Cutting the cord again? Americans are spending less on streaming as fatigue and options grow

[wiyosaya]

Y'all I work for a comcast subsidiary and my bonus is tied to company performance, can you not cut the cord

Maybe the writing is on the wall and you might try finding some other company to work for? Assuming this is not sarcasm, of course. If it's not, perhaps you should lobby your company to stop gouging its customers? I know comcast cannot resist doing that, however, especially if they think they have a captive audience.

I think many of these "popup streaming services" are coming to the realization that they do not have the captive hold over their audience that they might have enjoyed in times past.

Maybe what we need is even more streaming services.

 

[wiyosaya]

Ahoy, mateys!

Aye matey! But, its easier for me just to go to my local library.

 

[scavengerspc]

I actually watch very little TV, but when I do, I want to watch what I want to watch.
So with that in mind:

YouTube TV with MGM+ and Starz
Netflix
Hulu
Disney+
ESPN+
NFL+
MLB TV
Paramount+ with Showtime
Apple TV
Peacock
AMC+ (Best streaming deal out there. All of AMC past and present, Shudder,
IFC Films Unlimited, BBC America and Sundance Now for $8 month. But no yearly plan).
Max
Prime Video
Curiosity Stream

And since nobody cares! My favs are ESPN+, NFL+, MLB TV, Max and Shudder

 

[toooooot]

Netflix's CEO once said that their biggest competitor is sleep.

And customers' distaste toward low quality content.

 

[toooooot]

I cut the cord many years ago. The TV gets turned on at night for the wife. I would rather read on my laptop. I think my entertainment cost per month is around $6/7 for MHZ, $5/6 for Masterpiece Theater and $80 for 1GB d/l speeds for internet. Archive dot org has more books than I will ever need to read, gratis to d/l.

I read on PC too. But on a smartphone is so much more convenient. I am now deciding if an ebook reader is something worth paying to read on instead of my smartphone

 

[Revolution 11]

I am going to bet that in the future, streaming companies will make it harder for people to jump between services to only watch good stuff. It is like with password sharing, there is too much money that they see as unnecessarily lost. What service makes more than 1 month of stuff worth to watch? Netflix maybe. The rest have literally one or two things that are undeniably good to see per year.

That is only going to speed up users jumping ship to another service, presumably the one with the most value.

Services that offer enough content to keep people subscribed permanently will be able to keep their prices high.

The ones that don't offer enough content will have to cut prices or lose users. Either way, revenues will drop.

Regardless of which service offers which content, the whole industry needs to do a better job with controlling production costs or risk getting priced out of the market.

Piracy is always a fallback option for the masses. The last (and only) time piracy shrunk in popularity, it was because content was convenient, high-quality, and affordable. All three categories are now going the other way and consumers are responding with higher piracy, lower spending on streaming, etc, etc.

 

[Underdog]

I have access to hundreds of channels via satellite, free for nothing. 99% of it is either in a foreign language, total rubbish, or simply re-runs of ancient American sitcoms. Surfing the net turns up almost all the latest movies, both good and bad. All are available to download if you know where to look. Long live piracy!

 

[Megalomaniac]

"It's the economy stupid"

The most basic measurement of "how good things are going is can you afford the things you used to afford.

Thanks to SMART TV and free movies online, I see no reason to pay extra for streaming services.

Last year I cut my extra streaming services and reduced my cable bill by $50 a month. I share streaming with my parents through login online. I may further cut my expenses by dropping the Verizon cable boxes which - thanks to SMART TV -you pretty much don't need anymore.

I could afford to pay for those features but I barely use them or watch them. I would rather download a digital copy of a new movie than stream it or pay constantly for access to it. I can still buy DVD or Blu Rays for my PS or Xbox as well.

 

[Megalomaniac]

I have access to hundreds of channels via satellite, free for nothing. 99% of it is either in a foreign language, total rubbish, or simply re-runs of ancient American sitcoms. Surfing the net turns up almost all the latest movies, both good and bad. All are available to download if you know where to look. Long live piracy!

