LogFAQs > #960678673

Metalsonic66 posted...

On Demand isn't the same thing

Just noticed you said "pay" there. I thought you say "play".

Because On Demand is definitely a service that "gives you the option to pick and choose what you want to play at any given time".

But I'd argue you mostly have the same option for cable to pay as well, considering you can add or drop certain channels depending on what you want out of the service, can arrange bundles, and if you're actually capable of communicating with other human beings, can haggle a bit with the account admin to give you discounts or deals. I have at least one friend who uptalked himself into a huge deal for cable because he just mentioned how he'd go with a different service if they didn't coddle him a bit. And another friend who periodically jumps back and forth between different services to take advantage of sign-up bonuses and deals.



Metalsonic66 posted...

it's in addition to what you already pay monthly.

Only if you're ordering PPV or renting shows/movies. There's still a fair amount of free content, depending on which channels you have.

In that sense, it's exactly like Netflix, Hulu, etc - pay a monthly fee, get content.



Metalsonic66 posted...

And yeah, subjective or not, there's way more good shit being released "exclusive" to streaming services than Cable "exclusive".

Which again, is incredibly subjective.

People can praise Netflix, but if you don't like any of the exclusive content, then it doesn't really matter in the slightest how exclusive it is. And no, the fact that YOU think certain shows are good doesn't mean everyone else is going to or should think they're good as well.

And to go back to the post you were originally replying to in the first place, exclusivity is a bad thing when you're dealing with two dozen or more streaming services, each of which has a couple good exclusive shows or movies, so you wind up paying hundreds of dollars a month to maintain them all, to the point where you're not really saving any money compared to what cable bills used to be. A vast content library doesn't mean much if you're not watching 99% of it. A dozen vast content libraries means even less if you're only watching a couple things out of any of them.

And being able to suspend or drop your streaming service to re-up it later really isn't much of a selling point, because the vast majority of people don't do that. The business model of most streaming services is basically built around retention, and the fact that most people will keep a service out of apathy/inertia once they've made the initial sign-up. So yes, there will absolutely be people spending hundreds of dollars a month so they can have Netflix and Hulu and Disney+ and HBO Max and Amazon Prime and so on in spite of barely using any of them.

So ultimately, the only real question that matters is "Regardless of what service you pay for, do you feel like you use it enough to justify what you're paying for it?" If the answer is yes, great. If the answer is no, then something needs to be reevaluated.
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