After years of inflation, Americans are used to sticker shock. But nothing compares to the surging price of streaming video.
Last week, Apple TV+ became the latest streaming service to raise its price—up from $6.99 to $9.99 per month—following the example of Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and Netflix, which all hiked their prices in October.
Half of the major streaming platforms in the U.S. now charge a monthly fee that’s double the price they charged when they initially came to market. And many of these streaming services haven’t even been around for 10 years.
Some of us suddenly stopped paying anything for streaming this year.
Yarr.
batten down the hatches
Hoist the mainsail
Yup, no reason at all to stop raising prices. Not a one.
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What the hell. Can people please cancel en masse already? Why are consumers putting up with this? The price increases stop once it’s not profitable anymore.
The price increases stop once it’s not profitable anymore.
When has this ever happened?
Just to be clear, are you questioning whether there’s ever been a case where prices have been stable because a company is worried about losing customers? I mean, there are tons. We’re coming out of a 20 year period of historically low inflation. High inflation is recent, not inevitable.
Consumer electronics are an obvious example. Smart phone prices actually dropped this year on soft demand.
I guess the complexity to pirate things. Or people forgot how to.
I’ve been sailing the high seas for almost 20 years now. It’s never been easier to pirate things. Stremio and a well known service honestly beats all steaming services both in quantity and quality of the “catalogue”. At least for English language content.
I never stopped as well, but I hear young people saying stuff like “what do we do”…
In France, there was also Hadopi at some point, so people were afraid to pirate stuff, that’s how they won.
This generation of consumers is even dumber than the last one.
They pride themselves on getting taken for a ride because it gives them a sense of belonging.
Consumers are paying
That. That’s the reason they’re not stopping.
My household has drastically cut back on what we subscribe to. It’s honestly overwhelming figuring out where to go to watch something, much less justifying paying for multiple services.
There is a one-stop shop where you can watch anything, matey!
Just sail the high seas
You can stream pretty much anything for free here: https://fmoviesz.to/
Just make sure you have uBlock Origin installed.
If you ever get lost, just search ‘free streaming sites reddit’ and go from there.
i finally said fk it and dumped cable earlier this year, even though i can’t pick-up locals off an antenna where i am–was pretty much the only reason i had it.
haven’t subbed to an online service in over a year. the free services have been enough. currently in month two of a free trial month at prime and have pretty much run out of things to watch there. as work quiets down here til feb, i’ll probably sub to a service for a single monthly cycle over the holiday to have something ‘extra’ to pick from.
i also have my hdds of mp4, plus discs and even tapes to fall-back on, too, but i won’t ever go back to cable unless they change their entire model, and i don’t see myself ever subbing to a service full-time (it would have to be a sweetheart annual deal) or having multiple subs at once. i really liked having that extra cash in my pocket from dumping cable–too bad my greedy landlord wanted, too.
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Why is the VPN singing sea shanties?
dvd and bluray are so goshdarn cheap that my wife and I thought to just buy everything we like watching physically. yeah we still have to rent new things every so often, but we generally just watch completed series or older movies.
we did an activity called ‘the vault’ where we identified ~800 movies/series that we could just live with forever. Now that the list was made its been the fun casual game of hunting for the best deal.
for instance, we like horror and we found all Blu-rays of the nightmare on elm street for like $15, all Halloween movies for ~$30, original star trek complete series $25.
I am predicting that our 800 works will cost somewhere around $2000? i winced at seeing that price, but spreading it over a few years of searching (we like trying to find our copies at local used stores) i think it isn’t too bad! plus its another activity for me and my wife to do.
Simply realizing that “wow we should just buy the stuff we watch on repeat” has been good for the monthly expenses. yeah we miss out on some exclusive stuff, but honestly there is just so much good shit out there from the past. i can certainly wait for that exclusive stuff to go on sale or finish up its finale so i can resub for a month to binge it.
certainly not laying out all the pros and cons of doing it, but i think the adventure of rediscovering physical media again has been showing is more pros than cons.
I’m all for owning media and having hard copies but not sure I am following on the financial side. $2000 for your “vault” is around 16 years worth of paying for streaming services. That’s not including your self reported extra renting. Do you think the 16 year ROI is worth it? Is the higher quality media a factor?
Just curious how it would be good for your “monthly expenses” given how much you are intending to spend.
16 years of a single ad-ridden service, maybe. Most people probably have more than just their lone Disney+ bundle or Netflix, so I’d say it’s probably closer to 5 years, also assuming they don’t continue to raise prices, which obviously won’t happen.
Watching through complete old series will save you from the disappointment of a show getting canned after one season which seems to be all the rage with streaming providers now.
Weird how you think you’re taking the intelligent play when you’re actually getting taken for a ride.
The smart thing to do would be to subscribe to a VPN for <$4/month then download everything you want.
Oh i am very aware that you are 100% correct in both areas of efficiency and value!
However, I just really like the activity of searching for them at garage sales, flea markets, estate sales, used media stores, etc. if it takes me a while, so be it. ill just rewatch what i already have.
Yea, and that’s kind of in the realm of being a collector. If that’s what you enjoy you have extra incentive to do so, so the cost has less weight. Cool concept nonetheless.
Disney is for those have kids, they will pay a lot to have sure they have a free time. Apple tv can rise whatever they want, apple clients already prove they pay any questionable thing for whatever price they offer.
