Netflix, once a pioneer of ad-free viewing that offered a break from traditional TV norms, is now contemplating launching free ad-supported versions of its service in markets like Europe and Asia, Bloomberg reported.

The plans to offer a free ad-supported tier, albeit in select markets, suggests that pivot towards monetizing user data, in other words — making users and not the extensive library of award-winning shows a product, might be well in the pipeline.

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Some shows we’ve watched spend their time “recapping” after the 'ad breaks", playing same scenes we just saw. Drives me nuts, wastes my time and feels so dated.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
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      4 months ago

      Monk doesn’t go that far, and it’s still obvious. “Here’s a joke before commercial!” Pause. Fade back in to a new scene. Pause. “Here’s a little cliffhanger before commercial!” Pause. Fade back in to a new scene. Pause.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        At this point if I’m ever responsible for making a tv show it will have obvious places for commercials to go just because I don’t want them butchering it.

        • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Good luck, if you ever watch any of the free TV apps like freevee they will just hard cut in a commercial, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. Then they have the old places where a commercial was in the OG broadcast and it just fades to black and back. It’s really jarring to watch.

    • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I always thought it would be a nice addition to piracy for a release group to edit a version of shows that cuts the recaps and makes a more unified episode. I would totally only ever download their releases.

    • stellargmite@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      That was a trope of real tv shows especially , and also a way to fill time with less filmed content i.e cost cutting. Often you’d see many shots 5-7 times throughout the show. Opening montage , before ad tease, after ad recap, thr event itself, end of show montage summary etc. Also drives me nuts. Even back when ads were between. “Yes I know what happened two minutes ago!”. And then there were so many shows you could tell the edit project file was a template and they just replaced the footage. Same exact structure every episode.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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      4 months ago

      God I’ve been watching through Bleach and it’s like this. Each 22 minute episode is really only about 12 minutes long with the rest being a 5 minute recap of the previous episode, the intro, credits, and post credit filler.

      Edit: a tangent of this would be watching a sitcom with the laugh track removed. Imagine seeing the actors awkwardly standing there in silence in the middle of their dialog where the laugh track would normally be inserted.

      A funny second tangent is the musicless music videos on YouTube. Definitely worth checking out for a laugh.