• @[email protected]
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    810 months ago

    It’s odd that people are against monopolies, generally speaking, but for streaming services we would prefer if there were a few giant companies which owned it all.

    I’m not disagreeing with the above, just thought it was curious.

    • NegativeNullOPM
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      2410 months ago

      Compare Movie/TV-show streaming to the Music streaming industry. Spotify/Tidal/Apple/Amazon all offer access to the same music (more or less). They compete on features/quality/apps/prices/etc. They don’t compete based on their exclusive libraries. Somehow the music industry can survive in that model. Video streaming needs to do the same. Stop the exclusivity. This way, monopolies are not needed in video streaming.

    • @[email protected]
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      2310 months ago

      People aren’t clamoring for a monopoly, they are asking for interoperability. I didn’t need a single VHS rental store to be the only place I could get Ernest Scared Stupid, but I did need to be able to get Ernest Goes to Jail at every VHS rental store.

    • @[email protected]
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      910 months ago

      All we’d really need to do that is just make it a law that contracts aren’t exclusive.

      If shows were sold to multiple streaming services legally, then those services would compete based on the actual service they offer, and not the content they have.

      In other words, make streaming services the customers for shows, instead of individuals, and then let people be their customers.

      As it is, a streaming service is pretty comparable to a car dealership.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        That’s not all we’d need to do though. Too many cases of the content rights holders also owning a streaming service means they’d just not sign any contracts. Disney, paramount, NBC, hell even Netflix owns content. We need to also break up so that right holders can’t also control the means of distribution.

    • @[email protected]
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      510 months ago

      No, my problem is that we have this system where each piece of content is its own monopoly. That exclusivity means that people need to use a specific service to access that content.

      The whole “I wish it was all on one platform” isn’t really wishing for only a single platform to exist, but wishing that one platform could host all of the content. Ideally, there would be multiple ones doing this and differentiating themselves from each other in some way and, well, competing on their platform itself rather than “I paid a bunch of money so that you have to come here if you want to see anything Marvel.”

    • @[email protected]
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      210 months ago

      I think two or three viable platforms was kind of the sweet spot. It’s not all dominated by one, but I also don’t have to shop around and subscribe to five different things if I want to get what I want legally. But you’re right that it’s a sticky issue that just doesn’t seem to have a good answer.

      • IronCorgi
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        210 months ago

        The solution is mandatory licensing at fixed rates for media that is no longer under production. Make it so the only way to have exclusive content is to commit to continuing that content.