“Streaming stops feeling infinite”: What subscribers can expect in 2026

Streaming may get a little worse before it gets better.

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[forgotn1]

El problema es el capitalismo. Streaming is awesome in theory, but the need for infinite growth means they can't leave things well enough alone and innovate in order to gain subscribers and increase watch time rather than to make things better/easier to use for existing customers. So, I'll keep buying my physical media and filling my personal server so I can stream stuff myself at home without need of streamers.

 

[Fred Duck]

Yaaar!!!

 

[Zapitron]

Most new content is lacking in any quality

Sturgeon's Law (98% of everything is crap) is timeless. Old content isn't any different; you're just seeing survivorship bias. Time-travel to 2006 or 1986 or 1966 and turn on a TV and what you see is very likely going to lack quality too.

Very likely, but not certain. There's a 2% chance it'll rock. That's just as true now as it was in the past.

 

[perrosdelaguerra]

Streaming is as or more expensive than cable? How? When I last had cable I recall prices of over $200 a month. What streaming services are people paying for that costs close to $200 a month?

Currently I have Prime Video but it comes with my Amazon Prime account. I don't consider it as a separate streaming charge. I get Disney but it comes with my Verizon cell service. Other than that I pay for Netflix. Overall its all still a lot cheaper for me.

Just my data point: I pay $160/month for Xfinity TV, Internet and (for some reason) VOIP. Internet is $91.90, so even if VOIP were free, I still pay less than $70/month for cable TV, including the "sports package," set-top box "rental" and the DVR option.

Hulu with Live TV starts at $89.99. Live TV alone through Hulu costs $88.99 and all you get is live TV, no streaming content.

https://help.hulu.com/article/hulu-how-much-does-hulu-cost#live-tv

 

[forgotn1]

You know what I would like to see... a bright-line separation between production of content and distribution of content. Some good old fashioned regulation, sort of like what we used to have in the financial services industry with the Glass–Steagall act, preventing commercial and investment banking under the same roof.

Companies like Netflix would have to divest their studios, Disney would be prohibited from owning its own "me too" streaming services, Comcast would have to give up its ownership in Philly sports teams, etc etc.

Netflix, Hulu, Fubo, and the other streaming services would be free to negotiate terms for content with whatever studios, sports teams, and other production companies they chose. Popular shows would probably be carried on more than one streaming service because they'd earn more money that way. Exclusivity deals would be prohibited (because that would effectively couple studios with distribution channels again). Streaming services could compete fairly, with bundles of content that they think appeals to their audience. Smaller services could license less content, or cheaper content, at lower monthly rates to subscribers.

Will never happen of course.

I've long believed that the current state of streaming began to form the second that Netflix decided to produce their own show. As soon as they did that, they stopped being a neutral third party that other studios were willing to sign licensing agreements with so that they could offload the costs of hosting content. Producing shows and movies meant that Netflix was now a competitor, so any licensing agreements were done begrudgingly and only happened if they'd make more money than hosting it themselves would.

 

[Fatesrider]

It's going to keep getting worse because we've lost even the pretense of regulation and consumer advocacy.

Build your own media server. Buy physical media.

They had their chance and they blew it.

And this I have done, and am doing.

Another option is to sub to niche streaming services, eschewing the "full feature" streaming service shit that cost twice or more per month, offers tons of content, of which, 99% is utter drek or simply so far off one's radar, they aren't even showing on the suggestions list. From a satisfaction per dollar spent, it's a better deal (better being subjective, of course).

I also tend to raid streaming services by recording the screens and audio of what they offer, not by capturing the file, but by capturing what I see and hear. This is obviously an attended activity, and can't be done automatically, but with streaming generally swapping out favorites that one might want to see when it's NOT available, it's a good option that, AFAIK, isn't illegal as long as the file doesn't get out into the wild (I'm paying for the service, after all, so that's still paying to view the content)

The only down side is I need a much larger capacity for my NAS, but given the cost of streaming, and the rest, it's cheaper in the long run to have a higher capital outlay one time than to be bled dry by streaming services which may only offer a single show or series worth watching in any given month.

So there ARE options that don't involve a lot more money to obtain media that one can watch pretty much anytime from the comfort of their own home. It just takes some out of the box thinking to obtain and keep the offerings one pays for.

 

[tenaku2]

Nothing on the internet gets better, any more.

Self hosted solutions are better than they've ever been.

