With the simultaneous rollout of restrictions on account sharing and price increases/addition of advertising, I’m cutting back severely on streaming services.

I allowed my streaming subscriptions to grow without thinking about it. Without trying to remember the constant merging and bundling, I was subscribed to probably a dozen services at one point. They ranged from Netflix and HBO and Hulu to Shudder and Showtime. I had Paramount, Criterion, Disney, Peacock, and others. I’d do the typical thing where I’d search for a movie, find it is exclusive to a platform, and grab the free trial and forget to cancel. I excused it if I found a movie even every couple of months on it. There were still nights where it’d take an hour to find something I wanted to watch. I was probably closing in on $200/month all told, and I don’t have sports subscriptions.

I’m interested in learning what other people are doing regarding the price hikes and service compromises. Are you cancelling? Are you taking advantage of bundles with your internet services? Are you rotating on some interval? Or are you not changing at all?

  • @Clbull
    -4•1 year ago

    Not really.

    My parents use Netflix and I’m in the same house as them so the whole account sharing crackdown is moot. I wouldn’t want to share my account with them otherwise.

    Spotify I’m keeping for lack of a better service. It has improved by leaps and bounds.

    I really don’t like this argument that the TV streaming market is too pricey, too complicated and is starting to turn back into cable. Maybe if you’re too fucking lazy to go through a cycle of cancelling and reinstating subscriptions based on what new shows are on or whatever old show you feel like watching.

    Cable is multitudes more expensive than your typical streaming service, while giving you little to no video-on-demand catalog. Streaming is nowhere near as bad.

    Oh and another thing, have you ever tried to cancel a cable service and spent hours on the phone to reps whose job it is to ensure you don’t cancel and waste your time upselling you shit you don’t want? You don’t get that with a streaming service, and cancelling is as easy as going to a menu, disabling auto-renew and waiting for expiry, so not setting yourself a reminder to cancel the service is honestly on you.

    It’s like everybody is fucking entitled and think it’s their God given right to steal TV shows when it’s not available on a singular $9.99/month service.