this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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Having 5 streaming services instead of 2 when they each have exclusive content isn't competition, it's just separate small monopolies. They hold the content hostage and you can't actually choose when you want to watch something specific.
It'd only be competitive if they all had the same catalogue or you didn't care at all what you watch, which I suspect just isn't a reality for most people.
They're all trying to have enough to watch to keep you subscribed all the time, which means they have an incentive to keep making more good shows. But there's no world where 5 streaming services will have something I'll want to watch every month, so it's pretty easy to just cancel until you've got a handful of shows to go through on that service. Then you subscribe for a month or two and come back later. That's way, way better than a local television monopoly like cable typically had, with channels you couldn't opt out of for a cheaper bill, that still forced commercials on you regardless of your exorbitant bill.
That's so convoluted that at that point I can just torrent the show. It's easier, faster, free and I don't have to wait for it or try to figure out which streaming service has it.
That's not convoluted in the least bit, nor is it faster or easier to torrent. If you somehow found out about a show but not which service it was on, there's justwatch.com.