Broadcasters Put New Ad-Skipping Restrictions On YouTube TV (dslreports.com) 227
YouTube launched its new "YouTube TV" service last week for select markets. One of the biggest features for the service is its DVR functionality, which would in theory allow users to record shows and fast forward through all the commercials. Unfortunately, that is not the case, notes the Wall Street Journal. Karl Bode writes via DSLReports: If a show is available on-demand, viewers won't be able to skip ads, even if they recorded the episode on DVR. Google has confirmed with the Journal that the restriction is courtesy of the licensing agreements the broadcast industry forced Google to adhere to in order to offer the service. As a result, if YouTube TV has the on-demand version of a specific program you may be interested in, then the service won't let viewers watch a recorded version that allows for ad-skipping. Instead, viewers are forced to watch the on-demand episode and all of the ads, even if consumers thought they saved the show on their DVR for ad-skippable viewing.
Not Quite Right (Score:5, Insightful)
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No, broadcasters did this. " maybe even demanded this". Almost certainly demanded this as part of offering the content. Alphabet's choices were to offer the service with that restriction or have nothing to offer. Saying Alphabet did this and it's all their fault is like blaming the authorities for doing/not doing something when a hostage taker kills a hostage.
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If Alphabet offers everything else but their content, where is the content going to go. Facebook? Bing?
Think about it then ask yourself, who has the biggest streaming platform on the internet? Nix that, what company exists which have more cash reserves than all of the broadcasters combined? That may be taken too literally, but the odds are stacked far from the broadcaster's favor based on Netflix and Amazon action.
-dk
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Think about it then ask yourself, who has the biggest streaming platform on the internet?
Netflix?
https://variety.com/2015/digit... [variety.com]
Netflix, which already eats up the fattest chunk of downstream bandwidth, is taking an even bigger bite: The No. 1 subscription-video service accounted for 36.5% of all downstream Internet bandwidth during peak periods in North America for March, according to a new report. ...
By comparison, for the same time periods, YouTube accounted for 15.6% of downstream Internet traffic, web browsing was 6%, Facebook was 2.7%, Amazon Instant Video was 2.0% and Hulu was 1.9%.
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If Alphabet offers everything else but their content, where is the content going to go. Facebook? Bing?
Traditional multichannel pay television, that is, cable or satellite.
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Well, I don't get this with Playstation VUE.
If I have it set for DVR, I can commercial skip.
If I have it set to DVR and there is also an ON Demand for it, I can watch the DVR version (gives a choice) and ad skip.
And...I find that some show, often the Fox ones, like with Family Guy, even if it says On Demand only...some of these wi
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For those of us not as interested in illegality, there is also Netflix, YouTube Red (for normal YT content without ads plus some unique programming), Hulu Plus (a few things will have a very short, single ad at the beginning and end), and purchasing tv seasons and movies a la carte via any number of services (Amazon, Google, etc).
That's fine until you want to watch something that's not available on those services, in which case, ads it is. I personally have a subscription to both Netflix and HBO.
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Pirating American content is a matter of moral principles. I won't give my money to any company that pays taxes that fund the bombing of innocent people anywhere.
Well, it looks like you'll be a very rich man, or dead within a week or two from starvation and thirst.
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Re:Not Quite Right (Score:4, Insightful)
So let me get this straight, some the fuck how, advertisers think people will buy their products when they force them sit through those busker screams. Oh yes I will buy your product after you force me, actively force me to watch you shit, now honestly is that true, talk about self delusion.
I don't know about other people but piss me off with a commercial and I likely will not only not buy your product but not buy if for a long time.
You might as well think it is worthwhile to punch people in the face because it really attracts their attention, so punch them in the face, scream about your products and then reinforce the message by kicking them in the genitals, oh yeah, they will remember your product but will they buy it? In a choice between watching content and watching some shit advert, I simply switch to alternate content, done and finished. So much choice, so little time, so meh. Google and Alphabet as run by the big shit are just full of it (total control, total power insanity). Never forget those fuckers were dicking around with search globally to secretly try to distort democracy and lets not be fooled, doing that globally as well.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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You might as well think it is worthwhile to punch people in the face because it really attracts their attention
That's what they do! Adverts are often significantly louder than the programming, and much more obnoxious. It's not unlike being slapped in the face with a wet fish, with the sudden onslaught of sound and bright flashing images.
