“Streaming stops feeling infinite”: What subscribers can expect in 2026
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A lot of people claimed Netflix would soon be circling the drain when it clamped down on subscription sharing. Instead, their clamp down and their offer to pay a much-reduced rate for (I think) up to two other users wound up increasing subscriptions.
Now, with a lot of primary subscribers also maintaining add-on subs for remote family members, there's greater reluctance to drop the primary subscription, because it'll cut the secondaries off, too. So this whole plan turns out to buffer Netflix against JIT subscribers.
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Paid streaming can die for all I care. I don't even care about pirating theirs when I can't finish watching the good free content available elsewhere as it is.
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Yup, and TBH those few shows are usually on physical media within 6 months. As we move further and further from push to pull for content, there's less and less incentive to WATCH NOW! and just catch it later. That also makes the competition for a new show a rewatch (or a delayed initial watch) of anything created in the last 50+ years. That's serious competition... Talent (actors, producers, etc...) are even competing with their younger selves.
But as they say, it doesn't get easier, you just go faster. (Or is that cycling?)
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digitalrelic
Smack-Fu Master, in training
The streaming media honeymoon is definitely long over at this point.
I'm moving to ripping my physical media and streaming my owned files locally. It's really the only sustainable course of action at this point for me. But I know this isn't an option for most.
I'm moving to ripping my physical media and streaming my owned files locally. It's really the only sustainable course of action at this point for me. But I know this isn't an option for most.
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Spectrum Cable TV subscribers now have free access to the ad-supported versions of most of the popular streaming services. (Netflix and Apple are the most notable exceptions.)
Have any of the other cable TV companies made similar deals with streaming services?
Have any of the other cable TV companies made similar deals with streaming services?
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As far as I understand, Megalopolis was pulled from all streaming services, then a few months later added to MUBI as an exclusive.
So it's still available for streaming, just not with the major services.
It seems to have found a natural home on MUBI. Sorting the film list by "Popularity", it's currently one space below Plan 9 from Outer Space.
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So basically, it will suck in every way? Because it sounds like it will suck in every way.
After we deal with the worst things in this country, the anti-consumer and anti-competitive nature of business here (which are intimately linked) has to be destroyed, too.
So many wrongs to right, so little time.
After we deal with the worst things in this country, the anti-consumer and anti-competitive nature of business here (which are intimately linked) has to be destroyed, too.
So many wrongs to right, so little time.
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Your post here excellently addresses this articles stated issues with streaming....
.... For me, streaming is still far cheaper and convenient than going to the cinema, or buying TV shows on box sets of DVDs. For movies, I like to rewind and pause at my own leisure, not to mention have closed captioning on!
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Genuine question... is it REALLY? The "hear me out part"...
I use sites/apps like JustWatch to tell me where to find stuff. In the past few years, I rotate streaming services to save money. This lets me go ad-free without breaking the bank (I only have one streaming service at a time, and that's only $13 to $20 per month). With modern consumerism, you pay for convenience. For example, want your food ready to eat? That'll cost you. An arm and a leg even to have it delivered to your door! Otherwise, go out and get it yourself. Not to mention buy and cook your own chicken. To save even more money, buy a whole chicken and cut it up yourself! Or make your own salads. However, salad kits and bowls still sell very well, so people still crave that convenience.
It's fair to say you miss the times when it was Netflix and just Netflix that had everything, for $8/mo, ad-free. But streaming did start off as loss leaders with how saturated that market's become. We were never going to return to those times (barring some miracle, or government intervention. But if we could have that, I'd rather gasoline be 80 cents to $1 per gallon again).
The only way cable TV is cheaper is if you need live TV and/or some variety of sports. I don't care about those so as mentioned above, $13 to $20 a month gets me a smorgasbord of content, on demand, AND ad-free. "Can't do that with cable". I checked out my parents' cable TV bill and they get charged $120/month. My mom is familiar with how to use a remote and TV, while my dad wants various NBA games. More importantly, they're paying it with their own money, so I'm especially not one to tell them how to spend their $$.
Also, rotate streaming services. Not only does it save money (which I could stand to save), but time's also the bottleneck that having multiples of them wouldn't add any value for me. If you REALLY need access to multiple ss at a time, then go for it, but otherwise, it's a form of FOMO, which is the real culprit with consumers.
