Late last year, I decided to take a couple of days each week at the end of the day to pop around and try to shut my mind off and watch some shows that I have heard people raving about. This was not an easy decision for me because I would much rather read than watch anything on the boob tube. Yet I committed myself to this and overall I think it has been a positive for me.
I have come across some well-done shows across the plethora of streaming services like "Jack Ryan" and "Reacher" on Amazon, "Only Murders In The Building," and the other one that escapes my mind on Hulu and "The Why Files" on YouTube and other platforms.
What I quickly realized is that after the introductory period, the cost of having a lot of these services can add up quickly and I had already made the decision as to what to keep and what to drop going forward into 2024.
I already decided to cancel Amazon after this season of Reacher is over due to the fact they want to charge an additional $36.00 to continue to watch their programming to continue ad-free which was one of the big points for paying for these services. According to a report I read, I wasn't the only person a bit ticked off at Amazon.
I read here that millions of Americans are making the same move for the same reasons I have.
t’s getting a lot harder for streaming services to hold on to their customers.
Crystal Revis, a mother of six in Lynn Haven, Fla., recently canceled her subscriptions to
Disney + and Paramount+, among others, because of their swelling price tags and the rising cost of living. She is also considering canceling Netflix , home to shows such as “The Crown” and films including “Leave the World Behind.”
Revis is among the consumers nationwide paring their streaming bills and getting more strategic about when they turn services on and off. Customer defections across premium streaming services rose to 6.3% in November, from 5.1% a year earlier.
About one-quarter of U.S. subscribers to major streaming services—a group that includes Apple TV+, Discovery+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock and Starz—have canceled at least three of them over the past two years, according to November data from subscription-analytics provider Antenna. Two years ago, that number stood at 15%, a sign that streaming users are becoming increasingly fickle.
Also, it seems my colleague Bonchie has some thoughts on some of the content being put out at places like Mickey Land.
READ MORE: Disney Has Learned Zero Lessons
For many, the breaking point was "Kenobi," which managed to turn a series ostensibly about one of the most iconic Star Wars characters ever into a disaster centering on a completely unlikable "strong female" antagonist. The feminization of Star Wars has become a meme at this point, with nearly every beloved male character being emasculated and marginalized in favor of girl power vibes. Even "The Mandalorian," one of the few successes in the Disney Star Wars era, fell victim during its latest season.
The results have been predictable. Ratings for shows like "Ahsoka" were very underwhelming, and Disney Plus continues to shed subscribers with no end to the carnage in sight. Who could have guessed that taking a franchise in a genre that primarily appeals to men and turning it on its head wouldn't lead to a new golden age of popularity?
But hey, maybe after years of failure, Disney would finally get the message and change course. Surely, they wouldn't continue to double down on a path that has nearly destroyed Star Wars as an entity, right?
Disney is one of the platforms that I refused to subscribe to because of the awful job I think they've done with Star Wars and the Indiana Jones franchise, as well as several other reasons that I don't have time or space to go into right here. However, I know people who are loyal to the Disney brand with the announcement of their latest price increase are even thinking about canceling them.
I was probably one of the last people to be dragged into cutting the cord of cable back at the beginning of COVID-19 in 2020. I had a bunch of my friends who had done it years before and encouraged me that I could live without 180 different channels that I never watched and that I could just pop over to streaming outfits like Netflix and be entertained, and they were right.
Yet now, with the four services that I currently have, if I were to keep the premium version on all of them along with the cable for internet, I'm just a couple of dollars shy of where I was when I cut cable TV going on four years ago.
So as I stand right now it is a wash from when I left my cable company to save money. As most of the readers here at RedState already know, Bidenomics has not been a boom for most of America unless your name is Hunter.
One of the tips I picked up when researching how the price increases on these platforms were going up is that you do a little bit of coordination and only subscribe for the months that you want to watch your favorite shows. I know that sounds like a little bit of a pain in the butt however if you grab a pen and paper or use an online calendar you can make that work for you.
If you have any other suggestions leave them in the comments or email me by checking out the bio.