 

[that guy strife]

But with that being said the ones that decry "woke" content are complaining because so much modern media feels like propaganda instead of entertainment. If a show has a gay, minority or strong female character that is not what makes it 'woke'. It's when the show feels like propaganda is when I will say a show is woke.

While I agree with you that seeing black people in a modern re-telling of a story where black people weren't present is jarring - those minorities have all been oppressed for a looong time and absolutely deserve their turn in the spotlight.

I wish we could just move to normalizing them and stop shoving them everywhere, but sadly the vast majority of people will need plenty of exposure to start accepting. So while it's grating to me, I'm glad it's happening.

 

[Matthew J.]

If government is inclined to get that intrusive - telling a company that they are prohibited from making their own content and then keeping it exclusive to their platform - then I have a couple of suggestions for intrusive government action that are a lot more important than teevee shows:

Regulate internet as a utility. Forget the content, I just mean connectivity.

Universal health care.

Once those are done, then they can go bother Netflix.

I'd be fine with all of those too, honestly.

 

[perrosdelaguerra]

Don’t forget your local library! Lots of DVDs and decent streaming, especially if you’re into old movies. I also subscribe (i.e., donate) to PBS and can stream all their stuff for $60/year.

This right here! I was just thinking the other day that I should get a new library card so I can access e-books more easily, but you're right: they have lots of digital content powered by Hoopla.

https://www.hoopladigital.com/home

 

[lithven]

Try community theater.

I just checked the Gaslight Theatre in Tucson. $29 per adult.

Bonus, the Gaslight Theatre is an amazing experience.. it's a dinner theater with audience participation.. you cheer the heroes and boo the villains.

Sure there are cheaper options, albeit limited in my area, but even at ~$30 a person that is still way more than the cost of streaming. My point is, you are not going to see a broad shift to live entertainment due to streaming being too expensive. Live entertainment will always be even more expensive.

 

[lolnova]

Still, every year we get more dependent on streaming for entertainment.

Speak for yourself.

 

[Darkly]

Aye, matey.

Splice the mainbraces and butter my crumpets... Or some such declaration.

 

[msadesign]

All the platforms make cancelling stupid-easy because they know that if they throw up barriers, you might never return.

My experience has been the opposite of easy. I cancelled Hulu and Paramount+, finding the process onerous as hell (although the AI chatbot was quite helpful, actually).

Worse, both are sending me dunning emails as reminders to pay up. It's irritating, and funny. I closed the bank account they were charging.

 

[SixDegrees]

My experience has been the opposite of easy. I cancelled Hulu and Paramount+, finding the process onerous as hell (although the AI chatbot was quite helpful, actually).

Worse, both are sending me dunning emails as reminders to pay up. It's irritating, and funny. I closed the bank account they were charging.

This has not been my experience. Netflix and Apple TV+ both have 1-click subscribing - and unsubscribing. Fast and simple. My Hulu sub is part of a Disney+ bundle, which likewise has 1-click unsubscribe.

I'm increasingly subscribing to a given service for one month to get caught up on new content they've released over the last year (or longer) then dropping again for another year (or more).

 

[fensox]

Started the Stormlight Archive novel series this year to move away from watching screens. I’ve gotten more entertainment out of the three books I’ve read than all the streaming I’ve done in two years. I highly recommend doing more reading (and that series is fantastic imho).

 

[Doomlord_uk]

I see little good in streaming's future. The price hikes are annoying, but still IMO offer value for money. But what truly offends is the lack of choice - so much back catalogue content is simply not there.

I for one will probably read more books this year. You can still buy those... for now, anyway.

 

[nerdrage]

If you want to get a good deal, first understand the economics of streaming. Streamers push ad tiers because getting ads and subscriptions is more lucrative for them than subscriptions alone. And jacking up the price is more likely to be noticed than increasing the ad load.

Bundles are more lucrative because their game is to get you to overspend for streaming platforms. You only need one at a time because you can't watch two simultaneously (one hopes) but most people do get more than one and bundles give them the illusion that they are getting a deal.

So opt for ad-free tiers and never opt for bundles.

As for content: I think we'll see more mainstream genre shows like The Pitt with a new season hitting reliably every year. If Netflix buys WBD, which seems likely, they might pull back on their tsunami-of-crap approach in favor of putting more resources into WBD franchise spinoff series. Throwing a metric shitton of money at Stranger Things sure seemed to pay off so why not dump a bundle on DC and Harry Potter?

