Opinion: It's about time a Steam service for TV existed

I know you can buy access to content to some TV shows on the Apple store, Amazon and the Microsoft Store - but these are still subject to geoblocks, not accessible in many countries and only offer a relatively small selection of TV shows anyway (and even then they're subject to this shit.)

Think about how video games have been fundamentally transformed. You can buy the majority of video games on Steam (or just use other similar apps). They're all basically released everywhere on day 1. They're automatically yours forever (until such a potential when Steam goes down - but you can easily extract and secure the files if you worry about that).

The same is not remotely true with TV. I understand that multiple streaming services were obviously going to emerge as TV production expanded. I understand that expecting to be able to watch everything on Netflix for £9.99 a month was never going to be realistic. But alongside these streaming services, a Steam-type client should've emerged allowing people to just buy seasons of content on the services. For people who want to legally keep what they watch, paying something like £5-15 per season (with sales much like Steam). No geoblocks. No restrictions.

I say this because in many cases I have had no choice but to pirate to watch a TV show season. It literally was not available to me through any legal source. I could not digitally buy it, nor was any streaming service accessible to me carrying it. This is now happening to Americans more and more (I am not American) with European series being heavily delayed. The last season of Babylon Berlin released in October. It's carried by Netflix in the USA, who are clearly not interested in acquiring the latest season - and are probably holding the content hostage (or Sky are being obstructive). It's also not accessible in France or many other European countries too.The show has suffered from staggered international releases since it was initially released, essentially throttling its popularity potential (most expensive German series ever made at one point).

As for me? I'm British. I could not, and still can't watch the second season of Balkan Shadows anywhere legally according to Justwatch. Paris Police 1900 season 2 is also still not accessible for me. This is really quite pathetic when you think about music and video games.

averyminya,

I agree, but I don’t think it will ever happen. 5 year in Netflix was the closest we got and then corporations saw that licenses could make them money.

On top of that, so many of these streaming services get tax breaks for removing content, so there’s not even an incentive for them to keep them available by paying for licensing. Why pay when you can make money from not having it at all?

It’s a horrible scam. All I can say is to take all of the money you’d put into 5 years of streaming services and put that into building your own server. Initial cost and setup, yes, but the peace of mind knowing that what you are able to find is what you are able to store. No more unavailable stuff unless it’s truly lost media.

WHYAREWEALLCAPS,

The problem with TV is rights. The rights for TV shows can be more involved. For instance, does it include a track from a popular music artist? Well, the local distributor for that artist now has to be negotiated with. This is also a problem for seasons for TV shows. Sometimes even the theme song to a show has to be subject to negotiations. For an example of this in the gaming world just look at the problems games like Alan Wake and a number of the GTA games have had. Their original music licenses have expired and in some cases you cannot get the game with the original music any longer.

To you, a show or movie is a self contained singular item, but in reality it is a ton of different IP rights having to come together in order for it to make it to air, even in the country of origin. There are old TV shows that will never make it to physical or digital mediums because of rights issues. If they can't get the rights to the original music for a reasonable cost or rework the entire sound of the episode for a reasonable cost, then they'll just not bother with it. It could be as simple as one song in one season. This is likely what some of the removals are stemming from - it's just too much cost to keep or alter the shows. Or even offer them for purchase.

Skavau,

I mean it does depend in part on who made the show. This is very much a problem for older broadcast shows. Netflix originals (I mean actual Netflix commissioned and/or produced shows and not shows they've bought and slapped "Netflix original" on them) released everywhere at once where there is Netflix. Even K-dramas literally just drop now on the international services that exist, if I'm right.

A lot of shows obviously don't release like that, especially European TV shows that are released on domestic TV. But it's a dated concept. There really needs to be a rethink on how this works if they don't want to be senselessly repeatedly pirated to shit.

Eeyore_Syndrome, (edited )
@Eeyore_Syndrome@sh.itjust.works avatar

At the end of the day, it’s not pirating when licenses are abandoned/hoarded or legit lost by studios etc etc. I consider that abandonware.

Dogma is one good example:

VH1 Pop Up Video is an amazing example:

Fuk the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 🤬

echo64,

1.geoblocks exist on steam, too. The issue with geoblocking is that the companies themselves want to do that to maximise their profits.

  1. people won’t pay for individual movies/tv shows. Case-in-point. You’ve been able to do this for years on services like amazon video and even YouTube. People don’t, though. I’m not talking about renting, though you can do that too, I’m talking about purchasing.

Lastly, unfortunately, thanks to the efforts of companies like Microsoft, if anything, video games are heading down this same route. I would be surprised if you could still buy the majority of new releases in a decade. You’ll need to be subscribed to gamepass or whatever to get games.

Skavau,

(1) Do they? It's much smaller than in streaming. And yes I know that companies want to do this, although in the age of rampant piracy I fail to see how blocking the UK and USA for 6 months does anything other than ensure that most people who want to watch your show will have pirated it by the time it becomes accessible legally. And all the enthusiasm for the show or season has dwindled.

(2) Because it's not properly buying it. It's "renting". You don't truly own it digitally. I'm not saying it would be more popular than streaming, but it'd be an alternative way to watch shows, especially shows launched not on a streaming service you subscribe to - and for digital collectors.

(3) Have any video games become subscription based that are not MMOs? I know much of the industry would like to do this, but I don't see how its viable.

echo64,

You probably want to reread what I wrote. I literally said that I was not talking about renting.

For the third point I am talking about services like gamepass. Not mmos.

Skavau,

I know you didn't mean renting, but you don't truly own the shows you buy on Amazon Video. As I referred to here.

Oh sure, but you can still buy the games from Gamepass independently, right?

echo64,

You don’t own the stuff you buy from steam either. It’s all just added to an account that you happen to have access to. It’s the exact same situation. The only thing you can own is physical disks, everything else is just something you are given access to.

You can buy games from gamepass independently today, but just like music, film, and TV, that will change as it all moves to only streaming over the next decade. It’s literally happened exactly like this over and over.

Skavau,

This is true, although Steam have said if they ever shut down you'll keep your access to the games. And you can easily rip them from Steam anyway. You do literally have the files.

We can only wait and see if they do that, and only offer games via a subscription service. I personally don't think that will happen.

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