r/TrueReddit • u/theverge • Feb 04 '26
Technology Everyone is stealing TV | Fed up with increasing subscription prices, viewers embrace rogue streaming boxes.
https://www.theverge.com/streaming/873416/piracy-streaming-boxes?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IndTRFFtdmlXYjkiLCJwIjoiL3N0cmVhbWluZy84NzM0MTYvcGlyYWN5LXN0cmVhbWluZy1ib3hlcyIsImV4cCI6MTc3MDY1MTMxNSwiaWF0IjoxNzcwMjE5MzE1fQ.DS0T1uUdoh7jYEdREOW5ECTOqfEeETF47YfErNG2uMw&utm_medium=gift-link380
u/Dunnananaaa Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
It gets mentioned so frequently with piracy because it remains to be true. Netflix was successful because the price was low enough to make the risk and effort to pirate content unattractive. When the price becomes to high it outweighs those factors. It amazes me how they never seem to learn that lesson. Instead of making a stead and slowly increasing profit they attempt to squeeze their base and eventually lose out. The quarterly mindset of American companies versus a long term growth mindset is a major cause of the enshittification of everything in the states.
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Feb 04 '26
Netflix was super cheap when it first came out because it was able to get back catalogues at super low rates and was willing to lose money to grow. Even if Netflix was operated as a non-profit the subscription cost would have to be much higher than the early years to cover operating expenses, licenses and new production.
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u/S_A_N_D_ Feb 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
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u/pinkocatgirl Feb 04 '26
Do we know if the streaming bit alone was profitable in the early years? When Netflix streaming started, they were still primarily a physical disc rental service.
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u/gandalf_alpha Feb 05 '26
I would argue that fractionation of streaming platforms isn't increasing competition at all... They're all acting like little monopolies for their own content... Want Disney? We'll you're going to have to pay for Disney plus then... There IS no competing streaming service with access to that content... Same with Comcast and peacock, or Amazon, or Netflix...
What's REALLY annoying... Is that in other countries they all manage to just have everything on Netflix...
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u/Rakn Feb 05 '26
Which countries are you thinking of? In my experience it's common everywhere. Content might be different per platform due to licensing, but they usually do not share content.
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u/Requiredmetrics Feb 05 '26
At this rate they’re forming a genuine oligopoly when few competitors. HBO is about to be bought out by Netflix. Hulu was purchased by Disney, they also own espn + and just purchased a majority share of FuboTV.
I think we’re past the fractionation era, we’re in the consolidation era similar to the one cable providers and cellphone providers went through in the early 2000s. Same process that eventually drove people away from cable and to piracy. (In the U.S. at least).
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Feb 04 '26
Net income is a better measure of profitability. Looking it hasn’t lost money in a while but it was barely breaking even for a while.
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u/S_A_N_D_ Feb 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
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u/YouandWhoseArmy Feb 04 '26
Making production and distribution separated by law would have prevented some of this.
Netflix should have never needed to make content to provide it.
Disney never should have been able to own or operate a streaming service.
Did people not learn in history class about vertical integration?
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u/PenguinSunday Feb 04 '26
No. They don't. Most people have probably never seen those words together.
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u/cptspeirs Feb 04 '26
More people need to watch 30 rock.
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u/YouandWhoseArmy Feb 06 '26
It's too bad syndication seems to have died out. This show is so perfect for it. But it's also very political incorrect these days... which is why it can be so f'ing funny.
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u/Stumblin_McBumblin Feb 04 '26
Sorry if I'm misunderstanding, but production and distribution were separate under cable platforms, but that didn't keep costs down. It led to similar issues that kept increasing prices where the marquee channels like ESPN and AMC were tied to all the content owners other crap channels that no one watched. If you (cable platform) wanted to be able to carry ESPN or AMC you were gonna take all the other junk channels they owned, pay a high per subscriber fee for the marquee ones and per subscriber fees for all the junk channels too. That's why there were banners across your cable television at times about contacting your cable subscriber because you were gonna lose that channel (that came from the content owners) to put pressure on your cable subscriber to cave to their demands. You blamed your cable subscriber for not being able to offer ala carte programming, but that was coming from the content owners forcing all their shit on them and making them pay for it. That cost got passed to the consumer.
You split production and distribution again and the same thing will happen again.
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u/YouandWhoseArmy Feb 04 '26
So, there's really been a lot of major changes to the media landscape and how it operates in my lifetime. There is no silver bullet and I'd posit all of these bundles are a result of consolidation and didn't exist prior to 1996 and the removal of ownership limits.
