General TV News

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Wrathbone
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Re: General TV News

Post by Wrathbone » Tue Dec 13, 2022 12:18 pm

Raid wrote:
Tue Dec 13, 2022 11:49 am
That Freevee "service" is awful. I tried watching the first episode of Babylon 5 through it earlier in the year and there was an ad break literally every five or six minutes. It padded the runtime of the episode by 30-40%. I wouldn't be averse to a free streaming service with ads, perhaps for shows with limited commercial appeal, but for goodness sake it needs to have a reasonable content to advert ratio.

For me the limited windows in which a show are available aren't all that problematic because I tend to binge-watch entire seasons or series one day after another. I'd rather have a limited viewing period than have to a) spend money on physical media I'm only going to use a handful of times, and b) have to find the space to store it all. There really aren't many shows that I'd consider rewatching frequently enough to warrant ownership (the 80s-2000s Star Treks are the only ones that leap to mind). Even when it came to watching a show I genuinely own a copy of, Frasier (I have the first 7 seasons on DVD), I downloaded a copy because I can't even use them in my office where I wanted to watch them (my PC doesn't have a disc drive).
Yeah, it's not for everybody and it's not for all situations. But the more I see streaming services binning shows, adding adverts, raising prices, compromising quality by lowering bitrates, editing or removing 'problematic' episodes, altering music due to expired copyrights, etc, the more I look at my disc collection (most of which was bought for bargain prices) and remain convinced that it's the right way for me.

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Re: General TV News

Post by Hatredsheart » Tue Dec 13, 2022 12:52 pm

Wrathbone wrote:
Tue Dec 13, 2022 12:18 pm
Yeah, it's not for everybody and it's not for all situations. But the more I see streaming services binning shows, adding adverts, raising prices, compromising quality by lowering bitrates, editing or removing 'problematic' episodes, altering music due to expired copyrights, etc, the more I look at my disc collection (most of which was bought for bargain prices) and remain convinced that it's the right way for me.
Me too. I've got most of what I want to rewatch now (apart from Saul season 6 that I'll wait for the January sales and Pulp Fiction 4k arriving any day). I know convenience was originally touted as the big selling point of streaming services but as competition has heated up that argument is losing ground imo.
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Animalmother
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Re: General TV News

Post by Animalmother » Tue Dec 13, 2022 3:53 pm

Raid wrote:
Tue Dec 13, 2022 10:52 am
Following the news that Westworld has been cancelled, it turns out it's also being removed from the streaming service of the company that financed it.

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/westwo ... 235458657/
The removal of shows from HBO Max means WB Discovery is able to save money in residuals paid to cast and crews of productions, on top of the money saved by not continuing with the shows at all.
So subscribing to the streaming service that a show was produced for isn't even a guarantee of being able to watch that show. I know piracy doesn't need to be made more attractive, but well, here we are.
Jesus that's grim, they usually let the season play out before shutting a show down. It's all to make sure they don't have to pay the cast and crew any residuals is it? Same with all the animated stuff getting removed. WB bought the very successful HBO and are now completely ruining it's legacy to save a few dollars.

I genuinely try to avoid piracy but the studios keep kicking themselves in the teeth and drive people to it.

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Re: General TV News

Post by Hatredsheart » Wed Dec 14, 2022 6:43 pm

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Re: General TV News

Post by Achtung Englander » Sun Jan 08, 2023 3:36 pm

1899 cancelled

Here is the explanation why - a real fascinating insight from the Daily Telegraph

To solve the puzzle of 1899’s cancellation it is necessary to look beyond aesthetics and dig into the numbers. Because while subscribers watched a pretty whopping 257 million hours of 1899, a mere 32 per cent made it through the entire eight-episode season (according to figures by UK data analytics company Digital i). Compare that with the 80 per cent who completed the mega-hit Squid Game, the 73 per cent who got through Heartstopper or the 60 per cent who binged steampunk animation Arcane, and it’s no mystery that 1899 found itself in the danger zone.

