# The golden age of the streaming wars has ended



## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

_The Verge_ article titled The golden age of the streaming wars has ended does a good job of summarizing the changes we will see at the beginning of 2023. It's frustrating that advertising is now back in the middle of the content decision-making. But it was a "golden age" for streaming until management figured out they needed to make a profit.


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

Two things.

- History is full of people who thought they had their TV on the cheap figured out. One example is the early BUD days. It goes along until it reaches a critical mass and then you have to pay up. All the “but I’m saving this and that” is gone by the wayside. A la carte is, and always will be, anti-consumer.

- History is also full of really nice entertainment delivery systems. CED is one example. Fine, people that adopted them liked them. Great. They just could not make any money. The idea that it is inevitable that streaming eventually is going to be profitable, at all, let alone replace linear TV and take all of that money with it, is just voodoo economics. Maybe streaming is really entertaining. And unprofitable.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

SamC said:


> A la carte is, and always will be, anti-consumer.


A la carte has never been anti-consumer and it never will be. It just isn't what advocates hoped it would be given the economies of scale forfeited in offering it.


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## AZ. (Mar 27, 2011)

When everything is streaming, prices will be right where they are now on cable and satellite! Just better profit margins with equipment you purchase.


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## AngryManMLS (Jan 30, 2014)

This much like death and taxes is inevitable. There's only going to be so much money these mega corps are going to throw into original content before wanting more ways to get any kind of return of investment. And it was only a matter of time before stuff like the ad free experience would be hiked up in price just so the same services can offer "ad supported" tiers that are at the same cost ad free used to be. I can't remember the exact numbers but Hulu makes more money per subscriber on their ad supporter tiers than the ad free ones. So it makes total sense when others like Netflix see's this and wants to get more revenue by way of ads.


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