Will this be the new TV model going forward?

[Herdfan]

Due to being busy, the wife and I finally got around to watching the last couple of episodes of Seal Team. After the finale, my wife wondered if it was a Series Finale because of the way they tied up a few things. So she looked to see if it had been renewed.

It had. Sort of. Season 5 will be aired on the Paramount + streaming service. Now I am lucky enough to have very good internet (I even have a copier and the FedEx Office (FKA Kinko's) is not too far away out here in rural 'Merica) so I will be able to stream it if I want to.

But is this going to be the new model? Run a show for free for a couple of years, get people watching it and then move it to your streaming platform? CBS has Paramount, NBC has Peacock, no idea what ABC and FOX have.

And while $7-10/mo doesn't sound like much, if you have to do it for multiple services, it will get prohibitive for some families.

 

[Edd]

Yeah, it’s anything goes at this point, and will continue to rapidly change I assume. It can be inexpensive if you pick up and drop subs strategically but most won’t spend the energy.

Internet costs are what burns me at this point.

 

[Eric]

Due to being busy, the wife and I finally got around to watching the last couple of episodes of Seal Team. After the finale, my wife wondered if it was a Series Finale because of the way they tied up a few things. So she looked to see if it had been renewed.

It had. Sort of. Season 5 will be aired on the Paramount + streaming service. Now I am lucky enough to have very good internet (I even have a copier and the FedEx Office (FKA Kinko's) is not too far away out here in rural 'Merica) so I will be able to stream it if I want to.

But is this going to be the new model? Run a show for free for a couple of years, get people watching it and then move it to your streaming platform? CBS has Paramount, NBC has Peacock, no idea what ABC and FOX have.

And while $7-10/mo doesn't sound like much, if you have to do it for multiple services, it will get prohibitive for some families.

Comcast will raise prices and triple that every year without a second thought, all while you're locked into a 2 or 3 year contract and zero notification. That is no longer the case, now we get to choose that programming and with no contracts or bullshit hidden charges. If one wants to save $7 a month then they can choose to drop a service, easy peasy.

 

[lizkat]

And while $7-10/mo doesn't sound like much, if you have to do it for multiple services, it will get prohibitive for some families.

No kidding. Same goes for online newspaper subs. Those outfits should bump up their freebie counts or reduce their $10/month basic rates. The level of churn they encounter must be brutal, because they're all offering assorted promo rates that everyone now knows can be renegotiated over and over again, but it's exasperating to have to bother to do that. They could make on volume and lower prices what they shell out for customer service reps...

 

[Deleted member 199]

Tbh the alternative is probably not pretty.

fox shows several years ago tried an alternative option for paying the bills.

nothing quite destroys the mood of a crime drama series like having one of the characters wax poetic about how great their new Toyota whatever is, while driving to a murder scene.

honestly the biggest gripe i have is that even while embracing digital distribution like this, most companies still have weird a obsession with country/region based rights.

 

[Alli]

I hate this model. But I suppose with shows like Lucifer it’s the only way to get them done If the ratings aren’t quite high enough for the network to continue, but there are enough fans who will pay to continue.

 

[Herdfan]

I hate this model. But I suppose with shows like Lucifer it’s the only way to get them done If the ratings aren’t quite high enough for the network to continue, but there are enough fans who will pay to continue.

Yes, but Seal Team was a Top 30 show. I understand them doing it if the show is not pulling its weight with viewers, but Seal Team did. Can't find any rating for Evil which is the other CBS show moving to Paramount +.

fox shows several years ago tried an alternative option for paying the bills.

nothing quite destroys the mood of a crime drama series like having one of the characters wax poetic about how great their new Toyota whatever is, while driving to a murder scene.

You have to be referring to Bones. It was way over the top.

 

[Deleted member 199]

Yes, but Seal Team was a Top 30 show. I understand them doing it if the show is not pulling its weight with viewers, but Seal Team did. Can't find any rating for Evil which is the other CBS show moving to Paramount +.



