every week there's another thing I have
to make a password for another thing I
have to sign up for and it drains my
bank account and I'm just so sick of it
this is will will is upset because
streaming services are progressively
becoming more and more like cable
television do you feel like will it
makes me Furious sorry to cut you off
but it makes me Furious do you hate
Rising prices and if you want to watch
those shows you have to give them seven
bucks a month 15 bucks a month do you
wish you had more control over your
streaming service everything used to be
all on one platform do you hate that ads
are making a comeback it
now is becoming even worse than cable
television if you share any of those
frustrations then come along with me I
went off on a journey and I've come back
with this video discussing things from
the present day to the history to the
technology and regulation that surrounds
streaming in order to answer the
question why in the hell would streaming
just become cable television
again it makes me
so it makes me
Furious when people say that streaming
has become more like cable I think
they're generally referring to three key
features of cable television that
streaming once promised to free us from
only to recreate them in the last
handful of years first is that prices
are rising streaming was originally
introduced to households across the
world as a single affordable monthly
plan that for just a few bucks a month
would get them access to all the content
they could ever want to watch in recent
years though prices have ballooned look
at Netflix for example which has seen
prices double across almost every plan
their standard streaming plan which was
introduced at $8 a month will now run
you 16 and the Premium plan which cost
just $12 as recently as 2016 will now
run you $22.99 a month at the end of
2023 it's worth noting that both of
those price increases also well outpace
inflation over the same time periods and
if it feels like price increases are
becoming more and more common it's
because they are price increases have
become the norm across platforms seen
here for all major streaming services
across their most recent price hike
which averaged a 21% increase if you
were to have all of these streaming
services you'd end up like the one in4
Americans who are paying more for
streaming than the average cable cost
for those that think that that direct
comparison isn't fair I'll admit that
you might be on to something Dee found
for instance that the average Millennial
pays just $54 a month for streaming
which is is cheaper than the average
cable cost however you have to keep in
mind that that statistic doesn't take
into account individual rentals like a
$4 movie on Amazon every once in a while
or the cost that you pay to your ISP to
access the high-speed internet that
makes streaming possible and we
shouldn't expect price hikes to stop
anytime soon at streaming services are
all racing towards profitability
experiencing billion dooll losses in
some cases as of 2022 just Netflix and
Hulu are profitable which means that
younger services like Max and Disney
plus both founded in 2019 still have a
bit of a ways to go before they make
shareholders happy as one firm put it
the era of stream inflation is here and
we shouldn't expect these price
increases to be a mere flash in the pan
given the surrounding economic
circumstances so the era of cheap
streaming is dead or at the very least
dying but surely all of those extra
costs come with the modern benefits of
streaming right any show I want at the
touch of a button right well maybe not
in some very important ways I think that
consumers are actually losing some of
the control that they once had streaming
once promised Eternal access to a large
catalog of content wherever we went a
kind of digital Frontier for freedom
however changes in licensing ownership
and permissions are threatening to
reduce that control across the board
let's start with licensing generally if
a service doesn't own a piece of media
then they pay a licensing fee to the
owner in order to stream it on their
platform this can be a really big
expense though and after price hikes
removing titles is the best way for a
streaming service to reduce their
overall costs what this ends up meaning
is that if a show doesn't drive enough
retention engagement or new
subscriptions then platforms are really
likely to just stop paying to carry it
and you will lose access to something
that you once had and this is compounded
by increasing media concentration
through mergers and Acquisitions Disney
for example now owns Hulu and ESPN and
ABC and fox and lucasfilm and Marvel and
Pixar and naal Geographic and my house
probably uh Amazon owns MGM and don't
even get me started on Warner Bros
Discovery I think that that is the
stupidest company name since kuri Dr
Pepper as companies merge and acquire
one another ownership of individual
properties changes meaning that they
move between Services more often or they
go to a new service that exists as the
consequence of a merger or acquisition
and this often results in you needing to
pay more money to access the same
content you once had control over
infinity War for example used to be on
Netflix but it's now on Disney plus
friends used to be on Netflix but now
you need Max to see that titles leaving
Netflix has become so p a that there are
entire blogs run by some guy you went to
college with dedicated to tracking this
stuff similarly the merger that led to
the creation of Max saw many titles some
of which were streaming Originals
disappear from the platform entirely