When I was a kid in the 80's, one of my uncle's got satellite TV. Huge dish on his house. You had to physically scan for different satellites to access different channels. There was virtually nothing worth watching then. We got cable and Fios later. For a while there was plenty of content and new shows and all the sudden that went to pot. Now we have SMART TV and Youtube free movies and for the most part, I'm a grown man too busy to watch TV or bored by what's on.

And when I do get a chance to watch TV, I only want to see old films from the 80's and 90's - many of which I already saw.

Definitely not worth $200 a month.

Corporations like Disney buying up big IP like Marvel, Star Wars, etc only make like more difficult, but once you actually download those films to a hard drive, they lose.

Halo, Star Trek Picard... I'm not paying Paramount a dime.

And then most of the shows get cancelled 2 or 3 seasons in. So what am I left paying for?

 

[scavengerspc]

I have access to hundreds of channels via satellite, free for nothing. 99% of it is either in a foreign language, total rubbish, or simply re-runs of ancient American sitcoms. Surfing the net turns up almost all the latest movies, both good and bad. All are available to download if you know where to look. Long live piracy!

And long live hefty fines and jail time!
For the little twerps that whine about the quality on streaming platforms, but then search for a way to get it free. Mostly because free is all they can afford. But they have no problem charging a sweet old lady $175 to install Windows.

One thing I am looking forward to seeing is pricing tiers that range 3 months, 6 months, and yearly plans. Screw the partial month peakers. Very little revenue is lost when you put the screws to people that can't even pay for a full month.

And then most of the shows get cancelled 2 or 3 seasons in. So what am I left paying for?

For exactly what you watched.

 

[paul s2]

I have switched to library based video subscriptions that have no cost but limited views ever month
this has reduced the number of hours I stream considerably and still have great content.
Hoopla and Kanopy are both digital media lending services that libraries offer to their users

 

[netman]

"Cutting the cord again? Americans are spending less on streaming as fatigue and options grow"

... And who created those Fatigue and Options...? You guessed right...Cable Companies...! Comcast in Particular...! So this survey result is temporary until people learn how to undo the fatigue and frustrations...!

 

[Diabolic812]

I'm honestly burned out on TV/movies in general as a form of entertainment. I'd much rather *do* something (video games, practice guitar, play sports ball with the kids, hike, bike ride, ANYTHING) than watch TV nowadays.

Back in the day OTA/syndicated shows had to build in fake tension before the commercial break to make sure the viewer did switch channels during the commercial (which is why so many old shows had silly "cliffhangers" right before a commercial break).

With streaming the writers and staff seem to have completely lost the plot and any intrigue or interest is built into the first 2 or 3 episodes (to hook you) and then the last Episode (to make sure you stay subscribed and come back for more). The 5 or so episodes between the first and last are almost always meandering low-budget filler and "character building". It's yawn inducing.

Go back and watch one of those old syndicated shows (Old Trek, or X-files or something) even the bad episodes keep you at the edge of your seat the whole time. There is an actual feeling of interest and engagement with the show.

I'm honestly burned out on TV/movies in general as a form of entertainment. I'd much rather *do* something (video games, practice guitar, play sports ball with the kids, hike, bike ride, ANYTHING) than watch TV nowadays.

Back in the day OTA/syndicated shows had to build in fake tension before the commercial break to make sure the viewer did switch channels during the commercial (which is why so many old shows had silly "cliffhangers" right before a commercial break).

With streaming the writers and staff seem to have completely lost the plot and any intrigue or interest is built into the first 2 or 3 episodes (to hook you) and then the last Episode (to make sure you stay subscribed and come back for more). The 5 or so episodes between the first and last are almost always meandering low-budget filler and "character building". It's yawn inducing.

Go back and watch one of those old syndicated shows (Old Trek, or X-files or something) even the bad episodes keep you at the edge of your seat the whole time. There is an actual feeling of interest and engagement with the show.