You have to be referring to Bones. It was way over the top.

That is where I saw it most prominently but I can’t imagine it was the only one they tried. Even American dad had some weird references that may have been mocking the concept but also may have been forced on them in the first place.

 

[SuperMatt]

I was excited when I first heard about CBS launching some Star Trek shows. But soon after, it became clear they would offer them only on “CBS All Access” which is now “Paramount+”

You pay for it, but they still put ads on it. They surely love the eyeballs they get from being a broadcast channel, but if they can charge you $6 a month and still get ad revenue, well they are gonna do it.

I think moving cable shows to streaming services is good for consumers; you don‘t need to buy 50 channels if you only watch two of them. Moving broadcast TV shows that could previously be watched OTA is not. And with these massive “Plus” streaming services, you are once again paying for a lot of stuff you will never watch.

 

[Thomas Veil]

I mentioned this a while back when I was talking about the second season of Evil, which is currently streaming on CBS All Access.

The first season was one of my few "appointment" television shows. It was great. So it's trebly disappointing to find that

• season 1 was only 13 episodes
• there was something like an entire year or more break between seasons 1 and 2
• season 2 is also 13 episodes and is only available if you're willing to pay for it.

So basically they hooked you with 1/2 season and then started charging you for it.

They're trying to play the positive side of this, which is that they can go further in streaming than they could on network TV. (Personally, have you ever seen the show? It opens with someone almost getting raped by a jet black, horned, humanoid demon. It's already fucking scary for network TV.)

The fact remains that after waiting over a year, I'll have to cool my jets some more until the entire season is available, and then go for the free trial or one month's membership or something.

My fear is that if this trend continues, the créme de la créme of network TV will move to their streaming channels, and the broadcast stuff will consist mainly of reality shows.

 

[Herdfan]

The first time this really affected me was Battlebots: Bounty Hunter. You had to subscribe to Discovery + to get those 6 episodes. So I waited until all of them were available and got the free 6 months from Verizon.

Then about 3 months later, they came on regular Discovery. So if you wait, you might be able to get them.

That is where I saw it most prominently but I can’t imagine it was the only one they tried. Even American dad had some weird references that may have been mocking the concept but also may have been forced on them in the first place.

There was another show that was just as bad, but I can't recall it. I know Hawaii 5-0 used all Chevy's and Microsoft phones/tablets. They didn't make a big deal about it, but you could certainly see the logo.

 

[Deleted member 199]

There was another show that was just as bad, but I can't recall it. I know Hawaii 5-0 used all Chevy's and Microsoft phones/tablets. They didn't make a big deal about it, but you could certainly see the logo.

Oh man I'm way past caring about seeing a logo. Even back in the 90s they were doing that in sitcoms, but it wasn't always super obvious to the viewer - like if they hold a can of coke and you can see the label, or even like in SciFi movies/shows where you can visibly see the brand of the computer (i.e. the famous Mac in ID4, and the ever present Dell laptops in StarGate). But none of them ever actually mention what it is they're using or how fantastic it is.

To me the weirder side of that there is where they use a computer that has a very obvious logo, but then cover it up. Why? surely if you're not showing the screen and not actually advertising the product, a featureless shell would work just as well.


I think to me the biggest issue is not that shows include paid promotion of product - seeing someone drinking a can of coke is probably a more normal thing that seeing them drinking a generic brown "ACME Brand Cola" can anyway - it's when it's unnatural, it doesn't seem like something a real person would say in that context. Or maybe I should say, it's unnatural to me. The two times I visited California the everywhere I went seemed "not quite real", more like a set from a tv show.

Anyway, this is one of the American Dad references I was talking about. I'm pretty sure it's just mocking the concept, but it's quite possible they were told they had to work an ad for GM into the episode, and chose to do it this way:

 

[User.168]

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[Alli]

Yes, but Seal Team was a Top 30 show. I understand them doing it if the show is not pulling its weight with viewers, but Seal Team did. Can't find any rating for Evil which is the other CBS show moving to Paramount +.

