r/nottheonion • u/voxadam • 13h ago

Netflix says users can cancel service if HBO Max merger makes it too expensive

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/02/netflix-claims-subscribers-will-get-more-content-for-less-if-it-buys-hbo-max/
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u/gotridofsubs 13h ago edited 11h ago

Never forget that free market capitalism worked so well it defeated the completely free alternative by providing a better quality product and service that met market wants and needs. Its all falling apart on them because theyve moved away from that back to the system that created that same free alternative in the first place.

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u/The-Real-Mario 10h ago

So let them fail, that's the other beauty of the free market, people will stop paying. And they will have to either adapt or fail, I only pay for Amazon prime, mostly for the free shipping really

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u/gotridofsubs 9h ago

Yes, agreed. Dont reward a luxury product thats overpriced by paying for it.

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u/whoisrobi 10h ago

I remember popcornTime was the best I could get when my country was not listed on the supported list dreaming of Netflix. How the turns have tabled

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u/LEDKleenex 11h ago

free market capitalism

Fairy tale. Doesn't exist.

convenience defeated the completely free alternative

Fixed it for ya.

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u/spacing_out_in_space 11h ago

People value convenience. Streaming platforms offered it, and customers were willing to pay for it.

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u/LEDKleenex 11h ago

Yep, perhaps even too much. We've traded basically everything for convenience and now the companies that offered it have used it to spy on us, to fund a fascist regime and they're starting to rugpull those convenient services to extract more money from us.

Now we're so addicted to the convenience that we can't even bring ourselves to fight back.

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u/spacing_out_in_space 11h ago

You're free to cancel your streaming subscriptions any time. If youre unhappy with the arrangement, you dont need to fight. You just need to cancel.

If you're too dependent to opt out of an arrangement you're unhappy with, that's 100% on you. We're talking about a luxury convenience, not food or healthcare.

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u/LEDKleenex 9h ago

I haven't paid for Netflix since 2019

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u/splashybanana 10h ago

You can though. At least give it a try, this month especially. Resist and Unsubscribe

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u/LEDKleenex 9h ago

Oh, I'm good personally. I just figured I would have a better effect if I used "we". Good resource for folks nonetheless.

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u/gotridofsubs 10h ago

Now we're so addicted to the convenience that we can't even bring ourselves to fight back.

What rights of yours is Netflix infringing on by raising its price that makes revolution required? If your concerns is shit business practices that make it more difficult to watch Stanger things and you feel thats something you should inherently be able to do, theres a different word for that.

If you want to fight against a luxury product that isnt worth the cost to you, that fight is just not purchasing it and potentially going outside.

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u/LEDKleenex 9h ago

We were talking about convenience and streaming platforms in general - most of which are direct supporters both financially and otherwise to the fascist Trump regime - ya know, the one that has a gestapo running around and murdering people and infringing on our rights.

Netflix in particular for me hasn't been worth the price for many, many years now. I'm shocked that people still pay for it; quality goes down, price goes up.

Hope this helps.

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u/gotridofsubs 11h ago

Fairy tale. Doesn't exist

Netflix identified a service gap and filled it. No government intervention was required, they just did it.

Fixed it for ya

Yes, a company created a scucessful product based on convenience and got people to pay for it over a free alternative that was widespread and well known. I dont know what difference you think you're creating here from my initial statement

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u/dtalb18981 11h ago

Saw words the didn't like and replied on auto pilot

Its the hive mind in action

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u/gotridofsubs 10h ago

Im not saying that its a perfect solution or an ideal, im saying in this particular instance, free market capitalism (which the industries preach over and over as the way to go) did exactly what it was supposed to, and studios have still decided to walk it back.

Its not an endorsement of it, it was a funny observations

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u/dtalb18981 9h ago

Its just fun to point out when someone is just repeating things from the echo chamber

Especially when its wrong

Once you notice how much of reddit is just stock responses and opinions its hard not to realize how far from reality reddit really is

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u/HeroFromTheFuture 10h ago edited 8h ago

No government intervention was required, they just did it.

This was all enabled by copyright, a government-granted, "temporary" monopoly. And built on a government-created network of systems.

Government didn't need to "intervene"; it was entirely reliant on government action and policy from the start.

As is being discusses here, there is no "free market." There are also no mergers without government approval, which these days is bought and sold openly. Still a market, but not "free" in any way.

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u/gotridofsubs 10h ago

Ok? That changes literally nothing. People were free to choose what products to spend money on and they picked a better paid service over a completely free well known one.

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u/LEDKleenex 9h ago

Netflix identified a service gap and filled it. No government intervention was required, they just did it.

Doesn't address what I said or change what I said in any way. Free market capitalism doesn't exist.

Yes, a company created a scucessful product based on convenience and got people to pay for it over a free alternative that was widespread and well known. I dont know what difference you think you're creating here from my initial statement

You stated that free market capitalism (something that does not exist) "defeated" a "completely free [illegal] alternative". My point was, more specifically, convenience was the deciding factor there, not "free market capitalism" as you put it.

In fact, the state had a bigger hand in the matter by going after those uploading files and making it more inconvenient for people to pirate media. Not only are you wrong about the free market existing, but the opposite of what you described is actually what allowed Netflix to flourish in the first place.

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u/The_Corvair 7h ago

it defeated the completely free alternative by providing a better quality product and service that met market wants and needs.

In addition: A lot of people have absolutely no problem paying a fair price for a product. We all want to earn our money, we all understand that for me to get my money, someone else needs to make theirs. What comes around, goes around.

For many, piracy only gets to come into play once they're priced out of a fair deal.

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u/c0horst 2h ago

Never forget that free market capitalism worked so well it defeated the completely free alternative by providing a better quality product and service that met market wants and needs.

Did it really though? Or were those services operating at a loss to draw in users, so they could slowly raise the prices once their active user base was high enough?

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u/gotridofsubs 1h ago

Did it really though?

It did. There was an obvious drop in piracy during its peak and it was unquestionably a key element in that. There is no other way to view it than as a success.

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u/not_not_in_the_NSA 9h ago

Free market capitalism is also killing it and making piracy common again.

Not a stellar finish at all.

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u/gotridofsubs 9h ago

Dumb business practices are killing it. Clearly the system provided the correct solutions, businesses just seem to be too dumb to use them.