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And worth every penny!
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> Youtube ought to stick to their guns and provide you with free services and receive no compensation
Howsabout you send me 35 a month? Since that is "free" to you.
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SOOO. I am supposed to PAY $35 a month for the privilege of watching unskippable ads that I do not want in the first place? Does any not see the built in fail in the system? PAY for ad ridden TV. NOT free. PAY and unskippable ads. HAAA. Make the service FREE then I will put up with ads. $35 F. U.
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Would you prefer that it be $150 per month? Because if there were no ads, the channel owners would probably ask for that much on pain of declining to offer their copyrighted works at all.
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Would you prefer that it be $150 per month? Because if there were no ads, the channel owners would probably ask for that much on pain of declining to offer their copyrighted works at all.
I don't and won't pay for any of it. I am voting with my wallet and screen time. Internet, HTPCs w/KODI and tuners on every TV and an OTA antenna. How did the 50+ year old OTA broadcast networks make any money and still be around? Screw the paid subscription services with unskippable ads.
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I dunno where you live, but everywhere I've lived and visited in the US so far....any OTA content is definitely digital...beautiful HD content that isn't nearly so compressed as it is coming through cable or satellite.
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OTA (On The Air) i assume either operate differently where you live ( i assume US ) then where i live because here i have 3 types of channel OTA and they are:
1. Public Service (paid for by goverment or similar arrangement)
2. Ad Subsidized (paid for by dvr-skippable ads)
3. Pay to view (paid for by subscription)
So OTA is financed pretty much the same way.just have less anti-skip protection especially when the OTA part is analog.
No. In the US. The TV station applies for a broadcast licence from the FCC/Fed Gov. which includes the Broadcast spectrum. They PAY the Gov for the right to broadcast. It is an operating expense. The FCC/Gov makes money by issuing licences.
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I would prefer not to hear of it ever again, because fuck commercials.
People are still mad that cable has ads. Google has no idea what they are fucking with here.
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Sounds fine to me. There are several thousand lifetimes worth of content out there, especially if you include written and interactive media too.
I can keep myself entertained and interested without needing to see the latest swords & tits tv programme.
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I don't care who anybody blames, the user did it to themselves when they gave up control of their devices.
And if they still have any control left, they can always build an external DVR for their DVR; after the primary DVR records the content from the original source, the secondary DVR requests playback and converts to unrestricted local format. It is even legal, because no copies are shared! Well, as long as you build it yourself...
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How do you expect YT to keep the lights on if everyone just consumes the content without watching ads (or paying for Red?).
I don't care. That's their problem, not mine.
Oh, I got it. YOU want to take the content without compensating, and leech of the people that do support the site.
That's right.
Brilliant plan! As long as there are suckers like me that pay for the content, you are golden.
Thanks for the compliment and keep up the good work.
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You forgot to charge him for the lesson in game theory. Or is that your way of giving back?
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This is talking about a PAID service, not the normal free youtube. did you read anything, i get slashdotters have stopped even reading the sumary, but the damn title and the comments both point out that this is talking about a PAID service not a FREE service. jesus lord have mercy on your soul.
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I pay a few bucks extra for Hulu without ads. By your definition, I am a leech. You must be a movie or music executive.
Re:Not Quite Right (Score:5, Interesting)
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Netflix kind of screwed the whole industry. It's cheap, and it's ad free, and it has high end original content that competes with premium cable/satellite channels. It proved that high prices are not necessary or justified, and now people are used to paying such low amounts for all-you-can-watch on-demand services, they won't go back.
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How is that screwing the industry?
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Yup! I have Netflix and Hulu (ad free). I see no reason to pay for an ad-filled YouTube service.
