Amazon demands 30% share of ad revenue from TV networks’ apps::Australia’s free-to-air broadcasters are up in arms after Amazon demanded a 30% slice of any advertising revenue that passes through its FireTV devices. Financial Review said networks Seven, Nine, Ten and SBS had accused the parcels to showbiz company of a “cash grab” and “rent-seeking”. Amazon has set new terms of services that would require…
Enshittification intensifies.
I mean. Amazon. It never was about quality media. It’s always been about money.
Surely those broadcasters will pull their streams (it’s not like they’re not already hurting), FireTV will get a reputation of having restricted access to broadcast TV, some people will live with it and some will buy a smart TV and not worry about Amazon any more…
Pretty much. I currently use fire sticks with Kodi side loaded for TV because it’s a pretty cheap decent android TV device. If it became restricted in this way such that apps I do want to use go away, I’d just buy a generic Android TV device (or side load them).
This is just another of the long line of bad ideas big business seem to be having to try to get every last cent out of a product or service they can. It’s too far and we can easily avoid it.
Get a $20 onn android box from Walmart. Miles better than the firestick
I have the same setup with a rpi 4 and I’ve been impressed with it. Amazon may just feed the rpi shortage… Damn.
Amazon must be forcibly split up.
Same for meta
Same for alphabet
Same for Microsoft
Same for a number of large airlines
Same for all mega corps
What’s going on in the tech sector is there a global EMP comming that only top ceo’s know about so they’re all pumping and dumping their products in one last cash grab? :D
The free money faucet that came with 0% interest rates has been turned off. Venture capital are now actually demanding returns, thus the big tech companies are sucking the good will and future of their businesses dry in order to turn a profit.
I want to have this level of belief. After Netflix benefitting from their enshittification, I believe this will just become the new norm and I’ll just be pushed further from societal norms because I’m not willing to shell out for all of this bullshit, while the vast majority of society is. I want to believe these companies will fail in their ventures to treat their customers like shit, but if I’ve learned anything it’s that society will do anything for their shit.
Large companies will survive. Small ones will fail. A few medium ones with fail too. Amazon doesn’t have to make prime video successful as long as they prop it up with prime shipping.
And the logical conclusion is the further consolidation of power in a handful of massive companies like in dystopian scifi
Yup, and the solution to the problem already exists. Break them up, or better yet, don’t let them buy each other up in the first place.
They’re all being asked to actually start turning a profit.
The peasants won’t know what hit them.
Do you want to kill FireTV? Cause, that’s how you kill FireTV.
FireTV was ever alive?
I got one years ago and it was borderline unusable even from day one. They’ve always been these cheap, nasty, HDMI sticks that freeze and lag at the slightest hint of you wanting to actually use them to watch anything.
The home application is TERRIBLE on Fire TV. It took three generations of the Fire TV stick before one of them was powerful enough to load that bloated nonsense they call an interface.
Edit: I meant interface, not internet.
firetv only exist to be cracked. although i suspect there is a captive audience of less tecgy people. as they sell their junk for 10 bucks and massive tvs for 💯 bucks
i guess my jellyfin app will have to share 30% of nothing with Amazon
That’s some gall for a niche product. Most tvs now ship with their own OS, so Fire Stick has no leverage.
It’s the other way round:
Most TVs now ship with unbelievably crappy OSes, so most people plug some kind of smart device(s) in front of them, sooner or later. Fire sticks, chromecasts, Netflix boxes on Android, etc.pp.
Mmm not really so, at least in my case. The tvOS is usually only supported for a few years and once the updates stop, apps stop their support as well. We have a tv in our living room that stopped being supported after six years; it can’t download Disney+ or certain other apps natively because of it. A Fire stick is much cheaper than having to buy a new tv every so many years.
Yeah, I still have my plasma TV from 2011 (hey, the thing refuses to die, OK!). When I bought it, it was a “smart tv”. Now, there’s no apps for the thing. But I use a fire TV stick with side-loaded extra apps and it’s like having a modern smart TV.
I don’t think I’d buy a TV for its smart features ever. Far better to get a TV for the picture quality and what actually matters in a TV and use devices to fill in the rest. Sure if they’re there and working I’d use them perhaps. But, I know they will become obsolete too soon.
But most people just buy a Chromecast in that situation.
eh no, most people buy whatever is sold to them. on amazon (which is quite popular) they sell you a fire tv stick
google does an absolutely terrible job of selling androidtv/chromecasts so people don’t really even know what it is.
Funny, I was going to reply that I barely even knew what Chromecast is, so you’re absolutely correct.
I’m sure google will never pull the same stunt as Amazon. They’re the good guys!
But they can’t afford to pay their writers and actors what they are asking for?
Lol imagine a new product demanding this.
Lol now imagine an incredibly shitty existing product that is already replaced by superior products and internalized software in even the cheapest tvs demanding this.
The Amazon stream stick doesn’t even offer anything of value as it is.
Is enshittification just extortion at this point?
Yeah I have one and I was already leaning away from it for my next one. It’s so laggy and getting worse
Capitalism eating itself, only if it was not harming innocents while it finished itself
How would they even know what the ad revenue is?
