OldBoy

A new one crops up everyday. I have nearly all of them and use some more than others, but each one is unique and have their owned movies and tv and whatnot. Each has at least one thing I watch or want to watch yada yada. But, it’s like addicting to have them all and have everything at the touch of a button. It’s maddening sometimes, the choices. Anyway, it’s out of control imo.

Giantrobo

^Sounds like YOU are out of control. Streamers gonna Stream...

But I hear ya. There are several Streamers I want to sub too but I have a hard time justifying spending more money. i.e. I want to see that Monarch Show on Apple TV, I want the Criterion service, etc.

DJariya

You have to know yourself and how much free time you actually have. Otherwise you're just wasting money on something you don't have time to watch.

Plus, if you're buying new digital movies, along with physical media and video games, when the hell are you going to have time to eat, work or get some fresh air?

There is a lot of programming that comes out every month that this forum barely pays attention, because most just don't have time. And that's totally understandable.

TheBang

With prices rising, and ad tiers being pushed, it really is time to be churning. Just subscribe to the one you want to binge for a month or two and then cancel.

kefrank

I’m the opposite of the OP. I don’t find having a bunch of streaming services addictive. The only one I keep indefinitely is The Criterion Channel because I watch stuff on it all the time. I also get Max for free with my home internet. I’ve canceled every other subscription service. Between The Criterion Channel, Max and Kanopy (through my local library) I have more quality content available than I could ever watch. If there’s something really compelling on another service I subscribe long enough to watch it and then cancel but I really don’t do that very often.

fujishig

We have more content then we have ever had before, with almost complete access to a ton of older content, on demand. Yet there's still only so many hours in the day you can devote to watching stuff. You want less choice so you can control your impulses better? Well that may yet come but I doubt we'll be happy about it.

At least you didn't say "well it's cable all over again." At least as of right now you can subscribe to any streaming service for a month, watch all the content they currently have on demand, then cancel the next month. You could never do that with cable. Oh you want to watch all the shows before this to catch up? Well hopefully there's a rerun scheduled soon.

mndtrp

At this point, I only have Disney+. We don't watch a whole lot of TV/Movies at our house. For our movie nights, the kids are getting old enough that we have been showing them movies from decades ago that we already own. If we find a need to have other subscriptions in the future, we'll likely subscribe for one at a time, and rotate through as needed.

Red Dog

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous.

I plan to dump Apple+ right before my upcoming monthly renewal with the ridiculous price increase. I'll probably lose out on the rest of For All Mankind until I renew. But there is no word on Silo and Severance which were probably my 2 favorite shows in the last year or 2. So until those come back, bye bye Apple.

I have Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ through my Verizon mobile account and that price hasn't changed.

I have Netflix and Amazon Prime (just renewed Prime for a year after dumping it in January). I might dump out of Netflix after I watch The Crown.

I grab MAX and Paramount off shared family accounts/passwords.

Eddie W

I don't know if I would call them out of control because no one is being forced to subscribe to them. If someone doesn't like them they can continue paying $150/mo for cable in order to watch prescription drug commercials briefly interrupted by cheap reality programming. At least with streaming, the value is comparable to the cost.

I do wish someone would invent a device that gives a more DVR like list of everything I'm watching though. I tend to watch a few episodes, then forget I'm watching. Trying to navigate a bunch of thumbnails across multiple platforms is very frustrating. Tivo sort of tried it with the Tivo Stream, but with Netflix opting it out, it was all but useless.

Giantrobo

Cue the, "This is what you asked for while bitching about Cable!!" commenters...

fujishig

If only we could go back to the good old days when I was home for the Summer and watched Leave it to Beaver and soap operas because that's all that was on, or try to wake up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to get a glimpse of some new cartoons

Kids today don't know how good they had it.

Giantrobo

Also, check out who's giving Streaming for free. I just called T-Mobile to ask an unrelated to Streaming question. Well while talking to the Rep, I discovered they are also offering FREE Netflix and free Apple TV. They already had me grandfathered in for free Hulu from being a Sprint customer so that was a nice discovery.

Meathead

The Apple TV does a good job with that except for Netflix. They just refuse to participate with anyone. Amazon, Disney, Hulu, Max, Paramount, Peacock, Starz all work (non exhaustive list).

Peak streaming is definitely behind us now. Avoiding the ads is (already) getting harder and more expensive.