Re: Not Quite Right (Score:2)
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They didnt say Public torrents. If you go private, which is easy they get the good releases from a source that has rules for release quality. and some of the torrent sites themself are releasing good quality episodes/movies. in 90% of torrents the quality is in the filename.
How to start? (Score:2)
On the whole, getting into a private tracker is based on your standing on other private trackers. There used to be trackers that offered invites through an interview process, mostly covering the tracker's rules and quality guidelines, until What shut down. Nowadays it appears to have become a Catch-22 for someone new to private trackers.
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Easiest way to find it is google. look for private sites and forums about private sites, befriend some people and eventually youll be able to get an invite shouldnt be hard. and honestly some of the larger "private" sites allow you to "donate" to get an account and also to get out of trouble when your ratio tanks because you dont understand how seeding works. it will take a little bit of work and maybe a month or 2. but after you put the footwork in you will be a happier person and also on private sites the
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honestly some of the larger "private" sites allow you to "donate" to get an account
If you're paying to pirate, you could just subscribe to Netflix or whatever instead.
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By donate to get an account it's a 1 time couple dollar fee. Netflix does that and then has any content you want including programs games and music?
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Do you also educate them on the legal implications, risks and potential options?
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This is why they will never stop piracy.
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Its also why they'll never give-up trying
And this is why... (Score:5, Insightful)
..broadcast TV is dying.
Re:And this is why... (Score:4, Interesting)
And this is also why piracy will continue.
Honestly, skipping commercials was one of the reasons why anyone gives a damn about YouTube TV. And now Alphabet just shot it's self in the junk to appease the ad men that everyone already hates. Good job.
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And now Alphabet just shot it's self in the junk to appease the ad men that everyone already hates.
Google, er, Alphabet IS the ad men, remember?
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..broadcast TV is dying.
The fact is, when a programme is filled with too much advertising, even if it's free, people could decide to change channel or stop watching TV.
In Italy, in the sixties and seventies the adverts were rare (like only four in the evening) and were very refined, like "When the night goes away [youtube.com]" that look more an advert from the Tourist Ofiice rather than from an instant coffee maker and the director was Ermanno Olmi. Kids actually wanted to watch the adverts.
Nowadays There are some channels where you are
Status Quo (Score:5, Insightful)
Here comes the new media...
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Gotta pay those sports stars obscene amounts of money. Otherwise they would... erm... stop playing and work at McD's?
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I Don't Understand... (Score:3, Insightful)
I am willing to pay money to watch TV without ads...or if I don't want to pay I am willing to watch TV for free with ads. I will not pay money for TV and watch ads...
Re:I Don't Understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am willing to pay money to watch TV without ads....
You're already paying for television and yet you have a metric shit ton of commercials forced on you. Until people start cancelling their television en masse, nothing will change.
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Not everyone pays for TV. Some people do without, some people watch broadcast television.
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Adult Swim is the best network.
I don't know if it's truly a different "network" from Cartoon Network. But they don't have stupid annoying shit plastered everywhere, and they burn about half of their ad time with entertaining "bumps", pleasing logo hunts, and other meta content.
I only like some of their content, but I really like the network itself.
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You're already paying for television and yet you have a metric shit ton of commercials forced on you. Until people start cancelling their television en masse, nothing will change.
I'm not paying for television, you insensitive clod! In fact, I have literally never had cable in my name. I've lived in a house with it and paid my tiny share of it a couple of times, but that's it. I live in the sticks and my choices are satellite or satellite because cable doesn't come here (It's on both ends of my road, but not in the middle) and you can't pick up any broadcasts here. You barely could before DTV, now you can't. I'm not willing to give DirectTV basically any money at all (fucking spammer
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I am willing to pay money to watch TV without ads...or if I don't want to pay I am willing to watch TV for free with ads. I will not pay money for TV and watch ads...
Good. Pay for TY Red. No ads. Oops, what will you do with your outrage now?
History (Score:3)
oh how the mighty have fallen.
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Youtube was popular at the start (pre-Google) because they had TONS of pirated content easily and openly available. That's the only reason the you part of youtube ever had the chance to take off due to viewer eyeballs. Then Google financed it's losses for many many years...
