Streaming media is a *very* different beast indeed. A few years ago, streaming crossed a line in the sand where to be even close to equivalent to a cable TV package it was more expensive. And that still won't get you the 700 random small channels that a cable TV package gets you.
And as you've said, the streamers are *still* raising prices.
I'd LOVE to say "wow, these streaming companies are so greedy, they're just ripping us off!" except... they're losing money. They are scrambling to add ads, crackdown on password sharing (or creating family plans for sharing accounts), raising prices, etc. just to stay above water. A ton of them are flat out losing money. And unlike cable, where they can have 700 random small channels, that model is struggling to exist in streaming too. Niche content is disappearing left and right. Netflix, which used to be able to replace a Blockbuster in terms of going back decades, is now just in-house stuff (which is very hit-or-miss) and the latest big time stuff. If you want to watch something from 10+ years ago, you're going to Amazon and paying... almost as much as a BluRay or DVD costs... and yet, Amazon is doing so poorly here they are adding ads! And they are like a distance... 3rd? 4th? 5th? place in this race? And alienating their audience with price hikes and ads? Because it's not a hidden thing that they are losing a bundle of money.
The streaming game is a disaster for these companies, it was kept artificially cheap to us, the consumers, for a decade or more thanks to investors being willing to lose money in exchange for market share, but ever since that collapsed a few years ago, and these companies have to sink or swim, we're seeing them sink.
It's kind of a mess, and I don't think consumers are willing to put the genie back into the bottle and return to cable TV (a model which produced profits for everyone at a price which now looks quite fair and reasonable in comparison to streaming).
I think we're going to be seeing a lot more price hikes in our future, because consumers seem to prefer buying these stations ad-hoc than just having the box from the cable company.
If I actually watched TV (I haven't been a regular TV viewer in decades), I'd be a cable subscriber, 100%.
J.Ja
