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492 points storf45 | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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cryptozeus ◴[] No.42157120[source]
Everyone here talking like this something unique netflix had to deal with. Hotstar live streamed india va Pakistan cricket match with zero issues with all time high live viewership ever in the history of live telecast. Why would viewers paying $20 month want to think about their technical issues, they dropped the ball pure and simple. Tech already exists for this, it’s been done before even by espn, nothing new here.
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al_borland ◴[] No.42157893[source]
The Independent reports 35m viewers of that cricket match [0].

Rolling Stone reported 120m for Tyson and Paul on Netflix [1].

These are very different numbers. 120m is Super Bowl territory. Could Hotstar handle 3-4 of those cricket matches at the same time without issue?

[0] https://www.the-independent.com/sport/cricket/india-pakistan...

[1] https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/jake-paul-...

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dilyevsky ◴[] No.42158595[source]
Majority of superbowl viewers watch it on cable. Streaming gets fewer than 10M concurrents
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SoftTalker ◴[] No.42160477[source]
Do people even have cable TV anymore? I have internet from my "cable" company but I don't have the "cable" connected to anything but the modem. Everything I watch is streamed. The only thing connected to my TV is a Roku.
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cabinguy ◴[] No.42160690[source]
I assume you know the answer to your questions is: of course they do. However, I’m in the same boat as you. The joke’s on us, I guess.
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SoftTalker ◴[] No.42160743[source]
I guess my question is: why? "Cable boxes" are uniformly awful to use in my experience. The UI is clunky, they take up space and it's another remote and another tangle of wires to try to hide. What advantage do they offer in 2024?
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MBCook ◴[] No.42161398[source]
> What advantage do they offer in 2024?

Live news and sports is huge for a ton of people.

You have access to all the shows from the major networks. You don’t need to subscribe to Peacock and Paramount and Hulu and the TBS app and Discovery+ and…

Better yet, they’re all combined in one interface as opposed to all trying to be the only thing that you use.

Also, especially if you grew up with it, there is absolutely a simplicity in linear TV. Everyone was used to a DVR. And yeah the interface sucks, but it sucked for everyone already anyway so they’re used to it. Don’t know what you wanna watch? Turn on a channel you watch and just see what’s on. No looking at 400 things to pick between.

I’ve seen people switch off and have serious trouble because it’s such a different way of watching TV from what they were used to. They end up using something like Hulu Live or YouTube TV to try and get the experience they’re used to back.

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1. conductr ◴[] No.42161528[source]
This. I’m exactly in this YouTube tv camp and most the time just miss the simplicity of the old cable. Having to find things to watch is for me and awful experience. Then when I do want to watch something trying to figure out which app it’s actually on is awful. I think we subscribed to a dozen different things, it’s so damn fragmented. Even in early days if Netflix, I was a holdout that kept going to blockbuster because the UI of visually scanning a wall/shelf of DVDs was far superior to the Netflix version of the same IMO.

This is definitely turning into my version of an old man rant. “Back in my day…” the main benefit of it all is I actually just don’t watch as much as I once did. The friction is too high. Or, the commitment is too high-I dont usually want to jump into some 10 episode series.

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2. TRiG_Ireland ◴[] No.42161835[source]
I've certainly listened to some fascinating documentaries on BBC Radio 4 on subjects which it would never have occurred to me to seek out. There's definitely some advantages to linear broadcast.
3. MBCook ◴[] No.42162038[source]
Well I haven’t gone back to linear TV, I totally get it.

I don’t subscribe to anything that doesn’t work with my Apple TV. Netflix for example won’t integrate with it the way Hulu does. So whatever show I’m watching on Netflix? Wouldn’t show up in my show list on my Apple TV. I forget it exists.

So I don’t subscribe to it. Or anything else like that. You are NOT more important than me, service I pay for.

The only two exceptions are YouTube (which obviously works differently) and Plex for the few things that I already already owned on DVD or can’t get on any service.

It works well enough for me. But I still find myself missing a linear TV now and then.