Hello everyone. It is time for another episode of “you know what rilly makes me angerys?”
This is the streaming edition because Netflix is raising its streaming rates. The last time a streaming company raised its rates on me, I announced to the family that we are considering cancelling the service, and by the time I was done saying that out loud, I was finished filling out the unsubscribe box on HBO MAX.
My stated reason for quitting: I am tired of watching James Gunn getting high off his own product.
As a piece of advice: I would not recommend telling customers that you are raising your rates right around the time you shit the bed on your content.
I will return to HBO at some point in the future. I am expecting it to be a short stint where I tell everyone in the family they have 30 days to binge the shit out of whatever it is they want, and then we will turn off the subscription again.
Netflix is different, but only slightly. They did not deliver a massively disappointing ending for one of their anchor franchises. Still, they are also not producing new hits at a pace that can sustain a premium subscription fee.
I went on a walk down memory lane past Warrior Nun, 1889, Lost In Space reboot, and so many other amazing shows.
They used to make many more content bets, which justified the monthly cost. As they raise the monthly fee, I am going to sit down and evaluate it on its merits. And here is where it gets challenging. The bean counters over at most of these streaming services have seen the early numbers from ad-supported tiers, and to be blunt, they likey. It means that they are willing to push the content cost north with the belief that some percentage will convert to a lower base price due to… checks notes… Doritos. Or Skyrizi.
There are insufficient subscribers out there on principle to demand “give me ad-free streaming television or give me death!”
The people on the other end of that ultimatum already put the gun barrel to the forehead of Applebee’s. They started to count to three and pulled the trigger at two. We know who wins in that game, and it is not Jimmy Customer.
A few Hollywood observers have noted that subscription fees are now capped. There is less growth in overall streaming services. It is now Thunderdome. Two Network Enter! One Network Leave!
Everyone is okay with this state of affairs because they each believe that they will be the last network standing.
I don’t love this. I want to have three or four of these subscriptions active, and their price is rising. I am wondering where the break point is for diminishing returns.
It makes me miss the days of bundled cable. We tried so hard to escape the world of “1800 channels that nobody wants to watch,” only to discover that everyone suddenly now believes they are the One True Channel.
Well, everyone except Peacock. I pay two bucks a month for ad-supported Peacock. You can get that kind of deal if you wait for a black friday sale to sign up. There is barely enough stuff on Peacock to make me angry about watching ads or paying just a tiny fee.
The real loser here is Paramount Plus today. I paid for that for a few months to watch a few specific shows and then turned it off. It is a dangerous thing for us as customers to get used to turning off our streaming services.
And now we can stick the landing.
There is a company that is offering one-stop payment services for streaming. Amazon Prime is looking likelier and likelier as my one-stop shop to sign up for premium services, with the understanding that I am about to start turning these things on and off like I am some kind of sugar-addled toddler who just discovered light switches.
It is likely to me that this is going to be the year that I turn into Tommy The Toddler Toggler with my streaming subscription services, and I am going to rehome the majority of my services to Amazon Prime Video.
I think that we are going to see a lot of customers follow this path in the next few years.
I don’t love it. At the same time, there is a certain inevitability to it.
I am going to test this out in the fall when we finally binge a bunch of HBO stuff. The shoe might fit, and fit comfortably at that.
This is going to come at a bad time for streaming businesses, which are under considerable pressure from all kinds of other things. AI. Unions. James Gunn’s gigantic ego.
Something is going to give. Our good buddy Jeff Bezos is going to make some short-term money off of this, but then what?
There might be reasons I am foreshadowing here just a little.
