I suspect many of you would be subscribing to multiple video streaming services. I currently subscribe to four services.
Currently, one of my pet peeves is when I come across a movie or TV series that sounds like it could be worth a view and then click on it only to discover that it is only available via a completely different service. This is now becoming so prevalent that, at times, when perusing new content, there is more new content being listed for alternative streaming services than on the service I am actually perusing. As the late and great Professor Julius Sumner Miller would say… “Why is it so?”
I mentioned some time ago that the content is fractured, with different seasons of the same TV series available across various streaming services. In some cases, viewing all seasons of a particular TV show can involve subscribing to multiple services.
This all seems to me to be the exact opposite of competition and more along the lines of streaming services colluding to entice more and more consumers into subscribing to more and more services.
Just recently, I received an email from BritBox informing me that the subscription was being increased from $9.95au to $13.95au. $4.00au per month might not sound like much, but it represents a 40% increase… bye bye BritBox.
Within a short space of time, I received another notification, this time from AppleTV, informing me that it was increasing its monthly subscription by… wait for it… $4.00au per month. I do not believe in coincidence.
Now, I appreciate that expenses for these streaming services are subject to increase, but I can’t help wondering if we are maybe paying for expenses incurred in the process of them promoting one another.
BOTTOM LINE:
At the moment, these streaming services all seem to be behaving exactly as they please. However, there are so many vying for licensing rights and our patronage now that maybe it’s time for the entire industry to be regulated somehow.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
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I subscribe to no streaming services. Those monthly fees, here there and everywhere, add up to far more than I want to pay. I just keep paying Xfinity for nothing much except the news and, during the fall and winter, five shows a week.
This is a state of affairs I don’t expect to change. I’m thinking of purchasing DVDs of some of the older shows I never watched. That seems expensive at first glance, but when I’m through with them I can pass them on to family members. Also, I get a lot of reading done.
Streaming when it first started out was an excellent alternative to the high prices of cable and satellite but now has become just as or more expensive than both. And it seems that anything new worth watching is always being released on another channel that you have to pay for.
I have taken to knocking my streaming services down to a select few , even if I have to wait for a period of time to watch any new releases , in time all these movies make their rounds to different channels when their profitability starts dropping.
Yeah people left cable services to go to to streaming. One of these factors was ad free yet now the basic Prime Video advert has adverts..
There’s just too many options these days as well.
Well Jim, I subscribe to 2 services. Prime video is included with my Amazon account and Tubi is Free. After winning Audials, I can add videos to my library to view later, Mindblower!
Hiya Jim
I only get the Amazon Prime channel as a default because I buy a fair bit of stuff on Amazon so Prime membership is viable – it includes at best “B” rated movies but occasionally there is the odd gem amongst the chaff.
If you really must have a streaming service then here’s a tip. Sign up for one for a month and as soon as you do cancel it so you don’t get charged for another month. Binge watch everything you want to then next month rinse and repeat with another service. This way you get watch all the new stuff from many but technically you are only ever paying for one.
I also use Tubi which gives you a lot of “C” grade movies for free for the price of some ads and even YouTube has free all of the old B&W scifi movies that I like to watch to see what they thought our tech would look like today. It gives me quite a laugh at times !
Cheers
Reg
Hey Reg,
I do something similar; sign up per month for one service, watch everything of interest, then unsubscribe and move on to a different service. Rinse and repeat.
I rank Amazon Prime as one of the best, especially in terms of providing fresh content.
Cheers mate… Jim
I can get plenty of viewing time for shows I like on the FREE streaming services and for one show that appears only during the winter, I grab one service that schedules it and doesn’t have a required yearly subscription. My biggest gripe is services like PLEX which lists about everything but then you have NO IDEA if you can watch it till you actually try.