time to get a second-hand fire stick

And to think, there was a good ten years or so there where I completely stopped pirating anything and just payed for subscriptions to stuff.

This is the kind of garbage that discourages people. This reminds me of the “unlimited” data phone plan that is in fact limited in the fine print.

As things get harder for working class it’s dangerous to the republic to take away cheap entertainment. That’s how bored people are encouraged to gather and potentially turn into mobs. And yet, they keep doing just that, eroding entertainment with garbage practices like this.

It’s as if they’ve all forgotten the 2020 experiment. What happens when America as a whole is angsty, bored, and looking for justice?

This one thing doesn’t do it, no. But there’s a death by bug bites happening at an exponential rate.

Damn, if corpos want to advertise to me so much, how about they PAY ME to be pestered by their ads?

If there’s one thing I would pass to make capitalism a tad more tolerable, is to tax advertising.

Lotta quality streaming sites out there that you can use at leisure with just uBlock Origin (don’t use without an adblocker unless you really like adult themed pop up ads)

Setting up a personal media server is the best thing I ever did

I bet there is an incredible amount of proprietary research about how sticky subscriptions are with respect to how much crappy, revenue generating shit you can inject into the service over time without hemorrhaging subscribers at a rate that undermines the added revenue from enshittification.

when all these added streamers came online, I made a rule that I would never have more than 3 of them. then I whittled it down to 2, because they are really starting to be garbage while simultaneously ratcheting up their fees.

the HBO value proposition is still pretty decent, because there is almost always something new out that is engaging and their back catalog is strong. but their merge with discovery content is horrendous. so much reality slop and no way to hide/block it from recommendations.

prime was the first to insert advertising into their paid tier and they have purchased so much content it’s insane. but +90% of it is straight to the dumpster, unwatchable garbage. their last remaining feature is their connection to specialty add-ons like PBS/Masterpiece and other, smaller digital channels with more specialized, curated content for $3-5/mo. its almost reasonable until you add it all up and realize they are really sticking it to you with all the fragmenting.

the value proposition of a premium VPN service has never been more obvious.

My assumption is this is to accommodate companies that will only license to Hulu with the stipulation that there are ads in the show. Most likely for other content that company produces.

Even the treats are starting to suck.

Poob has it for you

Hulu has always been at the cutting edge of cucking.

This is like tech bros constantly re-inventing the city bus, but here it’s cable TV.

This sounds like it’s about product placements that they have no control over

I don’t think Hulu specifically are being sneaky or are alone to blame - Whatever entities license out shows seem to actually be including mandatory ad breaks when you license their media. No idea why or how, but I’ve seen other streaming services declare they have no choice but to put ad breaks in certain films (they usually just advertise their own stuff, so it’s not even about the streaming service’s revenue).