I haven't used a streaming service for years. I'm Australian and when Netflix US had good content (before the explosion of competing services) and didn't go to such effort to block VPNs I got enough value for my money but that hasn't been the case in years, even before there were so many competing services pulling their content from Netflix. The licensing gap for countries outside of the US (or Canada, or the UK sometimes) is an issue not raised in the article and it's a big one I reckon. Most people I talk about tv/streaming with have maybe one or two services, and I don't know anyone who still has Netflix specifically. A lot of people comment that they don't really watch a particular service anymore and really should get around to cancelling, so inertia seems to be a factor too. Anecdata from one person so not super useful, but it's been interesting to me.
I tend to cycle between Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Apple TV+. We usually have 1-2 of the services at a time for a couple of months, where we watch everything new interesting on that platform, and then cancel the subscription and move to a different platform (depending on what series we’ve excited for).
I've stopped paying for these services, now i just pirate everything, its waay easier and less painful.
I used to this, but with a family I feel that streaming services are just easier to share despite having to juggle services.
I occasionally torrent hard-to-get stuff, like content not available in my region.
I'm so grateful for my friends who do this because they're one of the main ways I hear about things actually worth watching
My own anecdote: I have a bunch of friends talking about piracy once again.
Me too. VPNs have been coming up a lot on that front too
"Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die."