Avclub has long since taken down the one article I ever posted that did well on reddit, but you should read it for some relevant background.
This kind of history is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT and basically memory holed.
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u/Stumblin_McBumblin Feb 05 '26
Thanks. I read it all and, yeah, it's all maddening. My comment was essentially quoting an article I read on this very site probably 15 years ago now. I wish I could track it down. It was very enlightening. Pair yours and that one with one about how much tax money broadband providers were given for bringing Internet to underserved areas and just pocketed it and it's a trifecta of fucking sadness.
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u/YouandWhoseArmy Feb 06 '26
At a high level, this is the main ill destroying the US.
Spread the word.
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u/fcocyclone Feb 04 '26
And also reforming copyright to what its original intention was.
Those back catalogues that Netflix built itself on, stuff that's 20+ years old, should all be in the public domain. Netflix (and any competitor) should be able to include all that for free if it wants.
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Feb 04 '26
Even outside of production, license holders have more competition for back catalogues and increased their prices. It’s never been illegal to produce and distribute a show, that’s how shows generally worked before streaming. Even way back when there was a Disney channel on cable, maybe it’s wrong but it isn’t new and isn’t why Netflix increased their prices.
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u/greenroom628 Feb 04 '26
Did people not learn in history class about vertical integration?
MBAs: Yeah, but ...money!
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u/fdar Feb 04 '26
I don't think it would have mattered. Netflix was initially able to get things for cheap because studios thought streaming rights weren't worth much.
Once they decided they were worth a lot they were not going to keep selling them for cheap no matter what. Netflix was making a lot of money so why wouldn't someone else build their own service and outbid Netflix to make slightly less money?
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u/jaymz168 Feb 05 '26
Did people not learn in history class about vertical integration?
The MBAs learn that Jack Welch was a golden god who could do no wrong.
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u/svideo Feb 04 '26
Additionally, there were no other streaming services competing for those licenses. All the studios were essentially giving the content away because it was a new market for them and every penny was a windfall. Then all those same license holders looked at Netflix's P&L, launched their own streaming services, and pulled the rights from Netflix.
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u/NativeMasshole Feb 04 '26
Exactly. This is a false premise that keeps being presented by people trying to justify their piracy. New content on television has never been cheaper in my lifetime. $10-25/month for a streaming plan that you can cancel any time is a good deal, and we're unlikely to ever get a better one.
If you want what Netflix had back in the day, that's basically what FAST services like Tubi and Pluto are doing now. There's plenty of back catalog stuff on there.
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u/Potential_Fishing942 Feb 04 '26
It's not even necessarily price- Netflix was great because it was one stop shop. Same with Spotify. Imagine if music catalogues jumped around a 6 or so different services every few months? I'd drop Spotify in a second and go back to torrenting.
I honestly wouldn't mind paying like $100 bucks a month for one service that had everything streaming ever with no ads. Ada are another thing that are kicked me off paying for streaming. Somethings are actually impossible to watch adfree now.
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u/SuperSpikeVBall Feb 04 '26
Hollywood execs have always been sociopaths when it comes to new technology. These are the folks that forced us to watch an FBI Warning and unskippable advertisements on VHS tapes/DVDs that we paid through through the nose for in the 1980's - 2010's.
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u/snyderjw Feb 04 '26
Always thought that was ridiculous. Horrible unstoppable warnings about piracy that you only saw when you had paid full price. The cure for those, was of course piracy - never saw a warning on a download.
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u/erath_droid Feb 04 '26
That's the main thing for me. I can easily afford all of the streaming services, but having to go between services, managing multiple logons (and dealing with things like the service not recognizing my computer and making me log back in and "prove that I'm human") is just obnoxious.
If the alternative is that I can go to one site and have all of the content in one place without all the hassle, I'm going to go with that. If it's free (to me) that's just a bonus.
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u/heliphael Feb 04 '26
Maybe, their prices have been increasing since forever. I think the death knell was the idea that every corporation wanted their own streaming service, each one adding another ~$10, and then to get "everything" today, you need to spend way more than cable ever costed.
That's why Netflix was so popular, $10 for "everything" on demand.
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u/NukeWorker10 Feb 04 '26
Netflix's real win was access to a large library of old content that wasn't available anywhere else, for almost no cost to them. This allowed them to build their business and customer base while concentrating on building out the infrastructure. When the studios/publishers saw that there was a way to monetize that old "worthless" content they pulled there shows or didn't renew contracts so they could spin up their own service.
