Comment by klaussilveira
7 months ago
I'll never understood why Netflix, Hulu and others haven't done something similar to this. It's a much more natural way of "finding out" what you want to see. Create a bunch of channels based on existing tags or categories, have thing playing on a schedule, and allow me to zap through.
Bonus points if you allow me to zap as efficiently as I was able to back when we had analog TVs and cable. I was the master zapper, zapping through hundreds of channels in seconds. Just buffer the adjacent channels and calculate the maximum input latency.
My guess would be that the primary users would keep it on as background noise in some room or another, and it would take a significant amount of data for comparatively little benefit.
How is the cost any different than “binging” a series kept on as background noise?
If this new feature would cost the streaming companies more money, they just need to tweak the business model or subscription pricing to cover it.
Instagram tried this with IGTV. I actually liked the format too but they did shutdown due to lack of interest https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17484436/instagram-igtv-v...
Likely from a lack of engaging longform content on IG. Who wants to watch a continuous reel of mind-numbing shorts for hours. Youtube has enough quality content to make a more compelling product in this format
The streaming service Shudder has it and it's one of my favorite features on any streaming platform.
I think this is the reason why "shorts" , or tiktok style videos work. I think YT shorts does this in a way, where you get a snippet of a long video as a shorts
I used to love this chrome extension back in the day, unsure if it still works but same idea:
https://ottoplay.tv/
There was a startup called RheoTV started by ex-Apple people that did exactly that and it didn't work out.
There was also something called NeverThink that had the same fate.