 

[rbryanh]

We’re far from streaming’s original promise: instant access to beloved and undiscovered titles without the burden of ads, bundled services, or price gouging that have long been associated with cable.

In the 1960's, it was claimed that nuclear power would shortly render electricity so cheap that suppliers would no longer bother to meter it. Ward and June Cleaver were thrilled by the billboards.

Any human endeavor, no matter how perspicacious, wise, or good, will be undermined by human greed. Those who have too much always want more, and few of us have the courage to stop serving them. We live to harvest the crops, slaughter the animals, prepare the meals, and serve it all to the 0.01% while dressed in our least comfortable clothes while keeping our mouths shut. It seldom occurs to us we could just claim the estate, sit down in the kitchen, eat what we've made, and make fun of the assholes upstairs until they eventually give up and join the rest of humanity. Or starve.

 

[giantbee]

People who are inclined to go to all the trouble of piracy are lost as customers. You can't beat free.

That's just the point. It is less trouble these days, most of the time- easier and faster, even for the relatively non-technical. The hoops that you need to jump through are far less onerous than navigating the commercial streaming hellscape. This is why treating customers so badly while speedrunning the enshittification model is a bold gambit.

Even if you're not particularly price sensitive, you still care about not being unnecessarily dicked about.

 

[spoonerism]

Remember when "TLC" was short for "The Learning Channel?"

I had a photo of my paused TV from the mid-2000's where the corner promo read "Your watching TLC" and I was amused. This was when they rebranded and went heavily on the LA Ink-type shows, where prior I could watch Great Castles of Europe and learn about DaVinci designed stairwells in French Chateaus.

 

[EvolvedMonkey]

Not defending streaming here, but it is a lot cheaper than cable. Maybe people have short memories, but my experience with cable was that it was completely impossible to get the bill under $100/month. And that was with an extremely limited set of channels. With a bit of care and management, it's easy to cut that in half (or more) with streaming.

For now.
Anyone who has the title Darth should understand that the deal can be altered.

 

[zepi]

I’m half expecting independent production companies to start publishing their series / miniseries on youtube / vimeo / what not, maybe bundled with patreon for early access or some other monetization methods.

For sure not high budget stuff first, but never before has ”cheap” production looked as good as it does today.

 

[ChicagoCurmudgeon]

I am not sure if there is a term for it - at least there should be (like enshitification) in which a company raises the prices enough to continue to make more profit but does not care how many customers they piss off and lose in the meantime (like increasing the sub rate by $5 a month to 10 million customers, but losing 1 million still results in a 9m x $5 profit which is OK for them). At some point that curve will not continue to go up and I wonder when that will be. For me, it is getting close as I am cutting back on any subscriptions - but sometimes it is too hard... I have Apple TV and Apple News - and even with the family sharing, my S.O likes Pandora and her daughter likes Spotify (and has a separate cloud storage for her Verizon phone pictures where as I have ATT) - it is a painful path to break free from.... but we will get there...hopefully

I see the transition from:
Having your own service, to sharing a service, to checking out completely, to going for a walk in the park and no caring about the latest "must see tv"

Right now, if I cant easily find something that I am interested in - then screw-it, there is nothing that I want to watch that badly

I am also getting more concerned about tons of money getting put into buying up stuff that I dont have interest in and nothing that the costs will be pasted on to the customer - like wresting and netflix and the Super Bowl and Youtube..... all while trying to convince us that they are not following the same path as Cable and their zillions of channels of junk that get bundled in with what you really want (I dont recall ever watching ESPN, but I am sure I paid for it)

I agree - things will continue to get worse before they get worse....

Think for a moment. What business would want to have extra infrastructure for that 1 million customers when they make more money on fewer customers? For a while in streaming that would have meant losing less money, not making more. Would you take a job that had higher hours and less pay? Oh, and on top of that required you to buy more of your own equipment to work with and pay higher utility bills on top of it? No? Huh. Guess they are not alone.

 

[squiggit]

People who are inclined to go to all the trouble of piracy are lost as customers. You can't beat free.

I mean, past experience suggests you can. The heyday of almost everything on netflix for less than 10 bucks a month put film piracy in a crater in the same way cheap songs on itunes did for music sharing. It's only a strong dedication to greed that's eroded the streaming ecosystem over the last several years that has helped revive the world of piracy.


