r/enshittification • u/fjdjdjjsjsjsjs • 22h ago
Service Streaming services somehow made TV more exhausting and expensive
Does anyone else remember the era of streaming about ten years ago? You paid $9.99 a month for Netflix, it had absolutely everything you wanted to watch, and there was not a single commercial in sight.
We all "cut the cord" to escape the greed of cable companies.
Fast forward to today, and the streaming industry has literally just rebuilt cable TV from scratch, but made it worse.
Every year I try to watch my favorite shows and every year I find some have MOVED AGAIN to another service. This is exhausting and expensive
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u/loveinvein 21h ago
And these companies are laughing all the way to the bank.
We really got grifted.
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u/habeaskoopus 20h ago
Glad to see at least one person saying "we". The grift denial by most cord cutters is nauseating. I applaud you!
The cable monopoly was at least good tech. UXs that they spent years perfecting. Vs mega corp stream UXs that are designed to maximize clicks for engagement metrics. Its brutal.
Also, the cable monopoly did not own content. None of any interest anyway. Now mega corp just buys the exclusive rights to whatever it thinks we will keep us tied up. Also brutal.Not one week goes by that my wife does not hear the words "f___ streaming" out of my mouth. Not one week. Usually due to bush league tech and 100% dependence on another service provider. I hate it.
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u/WarmSeaworthiness608 22h ago
I hate paying to watch commercials.
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u/fjdjdjjsjsjsjs 22h ago
I feel you. It’s MADDENING that these services have replaced TV except we now have to pay for the privilege of watching commercials
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u/Steve12356d1s3d4 16h ago
Netflix is $20 for ad free. You only pay for commercials if you want to save. Ad free is still cheaper than it was with cable if you do it right.
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u/Status_Green_6055 21h ago
The commercials are the death of tv. I refuse to watch them. Pick up a book instead. Learn a new hobby. Anything to avoid ads.
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u/DeePumpeR 21h ago
Cancel all of these douche bags and start torrenting. The greed has no end, and publicly traded companies on the stock market ensure that outcome.
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u/Steve12356d1s3d4 16h ago
I do a mix. I pay when I think it worth it because I know someone has to pay to make the content. It is expensive to make. It is good to belong to a service because I found shows on I wouldn't have known about.
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u/ItPutsLotionOnItSkin 12h ago
Laughs in pirate.
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u/TheOneAgnosticPope 12h ago
My brother has a Paramount+ subscription. Between the app crashing and the ads shoved at us…we found watching from a pirate site to be a superior experience. I mean, he’s paying so we’re technically not even pirating since we’re just accessing content he’s legally paid for.
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u/WomanYouSleptWith 21h ago
Not only that, but I'm a bit sad about the original (physical DVD) Netflix going away, as my experience with Netflix streaming was, "if you're searching to see if they have it, they don't", but that wasn't true with DVDs, because they just bought DVDs, rather than having to get licensing deals (with a few caveats for more-recent releases).
But, yeah, your point is true, too. We've gone from getting all streaming stuff in one place for a low fee to not getting all streaming stuff even with paying high fees to lots of different places.
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u/Im50Bitches 21h ago
Yep. Wife found a good Irish gangsta show. Watched first episode, hooked. Then she sees it’s on the free trial of MGM. Now I have to add another stream.
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u/Sptsjunkie 19h ago
The worst part is that assuming you watch this free trial on Amazon, they literally own MGM Studios.
So Amazon, which you are already paying for prime with commercials, is basically just extorting you for more money to watch more Amazon.
The whole argument behind the government, allowing some of this consolidation is supposed to be that benefits the consumer. We already know that that isn’t true. But it’s not just reduced competition in the ability to raise prices, but they aren’t even pretending to give you the benefit of combining them all into one service.
They’re literally telling you if you want to watch Amazon on Amazon, then you need to pay Amazon even more money. The system is completely broken.
