TWIT 872: From The People Who Brought You Lickable TV

Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…

What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!

1 Like

The TV studios really want to have their cake and eat it too, by placing shows on their streamers instead of on their broadcast and cable networks. The Star Trek series on CBS All Access was perhaps the first notable example, but it has spread to NBC/Peacock and ABC/Disney+ now.

My question for the group: How long until Netflix institutes a “customer retention department” like Comcast and SirusXM?

1 Like

With electricity and heating costs, as well as fuel increasing steeply in the last 6 months (first COVID and eco-taxes and now the illegal Ukraine invasion), many people just can’t afford frivolities like streaming services.

I think the average household has seen heating costs increase by at least 2 Netflix annual subscriptions, electricity has had a similar rise and fuel probably 10 Netflixes. If you suddenly have to find 10-14 Netflix subscriptions, a streaming service suddenly looks like a real luxury.

For example, a tank of fuel for my compact SUV (11-12 gallons) has risen from 60€ last summer to over 120€ ($130) in early April. I don’t travel much, but that is still at least 1.5 full tanks a month (around 1,000KM per tank). Other people have to drive much further with their commute.

Due to the Ukraine invasion, the government is striking the eco-tax on fuel and utilities to help compensate for the rising prices.

I believe the UK is even worse hit, when it comes to electricity and heating costs?

1 Like

Yep, some things have doubled in price here. Electricity, gas, heating oil. Petrol and food has gone up too. So far I’ve cancelled Netflix and Apple TV+. Switched Disney to a year for free offer from Samsung. Still have Prime, although not sure I’ll renew when that payment is due.

1 Like

I just dropped Showtime and HBO and slimmed down my Sling TV package. I reviewed my Netflix subscription and opted to keep it as-is. If we didn’t have kids I’d be more likely to drop it for months at a time. Disney has managed to hang in there because of the Marvel and Star Wars shows. I’m tempted to drop it after Kenobi and only add back when something really good comes along. Apple Plus won me over with Severance, but it is already part of my Apple One bundle.

1 Like

Ya’ll should get Shira Lazar on again to talk about NFTs. She’s been promoting them like crazy and it could be interesting hearing the non-skeptical side of all this.

1 Like

I live in the UK and just wanted to correct what Nate Lanxon said that ‘its a legal requirement to have a TV license’, this is not the case. Most people think this but its only a requirement if you watch or stream live TV (on any service even other platforms live ITV, Ch 4 and 5 etc) or use any BBC services such as iPlayer. Me and my family do not pay for a TV license as we never watch live TV or use BBC services.

We do however use paid streaming services such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney +. We also use Ch4, 5 and ITV free streaming apps but only for catch up. As the unfair part is if we would watch these services live we would require a license even though we are not watching the BBC.

The BBC do like to sent us warning letters saying we could be fined up to £1000 if we are found to be using their services and that representatives may be coming to our property to survey our setup.

We have been without a TV license now for 3 years now and can see how it is such an outdated system of forcing the English public to pay this stealth tax.

1 Like

iOS devs everywhere after the update requirement:

Minor_version++
CHANGELOG:
Bump
sed ‘s/Bump/Various security fixes and upgrades/’

I wouldn’t think it matters if they had a year limit on the app store… As long as alternative stores were allowed.

Anyway, as far as streaming services are concerned: people analyzing the Netflix catalogue and saying there is very little of merit are looking at it from what @JeffJarvis would probably call the “Old Media” perspective. People have many different interests that are served by streaming services, and analyzing a catalogue from the “blockbuster” perspective is missing the value prop, IMO.