Mr. Tact wrote on Jan 10, 2025, 15:19:
Yeah, Apple+ has several things I would like to see. But so far my willpower has held out. Maybe if they have some kind of outrageously cheap sale at some point I might give them money. But I doubt it. I dislike too much to give them my money.

Don't then
best buy link
Get the 3 month free trial from best buy. You can remove all credit cards from apple plus after you apply it and cancel it immediately after too and you'll get the 3 months. How does 0 moneys to apple and 3 months to watch shows sound?
I've done this trial twice now on same account to watch the two seasons of Ted Lasso

This comment was edited on Jan 11, 2025, 00:22.

Mr. Tact wrote on Jan 10, 2025, 15:19:

HoSpanky wrote on Jan 10, 2025, 12:56:
Currently, AppleTV is the one streaming service doing it right. Their exclusives are almost all top notch, and they appear to be committing to finishing a show rather than canceling it if it doesn't get crazy numbers the week it comes out (looking at you, Netflix). I'm tired of seeing half of a story.

Yeah, Apple+ has several things I would like to see. But so far my willpower has held out. Maybe if they have some kind of outrageously cheap sale at some point I might give them money. But I doubt it. I dislike too much to give them my money.

YMMV, but check your library. The one in my area has roku sticks that each have a single streaming service account loaded onto it. The waiting list can be pretty long, and our library only lets you keep it a week with no renewals, but I’ve used it to watch a bunch of shows on services for which I would never actually pay

PHJF wrote on Jan 10, 2025, 16:22:
It was pretty damning hearing on NPR that these companies do not want people watching without ads because they make more money from ad-infested than ad-free.

That is bad news. That probably means the price for ad free will continue to go up.

RedEye9 wrote on Jan 10, 2025, 12:03:
Microsoft to force-install Ad Delivery system.
ftfy

registry workarounds will be invalid in 3..2..1

Blocking ads IP addresses list workaround figured out in 3..2..1.

The absolute worst enshitification is the ads. I will always pay more money to not have ads (except youtube, obviously they get adblocked). For black friday, all streaming services had huge discounts... for the ad-infested tiers. And don't get me started on services where it is literally impossible to not have ads (paramount plus, baby!)

It was pretty damning hearing on NPR that these companies do not want people watching without ads because they make more money from ad-infested than ad-free.

Beamer wrote on Jan 10, 2025, 16:06:
Our second most watched is Hulu, which also has ads, but only because Hulu is free with Spotify, with no way to upgrade that to ad-free, and it feels hard to turn down paying nothing, even if the ads are annoying. I don't know, my sister-in-law thinks it's the dumbest logic, but it makes sense to me.

I mean buying $7 iced mochas is pretty dumb, but I used to do it daily and still do it occasionally. If I was watching stuff on Hulu on a regular basis, yeah I'd be with your sister-in-law. But if I'm watching someone there once a week or so... I could deal with it. *shrug* Depends on how much tolerance you have for it.

Cutter wrote on Jan 10, 2025, 16:02:
The other thing services, especially YT, need to learn is not to put a block of ads or a really long one at the start of something. Most of the time I just want to check something out first and see if it's actually worth watching and I'm going to give it a quick perusal. Anything longer than a 5 second ad and I won't bother. Most of the time I'll go out and come back in to a max of three times and if the ads are still too long I just skip it and move on to something else. YT creators need to learn the lesson of not being too greedy as well. Anything with a lot of ads is going to get abandoned by me too. I know everyone wants to be an internet millionaire these days and get their money for nothing and their chicks for free but homie don't play that.

I do YouTube mostly on the TV, and sometimes I'll watch a video, exit, then realize I wanted to go to the channel. But there's no easy way to go to the channel from the home screen, so I have to start the video again, then navigate to the channel. Only, they'll put 30 or so seconds of ads in front for something that should have just been a long press in the first place.

Regardless, after years of fighting it because I felt their nanny ads were so annoying that I wouldn't reward it, I finally went YouTube Premium. My wife kind of forced that hand, and it wasn't too expensive through Verizon. We watch more YouTube than anything else, so it's fine. Our second most watched is Hulu, which also has ads, but only because Hulu is free with Spotify, with no way to upgrade that to ad-free, and it feels hard to turn down paying nothing, even if the ads are annoying. I don't know, my sister-in-law thinks it's the dumbest logic, but it makes sense to me.

The other thing services, especially YT, need to learn is not to put a block of ads or a really long one at the start of something. Most of the time I just want to check something out first and see if it's actually worth watching and I'm going to give it a quick perusal. Anything longer than a 5 second ad and I won't bother. Most of the time I'll go out and come back in to a max of three times and if the ads are still too long I just skip it and move on to something else. YT creators need to learn the lesson of not being too greedy as well. Anything with a lot of ads is going to get abandoned by me too. I know everyone wants to be an internet millionaire these days and get their money for nothing and their chicks for free but homie don't play that.

HoSpanky wrote on Jan 10, 2025, 12:56:
Currently, AppleTV is the one streaming service doing it right. Their exclusives are almost all top notch, and they appear to be committing to finishing a show rather than canceling it if it doesn't get crazy numbers the week it comes out (looking at you, Netflix). I'm tired of seeing half of a story.

Yeah, Apple+ has several things I would like to see. But so far my willpower has held out. Maybe if they have some kind of outrageously cheap sale at some point I might give them money. But I doubt it. I dislike too much to give them my money.

MikeJ wrote on Jan 10, 2025, 14:34:
Yay, no more fact checking. A big win for liars and manipulators of ignorant, gullible people with too low an IQ to properly research actual facts. Huge win for the orange con man party politics.

Yeah. It definitely sucks. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything we can really do about it.

The Enshittification doesn't help matters ether. When you know that going into some services you are stuck with forced ads it ruins the entire experience. You are paying a service directly to access content while that service in turn force feeds you ads for crap you more then likely do not care about. I sure it causes some possible subscribers to second guess their desire to subscribe in the first place or to stay subscribed.

Ohh and fact checking doesn't = Censorship!

Yay, no more fact checking. A big win for liars and manipulators of ignorant, gullible people with too low an IQ to properly research actual facts. Huge win for the orange con man party politics.

Of course people are cutting out streaming services. They've figured out that you round robin them (if you don't go back to piracy), watching the shows and then moving on. People aren't as concerned about seeing stuff in a timely manner; there's no pressure like there was with GoT. "Watercooler moments" are a thing of the past, because there's too much fucking content.

Currently, AppleTV is the one streaming service doing it right. Their exclusives are almost all top notch, and they appear to be committing to finishing a show rather than canceling it if it doesn't get crazy numbers the week it comes out (looking at you, Netflix). I'm tired of seeing half of a story.

Microsoft to force-install Ad Delivery system.
ftfy

registry workarounds will be invalid in 3..2..1