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TL;DR, I can't do physical media. I will say that progress in regulation and consumer are still in order (although I'm not counting on this administration to lift a finger for that cause).
I have about a dozen DVDs and BDs that I haven't touched in over 8 years, so you can see where I'm coming from (it also puts streaming prices into better perspective). Streaming is still OK with me because it's rare that I'll want to rewatch stuff. At best, I'll see if I can catch key clips on YouTube. Otherwise, I move on. I got plenty of content I'd like to get to.
I've had to move many times in the past couple of decades for work. Having so much physical media can easily add a nontrivial amount of money to your move. My last move was 2,500+ miles. I didn't want to rent and drive a Uhaul, so I opted to ship my stuff over, and rode a plane. Shipping one box that measures (in inches) 14 W x 16 L x 14 H, weighing around 30 to 35 lbs., set me back $35 to $40. Even if your employer does pay for shipping, it's still a lot of time and energy to pack/unpack them. Speaking of which...
I've been to people's houses where they have wall-to-wall-to-wall shelves and boxes of comic books, novels, magazines, newspapers, photos, DVDs, Blu Rays, video games, board games, etc. No judgment from me because it seems like those folks have the space for all of that. Not to mention the money, and space for all of that. If I had to ship even a fraction of that over, I'd be paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars, although the lot of it would be thousands of $'s.
Some programming not on streaming, or existing content getting yanked, does suck. But that doesn't seem to describe the woes of your typical streaming consumer. I have no doubt that this community can pirate (if not already), but places like on Ars tend to be the vocal minority. Even if we leave out the folks that can barely use internet (I know some elderly folk like this), I just don't see consumers bothering with VPNs, how to set all of that up, etc. At the end of the day, convenience is king, and throwing $13 to $20 a month for a streaming service to get shows and films for viewing with a few mouse clicks, remote control presses, or touchscreen taps, is about as easy as it gets. This community is also much less tolerant of ads, but consumers in general don't seem to mind them. There, streaming services are cheap, or VERY cheap with deals (since "ad-filled" plans often get the best discounts), if not free.
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Oh, you're right. That's news for me. I had heard it would eventually hit Peacock due to contractual requirements, but it isn't there yet. I'd guess Mubi had a similar deal, because Coppola's latest rant makes it clear he wants people in theater seats and nowhere else.
Not surprised that it still ranks as awful. From what I've heard it could be the worst movie ever made, but imo that's a bottomless hole.
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I'm over streaming. At one point I had basically every platform there is: Netflix, HBO, Paramount, Peacock, YouTube TV, etc
I have cancelled them all except for Netflix. I would cancel it as well, but my wife refuses. I still have HBO and Amazon video because HBO comes free with my internet provider and Amazon is included in Prime. I couldn't tell you the last time I logged into either of them.
I have been buying movies on the iTunes Store since they started offering them in 2006. Every Tuesday Apple has $5 movie deals so I usually peruse that to see if they have anything I want. I've amassed a library of over 800 movies and 100 TV shows at this point. I figure I'm pretty good to go if I ever want to watch something. The great thing about buying from Apple is that the movies I bought back in the early days of iTunes have all been upgraded to 4K quality with few exceptions.
I have cancelled them all except for Netflix. I would cancel it as well, but my wife refuses. I still have HBO and Amazon video because HBO comes free with my internet provider and Amazon is included in Prime. I couldn't tell you the last time I logged into either of them.
I have been buying movies on the iTunes Store since they started offering them in 2006. Every Tuesday Apple has $5 movie deals so I usually peruse that to see if they have anything I want. I've amassed a library of over 800 movies and 100 TV shows at this point. I figure I'm pretty good to go if I ever want to watch something. The great thing about buying from Apple is that the movies I bought back in the early days of iTunes have all been upgraded to 4K quality with few exceptions.
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we got rid of Amazon Prime and only get it when Amazon offers it for free trial. We don't need things overnighted to us and the only time I buy stuff on Amazon is when I can't find it locally (Microcenter near me is typically cheaper for tech stuff)
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they still havent added a shuffle button or playlists… like truly low IQ people running these services dont understand most people dont want to binge every single episode of family guy in sequential order.
