a long term solution is pirating content.

BUY CONTENT YOU LIKE

Is it more expensive? Of course it is, that's part of an equitable society. Also it means you end up with content you really like and not a bunch of junk.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

I buy vinyl and buy flac music from artists I like.

But if your digital content isnt available in my region imma pirate it and assume the racist fucks have enough money.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Nah fuck that. Ignore this guy, everyone pirate everything until they fix it again.

People don’t pirate music, guess why?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

To some extent you're right. There'd be less content if nobody paid. But imagine current society without treats. I don't know if capitalism without "panem et circenses" would start to crumble real fast.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 weeks ago

Which works for some content, but a lot of childrens content is only available through subscriptions to Netflix/Disney+/Max.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'll buy music directly from artists on bandcamp and such, especially since they offer unlimited DRM-free FLAC downloads, but any other media at this point is just absurdly inconvenient. Everything's just tied to dogshit streaming platforms.

If there were a DRM-free option to buy and download movies or shows for life, I'd definitely be buying what I can here and there. But everything is so locked down or encumbered with other bullshit that it's not a viable option.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

I was. Until they made that so difficult and time consuming that the barrier to entry was too high. Not because of the price. But because of availability. When Google play music was a thing? I bought music. When streaming took over I moved to Bandcamp. But Bandcamp doesn't have everything. There's no music stores anymore where I can just go and buy music. It's all Amazon and similar.

I'd love to own the ghibli collection. But to get it I have to buy the DVD's (and have a DVD player to play them on), or I have to pirate them. No digital store front seems to have the whole collection. This happens all the time with media that I'm willing to pay for.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Along with bandcamp, there's Qobuz, 7digital, and HDTracks that I can recommend for digital music downloads. Those other three often have what bandcamp does not, much more common songs. Many in 24-bit.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Man. Google play music. Fucking miss that service.

Found so much good music... Still hurts me it died.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Pretty sure all of Studio Gihibli is on Fandango/Vudu.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Buy the dvds and rip them...

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, just buy yourself a dvd/blu-ray player just to rip it, wait for the disk to arrive, connect it to your computer and set aside the time to rip it (if you even know how).

Such a reasonable alternative to setting up radarr one time and watching the movie immediately. Can't have a digital storefront where I get to own my digital copy.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

So... buy the DVDs? Or any other Ghibli merch.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

If the argument is talk with money then giving them 0 and taking from them is the strongest argument you can have morally speaking. Piracy is more convient regardless.

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[–] [email protected] 147 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Pirate Everything at This Point

Way ahead of you.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

I pay for an emby share personally.

Plex/emby/jellyfin, there are a ton of paid shares out there that are cheap.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Aliexpress summer sale started. Getting a 150 eur ryzen mini pc and slapping some hdds onto it for a cheap media server/nas with 4 digit nas specs.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

This seems like it could be a fun project. Mind making a post about the build sometime?

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Netflix rapidly becoming Interflix from Black Mirror

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

Netflix selling us a caricature of the evil company they were thought of becoming, as they are and further become the evil company in the pisode that they sold

marx-goth

[–] [email protected] 62 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Question, what even is a "Generative AI ad"?

Is the lead actress of the horror movie I'm watching look into the camera and tell me about the new coca-cola while she waits for the monster to come get her?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 weeks ago

I actually haven't seen one yet. I just assume it's an AI voice, reading AI generated text, about something that Netflix's data about you says you might like.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Installed jellyfin this week, it is awesome. My roku found the server and streamed a movie without buffering.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Pair it with the arrsuite and chef kisses

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Did Plex enshittify recently? I've seen a lot of people switching to jellyfin.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago

Plex is completely enshittified at this point.

You need to pay if you want to share your movies with friends
They spy your watch list, and share what you watched with your friends by sending them emails
They released a new half broken app
They removed the "party" option that let you watch a movie together with friends remotely
They're actively trying to hide the personal streaming features in order to push people to their legally (and ad-riddled) streamed movies

So Jellyfin is now the best solution afaik

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yep, big time. Basically dead at this point, forcing payments to stream your own content.

I started setting up my homelab last month and immediately went to Jellyfin because Plex just screamed "corporate bullshit" to me. Sure enough, it was the right call.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Basically dead at this point

For free users though, there are some of us who paid for Lifetime Plex Pass tier a long time ago... I do wonder if Lifetime really means forever though.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago

Narrator voice: "But it did not last forever..."

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They made it so server owners need a plex pass to stream to anyone outside the same LAN. Or the clients need to pay $2 a month if the server owner doesn’t have one

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

2 dollars just for providing the tunnel service, mind you. A subscription for glorified port forwarding.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

The glorified port forwarding issue is even worthless if you are a CGNAT user, and it is 2025 so I'll assume everyone is.

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