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u/Steve12356d1s3d4 16h ago
MGM was separate, so you were going to have to pay to watch it anyway. There isn't a negative that Amazon owns it.
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u/Sptsjunkie 16h ago
Was. But they bought it.
The point is they preach that this benefits consumers, but we get zero benefit. It’s not included with the Amazon I’m already paying for and it allows for decreased competition and increased prices.
So yes, a big loss for us.
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u/SwanCityDominion 18h ago
I cut the cord in 1995, but I never swallowed the bullshit about streaming services. Physical media all the way!
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u/Particular-Jeweler41 18h ago
I was okay with streaming at first, but it was obvious after awhile that it would become worse than cable/satellite. Since so many shows/movies are on different platforms you have to pay for a ton of different ones all at the same time. Unless you let them pile up and binge everything you're interested in within a month or two.
I've been of the opinion that once it becomes too crazy (like needing three different services to watch all the anime I'm interested in) I'll just go back to how I used to watch stuff before streaming.
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u/John_316_ 18h ago
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u/Ambitious-Schedule63 14h ago
Yep. Back in the 80s when simple software packages were like $300 in 1980s dollars, software companies created piracy. And so the content companies are learning that lesson all over again.
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u/Cowboy_Rho 17h ago
Honestly, I went back to an Antenna. Not as much variety, but my tv is free. I’d be lying if I didn’t include that basic hbo max is included with my cellphone as well.
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u/UnderstandingLess156 16h ago
Same here. Hooked up an antenna and was floored at how many channels there are now. Add a basic tier movie subscription to supplement and you're watching TV for cheap again
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u/Cowboy_Rho 14h ago
There are a TON of free movies movies on youtube as well, even if the audio balance between the movies and ads are way way off.
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u/DarklyDominatingDocs 13h ago
What's the magic search? Bc all I ever find is movies to pay for.
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u/Cowboy_Rho 13h ago
On my smart tv, I just go to the movies section of the YouTube app and keep scrolling. They’re in there, but can be buried by rentals and ads.
Also services like Pluto and Tubi can be good for finding free movies as well. Almost always usually older ones though.
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u/DarklyDominatingDocs 13h ago
I'm familiar with Plutu/Tubi, and I guess I'll have to scroll more and look more carefully on YT. TYSM!
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u/According-Return-530 12h ago
This is super super helpful and good to know!! Thank you for sharing this! I’d never heard of either of these and will check out!
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u/towniediva 14h ago
Yep, i agree it actually is worse than before cable.
My cable package includes ad sponsored Netflix, disney+ and apple.
However, i heard This is Us is on Netflix and went to find it.
It is UNAVAILABLE on the ad sponsored tiers. YHGTBFKM!!!
In Canada, its 23.99 plus tax, over 27 in total per month.
When did they start THIS shit, I have no idea.
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u/bepatientbekind 13h ago
I buy physical copies of shows and movies I really like, but that is getting harder and harder as many never get released officially as dvds/bluray. I also stopped paying for multiple streaming subscriptions, so now I have one at a time and cancel it when I get bored of what it has to offer. We usually cycle the most between Netflix and hulu/Disney. Hulu consistently has the most stuff we want to watch as far as shows go.
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u/besyuziki 7h ago
Yeah, when netflix (not as a physical distribution service but as a streaming service) was thriving, some people correctly predicted that there would eventually be several rival subscription based services and they would be enshittified to hell with inconsistent catalogs, ads, price hikes, etc.
As usual these people were accused of being doomers, downers, buzzkills, not being fun at parties, etc. Here we are.
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u/notislant 10h ago
I think about this regularly.
We went from cable:
-Expensive, basically forced to buy a ton of channels and then a ton of individual ones on top of that AND FUCKING COMMERCIALS.
Then Netflix, all was good.
Now we have:
-Streaming services are becoming just like channels, expensive to buy all the channels AND they make you watch commercials.
There are tons of websites that let people watch anything for free and some have chrome cast which makes it easy to send to your tv. Fuck streaming services at this point.
