Apple and Paramount Considering Discounted TV+ Streaming Bundle

[IIGS User]

Paramount plus is IMHO the most streaming bang for the buck of all the streamers I have access to right now. Hulu is good for catching up on shows I missed, and I really don’t use Disney+. I get it as part of my VZW package.

The catalog of movies on Paramount+ is really good.

 

[immac]

What does Captain Kirk say about all this?!

Has Star Fleet approved this joint Apple-Paramount operation?! 🙈 🚀 📺

We're always amazed by folks that say there's nothing interesting to watch on streaming service X or Y, or that they've watched everything worthwhile on it.

Netflix gets lots of heat that way, but it's filled with scores of past and current gems. There are incredible international productions, cross-cultural family, corporate, and legal comedies and dramas that are engaging, edifying, and entertaining. Many are long-running series that provide hours and even weeks of viewing pleasure.

Alas, the services hear the detractors and the bored. They have designed their interfaces to irritatingly shove shows in viewers' faces rather than let us easily pick up where we left off. Continue Watching is typically buried below rows of promotion of other content. They'll even interrupt the start of shows to push some other show — and will automatically start playing a different show near the end even before the credits have fully rolled!

Netflix is less obtrusive about that in some respects, although just today, rather than letting viewers go to a show, they’re pushing their service with ads at a discount. In other words, they're hitting us with an ad on a non-ad subscription to promote their ad service. Clearly, they make more money off the discounted services with ads, but many us never want to go back to that.

Finally, who cares about this possible joint Apple TV - Paramount service, anyway?! There’s nothing interesting on either of them; nothing worth watching at all! /s

Why not just give us a “swipe right” option….I cut cable to get away from inane nauseating commentators, ADVERTISING, and attempts to CURATE MY VIEWING CHOICES in order to promote The Narrative.

I’d MAYBE pay a tad more to be able to eliminate the clutter of crappola that I would never even leave on to sedate my dog…..
personal freedom of choice from unsolicited advice or surreptitious attempts to elicit accidental clicks and STEERING seem gone from our daily lives….
My response….(to plagiarize the recent comments of Lord Musk ) ……

F.U.!

 

[Unity451]

Maybe somebody will bundle ALL streaming services together into a single platform with a single (not so low) payment... they could call it Cable!

 

[ChrisA]

I'm interested in this part. Reed Hastings famously implied Netflix could charge its customers any amount and they'd pay it.

TV is like drugs. Once you are hooked, you will do ANYTHING to get them, TV is like that too. If you don't believe me ask someone to 100% turn off their TV for six weeks. They will say the same thing alcoholics say "I could stop if I wanted, but I don't think I have a problem". And of course, no one will ever actually do it.

He is right, people would pay anything, but I don't think it is Netflix they must have, they'd switch to a different service but they would NEVER turn the TV off.

 

[TechGuy327]

I'm interested in this part. Reed Hastings famously implied Netflix could charge its customers any amount and they'd pay it. With the recent price hikes, I haven't seen any data demonstrating consumer reaction (if any) in the form of cancellations.

I get Netflix through T-Mobile. If it wasn't for that I probably wouldn't have it anymore.

 

[mrat93]

More on price, when considering the rental prices of the set top boxes that are required for most streaming companies to get their full service, one box alone cost as much as most streaming services.

Pardon my ignorance but which streaming services push you to get a specific streaming box for a monthly fee? I’ve never heard of this.

 

[kc9hzn]

Pardon my ignorance but which streaming services push you to get a specific streaming box for a monthly fee? I’ve never heard of this.

No, the OP is comparing the cost of most cable services’ mandatory set-top box (used for on-demand, as well as outputting to your TV) to the monthly cost of individual streaming services. In other words, the OP is arguing that streaming still compares favorably to the cost of cable, especially when you factor in the monthly equipment rental fee on the cable bill. I think the quoted text should have said cable services instead of streaming services, but it was pretty obvious from the context of the post.

 

[mrat93]

No, the OP is comparing the cost of most cable services’ mandatory set-top box (used for on-demand, as well as outputting to your TV) to the monthly cost of individual streaming services. In other words, the OP is arguing that streaming still compares favorably to the cost of cable, especially when you factor in the monthly equipment rental fee on the cable bill. I think the quoted text should have said cable services instead of streaming services, but it was pretty obvious from the context of the post.

Thanks for clarifying and pointing out how obvious it was.

In my defense though, OP made it sound like sometimes you have the option to not use their set top boxes for cable — which again, I’ve never heard of.

And, needing a special box for “their full service” seems more like a scummy streaming service thing rather than a cable company option.

 

[Analog Kid]

I'm interested in this part. Reed Hastings famously implied Netflix could charge its customers any amount and they'd pay it. With the recent price hikes, I haven't seen any data demonstrating consumer reaction (if any) in the form of cancellations.

I have. When the services were all much cheaper I kept a few active because managing what I wanted and dealing with the on and off nonsense didn't seem worth the $6 or whatever it was. Now the hikes across the board have me down to one at a time.

Streaming is the new cable, Uber is just another taxi, Amazon is Walmart. I don't know why anyone thought this was going to turn out differently...