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My favorite are those who get upset that to go ad-free on the Prime Video service, you'll need to pay an additional $3 per month. "No way I'm giving Amazon any extra money!". Well, you also have Amazon Prime which is $140/yr, which is a worse offender than the $3 per month, or $36 per year if you get all 12 months fee. On top of that, that pushes you to buy from Amazon, further supporting them. If you need their goods and services, then fair enough. Plenty of us have sworn to never buy from the likes of Walmart, etc., only to realize that it won't work out. However, it's such a glaring thing to miss.
Star Trek TOS was absolutely "woke" for sure. In other instances, they have an Asian crewmember, a Russian crewmember (in a time where the train of thought was "better dead than red"), and Uhura who was an officer, giving orders to all other crew members, including white people. The last one was a double whammy coming from someone who's both a woman, and black. They also thumbed their noses at the military saying the Enterprise was an exploration vessel, not a military one.
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Prime is the best for what I would call the modern equivalent of "channel surfing".
They seem to have the best overall back catalog of legacy titles and shows of all the streaming channels. So if one is simply looking for something not incredibly specific to watch Prime seems like the best of the available options.
But yeah, I'm not paying the extra $3 dollars a month for the ad-free version on principle. It's not really about the money. It's about drawing a line somewhere. For others it might be somewhere else. But for me it's there.
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I keep Prime because they essentially pay me to use it. I have the Amazon Chase credit card. If you have Prime you get a 5% discount on purchases with that card vs 3% without Prime. That means you have to spend at least $7k on the Chase card to cover the $140 annual Prime fee. I easily cover that between Whole Foods and Amazon in a year, so any spend beyond that is just free money. The other "benefits" are just gravy on top.
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How much would you save if you just bought stuff locally? In my experience, Amazon is definitely NOT a place to find bargains. Comparing products on Amazon versus locally purchased, Amazon is always more expensive by a significant amount. I save a lot of money by exploiting this larger differential.
There are times when items on Amazon are hard or even impossible to find locally. Amazon's vast array of offerings is definitely a strong feature. But pricing definitely is not.
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That's not really practical for me. I run a company with over 100 store locations and spend a lot of my time at those locations. I need to be able to have things shipped to wherever I'm at in the moment.
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Then trying to make a point based on saving money is pretty much a non-starter for you. Maybe you should have led with the travel thing. Although that also doesn't make a whole lot of sense, tbh.
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Rotating streaming services is what I do.
I used to do the old Kazaa thing waaaaay back in the early 2000's and I'm not gonna knock the people that still go that route for their media but its not for me. Over the years I have taken the personal philosophy of if its worth having then its worth paying for.
If it costs more than what I'm willing to pay or requires too many hoops for me to jump through I use the ultimate weapon that I have at my disposal, which is ignore it completely or drop it and and simply never look back. I kind of feel that if I simply can't do without something then in a way it still has power over me. So if I can't have it for the price I'm willing to pay then I will simply drop it and not look back.
However I will go off on a weird tangent here. I kind of understand the "information should be free" aspect of it from a standpoint of....Say there was this alien signal that reached earth with a wealth of relevant and useable information in it. Or even just simple entertainment. And we started watching it. Then years later the aliens show up and tell us we are in violation of their information laws and are now sentenced to a thousand year punishment for consumption of forbidden knowledge.
What are we gonna say without sounding hypocritical.
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Take my response with a grain of salt. I used to work in the streaming business in engineering.
There were a couple of ideas that seemed good at the time.
#1 customers pay a subscription fee to avoid excessive (or any) commercials
#2 content is available over general purpose data networks vs bespoke media specific networks
The problem with #1 is that it decouples the creation of content from its source of monetization, which leads to a race to the bottom when the industry comes out of its "growth at any cost" phase.
The problem with #2 is that it commoditizes the data networks. This also leads a race to the bottom once the data networks reach a sufficient speed and exit their hypergrowth phase.
I was a big believer in #1 because I really dislike commercials. That was until I read an article interviewing a show producer. Because of the lack of commercials that could fund residuals for older content, an important source of income for many who work behind the scenes in the industry was lost.
Cable and Satellite networks knew #2 was coming, and tried to hold it off as long as possible, but it was inevitable. Its possible that eventually data networks will become a utility with heavy government regulation and localized monopolies to keep the race to the bottom from finding the bottom.
