Disappointing streaming changes are happening so fast that it's hard to keep up.
Below is a look at the most exasperating news from streaming services from this week. The scale of this article demonstrates how fast and frequently disappointing streaming news arises. Coincidentally, as we wrote this article, another price hike was announced.
We'll also examine each streaming platform's financial status to get an idea of what these companies are thinking (spoiler: They're thinking about money).
Netflix starts killing its cheapest ad-free plan in June
Sony bumps Crunchyroll prices weeks after shuttering Funimation
Peacock is raising prices
Fubo cuts 19 channels
In a seemingly desperate push, many streaming services prioritize revenue and profits ahead of building the best streaming service for customers.
We could go on about how this might force people to reconsider their subscriptions, but we should publish before another service makes yet another policy change.
I honestly think they offered good deals for a couple of years to lure the new generations into a false sense of security and make them forget how to pirate :D
They absolutely did. I used to pirate all my media 20 years ago, but then streaming became so convenient and relatively cheap that I just didn't bother with it anymore.
Now, they've pretty much pushed me back out to sea with their ever increasing prices and decreasing content that's worth watching. I'm not paying $15-20 per service, when they insist on fragmenting it to hell so I'd need 3-4 subscriptions to watch the things I want.
One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue. The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.
Still as relevant today as it was 13 years (dear god) ago. Sure, not every pirate would pay for media, just like not every pirate pays for games, but charging increasingly more money for a worse product is going to push people towards a solution that basically allows you to search for and watch anything you want, ad-free.
There's people practically begging to spend money for certain shows and movies to be available, but they're just not available on any streaming service. What else are they going to do?