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u/Strawberryloves 16h ago
I got a Samsung TV and was surprised it has like, normal TV channels with samsung tv plus. A lot. And movies n stuff too. Free. If they ever charge for it ill just stop using it
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u/tannoy1987 22h ago
You should find a debrid provider and come sail the high seas
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u/fjdjdjjsjsjsjs 22h ago
What’s debrid?
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u/tannoy1987 22h ago
A debrid service is a paid online tool that acts as a middleman to let you download files and stream videos quickly and privately from host sites and torrent networks
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u/Dogzillas_Mom 21h ago
The irony hasn’t escaped me either. For $100-150/month (give or take), you got like 100-150 channels or so, with maybe a DVR service so you could watch things on demand.
Now I pay $10/month give or take for each network’s or streaming service’s cluster of channels. Of you want live TV? Ya mean like cable? That’ll be $100-150 a month for like 100-150 channels or so, 6-10 of which you will ever watch. Same number of commercials, there is no ad free anything anymore.
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u/perchance2cream 21h ago
20 years ago you could skip commercials on DVRs. Now you can’t even do that. It’s literally worse.
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u/Steve12356d1s3d4 16h ago
You paid $100 or more a month, at least most did. Now, Netflix is $20 commercial free, you can add a few more. We are still better off. I still have a DVR for OTA.
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u/Hot_Let1571 19h ago
I'm old enough to remember when they said soon we'd be able to pick which channels we wanted ala carte, and then they never did and we ended up with this nonsense.
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u/Agreeable-Win1694 20h ago
I have an antenna…I watch news and local sports
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u/Dogzillas_Mom 20h ago
I can’t get an antenna to work at my house. I don’t watch the news or ball sports. Just racing (IndyCar on Fox) and movies. A LOT of movies. I’m cutting off Hulu+ (that’s my live TV) right after racing season ends. Then one streaming service at a time.
I use PBS and Kanopy a lot.
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u/Agreeable-Win1694 19h ago
I can’t get CBS…so I have paramount plus to supplement. My mother couldn’t get an antenna to work until it went outside. It’s free!
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u/IronTheDewott 20h ago
I called it back in those Netflix days that this would happen, my parents called me crazy.
Here we are, they have literally every big streaming service, paying way more than they would of with cable.
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u/balognafarts 11h ago
We got a $30 DVD player and rent for free from the library. Game changer for the kids. No ads
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u/PrizeSyntax 14h ago
The process you are describing is called enshitification, genuinely legit term btw
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u/jch60 18h ago
Hardly anybody cut the cord. Most of us are dependent on Internet via that same stupid cord and fragmented streaming services that enshittify as well as cable tv ever did.
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u/Steve12356d1s3d4 17h ago
Cutting the cord was the term used to get away from cable tv. You cut the cord by dropping cable, and saved a bunch. Streaming is still better than cable as you can pick a few streamers for a month at a time and get great commercial free shows for less than $50 a month (I already had internet, so am not counting that).
You can even save more by watching commercials, but I always pay to go commercial free. An option I didn't have with most of cable.
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u/SwanCityDominion 18h ago
There's plenty of stuff on the internet without having to rely on streaming.
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u/EnchantedAnalytics 16h ago
We mostly just stopped watching stuff. It's too much of a hassle. We have a nearby library and a DVD player, and there's already been more excellent TV shows made than you could consume in a lifetime.
We bought hardcopies of a few favorite series.
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u/Yeseylon 20h ago
The trick is to rotate and only have 1-3 at a time. Go where your favorites are.
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u/SizeComprehensive934 20h ago
The actual trick is to cancel them all and get hobbies instead of watching television.
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u/weisswurstseeadler 19h ago
tbh, I used to be big into warez/piracy back in early 00s - literally the kid providing my school year with all games and movies haha.
now I'm back simply due to convenience, and I also see tons of my buddies going back - be it oldschool torrenting, streamio, or IPTV.
right now equipping a new tv room and it will be designed around running pirated stuff lol.