going to other services where you have
to pay to rent them now keep in mind
these weren't particularly heavy hitting
titles but what happens if something a
little bigger than Yaba daa dinosaurs
becomes unavailable and even if the
titles that we want are on a platform
that we pay to access our control over
them can still be limited by changes in
permissions who could forget the Netflix
password sharing Crackdown which saw
Netflix totally rewrite the script on
what streaming services were supposed to
be by limiting the number of places that
you can use your Netflix account Netflix
just declared that streaming was no
longer going to be a frontier for
digital Freedom you can no longer easily
share with your kids at college or
long-distance partner or really anyone
outside of tradition additional nuclear
family without incurring extra costs and
it should be noted that other platforms
like Disney plus are already poised to
follow suit once pitched as a Liberation
from clunky Antiquated cable streaming
has now started to reinvent the wheel on
restricting access to
content all right but that isn't it the
prices are a little bit higher and the
access is a little bit worse than it
once was but please just at least tell
me that we aren't going to have the
worst part of cable come back right
please tell me that we we aren't going
to have w advertising is back though it
once seemed we had reached a post ad
media ecosystem thanks to streaming we
are now all too familiar with lengthy
advertising segments even when we
already pay for a subscription ad
supported plans have started popping up
and though they're cheaper they have ads
which is obviously [ __ ] awful and
horrifying like I I can't even begin to
explain to you the existential dread
that I feel when listening to this
Whopper commercial why did they say
Whopper so many times what do they think
that this is going to make me want to
eat a Whopper what do you mean have it
my way I have no control over this
Burger King what do you mean I rule
Burger King do you think I give a [ __ ]
about what you think about me do you
think I care about your opinion I'm not
thrilled by advertisements I've had
streaming since I was a kid and so I've
actually lived a good chunk of my life
just kind of free from ads at one point
that presented a unique Divergence in
the history of media where it seemed
like you know our generation might get
free of these constant reminders of the
hellscape in which we live but that
dream is kind of dead now as more and
more services race towards profitability
ad supported plans will become dominant
and AD free plans are going to get so
expensive that you will probably not be
able to afford them anymore there's just
simply too much money to be left on the
table with advertising just today before
I sat down to record this actually I saw
a headline that Amazon Prime has just
announced that their current plans will
all start to include ads and that you're
going to need to pay an extra $2.99 a
month to go back to the adree service
that you just had ad as I covered in my
content addiction video more eyeballs is
more money and they already have your
eyeballs so why wouldn't they try and
make some more money and aside from
joking about the annoyance of ads we
should note that they do literally make
content worse as you are no longer the
primary customer advertisers are Netflix
for example finally started releasing
their streaming data this year not
because of viewer pressure but because
they need to prove to advertisers that
they are a good place to sell a product
and as they explained in their October
2022 press call announcing the ad
supported plan their goal is to increase
membership with a cheap plan to then
increase ad Revenue across the board
they also seek to satisfy advertisers by
opting for formulaic engagement driven
content at a high volume rather than
smaller pieces of risky interesting
artistic media this shift leads to
standardizations like the Netflix look
where all Netflix shows kind of look the
same due to stringent technical
requirements most shows on Netflix are
shot with one of two cameras and in a
very limited number of formats because
Netflix forces creators to do so ads
directly incentivize this copy pasted
content Mill behavior and it makes the
average Show worse even though these
platforms are capable of truly creating
something much better when they try so
here we stand in 2023 with streaming it
seems slowly reverting to cable prices
are going up control is going down and
ads are on the rise not to mention the
things that I couldn't get to in this
section like if Disney owns everything
isn't it all just going to come in like
a massive bundle that will look just
like a cable plan and cost probably a
bajillion dollars I don't know just
thrown it out there looking at this we
may start to ask ourselves how did we
ever have a golden age of streaming when
it's so clear now that it was
unprofitable and unsustainable for all
of these companies how did we ever have
that cheap $10 a month payment for Total
Access over an adree catalog of content
to answer that question we're going to
have to do the History part of the video
where we go back in time and look at how
this whole mess got started I remember
like very vividly there was time in like
maybe 2015 that you were like like we
were maybe in your house and you were
like they're going to do this and then
everyone will make one and then you buy
it all the bundle and I believe Hulu had
like just come out whenever cuz it was
obviously Netflix first in 2009 Hulu
