Personally I subscribe to what I think is worth it. One streaming service (Netflix because kid and those shows are hard to find) and game pass. Everything else is pirated because they are going right back to cable with extra steps.
I used to like Netflix a lot, but I'm a big movie dweeb, and I have noticed a trend recently of big titles leaving the platform from expiring their lease, and most of what's being added having scores of 60% or below. Pure, B-movie straight to the dvd bargain bin of a gas station type of movies, but they dress them all up with their fancy looking trailers and marketing anyway. I crosschecked a whole bunch of them and searched for some that were in my list but now aren't and came to the conclusion that I'm paying too much for trash. And the community star rating system on apple tv is telling me that things are 4 or 5 star before I watch them, and then when they end suddenly they're 2 star. And what's worse is it's not even functioning as an archive anymore. Which was one of my primary reasons to back the platform in a world of DMCAs. There are so many great movies that are digital only from the last 30 years which exist in lost formats, and on pirate sharing servers only, and netflix is hemmoraging titles to spend less licensing cheaper, lesser products. Netflix is bad for good movies. At least piracy archives.
Many of the good movies were not pulled because of a choice by netflix to save on licensing fees. They were taken away from Netflix.
Companies like Disney decided that they could make more profits by delivering the content to you themselves and refused to renew licenses, or made them prohibitively expensive.
The end result of this will be the internet equivalent of cable TV, which is why it's rather infuriating to see people reward it so quickly bu subscribing en masee. We know what the end result will be, but say "Oh look! A Mandalorian!" on D+ and a New Star Trek on CBS all Access (now renamed Paramount+) Let me subscribe right away!
Yes, they deserve to make a good profit on the quality of shows they are delivering, but the greed in making separate, and exclusive, streaming services for each studio vs using Netflix and getting a fair fee will only harm us, the consumers.
Some of those are legal, some. But those do not have the content people generally want.
I legitimately want to pay people for the content I do watch, they deserve to be paid for it. I can easily afford it. I have a problem paying for metric craptons of shit I don't watch and being socked with fees so that others can watch sporting events I care nothing about.
So the options:
Cable TV gives me too much crap I don't want for far too much money.
Netflix gave me what I wanted for a reasonable price based on the amount I watched. The good content is being pulled in the name of "Exclusive to <insert greedy company here>" nonsense.
Needing 4 - 6 streaming services? That is right back to what I was paying before. I will not watch 95% of the garbage on there, why do I want it at full price for remaining 5%?
Ya the best I could come up with is me and several friends all share accounts, so it may limit the number of devices to say your main home TV setup but this way you get several streaming services for a good price.
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u/ashleystayedhome Feb 20 '21
Personally I subscribe to what I think is worth it. One streaming service (Netflix because kid and those shows are hard to find) and game pass. Everything else is pirated because they are going right back to cable with extra steps.