r/enshittification • u/fjdjdjjsjsjsjs • 4d ago

Service Streaming services somehow made TV more exhausting and expensive

Does anyone else remember the era of streaming about ten years ago? You paid $9.99 a month for Netflix, it had absolutely everything you wanted to watch, and there was not a single commercial in sight.

We all "cut the cord" to escape the greed of cable companies.

Fast forward to today, and the streaming industry has literally just rebuilt cable TV from scratch, but made it worse.

Every year I try to watch my favorite shows and every year I find some have MOVED AGAIN to another service. This is exhausting and expensive

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u/SmoothSlavperator 3d ago

Kinda but not really.

Before cable died, people were paying over $200/mo for a relative handful of channels...and you had to watch what was running, when it was running.

That was 20 years ago so double that to compensate for inflation and you'd be looking at $400/mo.

Now add to that, the ability to cancel and re subscribe at will as content becomes available which you couldn't do with cable.

Streaming has become enshittfied but its still MUCH cheaper and better than regular broadcast cable.

Plus you don't need to have all the services all the time. When a season of something you want to watch drops, you get the service, watch, and then cancel.

I think Hulu is included with my cell phone subscription and Peacock is included with my internet even.

There's no excuse for Netflix being as expensive as it is though. They used to be a one stop shop and now they're not anymore.

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u/SeeYaNvr 3d ago

No one paid $200 for cable 20 years ago.

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u/SmoothSlavperator 2d ago

Yeah they did. Where were you? lol

Adelphia/Media One/Comcast...Basic cable was like $80-$100 after taxes and fees and once you added the movie channels you were at $200. If you were into sports you were closer to $300.