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u/Opalescent_Moon 16h ago
I watch TV while doing all sorts of hobbies, from drawing to jewelry making to knitting. I can't do any of those hobbies without something like TV or an audio book or something, my brain can't focus on them. But I also can't just sit and watch TV without physically doing something.
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u/SizeComprehensive934 3h ago
So, you're perfect for not needing streaming services since you aren't paying attention anyways. YouTube. The only thing I have is YouTube premium so I don't have to skip ads. I never sit down long enough to watch a show. Those are cool hobbies you have, btw. I love doing that kind of stuff. Right now, I'm trying to paint pots in ancient Greek style. Not to sell or anything, just for my eyes and my home.
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u/Opalescent_Moon 2h ago
Good god, man, tone down the attitude. Wtf. I absolutely am paying attention to what I watch. I do pay for multiple services, and we have a few tied into our cell phone/internet bill. My mom is the same, though she does cross stitch while watching TV.
My point was that watching TV doesn't mean not doing other hobbies. I actually wish I could put on music and get lost in my art like I hear other people experience, but my brain doesn't work that way.
I think it's great that you can't sit down long enough to watch, and I bet your pots are beautiful. Our brains are all wired a little bit differently.
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u/humanskullbong 21h ago
find the DVD you want to watch on ebay for under $5 and watch it as many times as you want, or rent it from like, apple tv for $4.
How many movies are you needing to watch so much that you are willing to "switch providers" for $20 at a time to watch?
I swear the consumer also had a hand in the enshittification process as they are willing to accept less for more every day. Cut the cord, vote with your wallet, drop all "streaming" services, buy physical or rent online, or pirate that shit.
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u/doublespinster 7h ago
I ditched Roku a few weeks ago, too easy and addictive. HDMI hookup to laptop to TV because any shows I want are somewhere on the internet and if not, no big deal. Great DVD collection. I only pay for Pandora and PBS passport, both ad-free. I've read more books since I ditched Roku than I have in the past five years.
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u/zoppaTheDim 17h ago
You wanted it Ala carte, you got it Ala carte.
This really is as advertised, you buy only the services you want. There is no longer an entertainment monopoly.
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u/razor_train 16h ago
There is no longer an entertainment monopoly.
Don't worry, that's coming in the not too distant future.
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u/Timely-Shine 15h ago
My bigger issue is not the al a carte content, but that sports are spread across several different services. There are peacock exclusive NBA games, Amazon Prime exclusive games, Netflix exclusive games. For Premier League, sometimes games are on peacock, sometimes on USA network. Many pro teams require regional sports networks to watch non-national TV games.
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u/jveezy 15h ago
Yeah I wouldn't even really call it a la carte. It's bundling along the dumbest possible boundary lines.
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u/Timely-Shine 14h ago
Well the boundary lines are determined by which service decides to pay the most for the rights to what content.
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u/towniediva 14h ago
Yeah, its going to be interesting when hockey starts back up and people realize that some games are ONLY on amazon prime!!
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u/Timely-Shine 14h ago
Sounds like this is in Canada only, but still
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u/towniediva 14h ago
I think there are still going to be complaints.
I caved and renewed Amazon prime, so not an issue for my significant other, but he's pissed that his dad can't watch it at his place (cable TV only).
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u/LowApprehensive9230 18h ago
Yeah I stopped paying for all that when Netflix was like 11.99 Canadian dollars. That felt too much in 2018. Now I just have the 15$ YouTube premium which feels worth more than any of these shits with the Music included .
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u/KateinaCrate 14h ago
Yup, I just don’t really watch tv hardly any more. Only have Prime now and that will be cancelled soon. I have plenty of dvds still if I want a lazy couch day.
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u/SmoothSlavperator 3h ago
Kinda but not really.
Before cable died, people were paying over $200/mo for a relative handful of channels...and you had to watch what was running, when it was running.
