this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023

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Mildly Infuriating

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HBO Max is removing features from my plan without reducing my price. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I’m old enough to remember when HBO’s entire point was you paid for cable so you wouldn’t have ads. That was their business model.

Then sometime in the late 80s or early 90s (I dunno, that decade’s kind of a blur) they started sneaking ads in between shows, but not in the middle of shows. But you were paying a higher price, with a few ads. Then they started showing ads to everyone, and still making you pay. I’m still salty about that.

This was always going to happen. They’ll compound paying PLUS ads, and you’ll like it, because what choice do you have if all services are doing it?

Fuck them all . 🏴‍☠️

e: massively borked that first sentence

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Most cable TV channels still had ads, the revenue generated from subscribers would never have been enough to cover otherwise.

Edit: thanks for the downvotes, I'm right, they're wrong, deal with it: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/7wxRbKq9Dj

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

In the early days they didn’t; that was the whole point of them. You paid a subscription specifically not to have ads like free broadcast television did.

It only lasted like a decade, but it was their whole selling point.

e: keep in mind, too, that broadcast tv at the time was where all the good content was. HBO only showed movies that had already been in theatres (thus the name Home Box Office) and Showtime’s hook was soft-core porn. (‘Do your parents have Showtime?’ was sleepover code for ‘can we watch kinda-porn after the ‘rents have gone to sleep?’) There wasn’t the dearth of original shows/movies we have now. They weren’t studios back then.

e2: sorry for multiple edits, but also bear in mind that when HBO first came out, people were watching their content on televisions like this, which was so inferior to movie theatres that ‘it’s in your home advertising free!’ was basically their whole selling point at first.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's a false belief that keeps getting spread, cable TV started as the same channels with clear reception instead of having to rely on antennas, so no people didn't pay not to have ads, they paid to be able to have a good reception of the same channels then had access to for free with bad reception, then some exclusive channels started appearing without commercials, but it wasn't the norm.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/7wxRbKq9Dj

And it's funny that you're talking about "the early days" since it started in 1948 and I'm willing to bet that you weren't born.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I mean, I’m not going off a belief, I actually lived this.

Yes, the clear reception vs bunny ears was awesome, but that was also limited on televisions like this, and I’m talking specifically about the content.

My family were always early adopters of technology (I started gaming in ‘79 with both the Intellivision and Atari – Intellivision was far superior). We had HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime as soon as they were available.

I’m talking about the late 70s and early 80s when they were commercially available to the masses and the cable wars began.

The late 70s were absolutely the early days of commercial cable tv.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

deleted by creator

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The late 70s were absolutely the early days of commercial cable tv.

I provided a source with more sources, no it wasn't.

Need more? There:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television_in_the_United_States

First phrase: Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948.

The majority of channels has commercials, the ones you paid extra for (like HBO) didn't, they weren't the majority and the point of paying for cable wasn't too remove ads, you still had them on the majority of the channels because they were the same as what you got with antennas.

You're not the only one who lived it buddy, you just don't remember it properly.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How old are you?

I don’t need links to tell me what this was like when I vividly remember.

Yea, cable television first became available in 1948. Regular middle class families did not have cable television for a long time after that.

Mobile phone service was available in 1959. Guess how many people had it? A good friend of my family had a car phone in the mid 70s. Guess how common that was?

You can’t go by invention dates on stuff like this. You’ll be amazed at how long some things take to gain market acceptance.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So far I'm the only one providing sources, an anecdote of when you were a kid isn't reliable.

The majority of channels had ads because, again, they were just the same channels as without cable. Cable exclusive channels weren't a thing before 1970 (when there's was 10m subscribers already) and ads on a cable exclusive channel first started in 1977 with nearly all of them having ads in the in the 80s.

7 years of commercial free cable exclusive channels that were a minority of channels available at the time. No, people weren't paying not to see adverts and no it wasn't the point of cable TV like you said, the point of creating cable TV was to allow people to reliably watch TV by broadcasting the signal in a way that wasn't affected by all sorts of elements out of the control of the broadcasters.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Why are you so bent about this?

Again, how old are you? Do you actually remember this time? I gave one anecdote, but ask literally anyone my age and they’ll say the same. You certainly know people my age, don’t take my word for it, ask them what sleepovers were like before and after cable tv became a thing. Everyone my age remembers a massive shift, especially with Showtime.

With/without cable wasn’t an easy change. Lots of people didn’t accept it easily because it seemed technically complex. That’s part of why my family was an early adopter: my dad was an aerospace engineer, so it was a no-brainier.