I can see some solutions to #1. Higher priced streaming providers could offer commercial free content at a premium price, then sell it later for "reruns" to lower priced (or free) providers who run commercials with the content and give content creators residuals that way.
Currently there does not seem to be a situation where a show like Stranger Things can be sold to a free tier streaming provider with monetization through commercials and possibilities for residuals for the cast and crew of the show.
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“I don’t care about downvotes” + “mods, this is for your benefit” + “my toxic knows no bounds” is a strange combo. And “this is me playing nice” isn’t a flex, it reads like you’re trying to bully the room.
If you want the discussion to stay productive, stick to the argument and drop the threats, intimidation, and the blanket “everyone’s braindead” stuff. Being harsh isn’t the same thing as being correct. Engage with what people are actually saying, because when you do, you sometimes make solid points. The performance just buries them.
Beyond that, I don’t have much to add except this: your hostility and hypocrisy aren’t improving the conversation. You’re the kind of commenter I mute. In real life, I’d avoid spaces where you show up, because it’s exhausting.
The “I’m so smart, everyone’s attacking me, I need an adult to punish them” routine is pathetic, and it drains any goodwill people might have toward the parts of your argument that are worth hearing. It makes you come across like the kind of coworker who tries to skip the normal process, escalates straight to authority to win points, and then acts shocked when people stop trusting you.
In workplaces, that behavior gets a reputation fast: not “high standards” or “truth teller,” just someone who creates friction, weaponizes escalation, and makes collaboration miserable. People don’t avoid you because you’re “too right.” They avoid you because you’re unpredictable, exhausting, and more interested in domination than outcomes. And the irony is, even when you are right, you’ve made it so nobody wants to be on your side long enough to hear it.
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After 17 years here it becomes easier to spot posts made in bad faith. I find it best to deal with them with a level of acuity that is a bit sharper at some points and more blunt in others.
It's a reality that is regrettable and unfortunately necessary to keep the mob from getting out of hand. Otherwise this place simply descends into a near worthless and somewhat "braindead" circle jerk of what I like to call "fart sniffing" by a group of people of the exact same mind. With any real discussion outside of the approved group narrative getting rapidly...and I might add quite harshly, shut down.
Every once in a while I will see a new poster come in that isn't part of the established inside group's way of thinking, and I always seem to end up shaking my head because these newcomers often end up crashing out like stark raving madmen leaving these insane posts as they storm out the door because they don't know how to deal with it. It's a sad thing to see.
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I dont like echo chambers either, I just find complaining about them and appealing to mods to be counter-productive.
The mob will exist, using the mute function and ignoring dislikes and focusing on the argument versus ad homonym attacks might help build the community you are looking for. Insulting the mob feels great, but does it reduce the "fart sniffing" or does it make it worse?
Like my workplace analogy, when I see people crying to the "big boss" instead of working it out themselves it makes the political hostility worse. Its a pet peeve of mine and I am calling you out for that the same as you are calling out name calling.
Social media is no longer about building connections or sharing ideas - our worst impulses are rewarded. Echo chambers form because the group think causes people to bully thoughts they dont agree with. I guess I am doing the same calling out the way you are trying to address the situation of being called names, I just didnt use colorful language like brain dead fart sniffers.
The way we discorse has been beaten to death. I want to move off of that.
This meaningfully adds to the conversation.
I agree with you, there is nuance in information should be free. I agree with supporting people that create the media I consume, even if I dont fully agree with it. I pirate when its not possible to legally obtain it, but outside of that I rotate services because I find it too expensive and not worth it to have everything on demand without ownership.
I want to return to having credits to watch so many shows or movies instead of "infinite" streaming. I would be willing to spend more if I had more permanent access to media. I spent a lot more when I bought dvd's before streaming. If its a monthly sub and there are so many to sub to, I expect them to be very cheap or I am going to be selective on what service I am on.
These days corporate ownership feels a lot like the alien analogy, I dont feel any attachment to the shareholders of paramount plus or whatever because I dont feel like they are looking after the people that make the media, they are simply rent seeking and abusing laws to try to force us into paying for slop. The merger of media entities and streaming infrastructure shouldnt be allowed, its become a monopoly and consumers and media creators are suffering so the oligarchs that own it can benefit.