I disagree. I'm often amazed at the writing on some of today's shows. Ever since 2006 (whatever year "Six Feet Under" was on HBO) I think shows started taking writing to new heights, and started to become willing to take on much more complex topics and characters. "Breaking Bad" is another show that comes to mind. IMHO

 

[Zionmonster77]

"but too much of a good thing can sometimes backfire as some are finding out."
Good thing? 90% of films, series and shows on Netflix, Amazon, HBO and Disney are stupid brainwashed idiocracy, reality bs and woke nonsense for teenagers and desparate housewives. THAT'S why subscriptions cracked. Any mediocre movie from 80s, 90s and even 2000s is better than the best CG/lgbt cr*p today.

 

[Namtrooper]

I cut down on the streaming services, went from 4 to 2. The problem I see is streaming services like Disney+ and Paramount make some of their movies and shows proprietary, so you can't watch it on any other streaming service. For example with Disney+, you can't watch Star Wars on any other streaming service except for Disney+. I'm not going to pay whatever amount of money a month they charge for Disney+ just so I can watch it. They only do that because they hate Netflix.

Trying to grab my head around it, how Disney has over 153 million paid subscribers but somehow they keep losing money on their streaming service. If every paid subscriber pays $10 a month that would bring a little over 1.5 billion dollars a year. That don't include the ad revenue they receive. The math just don't add up.

The shows they produce all look like they have very high budgets. Creating content costs money. There are very talented people building the stages and costume and set designers, as well visual effects artists. They all probably deserve to be paid well. Then of course all the actors. Costs go up quickly. But 1.5 billion a year is ridiculous amount of money. Maybe they need to learn to budget better.

 

[SirDigby]

Maybe the writing is on the wall and you might try finding some other company to work for? Assuming this is not sarcasm, of course. If it's not, perhaps you should lobby your company to stop gouging its customers? I know comcast cannot resist doing that, however, especially if they think they have a captive audience.

I think many of these "popup streaming services" are coming to the realization that they do not have the captive hold over their audience that they might have enjoyed in times past.

Maybe what we need is even more streaming services.

You're preaching to the choir mate I call out my company at every given opportunity and actively encourage friends and family to use my discounts etc to save money. I'm not likely to change company over my bonus though, in my line of work a bonus really is just that, I'm quite well compensated in my salary and a bonus really is just the cherry on top.. But I'm hoping to build a new PC with that cherry in a couple of months

 

[occsdude]

I actually don't pay for any entertainment monthly at the moment, other than one foreign travel channel subscription on Twitch. I purchase some digital movies through vudu once in a while (one-time payments). Some of my favorite media is still only available on physical, so I still have a small blu-ray/dvd collection.

I never found streaming platforms and live services worth paying for beyond one month of use to be honest. I'm probably an outlier though as I enjoy surrealism and older foreign films and don't watch sports except for skateboarding on YouTube.

 

[Eldrach]

I watch quite alot of series through streaming services - but some services are very limited in content. We would be better off with the streaming services cut in two and have more content on say HBO if they merged with Skyshowtime, just silly to release 2-3 good shows a year and think that is enough to warrant their own streaming service

 

[ScottSoapbox]

I cut down on the streaming services, went from 4 to 2. The problem I see is streaming services like Disney+ and Paramount make some of their movies and shows proprietary, so you can't watch it on any other streaming service. For example with Disney+, you can't watch Star Wars on any other streaming service except for Disney+. I'm not going to pay whatever amount of money a month they charge for Disney+ just so I can watch it. They only do that because they hate Netflix.

Trying to grab my head around it, how Disney has over 153 million paid subscribers but somehow they keep losing money on their streaming service. If every paid subscriber pays $10 a month that would bring a little over 1.5 billion dollars a year. That don't include the ad revenue they receive. The math just don't add up.

Disney initially ran a lot of promotions that haven't all run out, but more importantly are bundled with a lot of stuff. Get Disney with AT&T fiber kind of thing. So they are being paid, but at a much lower negotiated rate.

Also all the streaming services were convinced if they "won" they would make ridiculous profits which led them to way overpay for content. That didn't work out so they are all raising prices and slashing budgets to try and balance out the scales.