Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
There ’s no deficit of repeatable line in the Graeco-Roman 1989 movieMajor League . “ Just a bite outside . ” “ You trying to say Jesus Christ ca n’t hit a curveball ? ”
Andone that I keep coming back to a lotrecently ? The late James Gammon ’s manager Lou Brown , defenseless and in search of blistering urine in the cabinet room : “ I ’ve had it with this nickel - and - dime stuff . ”
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
It ’s what comes to mind when you look at the United States Department of State of the various streaming service of process going into 2024 . You ca n’t begrudge them for trying to make more money — that ’s literally what they ’re here to do . But prison term and metre again , one after another , they ’ve been Ni - and - dim us .
And there ’s not a damn affair we can do about it .
Even worse , lately , has been the trend of adding newfangled tiers of service with lower cost , countervail by ad . for sure , you pay less . But Netflix — whichuntil 2023 did n’t have any sort of advertisingon movies and shows — has fare right out and said it : The companymakes more money off client on that cheaper tier , because the ads more than make up the dispute .
As online service engagement for every unmarried dollar , the only way we can fight back is by canceling .
Still , that ’s not even the worst part . The veridical nickel note - and - dime hooey is how features have been locked away behind more expensive tier of service .
Let ’s use Netflix again in another example : You do n’t get 4 K resolution without pay for its top tier of service . perchance you ’re OK with that . mayhap you ’re not . YouTube TV charge additional for that , too . And I get it . Bandwidth cost money .
But Amazon twisted the knife even further with its scheme . Everyone now catch ads unless they pay another $ 3 a month to get rid of them . But it alsodid off with feature like Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision — but did n’t bother to tell anyone . I guess Amazon just hoped we would n’t notice ?
( Not on my list : The services interdict parole sharing . Theyshould have done that a farseeing time ago . )
Look , the atomic number 28 matter . The dime bag matter . The entertainment industry is a quicksilver one , and the business side of thing is tough .
And I was wrong when I said there ’s nothing we can do about it . We can offset . We should cancel . We can come back if we want . But we require to take broth of what ’s important . And if we ’re not getting our money ’s worth , it ’s time to take the air , even if only temporarily .
Because I ’m old-hat of this nickel note - and - dime bag stuff .
