Streaming Services Aren't That Expensive Individually and Are Actually a Great Deal, amirite?

100% When the first few started, it was $5-10 and there was 2-3. $25/mo for entertainment is a damn good deal. But then everyone and their cousin has their version of a streaming service and it costs 2-3x more.. then they make shows more exclusive. It circles right back around to cable TV packages.. you buy A, B or C package for the 2-3 channels on each you wanted to watch.

by Doviekuphal 5 days ago

Yet if they all were on the one service, you would pay similar and it would be the same as cable all over again 🙄

by Anonymous 5 days ago

They don't even force you into contracts. You can have one just 1 month then switch to the other without issue. To pay them all at the same time so you can immediately access everything is a choice; to suggest you have a right to all of them on-demand is entitled

by FriendlyBuffalo8676 5 days ago

Still more work than it's worth to watch 5 TV shows and a couple games. Just go get cable TV again for that hassle and money I'd happily pay for all of them if they were $5 bucks each, like they once were.

by Doviekuphal 5 days ago

A catalog, 99% of which, people will never watch.

by Wild-Pumpkin-8259 5 days ago

How is that the catalog's problem? It's not all garbage; and you would say the same for any network TV program schedule from 20 years ago.

by FriendlyBuffalo8676 5 days ago

and you would say the same for any network TV program schedule from 20 years ago. You weren't paying $20/mo for network TV

by Anonymous 5 days ago

That's why TV is dying, because people complained about this EXACT thing

by Jjaskolski 5 days ago

This fundamentally misses not only the primary complaint with the cost of streaming services but also the primary reasons for piracy and the way payment works at major studios.

by Dakota58 5 days ago

What is the primary complaint with the cost of streaming services if not the cost of the streaming service.

by FriendlyBuffalo8676 5 days ago

For example, sports. You have to buy multiple services just to watch different games from the same league. It's ridiculous

by Kaystroman 5 days ago

So you think you're entitled to view all sports games even though you don't want to pay to access them?

by FriendlyBuffalo8676 5 days ago

If I'm paying specifically to watch NFL I am entitled to watching the entirety of NFL. Not little parts here and there

by Kaystroman 5 days ago

Except it wasn't paying the networks money. I was paying my cable company for installing and maintaining the infrastructure. The networks got their money through ads. Now, the networks have their own streaming services and are trying to double dip. If I am receiving ads, I will not be paying, and vice versa. You get one or the other.

by Dakota58 5 days ago

You can literally pay for just one. Ad-tiers are just that, a cheaper option for people who would rather pay less money and more time. You can still pay money to not receive ads, so your logic kind of falls apart. You can in fact, just get one.

by FriendlyBuffalo8676 5 days ago

That's a completely different argument.

by Present_Credit 5 days ago

It's literally the opposite side of your argument.

by FriendlyBuffalo8676 5 days ago

Is it busy in there?

by Anonymous 5 days ago

People aren't interested in paying fees for this stuff when 95% of it goes to a guy with more money than everyone who is going to reply to this combined. People will absolutely pay for services that are priced fairly, decent quality (better than pirated) and not just a money grab for someone who doesn't need money. Steam is a great example of this. Paid product is better so people use it, pricing is usually fair so people buy.

by ComputerPlenty8113 5 days ago

No, I'm depriving money to someone who needs it less than I do. I don't care about Netflix CEOs yacht money. It's the companies job to make me want to buy their product. So it comes back to, why is the free version better? Again, Steam is an excellent example. Steam had huge market share in Russia where absolutely everything is pirated. How? The paid product is better.

by ComputerPlenty8113 5 days ago

Getting around Steam verified is easy. Just a .dll file and an entry into your hosts file pointing the steam server to local host. And it did exactly what your arguing in favour of, people started buying games again. If you don't like Steam as an example then use Netflix circa 2010 and ask, what changed? Why did people leave Ninja Video and Ice Films to pay for a lower selection on Netflix? Why are people going back to pirating and free streaming sites? This is playing out exactly how economists predicted.

by ComputerPlenty8113 5 days ago