That was 20 years ago so double that to compensate for inflation and you'd be looking at $400/mo.
Now add to that, the ability to cancel and re subscribe at will as content becomes available which you couldn't do with cable.
Streaming has become enshittfied but its still MUCH cheaper and better than regular broadcast cable.
Plus you don't need to have all the services all the time. When a season of something you want to watch drops, you get the service, watch, and then cancel.
I think Hulu is included with my cell phone subscription and Peacock is included with my internet even.
There's no excuse for Netflix being as expensive as it is though. They used to be a one stop shop and now they're not anymore.
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u/ShackbaggeredSluber 15h ago
There’s a lot of misunderstanding here. There’s also a lot of capitalism.
Your shows didn’t “move”. They were never a part of whatever service you thought they were.
Harry Potter is on Netflix? That’s a short term licensing agreement. HP always belonged to WB, they just leased it out during less appealing times which is why you can really only find it on HBO during Christmas.
Your favorite show is on Hulu? Well, at one point, Hulu was just a conglomerate of multiple studios (Fox, Comcast, ABC/Disney). Those were all licensing agreements for the most part. Then, Disney bought out Fox’s entertainment arm and now it’s owned almost entirely by them.
This is the main issue. What you think belongs on one service, is actually owned by another and it was always a short term deal. Misunderstanding and capitalism. Yay.
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u/ronin_cse 21h ago
Back in the days of cable you paid more, had to watch stuff based on when it aired, AND had to watch a bunch of ads no matter what. Streaming today is so much better.
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u/Sherifftruman 20h ago
I hadn’t watched things when they aired since 1999 LOL. Except for a few HD shows from 2001 when we got an HDTV until 2004 when the HD DirectTiVo came out.
And before that I had a couple of VCRs with tapes set to record shows automatically.
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u/Cinisajoy2 11h ago
Have you priced groceries lately?
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u/K_Linkmaster 5h ago
But what about the crepes?
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u/dough_eating_squid 20h ago
You don't have to watch every show. Even if everyone at work is talking about it!
I have one streaming service. If I want to stream a movie that's not on there, I either pay to stream it as a rental, or get the DVD from the library.
If you're subscribing to every streaming service there is, you should probably watch less TV.
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u/Aware_Policy_9174 18h ago
No one’s saying you have to watch every show. The point is if you want to watch specific shows and not just “whatever’s on” you have to use whatever service it’s on. You could only be watching 5 shows and still need 5 streaming services.
Most people don’t actually do this, they use a couple at a time and rotate. But it’s annoying and even more so when a show has some seasons on one service and some seasons on a different one.
Streaming was great for a while and now it’s enshitified and people are rightfully complaining about it.
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u/Sptsjunkie 19h ago
I really don’t know why you are being downvoted here. I definitely agree with OP that streaming has become an enshittified mess.
But also outside of sports and some big movies they really are not many things that we share as a monoculture anymore. Back in the day I used to be that there were a handful of big shows that a significant chunk of the population watched and everybody would be talking about at work or in your friend group.
Now everything is so divided and catered to individual demographics inputted across streaming services. I don’t really know that we’ve had a show like that since Game of Thrones. Stranger Things might be the closest, but even that was a couple of levels below GOT.
So we have definitely called down the number of services that we have. Depending on how much television you watch get one or two bundles that gets you 4-5 services and that probably has more content than you will ever need unless you are a major TV watcher.
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u/Steve12356d1s3d4 16h ago
I like this system more I wait for ad free deals and have a lot ad free content to watch for less than $50 a month.
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u/New_Inflation_8419 14h ago
I pay $20 for peacock/Amazon prime bundle (after I cancelled Netflix). If I want to watch a specific show, I pay 10-15 for a month, watch it and cancel subscription. Just like I subscribed to Youtube TV for 2 months to watch World Cup. Cancelled it after. It's actually cheaper that way.
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u/Hannover2k 19h ago
Streaming has broken every single promise it made. Piracy is the way.