streaming video

• streaming video will soon look like the bad old days of tv
  
  “for decades, all tv content was “free.” networks like abc and cbs distributed their shows free of charge because they weren’t really in the business of selling audiences 30 minutes of entertainment. instead, they were selling advertisers eight or so minutes of the audience’s attention. while most digital video services do charge their viewers, their real objective is to lock audiences into their ever-expanding ecosystem. their tv network is the ad.
  
  amazon, apple and roku, for example, use their networks to drive sales of their devices, software, services and other products (to quote amazon’s chief executive, jeff bezos, “when we win a golden globe, it helps us sell more shoes”).”
  
  “similarly, the real goal of disney+ isn’t the creation of a new revenue line for disney. instead, it’s about giving the company the ability to know each of its fans individually, including what content and characters they like, and how much, and to sell to them directly. this is why the annual plan is priced at only $70. monthly subscription fees are trivial if disney can use the service to sell more $5,000 cruises. the same applies for merchandise, movie tickets and other products.”
  
  “but at the same time, we’re entering a world in which our culture is programmed by vertically integrated trillion-dollar corporations. this may help us escape high prices and ads in the short term, but eventually the bill will come due.”