According to a newsurvey conducted by Deloittein the 19th edition of its Digital Media Trends report, a staggering 60% of respondents say that they’d cut ties with their favorite streaming service if prices were to rise by an additional $5 per month.
If you’d brought this statistic to light a mere 5 years ago, it’d be a shocking revelation. Intoday’s media and streaming landscape, however, this finding is neither shocking nor particularly unexpected – at least not in my eyes.
I hate subscriptions as much as you do, but they’re here to stay
Consumers are overwhelmingly sick of subscriptions, but with one-time purchases fading, they likely aren’t going anywhere.
Anecdotally, there appears to be a growing sense of streaming and subscription service fatigue at the consumer-facing level. A number of factors are likely to be playing a role in this development: unsustainable price hikes,media conglomerate consolidation, the stratification of streaming platforms, and less forgiving economic conditions across the board.
Netflix is a global streaming service offering on-demand access to movies, TV shows, documentaries, and original content. Founded in 1997 as a DVD rental service, it transitioned to streaming in 2007 and now operates in over 190 countries.
Today’s streaming bubble is bound to burst
“You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”
Netflixis perhaps the most ubiquitous media streaming service of them all, and rightfully so. Its deep-seeded TV and film roots go as far back as the late nineties, when the company was in the mail-order DVD rental business. When the company pivoted over to an internet-based streaming platform model, history was made overnight.
The convenience of early-era Netflix was unprecedented. On-demand access to a massive catalog of shows and movies, including many all-time greats, was simply unheard of at the time. The ability to stream content via smart devices or game consoles through the Netflix app was a killer selling point, and it could all be had for a single recurring fee of $9 per month (roughly $13.28 adjusted for inflation).
It wasn’t long until problems began to arise, however.
It wasn’t long until problems began to arise, however. Once various intellectual property (IP) holders caught a whiff of Netflix’s lucrative business model, and once legacy cable and satellite TV networks began to feel the pinch, the entire media landscape was irreparably altered.
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One by one, companies began to pull their shows and films off of Netflix, opting to launch their own streaming services in lieu of any middleman. This has led to today’s situation, in which there are simply too many streamers to keep track of, each with its own walled-off content library.
Unfortunately, this fragmentation has resulted in the reemergence of the very concept consumers turned their back against when switching to Netflix in the first place. These days, the saturated streaming app scene resembles that of the cable bundles and packages of yesteryear.
If there’s one thing that seems certain, it’s that the modern streaming ecosystem is a bubble that’s just waiting to burst.
To add insult to injury, rising costs, inflation, and ad proliferation have all worked to pull the rug under steaming’s once-exciting prospects. A series of ongoing media consolidations makes the situation an even more volatile one, with no clear end in sight.
If there’s one thing that seems certain, it’s that the modern streaming ecosystem is a bubble that’s waiting to burst. Pocket-lint’s own Managing Editor, Amanda Kondolojy, recently put it fairly succinctly: “Streamers just can’t sustain a service that is more expensive and that gives consumers less every year.”
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Physical media is still king
We’re witnessing a revitalized interest in the ownership, collection of, and playback of physical media formats
As convenient as internet streaming services are on the surface, they come with plenty of sacrifices. Recurring payment fees add up over time, and yet ownership of your favorite media remains nonexistent – you’re simply paying for a (revocable) license to access content. IP holders are under no obligationto preserve their mediainto the future, and censorship is in some cases a very real threat.
Interestingly, physical mediais having its own renaissanceat the moment. Vinyl records are more popular than ever, and there’sa growing movement of peopleopting to enjoy their films and TV viaDVD,Blu-ray, or even the tried-and-trueVHS tapeformat.
For the time being, I’ll continue to build up my physical media collection of discs and cassettes.
As for what the future holds for Netflix et al., my guess is as good as yours. Once the media consolidation dust settles, I’m hopeful of a return to a more sensible and streamlined selection of streaming services. I’d love to see an industry-wide return to form – a future in which content can be found at a reasonable price point, and without the omnipresent threat of another price hike on the horizon.
For Netflix in particular, I reckon that its best path forward is to double down on original content – Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Bridgerton prove that the company is capable of producing high-quality media that can stand the test of time. Then again,Apple’s foray into TV+original contenthasn’t exactly been a cash cow, so nothing can be said for certain.
For the time being, I’ll continue to build up my physical media collection of discs and cassettes. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a Blu-ray begging to be slotted directly into my home entertainment setup.
