[hombre_fatal]

I would need to watch an unhealthy amount of Netflix to run out of things to watch and I already watch one episode per day.

If you seriously can't find anything to watch on Netflix, I suspect you either are uninterested in trying new/unknown things or are so hard to please that no service could satisfy you. I can't imagine either is a demographic all that large or rewarding to pursue.

I don't mean that in a bad way. Rather, I don't think it's in our best interest for any single company to own the entire catalog that would appease these demographics.

People have been foreseeing a mass exodus from Netflix for years now though, often when Netflix loses their hobby horse show. Yet Netflix only grows in net subscribers. Since everything always comes to an end, surely you need to put a timescale on your claim if you want to receive credit when Netflix finally collapses. Even Chicken Little is eventually right.

[sl1ck731]

The problem with this is Netflix appeared as a one stop shop. That was what people wanted. Now that the streaming market is splintered you need 3 services for all the content a typical person wants to see. I can see this contributing to a comeback of pirating. Now the primary reason for keeping Netflix around are its originals which I don't think will keep people on the hook as they continually bump the subscription tiers.

[hombre_fatal]

I said this in a sibling comment, so I risk belaboring the point here, but I don't think piracy is all that competitive for the lay person.

Put on your non-tech-savvy hat and google "watch <movie> online" or "torrent <movie>" and try to navigate a streaming website. You need to be somewhat tech savvy just to navigate the minefield. For example: https://pelispedia.tv -- it's confusing, frustrating, and full of popups/ads.

The layperson depends on someone more tech savvy to give them instruction. But even then, I once showed my sister how to download torrents and she got a scary letter from Comcast in Austin. My guess is that Comcast simply participates in the seeding process of the top 10k torrents and waits for its customers to connect. She hasn't tried since.

[sl1ck731]

I've seen sharing Plex libraries from people who couldn't close a pop up on Facebook lately.

Not to mention all the side-loaded Firesticks with Popcorn time.

[asark]

>I don't mean that in a bad way. Rather, I don't think it's in our best interest for any single company to own the entire catalog that would appease these demographics.

Well, best best interest would probably involve mandatory, open-to-all-interested-parties licensing terms/fees in order to enjoy copyright protection, and outlawing vertical integration of end viewer distribution with production. Also I'd like a pony.

[hombre_fatal]

Oh, we'll definitely have that though -- the year of the linux desktop will usher us into that era.

[Nition]

Part of the problem is often people want a specific thing. If I want to listen to a specific song, Spotify almost always has it. If I want to watch a specific movie...

[hombre_fatal]

True, but Netflix competes with nobody who can offer that either. And Netflix's coffers clearly aren't losing to piracy.

And, if you look at piracy for the lay person, it's not all that attractive. You have to somehow be able to sift through the bullshit streaming and torrent websites will throw at you. Somehow click the right links along the way that don't dead-end in a fake paywall or ad. And after torrenting something, you might get a scary letter from your ISP which happened to my sister in Austin with Comcast.

[ghaff]

Exactly. I'm a fairly sophisticated user and I know how to use VPNs, etc. I also make a comfortable tech wage. TBH, piracy is an absolute last resort. Even if it comes down to buying a $20 DVD off Amazon, that's probably what I will do if it's something I want to watch enough that I've gone to the trouble of even thinking about searching the torrents for.

Do I wish there was a video equivalent of premium music services for video? (i.e. had most content) Sure. There isn't. So I'll pick some streaming services and I'll buy a la carte in various formats and just accept there's no single bundle that gives me everything for a monthly subscription.