produced this ad campaign that is aged
really poorly in this ad spot we see
Alec Baldwin play a devious alien
overlord who deploys U across the world
because as they joked the deal they were
offering was so good it could only be
the result of an evil plot to take over
the world it's age poorly for two main
reasons um one being that Hulu kind of
sucks and they haven't really taken over
much of anything and the other being
that there was a plan going on in the
background to take over the world
through media a Savvy calculated effort
to extract all the value that they could
and run away with the prophets and
sitting at the Forefront was Netflix
Netflix is enough of a household name
that you've probably heard the history
once or twice at this point they started
out as a DVD rental service mailing
little red envelopes to houses which
allowed them to Corner the market in
atome entertainment before they made the
pivot to streaming where they
revolutionized content for the Next
Generation by delivering video on demand
over the Internet this version of events
however misses a lot I'm going to
suggest in this section of the video
that if we want to understand why we no
longer bask in the Golden Age of
streaming then we need to stop
conceptualizing Netflix as a neutral
party or distributor of content and
instead understand them as an
antagonistic Force to the existing media
Market with a long-term plan after all
they're not a media company they're a
tech company right to tell you this
story I'm going to be adding some
context and Analysis to the events that
are late out best in the history section
of Netflix's Wikipedia page credit to
the editors this is Mark Randolph and
Reed Hastings in the 90s they were
working together at a company called
Pure software which Hastings had founded
to create debugging tools for software
engineers in 1996 they were required for
$750 million which was the largest
acquisition in the history of Silicon
Valley at the time and provided Hastings
the seed money for Netflix citing
inspiration from a $40 late fee at
Blockbuster the pair decided to get into
the new DVD rental business now
streaming didn't exist yet so we'll get
to that a little later but this DVD
rental era saw the birth of two themes
that we're going to need to pay
attention to if we want to understand
what's happening today first we should
note the tech of it all these were two
Savvy Tech entrepreneurs who had done
the Silicon Valley twostep one or two
times before and they were taking a bet
on a new technology becoming early
adopters of DVDs which were only about a
year old at this time to see if they
could attempt to corner a stake in the
infant Market second the DVD rental days
launched a conflict between Netflix and
traditional media as Netflix made an
entire business model on cutting into
the DVD sales of large media companies
physical sales were a much bigger piece
of the pie in these days than they are
now peing at $16 billion in 2005 which
for reference was almost twice the
domestic box office that year cutting
into those sales actually mattered and
established an antagonism that would
carry on for years to come later down
the line we would see deals attempting
to remedy this like a 28 day rental
delay described here in a Warner Bros
press release as a win-win by Future
Netflix CEO Ted sarandos it created an
agreement that Netflix wouldn't rent
DVDs out for the first 28 days after
their release which allowed Warner Bros
to off DVD sales and Netflix to maintain
favorable relationships but that
specific deal didn't come until 2010 and
was a little bit more of a consolation
prize to the film industry than anything
else though Netflix had been cutting
into the physical media Market since
1999 DVD sales plummeted between 2007
and 2008 falling 26% in one year alone
constituting a $4 billion loss how did
that possibly happen you ask well uh
this video is about streaming so yeah I
was streaming at least in part starting
in 2007 Netflix offered a streaming
video plan which started modestly with a
limited catalog but soon began to expand
however Netflix continued their previous
themes of investing in new tech and
cutting into the media Market in 2008
they smartly extended their streaming
plan to all DVD renting subscribers
which quickly led to them cornering all
of streaming when media companies began
to notice the demand for streaming from
consumers they were lining up to cut
deals with Netflix in 2010 this led to
billion dooll agreements to put some of
the biggest movies ever onto the
platform and what kicked this trend into
a frenzy was the moment when media began
to see the power that internet could
have for Distributing their content
Breaking Bad was the first cable show to
receive the so-called Netflix boost or
Netflix effect binge watching fans
supercharg the show's popularity
quintupling viewership from 2 million to
10 million in just one season changing
the way we conceive of how media becomes
popular overnight all of a sudden this
complex intense drama was being followed
closely by millions of households Across
America as they sat down to binge season
after season after season in
anticipation of the oncoming finale it's
not a stretch to say that this is one of
the most important moments in recent
media history Breaking Bad is Iconic and
Netflix helped to make it as big as it
is that's almost undeniable after this
every piece of media wanted to be on
Netflix wanted to be the next binge
worthy viral success this was Netflix
reaching the Zenith of their power and
this was also the golden age of
