At some point, the market will no longer be able to bear premium price hikes, and they'll just shove in ads instead - exactly as happened with cable.

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GuB-42 29 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

There is a difference between a streaming platform and cable. Streaming platforms are on demand while cable is broadcast.

To have an ads/no ads option with cable, you need 2 distinct channels with different programming, as you need something fill what would be the ad breaks. With an on-demand platform, there is no fixed schedule, so you can insert ads at will without having to account for that.

So even if the market for no ads is small, it doesn't cost them much to provide that option, and they just have to price it above how much they get from ads to make a profit. Even the seldom used YouTube Premium is actually quite profitable for Google. Streaming platforms won't miss that opportunity.

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lukeschlather an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

HBO never had a tier with ads when it was on cable, it was simply expensive.

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autoexec an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Lots of things didn't have ads on the past (basic cable TV for example). Today the model has changed to being expensive and still collect data/push ads. This isn't a cable vs streaming thing, it's a then vs now thing.

	▲	TeMPOraL 21 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		True. People forget television itself is barely 100 years old. Business models don't grow on trees, they need to be invented and they evolve along with the technology. Advertising was with us for centuries, but it took until last few decades for it to evolve into a social cancer it is today.

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_DeadFred_ 38 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

That was 80s Reagan/conservative American. Those folks weren't as greedy as modern day companies and they cared about their product/experience, whereas nowadays caring about that is outsourced (see the Mad Men mess) and greed is king.

It's wild to long for the day of 'caring', 'sane', Reagan era corporate 'governance'.

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marssaxman an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

...and piracy will once again become rampant!