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I like the second half of your post, which is why I gave it a thumbs up.
As for the first half....it's like the new officer coming in and asking the standing officers why don't we simply attack their village at night instead of only attacking them during the day. Of course the simple answer is so that they don't attack us at night. ..The more complicated answer is the the new officer is coming into a situation midway that has evolved over an extended period of time and these seemingly counterintuitive tactics are being used for a reason.
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You were "using it wrong" when you had DirecTV. The best thing you can do with that service is to program a bunch of Season Passes. That way you get watch all your favorite shows and have that FF button handy when a commercial comes on. I had DirecTV for about 2 decades. Was the best thing I ever had, even though prices kept increasing. I canceled it due to other circumstances.
It doesn't matter when the show or movie is on or the channel it's on. You go to your Now Playing list and binge everything it recorded without commercials. You're not supposed to watch "live" TV on DirecTV.
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It's definitely getting better in my view. I can now directly subscribe to a cable news channel I like without having to subscribe to a large bundle of cable channels I have no interest in watching, and later this year, I'll be able to do this with a 2nd cable news channel I like. If a service has an exclusive I'm interested in, I can subscribe for a short period to watch the exclusive, then cancel. I subscribe to YouTube Premium so I can watch its content ad-free and also download content to take with me on trips. I already own hundreds of movie and TV titles in the cloud, so I watch various favorites whenever I choose, and if I just want to channel surf, the various FAST services (especially with Pluto), let me do that to my heart's content.
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I'd like to see more Asians and Native Americans on TV. I mean these days it's only Black and White. Check out the judges on many Food Network shows. Usually one black and one white for the judges or hosts. Commercials on TV are the same.
If aliens watched our TV feeds from space, they'd all think this world has 50% white and 50% black people. Kinda weird if you ask me why other races aren't portrayed in content as much as black and white.
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MilanKraft
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
The only infinite thing here is media conglomerate greed. If you think the end-game is anything other than "quietly, slowly bridge-or-combine services with modest price hikes every 1-2 years, until we've re-constituted something analogous to a cable subscription for everybody" you are not seeing things clearly. I give you as Exhibit A: Hulu.
Remember when Hulu was this cool new streaming service that had a bunch of things worth watching and was way less expensive than cable? I do. I also remember what it was like a few months ago when Disney gave me the perfect excuse to extend my middle finger and yoink my subscription from their greedy, grubby little hands.... roughly 100 cable channels (most fitting the "endless channels of crap nobody wants and which I don't like paying for" variety that cable and DirecTV were notorious for), almost all of which had ads, premium movie library with ads, premium show library with ads, and "oh-by-the-way, folks paying a bit extra for no ads — you'll still see some ads".... all for the low-low price of ~ $90, and still going up.
You know which industry force-bundled huge numbers of dogshit TV channels, mostly filled with reality TV crap, and charged us $100+ dollars a month? Cable and Satellite TV. Hulu was first and most obvious to pull us back there (good job, Disney), but another round or two of HBO-style mergers with some requisite "as you can see, the value of this added content library is very high, so that's why Netflx now costs $45 for the no ads.... and we promise, absolutely promise, no more price hikes for at least.... two years? Also we can't guarnantee New Netflix won't have ads in the future. cough "
It was over even before Trump and his greedy goons took office. They just sealed the deal by showing us what the media companies really care about (bending the knee to maintain full control of the media landscape and obscene c-suite payroll, etc), vs what they pretend to care about (subscription-and-ad options that serve customer needs instead of their own; free speech / free reign to skewer any and all polticians; a stable platform where the UI isn't endlessly fucked with and the library curated rather than defiled by adding ever-more low budget crap).
My prediction is the only streaming service most people will still have in five years, is Prime, less because of the content than because of the convenience of Amazon shipping options, Alexa AI Extreme Edtion, and whatever other stupid shit they bundle. Not great (Amazon has its own sins for sure and we the customers as chief enablers), but better than paying 2-3 different media companies $50+ per service for the privilege of a library filled with B-list foreign crap (including AI dubs), and still minimal relief from ads. The more things change.....
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That didn't exist when I had DirecTV. This was around the time that they were asking us with older H.262 HD receivers to upgrade to H.264 receivers.
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