streaming from roughly 2012 to 2016
Netflix was a One-Stop shop for
consumers who wanted to have a single
monthly plan to access the most content
possible fueled by a new understanding
of what the internet could do for media
Netflix became the only game in town and
for the viewer it was a pretty good deal
but good things can't last this is the
point in the story where things start to
get a little weird up to this point I've
been saying that we needed to follow
follow two through lines right that
Netflix was a tech company and that they
were cutting into the revenue of media
companies but what happens when that
tech company kind of becomes a media
company and when all the media companies
that it was cutting into try to become
tech companies as well our boundaries
start to blur and our analysis starts to
get more difficult as Netflix raced to
become like media companies and media
companies raced to become like Netflix
over the last decade Netflix pivoted
into Originals like Orange is the New
Black House of Cards stranger things all
of the big names they've dropped some
really great shows honestly including
some of my favorite pieces of Television
ever created and I don't like to think
of them this way but they've kind of
become the media companies that they
once stole pie from Recently they've
joined the MPAA
andp they get Oscar nominations I mean
hell between 2018 and 2023 Netflix went
from 8% original content to 55% original
content led by Ted Sandos modern Netflix
has become a media company at the same
time driven by jealousy over Netflix's
success every Media Company sat down and
had the same idea what if we hired some
software engineers and threw money at
the problem until we were Netflix too
but with our own content in the last
decade everyone has made a streaming
service there's Disney plus ESPN plus
CNN plus Max Discovery Plus Peacock
Paramount Plus Stars which is also
called lion gate plus quibby tuby voodo
Pluto and fubo and now a history that
started with a tech company causing
trouble for media companies ends with
that tech company becoming a media
company and all of the media companies
becoming tech companies as well I'm so
tired so what do I make of all of this
our current media moment is one of
constant chaos and flux and that is all
thanks to streaming streaming has
changed everything as of this year
streaming accounts for 38% of all
television viewing more than any other
distribution method it's the most
popular way to watch content on your
television which as I've discussed on
this channel before still accounts for
over half of all Leisure Time in the
United States Netflix set out to take
over the world of media to capture
Revenue until they were the only game in
town and they did it and for a few years
between roughly 2012 and 2016 this meant
that they were the biggest and best in
town and that that was actually briefly
good for consumers I hope you can see
now though how this golden age of
streaming and the conditions that
surrounded it were fundamentally
unsustainable I'd argue that Ted sos'
idea to pursue original content was
really Savvy from a business perspective
if only because it demonstrates that he
understood the game that they were
playing he understood that they weren't
going to be able to keep the Cash Cow of
streaming all to themselves and that
when other companies caught in on the
game they were going to need their own
content if they wanted to stick around
so they made a plan to become a Media
company in their own right before they
got bullied out of the space by someone
like Disney taking all of their content
this is why when I try to understand
Netflix I think about it kind of like
the final season of succession it's tech
meeting media a battle of the Giants old
and new and understanding it through
this lens of two Silicon Valley Bros
breaking into an existing industry I
start to hear some Whispers in the
distance of how we might try and respond
to this problem as it develops after all
stuff like this has happened before
right
I I'm an actor M I'm a writer it's no
secret to anyone that it takes a
shitload of people to make a movie or to
make a TV show that's why the credits go
on for forever there was a Structure to
make sure that that money was
distributed fairly to the people who
were making them that money when new
technology comes out any new technology
the first thing people are going to do
with it is find a way to um rip other
people off using it and and that's what
we were seeing with
[Music]
streaming I'm here in New York where it
is approximately speaking really [ __ ]
cold so I'm going to be reading this
next section off of my phone I I hope
that you'll forgive me for that I live
in New York and not to be really
annoying but New York is very cool part
of the reason why it's cool is that it's
so large and populous New York is really
big like really really big and this size
allows it to model policy like uh a
small or even mediumsized or large State
and this year there were two interesting
policies that the city rolled out about
how to regulate Tech within City Limits
that I want to tell you about first was
the effective Airbnb ban in September
local law 18 made it so that short-term
rentals in the city can only be done by
registered hosts who live in the place
that they're renting and are there
during the term of the rental while also
limiting the number of short-term rental
guests to just two he might say wait
doesn't this effectively ban Airbnb in
New York City and to that I'd say like
yeah it does and I think that that
that's good let's talk about why 30% of