While there are dedicated communities of pirates who will avoid paying for anything, this line of thought vastly underestimates the number of people who turn to file sharing or illegal hosting because the act of gaining legitimate access is too cumbersome or difficult.

 

[10Nov1775]

Some experts doubt that streaming services will ever willingly stop increasing prices. Bill Yousman, professor and director of the Media Literacy and Digital Culture graduate program at Sacred Heart University, sees precedent for this in cable companies.

“If the big streaming companies had their way, there would be no limit to their price hikes. We have already seen this with the cable monopolies and their disregard for consumer dissatisfaction,” he said.

Yousman believes that prices will only “be brought under control if there is some type of government regulation,” but he noted that’s unlikely under the Trump administration.

I...is there to this professor's argument or point?

Because it sounds like he's basically assuming that there should be government regulation—price caps? "rent" control?—of streaming companies, and lamenting that the Trump administration won't do it.

Forget Trump—the creep of streaming prices is definitely annoying, but where is the justification for market intervention here? We don't like streaming prices rising, and we think companies should be forced to remain unprofitable because...we should have an inalienable right to cheap streaming entertainment?

I tend to lean towards government intervention in markets, especially heavily distorted markets and those with oligopolies, but even I have my limits. We don't have a god-given right to cheap streaming; if we don't like still-cheap but rising prices, we should do what we do for every other luxury—replace it with some other activity that is priced more to our liking.

 

[Verisimilitude]

A Solution: Go content free

Ditch all the streaming choices, completely

...or we are demanding lunch at less than the cost of providing that lunch

Businesses aim to make profit, and somebody has to pay for not just their good content, but their bad content, too...and all their other mis-takes

The money fueling thatrofit exists within our control...

 

[poltroon]

Those with taste didn't mind it though. Because it was well done. It was good art.

It was weaved into every aspect of the story with no visible seams. It's when you can see the seams as bright as the sun with no regard for the time tested skill of storytelling where it breaks the boundary into propaganda vs. good art.

This is a delightful self-own.

You didn't notice because you weren't 50 when you watched that episode of Star Trek and dedicated to a status quo where that was so controversial.

Consider that maybe your problem now is that you don't have enough taste, after all. Like maybe offer yourself up the mental flexibility to see what is making you react so strongly.

Propaganda is in everything, maybe especially in places you don't notice it. Those 80's action movies where police shoot at fleeing suspects is propaganda too, and we're all paying for it now.

 

[truth serum]

I...is there to this professor's argument or point?

Because it sounds like he's basically assuming that there should be government regulation—price caps? "rent" control?—of streaming companies, and lamenting that the Trump administration won't do it.

Forget Trump—the creep of streaming prices is definitely annoying, but where is the justification for market intervention here? We don't like streaming prices rising, and we think companies should be forced to remain unprofitable because...we should have an inalienable right to cheap streaming entertainment?

I tend to lean towards government intervention in markets, especially heavily distorted markets and those with oligopolies, but even I have my limits. We don't have a god-given right to cheap streaming; if we don't like still-cheap but rising prices, we should do what we do for every other luxury—replace it with some other activity that is priced more to our liking.

There was a time around 2010 where a coworker of mine said his cable bill was north of $200 a month. So if anyone thinks these streaming companies will stop raising prices anytime soon they are mistaken. They are aiming for your monthly dollar output to be near the equivalent of a small car payment. Unironically.

 

[poltroon]

I tried to watch something on Amazon Prime recently and just totally noped out from all the commercials and clumsy interface. I'm happy to pay for content I value but I don't want to watch terrible ads, and especially not constantly repeated terrible ads.

There are other services besides the big ones. We're currently supporting Crunchyroll for anime, and Dropout.tv for the actual play and nerdy humor shows like Game Changer. I especially appreciate Dropout for its attempt at good content that is ethical and comes from valuing its performers. And both of these are commercial free in the paid tier.

 

[Architect_of_Insanity]

Live sports is the main reason I never "cut the cord" and streaming is ruining that, too, because I now need a Peacock sub, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime to watch certain games. Fortunately, I'm an oldster and remember when sports fandom required reading ink on dead trees and games were time-delayed or only available on OTA, ad-supported audio, aka "radio." So, suck it, Comcast. I'm not paying you twice to watch the Warriors and the Giants on NBC and Peacock. Those teams just lose my support because I only watch games on NBC.

