This is not the reality of piracy in 2022.
I'm fairly certain Comcast's cable package they keep spamming me costs less than those combined
Media consumption is expensive again. All we've done is move from the cable bundle with terrible content to a different set of un-/re-bundled channels where the slightly better content lives.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/10/hbo-max-d...
The incentives go in the wrong direction from a UX perspective
[0] https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/hulu-makes-about-15-in-reven...
Obligatory Bill Hicks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHEOGrkhDp0
> Why are there ads in Apple News Plus news feed? Just subscribed to Apple News Plus. I am surprised to see ads in the Apple News Plus feed. Please remove these ads for paying subscribers. I realize that ads in articles that Apple can't control, but it is insulting to have them in the feed itself.
From a 1981 NYT article
> Although cable television was never conceived of as television without commercial interruption, there has been a widespread impression - among the public, at least -that cable would be supported largely by viewers' monthly subscription fees.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-inv...
You can also watch episodes in the Global TV app, but you do have to have a subscription to Global TV to watch those, though it is often included in basic packages that start at $25/month ($15 for Alt TV) as CRTC mandated that channels be made available a la carte with a cheaper “Starter” package.[2]
That said the cheapest (legal) way to get Rick & Morty is to record it yourself over-the-air for free given that Global is a nationally broadcast TV channel, for now. Edit: Actually, I’m not sure this is still the case.[3]
1. https://www.adultswim.ca/where-to-watch/
2. https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/television/program/alacarte.htm
3. https://blog.fagstein.com/2018/11/13/corus-asks-crtc-to-shut...
Born from WWI's propaganda was the idea of using communication to convince someone of something against their interest or for your policy objectives. For example, all x are monsters and you should risk your life to go fight them, using emotional responses and conceptual associations. “make the world safe for democracy.”[1] After the war it was realized these same techniques could be used to make people buy things they didn't need. Shoes are often now sold by convincing you they will make you more athletic, cool or similar self image. As a result there is now no limit on the number of shoes that a person "needs".
This consumer culture[3], and was somewhat a conscious decision in response to the challenge faced by business from the ability to produce outstripping people's demands or overproduction. Consumers were trained via advertising, in order to keep production and growth humming, at the unseen expense of overconsumption. From Paul M. Mazur's :American Prosperity: Its Causes and Consequences" in 1928,
"Advertising is an educational force. If effective, desires increase, standards of living are raised, purchases are made; purchases create production, production creates purchasing power, and the circle can be made complete if desire is at this point strong enough to convert that power into actual purchases.
Of course there exists theoretically that danger point when consumption has reached its limit. Such a breaking point is probably non-existent.[2]
[1]https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-woodrow-wilsons-p...
[2]https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/01/21/desires/
[3]https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/a-brief-history-of-consum...
There is definitely a need for things to change yet even in the land of the free (USA), there are talks of trying to “bundle” together OTT streaming as the next wave of getting you to pay more to watch the same content.[1]
There is some good news though. Often when you subscribe to internet there are limited two-year promotions that offer streaming TV at no extra cost. Unfortunately, these plans often don’t include PVR function and also don’t include the ability to skip commercials when playing on demand, but luckily a number of on-demand streaming methods can still be tricked by adblock such as Pi Hole, in my experience. Not all of them, of course.
1. https://www.wsj.com/articles/streaming-service-bundle-cable-...
Even their 'higher end' 4k UHD media releases are missing features that Disney+ has, like Dolby Vision. https://www.flatpanelshd.com/focus.php?subaction=showfull&id...
And outside Steam others like Fortnite, Candy Crush, Roblox, Club Penguin...
Many at the top here have a free-to-play model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-played_video_game...
MTV was actually a ripoff of QUBE channel C-1 program "Sight on Sound" which didn't air advertisements the way we think of them. Instead record labels could pay to have their music videos prioritized or to run giveaway contests.
QUBE also lead to the creation of Nickelodeon (Which itself was ad-free for several years). QUBE channel C-3 "Pinwheel" was the first cable channel made for only young children, and was spun off into Nickelodeon when QUBE went defunct.
The QUBE T channels were just cable links to conventional OTA broadcast television channels (T for television).
QUBE C channels (C for community) did not have ad breaks. Instead there would be sponsored giveaways or sponsored shows which eventually lead to the current practice of infomercials. Except with QUBE the segments were live and viewers could push one of 5 buttons on the remote to interact with the program. For example in a sponsored cosmetics segment viewers could vote on whether the next topic would be one of 5 options, lipstick, mascara, etc. Sight on Sound would ask some questions about current viewer demographics (are you male/female. Are you in age group ABCDE. How many people are watching right now), the dj would say it was to play music matching the current demographic, but it was mainly collected to give metrics to sponsored segments or to wait for an appropriate time to play a sponsored segment.
But what most urban people considered "cable" at the time would be the QUBE P-channels. P for Pay. Unlike other pay channels at the time like HBO, the P channels were a monthly subscription (each), not pay per view. Notably, QUBE got into the news several times because of channel P-10, which aired softcore porn.
Also ESPN did not initially air advertisements during programming, only in between programs. But they also only had sports no one really cared about for the first few years. No major sports, no college games. But they did have highlights and some international sports.
The main reason early cable-only channels didn't have advertising is mainly because the subscriber numbers were so small there wasn't much revenue to be made targeting 5-10k viewers. Once subscriber numbers went up, and higher budget programming was in-demand (sports licensing is ridiculously expensive) ad breaks similar to OTA channels were introduced. But many of cable's early adopters bought into it on word of mouth, and word at the time was "no ad breaks!" It wasn't a goal of cable TV, just a side effect of the development.
It was only a few years, but there were a few years when cable tv had no ad breaks for the majority of urban subscribers. It's sort of like someone saying Netflix used to have pretty much every show and movie, and then pulling up stats from 2014 and beyond saying no they didn't.
You can buy season 6 on Apple TV and Google play for $19 according to this site: https://www.justwatch.com/ca/tv-show/rick-and-morty/season-6
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg%27s_stages_o...
Have they? Or perhaps trash media is the bottom of their list of priorities? Maybe they are overloaded with cases and need more support? There are many more possible explanations than "shown they are unwilling"
You can take a look at some recent current and pending antitrust cases on the DOJ's website:
https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-case-filings?search_ap...
In fact there was just recently action taken against Disney, which forced it to sell of major parts of 21st century before it was allowed to proceed with the merger.
https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-case-filings?search_ap...
As far as iPod sales, I won’t editorialize
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quart...
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-gaming-proves-to-be-a-g...
As far as “bought digital music” vs music not bought from iTunes right before the iPhone came out, SJ himself said that most music on iPods were not bought from iTunes:
This was originally posted on Apple’s front page when Jobs was trying to convince the record labels to allow everyone to sell DRM free music (it happened a couple of years later)
https://macdailynews.com/2007/02/06/apple_ceo_steve_jobs_pos...
> Today’s most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM
Lysander Spooner goes on to expand this theme greatly.
Foundational essay, well worth a read: https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/spooner-no-treason-no-vi-t...
https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-the-beginning-of-musi...
Here are just a few examples off the top of my head, to whet your appetite:
- The OG superhero story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh
- A fairly popular adventure story you might have heard about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey
- This one even has "comedy" in its name, if you needed convincing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy