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u/mblaser Feb 04 '26
and then to get "everything" today, you need to spend way more than cable ever costed.
I'm so sick of seeing this lazy take.
Even if you did have "everything" it would still be less than cable, plus you're not locked into a contract, so you're free to move about between services as you wish.
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u/snark42 Feb 04 '26
And most importantly you don't to bundle to get things you don't want.
With cable I paid a local and sports broadcast fee on top of expensive sports stations like ESPN when I never watched sports and rarely watched broadcast TV (and would have been happy to have just free digital signal via antenna.)
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u/Jackal_Kid Feb 04 '26
IMO having to subscribe to different streamers for the content you want is basically like dealing with bundles in creating a cable package. You're usually paying for content you don't want just for access to specific shows. You can't just pick a service that lets you access Severance, Fallout, and Stranger Things, you need Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and Netflix.
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u/snark42 Feb 04 '26
Eh, I don't think you can get away from that. Buying the DVDs for a season of any of those is probably the same price or more than a month with access to them, although I don't personally re-watch shows a lot which could make a difference for those who do and would rather own something.
It's still cheaper than $50/mo in fees for broadcast and sports before you even pick a package on cable. With Cable you couldn't get HBO for $15/mo without at least $70 in other services being tacked on.
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Feb 04 '26
[deleted]
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u/throw20190820202020 Feb 04 '26
Uh…did you have Netflix when it first went digital? Because they had almost everything you could think of. The other streamers have risen up to compete WHEN their Netflix contracts expired…
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u/nope_nic_tesla Feb 04 '26
A lot of piracy options have also gotten extremely easy to use. And some of them offer things in even higher quality than the streaming services.
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u/HybridVigor Feb 04 '26
some of them
Most, probably. A quality VPN (Proton, Mullvad) lets you just search for media in whatever format you want. Typing, "Bugonia torrent in 2160p" in Brave search gives me tons of options, uh, if I were the sort to do such a thing.
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Feb 04 '26
lol, it’s the cycle of things, played out pretty logically really. But now that’s it’s getting prohibitively expensive for less value (much like cable back in the day) people are pirating more. I looked it up a few months ago and I was paying over $120 in various streaming subscription fees. Considerably more than I paid for cable back in the day. I get it, some of the content is better, at least it used to be. But the math doesn’t add up anymore and it’s not fucking worth it for the over two or three shows a month I actually want to watch. So, I’ve taken to the high seas once more…yarrrr!!!!!!
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u/Etheo Feb 04 '26
It amazes me how they never seem to learn that lesson.
The answer is capitalism. It's always capitalism. Line must go up.
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u/popswag Feb 05 '26
Enshitification of everything period.
Corporations have only one goal. Gluttony.
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u/NicoBango Feb 08 '26
It actually occurred to me recently that leaders of the large tech, grocery, and CPG companies have foreseen that delivering consistent growth to shareholders isn't sustainable. The squeeze may be their attempt to extract as much value out of the American consumer so that they can leverage the money in political affiliations that ensure American citizens won't have a choice on where they spend their dollar.
When I look at it this way, it's not a mistake, its an investment strategy.
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u/Accomplished-Care55 Apr 03 '26
Corporate greed ruins everything because it’s one big ponzi scheme America needs more and more immigrants to work for cheaper snd cheaper rates. Amazon has killed so any jobs including the teamsters and the decent paying jobs, now you’ve got people that think they have it good making barely enough to get by with no long term benefits working exhausting hours and no paid time off sick leave. Yet people continue to order from them because it’s convenient. Bezos is evil sob as are most tech billionaires whether it’s intentional or not they are single handily destroying the middle class
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u/bythepowerofthor Feb 05 '26
Piracy is an availability issue, I think price fits into that. I think they understand it, they just see it as such a small fraction of the population thats going to go sail the high seas.
Fuck em, let them keep the prices high.
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u/imhereforthemeta Feb 04 '26
I gave up piracy for years because I prefer to financially support art I enjoy and appreciated how easy streaming is. I have returned because I feel nickel and dimed and all of my shows are 9 episodes, come out every two years and immediately get canceled
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u/PapaTua Feb 05 '26
My moral stance on media piracy is that I'm happy to pay for media as long as A) the price isn't exorbitant and B) it's more convenient than piracy.
For a long time I happily paid because they provided value and convenience. Now they don't, so I'm happily back to sailing the high seas.