The televisions sold in the late 70s were not set up for cable, so you needed a cable box and to configure your tv a certain way – typically by setting one of your two dials to channel 2, 4, or I think UHF 12 (?it’s been a while, but it depended on your tv, and you’d have an auxiliary dongle, too), you had to plug a cable box into your tv (which was nowhere near as simple as now), and then maybe sacrifice a goat. I joke, but the wiring out of the back of those things wasn’t easy. It wasn’t clear ports with matching inputs, but more like in the back of old school audio speakers, but more of them.

That doesn’t sound hard, but for most people the tv was a magic box that pictures came out of. These were your grandparents, they weren’t good at technology.

The majority of channels had ads because, again, they were just the same channels as without cable.

In the late 80s, yeah. That’s after what I’m talking about. It sounds like you’re talking about the era of Nickelodeon and the height of Showtime/Cinemax porn. I’m talking about more than a decade before that.

Yes, by that point, cable had settled into the subscription + ad model I’m saying was the down slide. I’m talking about way before that, when it hadn’t yet devolved.

Again, I’m not making this up, and I kinda wonder what you think my motivation would be to do so, but I’m very curious how old you are and if you’re just going on things you’ve read or if you were alive for this.

e: clarification

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

deleted by creator

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

. As an aside, I have to ask: Did you ever get sent up to the roof by your parents after a storm to reset the antenna? Or be the unpaid holder of the rabbit ears by the TV, moving this way and that so your old man could watch his game with the least amount of snow and rolling horizontal lines? I did.

I was a weird nerd, and some of my fondest memories are helping my dad do engine work on our wood-sided station wagon (I was such a cliché) and going with him to the tv shop to pick up vacuum tubes for the tv after a loud pop and faint waft of smoke, then shimmying ass-upwards on the wall like spider man to hold the flashlight at the correct angle whilst my dad pulled the particle-board (I think, maybe cardboard) back off the television and taught me what every single part inside did.

Best time of my young life, hands down.

e: I’ve never been afraid of technology or learning things in my adult life. Thanks, dad.
(And if you’re raising your child like this, thank you. You’re helping to make good people that way.)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

deleted by creator

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

almost the size of a couch, so I have no idea what was on the back of it because I could never have moved it.

Oh yeah! Exactly! Mine was very similar to this, but a bit narrower. It was a behemoth, plus the cord was very short.

Thus the shimmying ass-upwards to hold the torch. There was scant space back there, and making more was work.

it was probably masonite or some kind of hard board on the back of the tv

I think you’re right. It was a dark, dense, and very thick board, but not actual wood. I had a radio or clock or something with the same backing, now you mention it. I hadn’t paid much attention except it was thicker than the ikea shit, lol.

And plugging a bad fuse with a penny,

Wait, what? I completely missed that growing up.

Brb.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

deleted by creator

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

BTW, I think your detractor is probably too scared to take me on

You sound just like a COVID denier, hope you realise that? "My experience is true, people who researched the subject and found sources from those in the industry are wrong. Let me show you with anecdotes instead of sources to back my point!"

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

deleted by creator

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's dangerous as hell, but it's something people used to do on knob and tube wiring in old houses.

Christ on a bike, don’t say shit like that to me – my house was built in 1886. O.o

Codes changed after any number of fires…

Just keeps getting worse from there. Some outlets in this place have seen all the world wars.

There are more efficient ways to give me a heart attack, you know.

BTW, I think your detractor is probably too scared to take me on

I think you’re right. I was sticking around for the next volley of meme-facts, but it looks like the match has been called. :)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

deleted by creator

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

HBO MIN

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

HBO MID at most

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Cancel it, problem solved.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Max would be in my cancellation list if it wasn't because I get it for free because my cable provider from 2013 is too incompetent to update their database with the fact that I haven't owned that condo since 2015. Netflix is hanging on by a thread.

I currently pay for Paramount+ (great value) and Dropout (support indie creators). Prime doesn't count because I pay for it for the shipping, but once they start with ads, I'll stop watching it.

We're back to that place where the hassle of piracy is worth it again. The problem for studios is that technology has come a long way since the last time people had to think about "cord cutting" through piracy, and it's just too easy to do it now. The second golden age of television is coming to an end.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Shrinkflation, hitting online world too.

That's why I pirate. Jellyfin FTW.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was a long time pirate back in the day, and thinking of sailing once again. However all my old booty spots are gone. What is Jellyfin?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

A great UI to stream your movie files from your TV. A bit like Plex, but open source.