Sara Moore
Science & Environment Editor
On paper, streaming is an incredible idea: With just your phone or laptop, you can watch practically anything you want wherever you are. In practice however, streaming has many flaws that have only gotten worse in recent years.
One major issue with the industry is the number of streaming services. From heavy hitters like Netflix and Hulu, to genre specific services like Shudder and Crunchyroll, there are hundreds of streaming services clamoring for your business. This can make it difficult to find anything to watch on a single service since everything is spread out across platforms. Unless you only watch horror or you only want to watch media owned by Paramount, you will likely need multiple streaming services. Gone are the days when you could find anything your heart desired on Netflix. Now, every service has a few flagship movies and shows, and the rest of the platform is filled with original content and media you’ve never heard of. This oversaturation persists in Live TV, even with the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, as they all have exclusively-streamed games which makes it impossible to watch every single game without multiple subscriptions and access to cable. As the number of streaming services increases, companies have tried to make themselves stand out with little success.
Given the number of options for consumers to choose for their viewing pleasure, you would think the cost of a subscription would reflect the company’s desire to keep you as a customer. However, subscription prices have steadily risen in the past few years, despite the reduction of available shows and movies. Not to mention the increased number of ads and the crackdown on password sharing. Streaming services are charging us more, but they are giving us less, as even “ad free” packages contain ads embedded within the program and the new requirement to “check in” to the home network to maintain a shared subscription. We get ads in services we pay for, and we can’t share our account with friends or family. What is the money going towards, because it’s certainly not the programming.
While not every streaming service’s original content is bad, the chances of getting a show that has a solid beginning, middle and end is practically impossible. Popular shows are regularly cancelled after the first season, and those that aren’t are dragged out for so long that it is impossible to craft a proper ending. Not to mention the major gaps between seasons, which leads viewers to stop caring as actors age out of roles which makes the suspension of disbelief impossible. Movies aren’t any better, as studios often blow the budget choosing to cast big names leaving little money for writing, sets or special effects. Even those that are successful struggle to stay in public conversation as new media is constantly shuffled in. The few movies that are marketed are done to death until consumers are so exhausted by the constant bombardment that they can’t bring themselves to actually watch the movie, even if it’s good. Streaming services are not film studios, and they often struggle to create stories that are actually worth watching.
So, there are too many streaming services with nothing good to watch, constantly rising subscription prices and hit or miss original content. Where does that leave us? I’m not sure. Personally, I have started to collect DVDs. I have many fond memories of going to my local video store as a kid and there is something special about owning physical copies of my favorite movies and shows. Thrift stores are overflowing with DVDs, so it is not hard to find something to watch for a lot less than the monthly subscription to your favorite streaming service. DVDs also have tons of bonus features that are almost impossible to find on any streaming service. Plus, if you actually own the media, you never have to worry about what you’ll do if it ever leaves streaming. In a digital world, streaming may seem like the best option, but there is something magical about owning your own media and no longer giving your money to mega corps every month when you just want to watch TV.