I have Apple TV through the Apple One bundle and I view Amazon Prime Video as a benefit of having Amazon Prime, but I really don't feel like paying any more than that, or sharing my viewing habits with more companies.

Prime's commercials are so invasive, that I don't even both with their content anymore. And I'm not paying the $3 kicker to get back to the service I had before.

 

[hillspuck]

No. You see the seams and you like the seams. There is a difference.

I see the seams in TOS. Literally.

 

[kvndoom]

This right here! I was just thinking the other day that I should get a new library card so I can access e-books more easily, but you're right: they have lots of digital content powered by Hoopla.

https://www.hoopladigital.com/home

And dont forget Kanopy! My local library happens to participate in both.

https://www.kanopy.com/en

 

[giantbee]

I mean, past experience suggests you can. The heyday of almost everything on netflix for less than 10 bucks a month put film piracy in a crater in the same way cheap songs on itunes did for music sharing. It's only a strong dedication to greed that's eroded the streaming ecosystem over the last several years that has helped revive the world of piracy.


While there are dedicated communities of pirates who will avoid paying for anything, this line of thought vastly underestimates the number of people who turn to file sharing or illegal hosting because the act of gaining legitimate access is too cumbersome or difficult.

It would have been an entirely valid argument to make years ago, mind. It's easy to assume that it's still challenging to sail the seven seas or set up a media server, especially if you're unaware of the many excellent free software projects that exist primarily to make these common requirements easy to satisfy. I suspect that it's easy to assume that you "understand this stuff" but have extremely out of date assumptions.

It's possible that this is also informing some of the choices that the streamers make.

I used to work for a specialist strategic consultancy that provided advice at a c-suite level to major media organisations. Most of our clients and a fair few of our consultants ran completely on stale assumption- several times I had to point out that advice given (sometimes at startling cost) was, to be generous, somewhat orthogonal to the actualité. The mechanic was very similar.

The question becomes whether the streamers catch on before the public does. Here be dragons.

 

[mikeschr]

This is what I get for not hanging out with Republicans enough: apparently I don't know what the word "woke" means. I thought it meant not-taking arbitrary bullshit from The Man. Now I find out it's simply a reference to gayness, rather than a reference to gays deciding they're not going to tolerate being treated as second-class citizens anymore.

The reason I tend to think of Apple as unwoke is that being an Apple customer is all about surrenduring to The Man and his bizarre, arbitrary prejudices, and letting him make all your decisions for you. A woke person would tell Apple to go fuck themselves.

Obviously my definition of "woke" has drifted away from the mainstream. Or was it the mainstream who drifted? Go look up what "woke" meant many decade ago.

Shit, I'm on the wrong side of history here, aren't I? One of you is about to explain to me that "hacker" really just means computer criminal rather than computer enthusiast now, and that my old point of view is wrong because it's old. Sigh. You unwoke bastards! ;-)

Your take on Apple is bizarre. I switched from PCs to Macs a while back and I don't feel inhibited in making any "decisions".

 

[Znomit]

Live sports is the #1 reason I cut the cord. Getting forced by cable companies for content I really didn't want, and was expensive to boot, made it an easy decision. Sports needs to go stand on their own two feet, not by taxing people who don't watch much, if any.

Our obsession with rugby and cricket evaporated over about 12 months when they switched to pay tv. I'll catch a national game now and then and have little idea who the players are.

 

[markgo]

We’ve discussed numerous negative implications, but there could be a silver lining. While we may see more turbulence, hopefully, we’ll also start to see a road toward more stable streaming options.

If stability means higher prices, fewer choices and more ads then how, exactly, is that a silver lining?

To the shareholders, perhaps. Not the viewers.

 

[Asbestos Muffins]

Streaming is still infinitely better than cable, much less the four fuzzy broadcast channels of my youth. Having thousands of shows and movies available instantly, without ads, whenever I want, remains the stuff of science fiction.

The decline in quantity of new shows, as well as the rise in prices, is just an inevitable reaction to the unsustainable gold rush at the beginning of the streaming era.

My biggest fear is the gobbling up of more and more media by right wing conglomerates. Paramount swallowing up and destroying CBS news, and now eyeing WB, is the stuff of nightmares. And if they decide to create an “antiwoke” Star Trek, my brain would probably shatter and my soul would shrivel up on the

i think the biggest issue with cable was the cable company. plutoTV is basically cable with less ads and no spectrum/concast involved