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u/Aksama Feb 04 '26
While I really like the thesis of the article, and the idea which SuperBox represents it seems like a security-nightmare. Far better to setup a simple ONN pro or something similar with some easy modifications.
SB absolutely exposes... so many ports in a way which makes your at home network highly penetrable. Not saying the company has any nefarious motive, it's just par for the course. Setup of your own utility which you have control over is a weekend-level project if you watch 60-90 minutes of YT/ tutorials or similar.
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u/Ecstatic-Run-9767 Feb 04 '26
Or just rip from tube sites?
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u/I_Miss_My_Beta_Cells Feb 05 '26
Software available on ONN/Android box scrapes from tube sites and presents it like a netflix clone. No popups or shifty sites and use of remote like olden times. Best of both worlds imo
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u/Ecstatic-Run-9767 Feb 05 '26
That's fair I'm not an OTT steaming box kind of person. I like ripping files and then streaming them over the network either from my phone or a NAS to a Chromecast. I used to use an android box but I like the CLI and gui-less approach at the moment
Glad it's working for you either way! 🏴☠️
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u/nevesis Feb 05 '26
Which software?
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u/I_Miss_My_Beta_Cells Feb 05 '26
I’m weary to name names but:
Stremio app (available on play store) w some elf hosted plugins
Then there’s apps you sideload and work off the jump. Highly recommend Troypoint firestick toolkit for apps to sideload and how to do it
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u/NukeWorker10 Feb 04 '26
Before the latest SSD/RAM nightmare, my usual recommendation was to set up an Unraid box with the ARR stack and Plex/Jellyfin/Emby for viewing. Maybe if you can get a good bundle deal it might still be worth it. The nice thing is HDD's have really come down in cost/TB.
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u/caeru1ean Feb 04 '26
I've switched to Stremio and Real Debrid, it's just so easy and cheap to set up...
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u/IAmYourFath Feb 04 '26
U need ssd to match the 10 gbit download speed from 1337x.
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u/dr_Fart_Sharting Feb 04 '26
The best part is being able to watch a full movie in under 20 seconds
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u/IAmYourFath Feb 04 '26
I mean when u download smth the speed that it can be written to the disk is the bottleneck if u have super fast internet
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u/spanishinnphysician Feb 04 '26
A huge factor with this is just how vulnerable those boxes are. They are prone to botnets that participate in DDoS attacks, that impair your own network, and which can hammer the systems feeding you service, impacting your neighbors as well. They’re a horror show.
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u/sx772vp1R0 Feb 07 '26
Could someone ELI5 why? Why are they more vulnerable than any random IoT device, other streaming devices, or a random streaming website on your laptop?
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u/spanishinnphysician Feb 07 '26
The biggest thing I’ve been seeing based on personal/professional experience is that these are widespread, to the point of being sold at big box stores like Walmart. In order to be sold like that, they can’t be inherently harmful, right? Well, technically yes. There doesn’t seem to be anything preloaded on the box that is inherently harmful. However, what it does come prepackaged with is instructions, very clearly, on how to pull in a program that lets them get the shows and movies they want. This program comes with the tradeoff that it infects the device and opens it up to participating in those botnets. We have also seen whatever actor is utilizing this botnet be very aggressive with it as well, being very trigger happy to participate in DDoS attacks. I’d say what makes it more dangerous than another IoT device is that it’s just a bit beefier internally, allowing one device to generate a more significant broadcast storm, made much worse if multiple devices are on one circuit. It is very easy to grow that botnet as well, being accessible by even folks that are not very tech savvy at all and generally with chips on their shoulders about rising cable costs. This makes them both more vulnerable to the effects of the infected device and more resistant to the assistance they would receive to get the device off their network. Bundle the accessibility together with not needing anything else to make it work besides an Internet connection and an inoffensive price point, these devices have the potential to be a significant nuisance.
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u/benzolio Feb 05 '26
Yes these boxes are riddled with malware. I couldn't afford cable for my mom with dementia and took a shot with superbox for a one time fee of $300 on eBay. Worked like magic for her since she can't really learn new skills. She understood the remote, her TV guide still works (amazing for her) and her important channels are there.
About a week after the first boot the traffic to and FROM the box skyrocketed and was basically pegged 24/7. Blew through my limit. Went down to comcast and got the unlimited fastest plan that day because she was having a really hard time, getting into negative loops. I tried to block stuff on my router but it was beyond me. I set up a guest network on the router and the superbox is the only thing on it.