Airbnb listings are owned by Mega hosts
which are often management companies
that have large real estate holdings
that they use for short-term rentals I
like this law local law 18 because it de
incentivizes these large firms from
snapping up whole buildings to turn them
into airbnbs if you need to live in the
units and be there during the rentals
then you can't be a management company
you need to be a living human being who
owns a home this helps New Yorkers by
limiting what Forbes calls the Airbnb
effect you see since short-term rentals
are so much more profitable than
long-term rentals like a standard lease
on an apartment savy real estate
investment would dictate that you should
turn your 10un building into 10
short-term rentals rather than 10
long-term ones the problem is though
that this reduces the number of
available units for people who actually
live in New York CU they're all airbnbs
this slowly drives up prices and pushes
locals further away from the heart of
the city where they might work for more
on this Airbnb effect Adam something has
a really excellent video discussing the
same thing in Prague the point you need
to know for this video though is that
New York used policy and regulation in
order to tip the scales of the real
estate market in favor of local renters
and away from investors management
groups and tech companies and I think
that that's really good there's also
been a second quieter example of this
same thing in the city that didn't make
quite the national Splash that the
Airbnb ban did in November New York
attorney general Laticia James announced
a nine fig settlement with Uber and Lyft
declaring that their gig work model was
not actually a cool way for drivers to
earn some extra money but rather a way
for Uber to avoid paying its drivers a
minimum wage and to circumvent key labor
regulations like sick Lea and payment
into unemployment insurance this was
another example of the tech industry
using smoke and mirrors to avoid
existing regulations and protections in
the industry they were operating in by
introducing a new model of work wrapped
up in a shiny app Uber tried to say
their drivers were not the same as the
drivers of days gone by no longer was
the person driving you from the airport
and employee of a company rather they
they were a contractor obviously no
longer entitled to a minimum wage for
more on this gig economy example I can
point you to this very good video by Tom
Nicholas on the subject but for this
video I bring up this example for the
exact same reason I bring up Airbnb
regulation was used to remedy the way
that the tech industry had dodged around
existing agreements with an eye towards
protecting workers and communities
policy progressed to meet
technology more on this later now how do
we get this back to streaming well the
broader Trend here is discussed best by
Jonathan taplin author of move fast and
break things a 2017 book discussing how
Tech wriggles out of existing
regulations in every sector it sets up
in in the Airbnb example there already
existed real estate and hospitality
industries that had certain agreements
on zoning price and more with their
local communities Airbnb came in and
allowed those with enough money to get
around those restrictions under the
guise of being a new thing short-term
rentals enabled by peer-to-peer sharing
in the Uber example there already
existed delivery and driving services in
major metropolitan areas and Uber got
around existing laws and agreements by
saying they were a new thing a ride
sharing service powered by gig work
taplin shares tons of other examples
like this for example discussing in this
2018 talk at the John Adams Institute
how digital media hurt musicians after
the collapse of vinyl and CD royalties
in response to music streaming services
musicians like Levon Helm seen here with
Bob tillan in the band ended up dying in
relative poverty despite receiving
millions of streams on YouTube sptify
and Napster these new platforms shrank
the total consumer spend on recorded
music by 71% between 1998 and 2014 and
they kept what little Revenue remained
for themselves and listen I I know that
there are problems with the music
industry copyright and royalties and
Licensing are all imperfect systems but
over several decades Collective
agreements ensured that labor was
compensated I'm not comfortable saying
that it's a good thing that Spotify
disrupted that model even if it
increased consumer access and lowered
prices and I'm even more uncomfortable
that every tech company depends on doing
this exact type of disruption including
Netflix proper compensation for work on
streaming shows was a key issue for
example in the wga strike this year
residual pay models negotiated in the
2007 strike didn't anticipate streaming
and so they left writers on streaming
shows earning a tiny piece of what they
would make on cable television this is
also true for actors remember how I
talked about Breaking Bad on Netflix
being one of perhaps the most important
moments in recent media history Netflix
has never paid Aaron Paul for his work
on that show because they don't have to
technological progress is good don't get
me wrong but when it redistributes
wealth in ways that have lasting impacts
on workers and communities we need to
address it New York is attempting to
solve these problems with regulation and
I think that's good so if we want to fix
streaming we just need to regulate it
right how hard could that be at the end
of the day movies and TV and stuff on
these streaming services it's art
and people made it for