I remember reading last year that all the assistant services like Alexa and Siri and Google are costing these companies a fortune with almost zero return. It’s not surprising they’re looking for additional revenue streams.
It’s really just Alexa that is having a problem. They sold a shit load of Echos at a loss, assuming people would use Alexa to buy stuff. Turns out people wanted Alexa to tell them the weather, play music and answer simple questions, not pitch them product recommendations…
Amazon’s product recommendations are ad placements anyway. Almost never is is right.
Large companies going for an abusive cash grab? you don’t say
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Why are people even using these kind of sticks any more rather than the apps on their TVs?
In my experience the TV apps are insanely slow and cumbersome. I’ll always grab a cheap chromecast/firestick over using some abandoned TV streaming app that needs 2 updates and a restart before launching YouTube.
Seeing people say this kind of stuff just doesn’t jive with my experience at all. Both my LG smart TV I had for 5 years and my current symsyng I’ve had for the last two had stayed snappy and fast thoughout their use.
In addition to firetv being built into many tvs the built in apps on smart tvs are slow compared to a lot of external devices. They also send a lot of data back home and the ones not based on a big platform don’t get updated as often or have the same amount to choose from.
I have apple TVs and even the older models from 2015 is faster than smart tvs I’ve used.
I’ve found the apps on my previous LG and current Samsung to be snappy and just as quick as the console based ones.
My mom’s LG is so slow it was rage inducing and it’s a new tv. My Samsung is better but still not great. The remotes are both terrible and neither is anywhere near the speed of an old apple tv.
There’s also still privacy issues. One of the reasons the TV’s are cheap these days is because they sell your data.
Meh, I’ve given my info to plenty of companies to use their products at this point, Google, Sony, Microsoft, Valve, etc. Samsung already have mine from an old phone so I don’t care if they get it from my TV too.
I’m not giving my TV internet access to it can download ads and remove features through updates.
I’m also not going to use any major tech corporation proprietary device to stream.
I’ll just connect a small computer I can manage myself, with a full wireless keyboard and mouse, that can run any app I so desire.
Ok, not being a member of the Lone Gunmen I’m not paranoid enough to worry about that.
Are people actually using the built in apps over a dedicated box? I figured most people had a dedicated streaming device for at least their main TV. So much faster, better updates, more consistent (and with things like Apple TV I think the only way to access the platform)
apple ported their streaming services to everything, it’s not only available on apple hardware fwiw
but no, most people just use whatever their tv does. tech people don’t obviously but most people do
Hmm, guess I’ve just influenced everyone I know enough to use the boxes. The only people who don’t that I know are also traditional cable only people and don’t use streaming services at all.
I’ve used the on board apps since I had a TV that supported them. I used to use my consoles before that but they suck up a lot of power for an equivalent or worse experience than the TV apps.
Can you run a VPN natively on your TV and torrent without fear of your ISP giving you a warning?
No, but I can on my tablet and then just cast the video to the TV.
Some of us have old tvs. Mine is a plasma from the aughts that’s still working fine
The amount of features that TV must lack that I use regularly is crazy. 4K, HDR, VRR, 120hz mode, etc.
Yeah I got none of that. I do have a large red spot of burn in that’s slowly fading that I’m pretty sure is why my aunt was looking to give it away. It’s got a few display modes that generally suck. I’m pretty sure it was my aunt and uncle’s first non interlaced tv. But it’s got a few hdmi slots so I can plug in my computer and game on the couch.
I’m sure all those features are nice and all. And when my monstrosity dies I’ll probably buy something nice with those features and I’m sure my wife and I will love them. But that’s kinda the awesome part of holding on to old crap forever, when it finally does die what you get is really nice to you even if you cheap out. I thought getting 10-15 years of hearing aid advancement at once was nice, but I suspect 20 years of tv advancement will be mind blowing, and probably make me upgrade my pc monitors. But as for now my tv is 5’, heavy as fuck, and it works fine if you know how to mess with it right
How do you deal with watching or playing modern content designed for 4k/HDR screens?
Never did it before so idk what I’m missing. My pc is middle of the line anyways so idk. And Baldurs Gate 3 is the first new AAA game I’ve bought in quite a while and my tv isn’t even close to the top of my issues with it (crashing regularly).
So yeah when this monstrosity gives up the ghost I’ll probably buy a fancy new tv with all those features assuming the wife is cool with me getting that and as big as my current one (I inherited the current one). But idk I can see the stuff on screen ok enough, and I assume off the shelf sound hasn’t gotten much better, especially if you’re routing from headphone Jack to hearing aids like I do. I can see what’s going on and enjoy the stories. It’s not like I’m using 360i resolution or something.
How do you deal with watching or playing modern content designed for 4k/HDR screens?
Bell TV in Canada doesn’t support Samsung TVs because Bell is stupid. The only option is to use an external device. It’s a good thing I don’t care about their TV app. I only have access because it comes free with fibre internet.
That’s bizarre in 2023, all the UK channels have a Samsung app.