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Googabet?
Nope (Score:3, Informative)
viewers are not "forced to watch" the ads. They might be forced to play them if they watch the program, but we old-timers remember that the ads are a great time to go get a beer or take a comfort break - you don't have to watch them.
Re:Nope (Score:5, Interesting)
Next new feature they will add is an active camera to make sure you are in the room. If you leave, it will stop and wait for your return so you don't miss any ads. (BTW, your dog doesn't count)
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samsung is way ahead of you with their smart TV's
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That horror has been suggested a few times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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this brings us back to the whole piracy thing, and how theyre just giving more incentive to do so.
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viewers are notgo get a beer or take a comfort break
AKA turn the sound down and switch to another browser window for several minutes, and then switch back and rewind to the start of what you wanted to watch.
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Hell, if they string more than three 30 second spots together, you can have sex while you wait!
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he meant with himself.
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Wait! What? There's another way?
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Haha! Thanks for the great laugh during a rather shitty day at work! Wish I could mod you up
Commercial Parasitoidism (Score:3, Insightful)
Commercials killed TV, advertisers need a new host to survive, now infecting YouTube. Look up the definition of parasitoid.
this costs money to watch commercials? (Score:2, Interesting)
so google wants me to pay $35 a month to watch tv. add to that the internet cost. and i still am paying to watch ads?
at this rate, why not just keep cable tv?
Re: this costs money to watch commercials? (Score:2)
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How many TVs do you have dude? It's only $6 for each TV.
Lets see, he quoted $30. Hang on, let me find a maths graduate and a copy of Wolfram Alpha.
Either you're trolling or you own a giant building.
Lounge, kid's playroom, kitchen, bedroom, kid's bedroom, other kid's bedroom. Pretty standard sized house there and already I've blown the five TV budget.
Bad move (Score:3)
I had pretty much abandoned Hulu over its mandatory ads -- and then they offered an ad-free version for a few dollars (per month) more. Jumped on that right quick. And of course, no ads in Netflix. Or Amazon video.
Bad, bad move. ..bruce..
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To be fair, Amazon does make you sit through previews of their own shows, most of which suck.
Netflix really takes the fucking cake now though. They will just switch to some shit you don't want to see and play three episodes of it now. For those of us with a monthly cap (I am on a WISP and my cap is 90GB) this represents theft of computing resources in order to artificially inflate their viewership numbers.
You try to force me to watch something and BYE! (Score:5, Insightful)
>"If a show is available on-demand, viewers won't be able to skip ads, even if they recorded the episode on DVR."
And this is why streaming usually fails, because it puts the user out of control. It doesn't matter the who or why- broadcasters, content providers, streaming service, if they are going to FORCE the customer to view ANYTHING- be it ads, previews, trailers, "infomercials", public service announcements, then we have moved backwards. Streaming gives them that power, and it is often irresistible- something they don't have over DVR's.
Technology has released me from being forced to watch commercials for 20 years and I am not about to start now (VCR then TiVo then added Netflix streaming). I am amazed that people will PAY for services that force them to watch what they don't want. Even if the content is "free", there is a large segment of the market who is like me, and if that contains forced anything, we reject it.
Forced ads are a dinosaur that needs to become and stay extinct.
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>"If a show is available on-demand, viewers won't be able to skip ads, even if they recorded the episode on DVR."
And this is why streaming usually fails, because it puts the user out of control. It doesn't matter the who or why- broadcasters, content providers, streaming service, if they are going to FORCE the customer to view ANYTHING- be it ads, previews, trailers, "infomercials", public service announcements, then we have moved backwards. Streaming gives them that power, and it is often irresistible- something they don't have over DVR's.
Technology has released me from being forced to watch commercials for 20 years and I am not about to start now (VCR then TiVo then added Netflix streaming). I am amazed that people will PAY for services that force them to watch what they don't want. Even if the content is "free", there is a large segment of the market who is like me, and if that contains forced anything, we reject it.
