Don’t shoot the messenger! Paying more for what you watch is something no one wants to do. The good news is it might help make the content you actually want to watch more widely available.
Keep reading for details on streaming services that might be changing soon.
End of the line
For about the past decade, streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and, more recently, Disney+ have seen steady subscriber growth. This, in turn, led to more investment.
But that gravy train is hitting the brakes in the wake of stagnating subscriber numbers and falling revenues. The plan? A pivot to higher prices and less exclusivity.
In the past year, Netflix and Disney+ have raised prices for all their streaming services tiers while introducing lower-priced ad-supported options. That’s not likely to change, with The Wall Street Journal citing Disney, Warner, and Netflix planning to introduce compound accounts and more aggressive pricing.
There have also been crackdowns on account sharing, reducing options for those splitting costs with friends and family.
Silver lining
The upside to these services struggling is they will likely share some of their movies and TV shows with other platforms. Warner recently licensed its acclaimed “Westworld” series to Roku and Tubi, and Disney has said it’s open to more licensing.
That could mean you won’t need a subscription to everything to get the content you want. That’s excellent news since cutting the cord began with people looking to save money on TV. Not only will you save money, but you won’t have to stick with bad programming.
Streaming aggregate service, Reelgood claims that only 46% of the nearly 40,000 shows and movies on the top streaming platforms are considered good by IMDB standards. Considering much of even that won’t appeal to everyone, the list of watchable shows is smaller than you might think.
Money matters
It’s always good to consider whether you use the subscriptions you pay for. If you subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and HBO Max and don’t watch them for a month, you could spend big bucks for nothing.
It’s starting to feel an awful lot like old cable packages.
The intelligent thing is to look at what you watch and consider which streaming services you could do without. Especially since we’re likely to see more and more shows and movies popping up across different platforms.
Keep reading
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