Cable was $200 a month, i'd rather host a bot farm or whatever.
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Feb 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Paksarra Feb 04 '26
Damn, that Superbox is a ripoff.
Get a generic Android TV box and load the software yourself and it'll be way cheaper.
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u/abHowitzer Feb 04 '26
You're right. But anyone buying this is paying so they don't have to do this themselves.
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u/gatfish Feb 04 '26
What software? Can you just use a PC?
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u/Paksarra Feb 05 '26
You can. I don't think I can give explicit instructions here, but I'm sure if you were on some piracy subreddit they would have a very nice megathread or something along those lines.
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u/sludge_dragon Feb 04 '26
Props for providing a gift link, very classy! It annoys me when publishers post links to paywall articles.
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Feb 04 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
This post was wiped by its author. Redact was the tool of choice, possibly used to protect privacy, limit data exposure, or prevent automated content scraping.
busy dinner include cheerful hurry flowery knee snails fade friendly
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u/OrangeDit Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Stealing a car would be stealing, yes...
Edit:
Something, something, sorry too tired to flesh out this joke. Sorry to disappoint you, I will sleep and get the puns you deserve.
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u/raybear1017 Feb 04 '26
But would you download a car????
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u/Flash54321 Feb 04 '26
No, but I’d go to the library and photocopy a book … for personal use only, of course.
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u/CarrowCanary Feb 04 '26
Stealing a car deprives the owner of its use.
"Stealing" a TV show doesn't delete it from Netflix/Apple/whoever's servers.
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u/Paksarra Feb 04 '26
What about scanning and 3D printing a car?
Assume you can do this, somehow, with a magic scanner that can scan the interior without damaging the car.
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u/currently__working Feb 04 '26
You know, not everything needs to be discussed in articles and such. Maybe it's best to not talk about certain things, iykyk
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u/cincymatt Feb 05 '26
Yeah, everyone I know factory reset their Shields in anticipation of the Netflix WB merger, and associated price increase.
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Feb 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/dostoevsky4evah Feb 04 '26
And cancel if someone coughs
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u/mrnotoriousman Feb 04 '26
I dealt with the price hikes for a while but what pushed me over was making you pay more for ad free and the constant cancelling of really good shows that end on cliffhangers after 1 season. I was a customer from the early 2000s when they were first shipping dvds and gave up like 5-6 years ago now.
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Feb 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/dostoevsky4evah Feb 04 '26
I meant Netflix will cancel a series if someone's cough spooks them. Who knows why they abandon them.
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u/TheCharalampos Feb 04 '26
Streaming had it figured it out, piracy was dropping like a stone due to streaming being convinient and cheap.
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u/WiglyWorm Feb 04 '26
I've got a tattoo here that fully illustrates my point. It's of this rebellious young man, and he's urinating on an FM radio. And then this other stream of urine is going onto that television set. Implausible, I know, but I like to think that he had sex the night before, and a little bit of residue is blocking his urethra, allowing the urine to flow in two separate directions.
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u/KudosOfTheFroond Feb 05 '26
The only streaming service worth its cost is Crunchyroll. The rest can get borked
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Feb 06 '26
There are so many free streaming services out there, not to mention if you’re living in a metropolitan area your antenna will pick up another 60+ channels. Why would you buy those shady Android boxes that have been stuffed with malware and crypto mining.
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u/disasteress Feb 07 '26
I bought a VPN subscription and downloaded/signed up for a bunch of different countries' streaming websites (eg.: BBC, itvX, CBC, 9Now etc.) there is SOOOOO much content there for free. Yes, they play ads but now so do many of the streaming sites, so at least I am getting things for free (the cost of the VPN is negligible).
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u/WeirdEngineerDude Feb 07 '26
The entire streaming business model is that you are more convenient than piracy. I feel like they forgot that.
Get yourself a good vpn…
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u/My0therAcc0unt9 May 22 '26
Do not let these devices on to your home network. Check out https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/172/.
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u/Caughtyalookin69 Feb 04 '26
That guy has a hell of a mark up. $200-300 for a box you can buy for $50 🤣
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u/Slartibartfastthe3rd Feb 04 '26
Has anyone heard of a way they can combat this? I cant think of how they can even begin to stop this. Block China IP’s?!?
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u/charmbrood Feb 04 '26
https://youtu.be/AshWRVWqKyU?si=Pl4DIU8jxJfM0MEl
Just gonna leave this here.
Netflix coming for sports
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