this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2024
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Many more people are jumping from one streaming subscription to another, a behavior that could have big implications for the entertainment industry.

Americans are getting increasingly impulsive about hitting the cancellation button on their streaming services. More than 29 million — about a quarter of domestic paying streaming subscribers — have canceled three or more services over the last two years, according to Antenna, a subscription research firm. And the numbers are rising fast.

The data suggests a sharp shift in consumer behavior — far from the cable era, when viewers largely stuck with a single provider, as well as the early days of the so-called streaming wars, when people kept adding services without culling or jumping around.

Among these nomadic subscribers, some are taking advantage of how easy it is, with a monthly contract and simple click of a button, to hopscotch from one service to the next. Indeed, these users can be fickle — a third of them resubscribe to the canceled service within six months, according to Antenna’s research.

“In three years, this went from a very niche behavior to an absolute mainstream part of the market,” said Jonathan Carson, the chief executive of Antenna.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Viewers didn't stick with a single provider in the cable era.

They were stuck with a single provider.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Cancel all services
Get Stremio + Torrentio + Debrid
Enjoy life

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I skip the subscribe part. Just watch and repeat.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

In three years, this went from a very niche behavior to an absolute mainstream part of the market

It’s because of the fracturing of the marketplace. For a while there were only a few major Film/TV streaming services. Netflix and Hulu, then HBO and Amazon, and a handful of niche or genre platforms.
Then around the pandemic time, every network and their mother decided to pull their licensing to start their own streaming platform or several. The platforms all cost as much or more as before, but you need more of them to watch the different IP you are interested in.

What the studios don’t realize (or won’t publicly admit) is that instead of replacing cable TV, they have effectively recreated the video rental industry.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

My issue is that none of these streaming services have a backlog of content large enough to be worth it, and they only add one good show every few years. I can just pirate the one good thing they put out, and then I don't have to pay for the heaps of trash they've shatted onto their streaming service.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

Plex is deep in the enshitification process. I'd consider spinning up Jellyfin alongside it so you switch relatively painlessly when you decide that Plex's bullshit has gone too far.

Even if you never reach that point, it'll be useful to have a media server that won't lock you out if you ever lose your Internet connection for an extended period of time

No reason they can't run alongside each other, in case your concerned about resources or storage.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You can change the settings in Plex and still access it locally without Internet connection. But yeah Plex is kinda behind the curve on a lot of things, although jellyfin has it's own issues

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Plex requires an account and that account has to connect to an external Plex authentication server every so often. If that token expires and you have no internet, you will be locked out of your Plex.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

You can disable auth on your local network. I've never experienced any issues with my authentication token expiring without having Internet, and I had my Plex server offline for months last year while I was living in a place that didn't have Internet. For some reason though it runs noticeably shittier without Internet, it takes a long time for a video file to load.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I couldnt get jelly to see my external drives

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Laughs in VLC and HDMI out

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Price gouging plus adding ads to paid services. Time to yarr

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

plus adding ads to paid services

No, no, no.

Remove the ad-supported tiers from your mind. Pay the amount for ad-free watching. Compare the rates and affordability of that package only, and when it becomes non-viable then fucking bounce SO HARD. Ad-supported crap needs to be forgotten so it can cease to exist.

If we want ads, we have Pluto. Either take my money and my personal info or show me ads. PICK A LANE.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Netflix bungled this. They could have said “starting on January 1, 2022, no new accounts will be able to share passwords between households.”

No one would cancel. Some would probably go to a cheaper tier but would keep their accounts active forever. Plus, people who share accounts don’t cancel because their family members might be watching. Netflix’s churn rate would have embarrassed HBO and Disney.

But no, they are chasing shortsighted, anti-customer gains and now are reaping what they sowed.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I've been waiting for the services to start requiring a year commitment or something equally dumb to prevent this behavior. I subscribe under two conditions : There is something I want to watch, and all the episodes are available. Once I've finished the content I subbed for, what is my incentive to stick around, exactly?

Unfortunately for streamers they can only churn out a season of my favorite shows every 2-3 years, and I'm not really about paying for availability to content that doesn't interest me. Especially while those rates have doubled and tripled.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

During the writer's strike, I watched an interview with an industry insider and member of the WGA. He mentioned that it's been well known to the industry that people are subscribing for one month to binge watch and then unsubscribe. I was a little surprised to hear this was already such a common practice and the industry was, in part, renegotiating contracts with this in mind. Personally, I've been doing a version of this since Netflix first started online streaming.

I don't currently have any streaming service plans in large part because they keep increasing the prices. These services are fine for the prices they used to be but they keep raising prices. Perhaps the content is better but it's not like my life is impacted by a slightly better tv show or movie - an hour of content is an hour of content. If you want to make better stuff, create another service or offer a higher subscription tier. I'm voting with my wallet and I'm not allowing social pressures to dictate where I get my entertainment. Let's not lose sight that this is entertainment we're talking about.

The other issues I have with them, incidentally, are poor content and poor user experiences. I cancelled my Netflix subscription because they implemented auto-playing trailers. I've stopped using Apple TV entirely because they too have implemented auto-playing trailers.

At this point, getting up to change the channel with a rotary knob might be a better experience than most of these streaming platforms. In fact, I've been watching a lot of Pluto and Tubi lately. They have ads but they're relatively minimal and they're placed in appropriate places in the program.

🏴‍☠️

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Tbf, Netflix did start auto-playing crap but then walked back on that. They do that continually - pushing the boundaries past what people are willing to take, then a few months later dialing it WAY down, but still forward from where it started. Although more recently they did get it to a nice place imho - if you have a friend with a subscription, check it out and you may be pleasantly surprised. I am not saying that it makes up for the loss of content that they used to have, or that it is a fully good experience, but it is a LOT better than it was there for awhile (so: not that you would consider ever going back, but at least you would know:-).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They do that continually - pushing the boundaries past what people are willing to take, then a few months later dialing it WAY down, but still forward from where it started.

I had a boss like that. What a fucking dickhead.

Had.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Netflix has consistently been right on the line between barely acceptable vs. just not. Unfortunately, it's hands-down the best (legal) streaming service available. Extremely unfortunately for us all:-(.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

There are months, I don’t even watch anything. I’ll subscribe when the need arises. When the need subsides because I’m busy. I’ll cancel. The idea that I’ll just pay on autopilot went away when they raised prices and made it impossible for me to share the subscription.

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