 

[lovehateapple]

I would have sooner expected a Disney/Apple bundle before Paramount/Apple 🤷‍♂️

I agree 100%. This seems like a precursor to a spin-off of AppleTV+ to Paramount or vice versa.

 

[DblHelix]

Paramount+ is hopelessly lost. I signed up when it first launched and then cancelled. Decided to renew my subscription to watch the new beavis and butthead and realized it was still active a year after I cancelled. Still is and have no idea if they will ever cancel my account I no longer pay for.

 

[lovehateapple]

I think there was a time when this was true, when Netflix was the go-to streaming service. But now that there are so many streaming options, it might be pretty easy to drop Netflix (at least for a period of time) and not feel like you are missing anything.

Netflix was a victim of its own success. As soon as the studios saw how much profit was available via streaming, they brought it in-house rather than license their content to an outside distributor, in this case Netflix.

 

[webkit]

It’s really insane. I’m sure most people don’t use a single specific subscription service every month out of the year.

Now, we have all of the following to consider:

• Ads or no ads
• HD or 4K (or sometimes SD)
• Other misc tiered features (local downloads)
• Monthly or yearly
• Am I even watching anything on here? Is anybody else using the account?
• Is the service free or discounted through my phone carrier? For how long? Do I need the cheapest tier or can I pay the difference to get no ads?
• NEW: Can I get this service bundled with a different service I have?

… for each service.

People have been having to deal with these sorts of things for ages.

Should I buy a magazine (and there have been many many available) from the newsstand and, if so, which one? Should I instead subscribe for a year? Two years? Are they cheaper through the publisher or through a magazine subscription service like Publishers Clearing House? Will there be sales or special offers? What are the cancellation policies?

Should I buy a newspaper from the newsstand and, if so, which one? Should I subscribe instead? Will there be sales or special offers? What are the cancellation policies?

Should I buy or rent a movie? Should I get a movie club membership for 3 months? 6 months? 12 months? Is one store cheaper than another? Do some stores have free memberships? Better selections? Will it go on sale?

Which store should I buy CDs or cassettes? Will they go on sale? Should I join a music club? Which one? How long should I join? What are the cancellation policies?

 

[MisterSavage]

In my defense though, OP made it sound like sometimes you have the option to not use their set top boxes for cable — which again, I’ve never heard of.

You can get away with that by using a CableCard with something like a TiVo. I just ditched mine fairly recently for streaming, however.

 

[techwhiz]

Apple just went up to $9.99 from $6.99.
Can I afford the increase? Of course.
Will I pay it? Nope.

I'll now wait until the shows I want are released and subscribe for a month and binge. Then I'll dump the subscription for 4-6 months until something else I want is fully available and subscribe for a month. Rinse and repeat

So instead of getting $6.99 for 12 months, they will get $9.99 for about 3-4 per year. Good job Apple.

 

[stockseer]

You can say that about all the streaming services.

Except for DirecTV 'stream', which actually has most everything.

 

[kc9hzn]

You can get away with that by using a CableCard with something like a TiVo. I just ditched mine fairly recently for streaming, however.

Seems like, as of 2020, the FCC has ditched the CableCard requirement, in large part because of the current competitive strength of streaming. But this is the first time I’ve heard anyone mention CableCard in years, I’d forgotten that it was a thing!

 

[stockseer]

Maybe somebody will bundle ALL streaming services together into a single platform with a single (not so low) payment... they could call it Cable!

Essentially DirecTV Stream is just that; but nobody seems to mention it.

 

[Mostly Adequate]

Just merge the services. As they are, they are a pair of relatively threadbare streaming services. Together they could be worth the asking price?

 

[Kove]

I just hope it will be included in Apple One.

 

[picpicmac]

Have many times thought that if Apple was going to buy any media company (in this era of consolidations) it would be Paramount. Probably the best fit of content and legacy culture, to put CBS under Apple.

 

[ackmondual]

I'm interested in this part. Reed Hastings famously implied Netflix could charge its customers any amount and they'd pay it. With the recent price hikes, I haven't seen any data demonstrating consumer reaction (if any) in the form of cancellations.

I feel we could probably say that about the iPhone as well. Especially given some folks' aversions to alternatives (at least, we've had people who flat out said that if iOS isn't viable, they're sure as hell not moving to Android).

 

[ackmondual]

Hulu isn't free but there have been multiple Black Friday deals to get the ad-supported version for $1 per month.

YMMV. Me... Hulu "ad-filled" was such a miserable experience that I wouldn't use it even if they, paid me, to do so, let alone being $1/mo (which is practically free)

Man, someone should combine all of these services into one package. Like all of ESPN, Disney, Apple, Paramount, Netflix, Hulu - just all of the channels, er, apps into one package.

We’ll call it ”cable” and it’ll be a hit.

/s

(We’re coming full circle on cord cutting)

I can still get a smorgasbord of content, ad-free, and on-demand for $10 to $20/mo. The gap may be closing between the 2, but we still got a long way to go before we get to cable TV.

 

[GizmoDVD]

I agree 100%. This seems like a precursor to a spin-off of AppleTV+ to Paramount or vice versa.

Paramount is barely afloat at this point.

 

[svish]

Wonder how much discount will be there for a combined streaming package