For other parents: PBS Kids Video It has a bunch of stuff, can be cast to a TV for toddlers; or put on a tablet for older toddlers.
For paid streaming services, we have decided to limit ourselves to two at a time. Once we’re bored with one, we cancel it and do another for a while.
I would literally never pay money for my kid to be able to watch Disney or probably any TV. The only thing I ever pay money for is a few educational apps and they are cheap. You can’t rent kid’s movies at the library if you don’t pirate things.
Yo ho ho.
But how will the CEOs be able to buy their fourth super yacht if they don’t raise prices more? Won’t someone please think of the CEOs stuck with only three super yachts?
Pushing ads pushes profits
Some observers see another reason for the frequent price hikes: to push subscribers to their breaking point, and compel them to opt for a lower-priced, or even free, ad-supported plan instead.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said as much during an August earnings call: “We’re obviously trying, with our pricing strategy, to migrate more subs to the advertiser-supported tier.”
Why? Unlike a paid subscription, which brings in a fixed amount of revenue each month, there is no ceiling to advertising revenue. The number of ads displayed and the rates a streaming platform can charge marketers for the ads are constantly fluctuating, offering unlimited revenue upside.
Son of a bitch
We stopped subscribing to anything. I get some stuff as part of my phone plan but once thats over I am not paying to have these services. I pretty much fell behind on torrent, so there will be a learning curve.
It’s easier now. It’s automated.
We stopped all the subscriptions in the spring. I pay for Usenet access, but it’s less than Netflix alone used to be. It’s automated and I don’t have to worry if my services have what I want to watch.
I’ve been making fun of them for years and they just keep doubling down on their stupidity.
I’ve lost hope for this generation.
You can stream pretty much anything for free here: https://fmoviesz.to/
Just make sure you have uBlock Origin installed.
Use your brains, not your wallets. (unless you’re a useful idiot)
Ok, question. I’m totally tech illiterate, but have heard these kinds sites are used to farm for crypto? Like I’d rather just not watch new shows or movies at this point until I can take the time to learn to pirate again safely.
Adblockers should block those scripts too.
Even if it didn’t, don’t worry about it. All it does is run a script on the webpage. It used a little of your CPU time, but otherwise doesn’t affect your PC.
Even if that was true, why would it be bad? As long as they aren’t overdoing it, why would you care?
I think the concern is that the torrent files include trojan crypto farming software that will bog down your computer. I don’t know how realistic that concern is, but it would at least directly affect you.
Yeah, thank you for articulating it for me better than I could. I don’t know if it’s similar to malware that can effect PC performance or corrupt files over time.
these kinds sites
Well, when you’re that ambiguous, sure you can find streaming sites that mine crypto.
Does that mean this one does? Well, I’d wait until there is evidence before clutching my pearls.
… I’m asking if there is evidence of it, and if so, what that means in terms of effecting PC performance. Or just in general for these kinds of sites if it’s a concern worth having.
I have not seen any evidence that the site I linked mines crypto on user’s machines.
Which “generation” are you referring to? I’m willing to bet the older generations, ya know the ones who paid hundreds on cable a month for decades, are the least price sensitive and tech savvy.
I’m referring to just about everyone under 35.
ya know the ones who paid hundreds on cable a month for decades, are the least price sensitive and tech savvy.
You mean the ones who didn’t have any alternative?
What about the ones who do? It’s just a quick internet search away, but they’d rather use their wallets to fit in with everyone else.
You mean the same young people who aren’t even the ones to make the household decision to cancel streaming because they were borrowing passwords from their parents until just this year? Why would most have their own accounts when the policy just changed?
Young people watch on their laptops or tablets. Middle aged people watch on their big screen smart TV in their suburban home. You think Boomers and older Gen X, the wealthiest generation in history with the most disposable income, most of whom are tech illiterate, are abandoning the convenience of streaming to set up Plex servers?
No, I mean the same young people who pay for the streaming services themselves and constantly say things like “it is/isn’t available on x service” when it’s all available here for free: https://fmoviesz.to/
most of whom are tech illiterate, are abandoning the convenience of streaming to set up Plex servers?
So glad you mentioned Plex. That’s just another meme for the 🧩’s of this generation who think they’re smarter than the rest. Not only are they a gross minority, the vast majority of them don’t even pirate the content they download. They still buy it like rubes, lol.
You don’t even recommend the free alternative to plex, Jellyfin. You’d rather use the one owned by a for-profit corporation that has ads.
If this generation cared more about saving money than fitting in, we’d see people sharing free streaming services before paid ones and ‘plex’ bullshit.
Gonna block you now, though. It’s painfully obvious you’re just going to move goalposts and twist your brain in knots to avoid admitting you may be wrong.
Have a nice day.
It makes absolutely no sense to say that young people make most of the streaming subscription decisions. Why would they when they were sharing passwords just this year? You have no response, which is why you didn’t address that point.
I don’t use Plex, but I’m not your average user. We’re talking about the average middle aged person. You have WAY more faith in the average consumer if you think they’re going to set up an open source solution to play their torrents!
and analysts say there’s no reason for the companies to stop raising prices
Well, my VPN is cheaper and won’t restrict me via fragmented exclusive content.
Not only using the VPN for that, but also, to take advantage of regional pricing for subscriptions in other countries. After the price hike, I’m paying $5 for Netflix in another country instead of the US price. Still get the same shows as a US subscription.
