Oct 14, 20235 min read

Paid Subscription Overload!

Let's just get it out of the way...

Which Subscriptions Do You Have?

Netflix
Hulu
Disney+
Amazon Prime

You can vote for more than one answer.

Alright for real though...

The more you click on that list, the scarier your monthly bill gets. I am honestly excited for this blog to get posted because I truly don't know how much people pay for.

Personally, I have a few checked off in this list. I pay for:

Spotify (which gives me Hulu w/ ads for free)
Amazon Prime (however the Prime video is more of a side bonus than a want)
Twitch Turbo

And that's it! I think I do better than the average person, but I only think that's because I don't spend a lot of time watching subscription based tv. Most of my tv entertainment is occupied by twitch and youtube, where twitch only costs me $12/mo and youtube is free.

When does it end?

The days of cable television weren't that long ago. And that's not to say you can't get it today, because you absolutely can. And it's honestly funny to think about, because there are some subscription services that are adopting a cable television-like model...

Announced as recently as this week, Crunchyroll is now adding a 24-7 random anime channel on their platform. Which is kind of funny to think about. Why would someone want to watch that? The answer is kind of simple, people want to put something on tv, but don't want to go through the decision process of what to watch. So, why not make it easy and just provide that as an option for your viewer-base? It allows for viewers to have that background noise that they are looking for, but also have the opportunity to randomly run into something that they have not watched and may actually enjoy!

But Big, that's not the same as cable tv!

You're right, it's not. But let's put it into perspective... As a simple example, a basic package of Direct TV costs about $65/mo. Very expensive as a single subscription, no doubt! But what would you be able to take out of your current subscription package if you were to replace it with a basic cable package? If you currently subscribe to basic packages (with no ads) of Netflix, Hulu, & Disney as these 3 seem to be the absolute most popular and are all directly related to commonly watched television shows.

Basic Netflix - $15.50/mo
Basic Hulu - $18/mo (this actually blew me away. What the eff? People pay this much???)
Basic Disney+ - $14/mo

All of these equaling $47.50/mo. Which basically means that basic cable costs approximately 4 subscription services. I can see this becoming appealing to people who meet 3 very specific requirements... and they would truly have to meet these requirements.

People who simply want the option of having random shows and movies appearing whenever they turn on their tv.
1. I meet this requirement because I very much enjoy having my viewing content decided for me. I hate spending time looking for something to watch. I usually just end up deciding the same old thing and honestly feel like I am just wasting my time even watching tv at that point.
People who do not mind having random ads being played in between their broadcasts.
1. I partially exist in this category. My Hulu subscription has ads in it because I simply do not watch enough Hulu to care whether there are ads. I also watch a lot of Youtube where ads are constantly shoved in your face. HOWEVER, I pay for no ads on Twitch because of how frequent the ads are and how terribly they are placed in the streams.
People who do not care about staying up to date on specific platform-locked shows.
1. I believe that this is the toughest boundary to cross. People are ADDICTED to staying up to date on their shows. And I'll admit, I fall into the trap of needing to be up to date on certain shows. Gimme my Gordon Ramsay shows & Black Mirror!

However, with these 3 things in mind, is it possible for these unicorns to exist? Well duh, otherwise these cable platforms wouldn't exist anymore right? I think the question is more in the realm of, what would it take for your average millennial or gen-z to fall into this category? Because I imagine that the majority of millennials and gen-z's are subscribing to platforms rather than cable television services.

So what would it take?

And truly, I would love to know. What would it take for you to swap from your subscription services to a cable television package? Subscription services seem to keep going up in price and the restrictions being placed on them are becoming ridiculous. Such as Netflix locking the service to your home's IP address, which I'm sure you all know. Leave a comment, what would it take for you to swap to cable tv?

Lastly, only because I am truly curious...

How Many Subscription Do You Borrow?

Netflix
Hulu
Disney+
Amazon Prime

You can vote for more than one answer.

By borrow, I mean 3 different things. Do you do any of the following:

Have the login information for a subscription service that is paid for by a friend or family member and you don't pay them anything.
Have a secondary account / profile for a subscription service and you don't pay them anything.
Share the cost of a subscription service with a friend or family member so that you both can use it.

I imagine that this is actually the absolute decision maker on why people don't switch to a cable service. As long as people can share the cost or borrow the login to other services, it significantly cuts down on the individual's monthly cost. Especially as we start talking about couples that live together and families. Which is exactly what Netflix is trying to fight against. They know that the content that they host on their platform is good enough to the point where people will pay for their own account if they have no other choice.

Alright, enough!

I promise that most of my blogs won't be so text heavy. This one was truly a thinker for me though. I find it fascinating to think that companies will try to squeeze every last penny that they can out of their customers until the point that they consider leaving. It happens all the time! But in a world where home entertainment is so important to the majority of people, it just makes me wonder at what point will someone just give up and go back to what was working before.

Keith Muelas || Bighungry2x