people so as to say something about
being people that's a wonderful
beautiful
thing and people should have access to
that if we all agree that it's good and
and it contributes to
society then the people who produced it
should live in comfort and security
right let's talk big aidea and potential
Solutions now the bigger picture here is
that streaming like all new tech allows
large media corporations to dance around
regulation by classifying themselves as
something different from cable they're
able to get around Decades of regulatory
history even when the information comes
into your house over the exact same
cable this means that companies are
going to prefer streaming as a way to
deliver content because of the
regulatory advantage that to me is a
problem that needs to be solved but you
might be a little more suspicious of
that you might say well what regulations
are they really getting around how big
of an advantage could it be to be
classified as streaming rather than
cable the short answer is that they
stand to gain a lot to get to the long
answer and understand everything that
they do gain we're going to need to get
into the historic relationship between
cable operators and the FCC or Federal
Communications Commission this video is
going to end with a regulatory History
Section but don't worry I'm I'm going to
take care of you there will be a
timeline and there's no quiz and I
promise it's really interesting our
story starts with the invention of cable
in the 1940s when people started running
antennas to catch broadcast signals and
then distribute them with cables to
their local communities in 1965 the FCC
first regulated the distribution of
cable using powers that it claimed it
had under the communications Act of 1934
and the Supreme Court agreed they had
those powers in 1968 so we start off
with two basic facts cable operators
exist and the FCC can regulate them from
this point on the entire history is a
essentially a power struggle between
these two groups as we try to figure out
who can regulate what and how much in
1976 the FCC expanded regulations
requiring cable operators to carry
signals for Public Access programming
but by 1979 cable operators had struck
back in a case called FCC V Midwest
video Corp where courts determined that
requiring they carry Public Access was
actually outside the fcc's jurisdiction
eventually Congress got around to
passing the cable communications Policy
Act in 1984 which was the first
legislation passed on cable it helped
make cable popular in American
households but most of that growth and
increasing popularity was only possible
because the regulations in the cable act
were too weak to protect consumers and
local governments cable expanded because
there was money to be made there were
lacking price restrictions even in
Monopoly markets which led cable prices
to outpace inflation by three times in
the 1980s and though the cable act had
originally solidified protections for
Public Access channels those were ruled
unconstitutional in 1985 so by the early
90s the FCC really needed a win as did
consumers and they would get that
through the cable television consumer
protection and competition Act of 1992
this brought back price regulations and
firmly established that operators and
broadcasters had to carry Public Access
programming in 1996 there were further
developments through the
Telecommunications Act which changed who
could become a cable operator which
eventually led to concentration in AOL
Time Warner and Viacom however this act
also established the universal service
fund which operators pay into to support
broadband and telecommunication
infrastructure I don't need you to
remember all of the details that I just
went through what I do need you to
remember though is that those 40 Years
of regulatory history that I just went
to do not apply to streaming streaming
Outlets don't need to pay into the
universal service fund uh meaning they
don't contribute to the infrastructure
that makes their very Revenue possible
they also aren't required to carry
Public Access programming meaning that
local media is slowly dying and to top
it all off streaming is being used as a
justification to weaken pricing
regulations across the board at the same
time antitrust has been severely
weakened in film and television all of
this means that for media companies
streaming is a pretty sweet deal and
whoever comes out on top of all of these
streaming platforms that we see right
now is going to have a [ __ ] Field Day
people remember earlier when I was
talking about how these media companies
were becoming tech companies and tech
companies were becoming media companies
as far as all these people see it who
cares start streaming we're free from
the FCC no regulations cards on the
table I think that this is really bad
we've already talked about how it hurts
the people who are creating media as
well as the people who are consuming
media and now we also have to contend
with the fact that because of what is
essentially a loophole we are going to
lose local media as well as billions of
dollars for public infrastructure and
will still be forced to watch oh my God
no you might be asking now though is
anyone going to do anything about this
this is Jessica Rosen worel the current
chair of the FCC in her time there she
has generally supported Equitable
Broadband access
this means things like being pro net
neutrality and pro increasing Broadband
access for education I like those
stances so I was a little surprised to
hear how hands-off she's been when it
comes to regulating streaming she's gone