That completion rates matter to Netflix more than top-of-the-line viewing figures was recently confirmed by Sandman author Neil Gaiman. He urged devotees of the Netflix adaptation of the series to make sure they watched all the way through. Sandman was expensive to make, he said. The more people binged to the end, the better the odds of a Netflix renewal.
“They are looking at completion rates,” he said. “So people watching it at their own pace [i.e. not bingeing immediately] don’t show up.”
The biggest mystery of all is why Netflix is so obsessed with completion rates. One theory is that viewers who watch a series all the way through are more likely to renew their subscription – which is all Netflix ultimately cares about. Critical buzz and a place in the water-cooler conversation are fine. Yet the bottom line is that it’s all about a) audiences continuing to pay for their Netflix fix every month and b) attracting new subscribers.


That is so FUCKED UP!

Its a self defeating exercise. If you know a show is cancelled, why would you watch it, you don't watch it, sending the wrong signal to Netflix that they made the right decision. Rinse and repeat. So if you like a show you HAVE to see it to the end as QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.

Idiots
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Animalmother
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Re: General TV News

Post by Animalmother » Sun Jan 08, 2023 4:57 pm

It took me a while to get through 1899 as it started to get a bit convoluted near the end but after the last episode I definitely wanted more. I'm guessing Tribes of Europa has been canned as well (same people behind 1899 and Dark). It's a fucking stupid way to gauge viewership, as you pointed out why would I bother watching something that's going to get cancelled after a few episodes.

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Re: General TV News

Post by Sly Boots » Sun Jan 08, 2023 5:00 pm

It's probably going to get to the point that a significant amount of people will hold off watching a show until it's got 2-3 seasons under its belt, for fear it'll end up getting cancelled after the first one (so why bother getting invested in it in the first place). Which will only lead to more cancellations.

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Raid
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Re: General TV News

Post by Raid » Sun Jan 08, 2023 5:25 pm

I really hope that's not the main metric they use, because they cancelled Cowboy Bebop only three weeks after they published it. What were the chances of many people having watched ten hour-long episodes in three weeks?

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Re: General TV News

Post by Hatredsheart » Sun Jan 08, 2023 5:57 pm

Sly Boots wrote:
Sun Jan 08, 2023 5:00 pm
It's probably going to get to the point that a significant amount of people will hold off watching a show until it's got 2-3 seasons under its belt, for fear it'll end up getting cancelled after the first one (so why bother getting invested in it in the first place). Which will only lead to more cancellations.
I'm very nearly at this point. I almost always wait for news of a show being picked up for a second season before I watch season one.I wonder how many good shows I've missed out on (and how many absolute howlers I've been saved from).
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Re: General TV News

Post by Sly Boots » Tue Jan 10, 2023 8:50 pm

Apparently The Last Of Us, which is out next week, is really good:

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-last-of-us- ... tical-hit/

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Raid
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Re: General TV News

Post by Raid » Tue Jan 10, 2023 9:18 pm

The list of really good videogame adaptations isn't exactly lengthy. Arcane is on there, but I'm struggling to think of any others that were big successes. Maybe Netflix's Castlevania, but I wasn't a fan.

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Re: General TV News

Post by Sly Boots » Tue Jan 10, 2023 10:15 pm

Raid wrote:
Tue Jan 10, 2023 9:18 pm
The list of really good videogame adaptations isn't exactly lengthy. Arcane is on there, but I'm struggling to think of any others that were big successes. Maybe Netflix's Castlevania, but I wasn't a fan.
TBF a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes suggests it's just a very good show regardless of it being a videogame adaptation...

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Achtung Englander
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Re: General TV News

Post by Achtung Englander » Wed Jan 11, 2023 8:57 am

brought to you by the guy who made Cherboyl. Give him a medal.
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Animalmother
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Re: General TV News

Post by Animalmother » Wed Jan 11, 2023 11:15 am

Really glad to hear that it's not shite. Getting the people who wrote the actual game and someone whose already made a great show (Chernobyl) involved is a definite win win situation.

Would be curious to see an adaption of something like Dishonored or Thief as a tv show, even an animated one using that beautiful style used in Arcane would be good.

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Raid
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Re: General TV News

Post by Raid » Tue Jan 17, 2023 11:05 am

Mando season 3 has a full trailer now.



It looks great. More Imperial Remnant, more New Republic, and it looks like we're visiting Mandalore. The Mandolorian arcs were the best part of Clone Wars, so I'll happy to see them developed further.

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