The TV and streaming service foibles
This is an opinion piece about why I think cable and streaming services are making big mistakes.
Over the past few years, a lot of movie/TV streaming sites have popped up. This to me is a problem because if you subscribe to enough of them, it can get expensive, and people cut the cord on cable to save money.
Cable (and satellite) companies are digging their grave by charging so much instead of letting people pick the channels they watch and not pay for the ones they don’t. Bundles have just gotten worse over the years instead of trying to think of other ways to make money while giving customers a good value they just keep raising prices and making more tiers. The thing is I think there will be a breaking point and even more people are going to cut the cord.
The problem is the only legal way people can go is streaming services and those are popping up like wack-a-moles and if you like shows on multiple ones it can also get expensive. Companies like Netflix are going to make it more expensive for family services because they’re losing subscribers and others may follow. So, what are people to do?
More people may just decide to pirate shows and movies which companies do not want. They’ll try and crackdown on pirates, the government may as well, but that will just become a headache for these companies, and they’ll lose money.
What can they do? Well, I gave the answer above. Cable (and satellite) companies can let people pick the channels they watch, and at a decent price ($1-$3 a channel). Then they can have bundles like one for sports that if they chose the bundle, it’ll be a little cheaper than picking all the channels separately. They can do the same for non-English, DIY, food channels…etc. But at least people will have a choice. The other good I think this would do is people would be saving money so they may pay for pay channels (Showtime, and Stars for instance) and pay-per-view. I think if they did this people may come back to cable…they may have to grovel a little in commercials.
What can streaming services do? Well, they could make the commercial tier free, and if they find they’re not making enough revenue just add one or two commercials per show. People will grumble but they’re getting a free service. IMDB is doubling down on original programming for their free service so unless they’re thinking of charging somewhere down the line, they must be making pretty good money?
Also, Hulu is owned by Disney and NBC/Universal yet they both made their own separate streaming services instead of just putting their content on Hulu. I know why they did it (greed) but I think it’s a bad move.
So, these services started popping up to look like they’re trying to fix an issue but they’re creating one. Services like NBC and Peacock put original programming on their services and even take shows off of regular TV to stick on their service. The more they do things like this, the more they’re going to upset their users. Companies really have a problem looking at the big picture and if there is someone that brings it up they just shove it under the rug because they’re in denial. People do have a breaking point and right now cable, for instance, is still riding the wave of older people who are used to cable so they pay for it. What happens when these people die? The same thing that’s happening to newspapers and magazines now that are clawing to stay alive. These companies are trying to get as much money out of us until they are forced to make a change or go bankrupt.
Isn’t it better to change early so you gain respect from your customers than be hated and have to change later? Obviously, companies don’t think that way. They think bottom line first and good value they can care less about.
