I adore the convenience that streaming services offer since they’ve made it easier to access a variety of shows and genres but sometimes, I feel like I’m spoiled for choice.
Looking at the multiple apps I have reminds me of the days when my family had cable and how I’d flip through dozens of channels just to see if anything would catch my eye. That in itself was mildly entertaining and I don’t have a problem with the deluge of streaming services that have shown up within the past decade.
It feels as if there is an app for every major network, genre, and company that wants to throw their hat in the ring like Apple and Amazon.
Some companies like Netflix even offer different tiers for their subscriptions where the fidelity of what you are watching will vary and others like Hulu will have prices that dictate if your experience will be ad free. I feel like this variety is going to recomplicate how people watch TV.
Going against my initial idea of convenience is the feeling of looking through different apps like they’re cable packages to see which is offering me the best deal for what I want to watch.
On top of that, some services for specific brands don’t offer everything under that company’s ownership due to partnerships they’ll make with other services.
That’s not considering potential mergers like what is currently happening with HBO and Paramount which has led to the cancellation and removal of multiple projects along with a change in pricing and plans for 2023.
There are other problems like Netflix’s interest in tracking login locations because of how people share accounts to save money and how more apps are adopting the ad vs ad free pricing models instead of outright being ad free for a good price. As much as it feels like the return to cable, I still believe that streaming is a more versatile choice that has better individual offerings for whatever interests the viewer. Just be sure to pay attention to what you buy into.