The fact remains that after waiting over a year, I'll have to cool my jets some more until the entire season is available, and then go for the free trial or one month's membership or something.

I was annoyed that they did that with Evil. OTOH, my husband has a sub to Paramount+ so I was happy to continue watching Evil. I promise not to spoil, but it’s even better this season.

 

[Herdfan]

To me the weirder side of that there is where they use a computer that has a very obvious logo, but then cover it up. Why? surely if you're not showing the screen and not actually advertising the product, a featureless shell would work just as well.




Anyway, this is one of the American Dad references I was talking about. I'm pretty sure it's just mocking the concept, but it's quite possible they were told they had to work an ad for GM into the episode, and chose to do it this way:

Or when they cover the logo on the front of a vehicle, like anyone who knows anything about cars doesn't know that's an Audi, or GMC truck. But then forget when doing an inside shot to cover the one on the steering wheel.

Yeah, it seems they are mocking it for sure.

 

[Herdfan]

It's better than trying to pay for a cable TV package, as far as I am concerned. When we had Sky (similar service to Cable or satellite TV in the US) it was costing me around 160 USD per month for unlimited fibre broadband and a bunch of the "packages" that included the channels the wife wanted.

Now we have the following per month roughly
Unlimited Fibre + landline - 30 USD
NowTV streaming packages (supplied by Sky with the same trash shows that the wife enjoys) - 14 USD
Netflix - 14 USD
Amazon Prime Video - 11 USD

That's 69 USD, which is less than half of what I used to pay. Then again, if I wasn't married, I probably would have internet only and continuously flip between Netflix and Amazon Prime. I don't watch a lot of TV these days - only a few shows hold my interest.

Yeah, but I just want to turn on the TV and get all my shows in one interface and not have to go to multiple places to find it.

But on the Amazon Prime Video, is that separate from regular Amazon Prime for shipping? Or do they bill it monthly? I have it with my regular Prime fee. Or at least think I do.

 

[SuperMatt]

Or when they cover the logo on the front of a vehicle, like anyone who knows anything about cars doesn't know that's an Audi, or GMC truck. But then forget when doing an inside shot to cover the one on the steering wheel.

Yeah, it seems they are mocking it for sure.

I remember my Dad having an 83 Plymouth Colt and the steering wheel said Mitsubishi...

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I put all my subscription due dates on the reminders app, not only to remind me the money will be pulled out of my bank, but also with enough notice for me to cancel before it renews.

It's great when services are ad-free by default, but as a middle ground it's also nice when they offer a tier that is ad-free.

Yeah, but I just want to turn on the TV and get all my shows in one interface and not have to go to multiple places to find it.

I started using the Just Watch app. It has listings for all the available streaming services. You can have it show listings for movies or TV shows for all services or just the ones you subscribe to. When you go to specific movies or TV shows it will show you all the streaming services it is currently available on including which it is currently free to stream on and what the prices currently are to rent or purchase on, like it might currently be cheaper to rent on Amazon than Apple.

I also use it a lot to create a list of movies or shows I might want to watch in the future, even movies that aren't in theaters yet can be saved so when it is available for streaming it will show you on which services. I add to the list with the iPhone or iPad app. When I use the Apple TV app when I select something I want to watch it opens the streaming service app I want to watch it on.

 

[Alli]

Yeah, but I just want to turn on the TV and get all my shows in one interface and not have to go to multiple places to find it.

Same! I never remember if I was watching a show on Prime, Netflix, Disney, or whatever.

I started using the Just Watch app. It has listings for all the available streaming services.

I’ve been using Shows for a few years, but AppleTV always reminds me when a show I watch has a new episode. I just want it to tell me to watch it on Netflix, or watch it on Prime.

 

[User.168]

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