I've officially reached the status of grumpy old codger. The ONLY motivation I have to put up with media of any kind anymore is a simple "go-no go" test. If the annoyance that your incompetence is causing me overshadows the enjoyment that I can get from something, then I remove the annoyance or I stop partaking altogether. You kids can still play on my lawn though. I'm a kinder, gentler old fuck.

Shteve wrote on Feb 16, 2025, 05:50:

Armengar wrote on Feb 15, 2025, 18:05:

Bodolza wrote on Feb 15, 2025, 16:10:
Sign up for D+ for a trial, and you're now obligated to forced arbitration for all Disney products for life. Tough to find a better example of late-stage capitilism.

Maybe in your country but definitely not in mine. Luckily we have some decent robust laws. We were the first to get steam refunds and also the first to have EULA laughed at. We can resell software contracts too. There are no ads on our Disney+ "ad free tier". This shit simply wont fly here.

I don't think it's Disney itself that's showing the ads, it's the other subs under the Disney channel. If they did, I'd just cancel and go back to other methods.

Correct, Disney says "ad free" for it and Hulu but if National Geographic or any of the content channels add their own ads, the subscriber will see them. Since Disney owns all of those sub channels they are effectively double dipping under false pretenses. As a customer you have to decide whether you are going to deal with it or not. The deal is a good one for many families, so the question becomes how much does it really bother you that they are saying its ad free when it is really "less ads". The answer for me so far has been "eventually this will get me to cancel, but eventually isn't here yet".

The older I get the less interested in TV-type media I get overall. It's getting incredibly hard for me to get excited about anything in "entertainment". Many of the things I enjoy are just being repeated over and over again at this point. So right this moment while I am trying to get caught up on some things I missed during the pandemic etc I will deal with it but there is time coming very soon, perhaps even this year, where I will turn on that Disney/Hulu/HBOMax bundle and I won't find anything I want to watch. I will cancel and after that I just don't see how any content producer would ever get me to agree to being charged monthly AND watching ads again. If you think about it, Disney creates the entire problem. I would pay even more to actually be "ad free" and they don't even have an option for that. It's idiotic.

El Pit wrote on Feb 16, 2025, 11:18:
Disney is in a difficult position. Their content isn't exactly selling subs like hot cakes and nevertheless comes with high production cost. Unfortunately Disney has also turned the bought franchises from cash cows into box office poison and it is pretty much impossible to win back the old fans of Star Wars, Marvel, etc.

Filed directly under the category of "so not anyone's problem but theirs". Having sympathy for a company is like having sympathy for hitting a nail on its head with a hammer.

Disney is in a difficult position. Their content isn't exactly selling subs like hot cakes and nevertheless comes with high production cost. Unfortunately Disney has also turned the bought franchises from cash cows into box office poison and it is pretty much impossible to win back the old fans of Star Wars, Marvel, etc.

Yeah, like why there wouldn't be ads in the ad free subscription tier, like how are they going make money selling you shit without them?

Armengar wrote on Feb 15, 2025, 18:05:

Bodolza wrote on Feb 15, 2025, 16:10:
Sign up for D+ for a trial, and you're now obligated to forced arbitration for all Disney products for life. Tough to find a better example of late-stage capitilism.

Maybe in your country but definitely not in mine. Luckily we have some decent robust laws. We were the first to get steam refunds and also the first to have EULA laughed at. We can resell software contracts too. There are no ads on our Disney+ "ad free tier". This shit simply wont fly here.

I don't think it's Disney itself that's showing the ads, it's the other subs under the Disney channel. If they did, I'd just cancel and go back to other methods.

Explain to me how it's unethical to use adblockers again...

Firefox + UBlock Origin = no ads on even the lowest cost tiers of streaming services. At least I don't get any, though I do on my TV if I use my built in app. Get a cheap laptop with that setup and broadcast it to your TV.

Bodolza wrote on Feb 15, 2025, 16:10:
Sign up for D+ for a trial, and you're now obligated to forced arbitration for all Disney products for life. Tough to find a better example of late-stage capitilism.

Maybe in your country but definitely not in mine. Luckily we have some decent robust laws. We were the first to get steam refunds and also the first to have EULA laughed at. We can resell software contracts too. There are no ads on our Disney+ "ad free tier". This shit simply wont fly here.

I know few people want to hear this but torrents are ad free. Corporations have broken the social contract with you, so why are you upholding it for them?

If someone sells you a thing that is supposed to be "X" but is instead "Y", do you just go "This is not what I agreed to but it's fine. I'll just take the shafting"? Probably not.

Or you could walk away from those services entirely and just accept the fact that you won't get to veg out in front of the TV for hours on end.

The shittification Ens hard.

Sign up for D+ for a trial, and you're now obligated to forced arbitration for all Disney products for life. Tough to find a better example of late-stage capitilism.

Jivaro wrote on Feb 15, 2025, 15:05:
Next football season I am probably not going to turn live TV on at all and just find another option for the NFL....or maybe just skip it altogether.

If you can get access to it, the NFL Network cuts all the dead time between the end of a play and the next hike and rebroadcasts the games. They have normal ads for broadcast tv though, so unless you are able to record them on a DVR not sure you would consider it a valid option for you.

I sometimes watch them for games I didn't watch live, even if I know the final score.

So I keep a Hulu sub year round, Prime, and have a lifetime membership to Nebula.

I keep Disney and Hulu ad free year round. It's literally never ad free. It never has been despite what they say. It reduces ads, but everything I watch has ad breaks in it. David Attenborough documentary? Three ad breaks per hour despite my sub saying "ad free" Almost everything, including the aforementioned documentaries, has these 2-3 minute breaks that are targeted at someone my age and gender and they never contain anything "local". Hulu support has told me that his is as close to ad free as they can get.

All of the ads are for meds and products aimed at men over the age of 40. So basically hair loss, ED, and diet meds/plans. Literally just those 3 things over and over again. It's tiring. I mean I get why these particular things are being aimed at my demographic but I will see the same exact ad 4 times an hour due to the lack of variety on an "ad free" sub. Additionally, I have a full head of hair that is nearly 2 feet long, so far I have been lucky enough to dodge the effects of an ED, and while not exactly "thin"....I am 6 foot 1 and 190 lbs currently. I don't need a weight loss diet, I need to exercise....as in watch less TV! lol If this is "targeted ads", they are really missing the mark. As frustrating as this can be, it represents about 8 minutes an hour and I have decided to deal for now.

The third part of their bundle used to be ESPN+ for me but I am caught up on 30 for 30 and UFC matches so I switched to HBOMax. Next football season I am probably not going to turn live TV on at all and just find another option for the NFL....or maybe just skip it altogether. More ads and more money to watch a sport that is going in a direction I find less entertaining seems a lot like me paying money to hit myself in the face with a brick.