Forced ads are a dinosaur that needs to become and stay extinct.
This is why I will not watch a DVD, whether I rent it or buy it. I rip it and stream it to my device and, if necessary, delete it when I am done. When you pop the DVD/Blu-ray into the drive they try to force you to watch trailers and other adverts, FBI warnings, and other BS that I have no interest in being forced to see.
Bittorrent (Score:2)
If a show is available on-demand, viewers won't be able to skip ads, even if they recorded the episode on DVR
Stuff like this is what drives people to use bittorrent - why pay for content if you have to sit through the ads anyway?
Obligatory TheOatmeal:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/g... [theoatmeal.com]
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And it's just a more modern version of this:
http://imgur.com/GxzeV [imgur.com]
We need a DVRR (Score:2)
If we DVR the DVR, then we can skip ads. Of course they'll probably find some way to prevent the DVRR from skipping ads. We'll respond with a DVRRR, pronounced "diver". What's it diving for? Turtles, all the way down.
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If we DVR the DVR
I thought HDCP blocked that.
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Aaaand.... (Score:4)
This is why I torrent my TV shows.
I would pay for ad free, but the networks are ran by gigantic assholes and refuse to let me. So I have only one choice. Torrent the TV shows and get them 100% ad free.
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Yes, let us only do constructive things 24/7/365, not relax ever!
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Yes, let us only do constructive things 24/7/365, not relax ever!
Perhaps our anonymous friend does not find TV to be very relaxing. I don't find it to be especially interesting, most of the time. Typically I watch TV when I am not feeling well enough to go do something more interesting. It's better than laying there and doing nothing, and if I fall asleep, I don't feel like I missed anything.
Same problem with Playstation Vue (Score:2)
I just cancelled my trial of Vue for the same reason. I basically got it for sports (I know, right?), and had to jump through hoops of "starting the playback from the DVR list and not the TV list", had to be very careful to not catch up to the present (which disables DVR functions), and then when the game ran over its "official" time slot (as every game does, ever) it dropped me into whatever after game program, and I couldn't rewind to see the 30 minutes I'd missed. Pass. I'd love to save the $50/mo from m
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First, you can't really fast forward if you're at the present... because... that means the rest is in the future
DVR functions include pause and rewind, not just fast forward. Hope this helps!
Again, the same as almost every other service.
And yet worthless in this context.
Nope (Score:2)
I'll just mute the sound, look away, and gaze out the window for 30 seconds or so if I'm ever unfortunate enough to be subjected to one of their ads.
But frankly, with Adblock I never see the ads anyway, so I doubt it'll be a problem.
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But frankly, with Adblock I never see the ads anyway, so I doubt it'll be a problem.
Sooner or later they will start serving the ads through the same host as the videos and inserting them smoothly into the stream, and then adblock won't do anything any more.
Right now what I do is I use a downloader to download youtube videos (just normal youtube) and then I can skip interstitial ads by simply dragging the slider. I do have to download them, but I watch most youtube at 360p because who cares so that's not a big deal.
Then this is a service I don't need. (Score:2)
Sorry. If this is a service I pay for in any way, shape or form, I refuse to be burdened by ads.
If I'm paying for said service and you're forcing ads on me as well, I simply do not need the service and will do without.
Fuck this sick "ads on everything" culture.
SubjectIsSubject (Score:2)
Netflix had it right with their service and despite the price creep it's still good bang for yo
One of the biggest problems (Score:2)
And it goes for brick and mortar types too, BJ's Club - I scan the card every time I shop there but the emails I get are for people who live in suburbia. I live in a city and have no use for most of what they try to hawk. But you'd think, they know my purchasing history right? How hard could it be to target ads based on that?
I tried YouTube TV and cancelled within a week (Score:2)
I tried YouTube TV on the free trial when they started offering it in Los Angeles area recently, and promptly canceled it.
My remote comes with a MUTE BUTTON (Score:2)
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As a purveyor of entertainment, you don't get to treat your customers like puppets.
You do realize this is exactly what unbridled capitalism means?