It’s just like cable but for the internet. The only way these guys could compete with the ease of piracy would be to bundle all of the content in one app. Until that happens none of the services individually provide enough value for me.

I noticed bundles starting to happen a couple of years ago. Shudder was a horror film streaming service that I had subscribed to, which ended up getting bundled with a couple of other services (showtime? Paramount? Who knows anymore?). I’m fine with that. I think it’s a value add, and I think that the entire concept of streaming services falls apart when you end up subscribing to 15 of them and then having to search individual apps for a movie you want to see.

On the other hand, I think that bundling with an ISP goes against the idea of net neutrality and, if it’s going to be permitted by regulators (which it obviously is), it needs to be done in a content-neutral way (eg no prioritizing or enacting special benefits for using something Verizon is sponsoring, other than the discounts).

I am also never, ever going back to watching ads. I absolutely refuse. Not only did I always hate ads, the idiotic way algorithms pick which ads to serve - sometimes showing you the exact same ad multiple times in a row - is far, far worse than when a person would work to schedule them in old school broadcast tv. And it’s randomized for when the ad starts and the ad duration for all practical purposes, so if you’re doing a watch party it makes it difficult to impossible to stay in sync.

I’m also noticing a steep price increase on purchased media - some current releases are going for $30. I had ended up subscribed to maybe ten different services (sign up to watch a specific film then watching it just enough or simply forgetting to cancel), plus purchases for non-streaming films. I’m just cutting that all back.

“Yeah we’re charging more, but in exchange we’re also giving you this thing you never wanted”.