so far as to publicly say that she
doesn't think the FCC has the power to
regulate streaming citing that she
doesn't think the cable acts of 1984 or
1992 Empower them to do that if you're
anything like me you're probably a
little shocked to hear that because like
you know Jessica you're the chair of the
FCC if don't have that power who does
but there is a bigger picture here the
interplay of federal agencies Congress
and the Supreme Court is a little
fraught in 2023 for the last 40 years
federal agencies have enjoyed a
privilege known as Chevron deference the
basic idea is that when Congress
empowers a federal agency like the FCC
or the EPA to do something the Supreme
Court will defer to the agency's
interpretation of the law this means
that when Congress passes the Clean Air
Act the EPA interprets an implements it
when Congress passes the cable act the
FCC interprets and implements it there
are some flaws with this system but I
think it is preferable in my view to the
current stated alternative it's
generally more efficient than asking
Congress to enumerate every last tiny
power it wants to Grant a federal agency
and it also generally means that
decisions are made by experts in a given
field who have been empowered by people
that I participate in electing and the
alternative is Clarence Thomas Chevron
Defence has been significant ly weakened
by the current US Supreme Court through
a line of reasoning known as the major
questions Doctrine essentially if it's
even a little unclear if a federal
agency has the power to do exactly what
it's doing the Supreme Court has given
itself the power to answer that question
when it is of significant political or
social importance what this ends up
meaning is that nine unelected lifetime
appointees have given themselves the
power to disregard expert opinion kind
of just on Vibes this video isn't about
the Supreme Court so I'm not going to
get two in the weeds here the important
thing to know though is that Jessica
Rosen worell knows that the Supreme
Court wouldn't be on her side if she
tried to use the cable act to regulate
streaming this is why she's called on
Congress to pass legislation explicitly
empowering the FCC to do so I think the
only way that we're going to get out of
this is with that piece of legislation
when cable got too expensive in the 80s
the cable Act of 1992 regulated prices
when streaming gets expensive now we
should have the streaming act to do the
same thing
we need something that regulates price
that protects Public Access ensures that
these companies pay their fair share
into the public infrastructure that
makes their revenue possible that
prevents concentration and dozens of
other things that I am unable to think
of on my own without a piece of
legislation like this monopolization
will continue prices will rise consumers
will have a worse deal and workers will
not get paid as much as they could I
don't see a way around it if I'm being
honest though there's something a little
bit bigger than a single piece of
legislation going on the streaming act
would be great but it doesn't capture
the saddest part of this all to me which
is that I grew up believing that
streaming was just the next step in our
societal advancement we developed a way
to get more content to more people more
conveniently and for less money so of
course that would be shared with the
people because that's what Society is
for you know progress but thinking this
way is what has allowed this same harm
to happen again and again and again when
asked about why Netflix made the pivot
from just distribution to creating their
own content Reed Hastings says in
interview after interview after
interview that they are simply emulating
what cable operators did in the 80s and
90s create a new technology to get
around regulation make a ton of money
and then use that money to make your own
content so you can stay in the game this
is all happened before and it will
happen again rest assured that even if
we regulate streaming even if we
regulate it really well there will come
a day when something new comes around
picture 15 years from now someone like
me trying to explain to you why your
brain media tube is repeating all the
sins and inefficiencies of streaming if
that thought makes you uncomfortable it
might be because you understand that
there is a deeper problem in the way
that we relate to our technology I hope
we pass a streaming act but I hope more
that our Social Development is finally
able to outpace our technological
progress I hope that we find in
intuitive and just ways to prevent the
harms caused by new technologies even as
progress continues we can't just keep
scrambling to recover each time
something new comes around barely able
to tell if everyone is okay streaming is
becoming like cable but given the
circumstances I hope you can see how
this was almost inevitable the lesson
then can't just be to learn that there
is a single problem we must solve the
lesson is that this will happen again
unless we learn to do better than we do
today I hope you liked this video
because uh this is the end of it so it
would be weird if you got here without
liking it the whole time but you know I
don't want to judge um I hope that
you'll subscribe and give the video a
like and maybe come around next time
when I put out another new video it
would help quite a bit this one got a
bit bigger than I was expecting the
scale kind of ballooned out of control
but I had a lot of fun making it and I
think everything on the channel from
here on out is going to start looking
more like this thanks for watching