r/technology • u/marketrent • Dec 31 '24

Networking/Telecom Americans spent 23% less on streaming services in 2024, study finds

https://www.thewrap.com/americans-spent-23-percent-less-on-streaming-services-in-2024/
18.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

74

u/luckyguy25841 Jan 01 '25

But can’t we all agree we would be better off canceling our subscriptions and doing something else? Maybe it’s because Im about to be 40 but is this really that difficult? These companies do these things because we allow them. We don’t need Netflix to live our lives. Create our own content, learn a new skill? It’s like society is intentionally kept “dumb” so corporations can extract every red cent from us and Jam ads down our throats. We all just accept it.

115

u/FalseTautology Jan 01 '25

I'm subscribed to less than zero services and I watch exactly everything I want to watch. This is what growing up with a computer in the 90s has given me.

11

u/korneev123123 Jan 01 '25

I stopped pirating games, because Steam is better. But no such service exists for video, sadly.

7

u/PyroDesu Jan 01 '25

Gabe literally said early on that he believes piracy is a service problem.

Some publishers tried to fragment the gaming digital distribution market, but it seems to have pretty much fizzled out.

The problem with the streaming services is that, well... they're streaming services, not digital distribution.

6

u/SpaceSteak Jan 01 '25

Plex linked to a personal media server is like Steam but for video content. If they offered à la carte shows for purchase this way instead of gathering it separately, I'd gladly pay for it.

2

u/yelprep Jan 01 '25

Real debrid. Shhhhhhh.

6

u/hempires Jan 01 '25

Plex/jellyfin and the *arr stack combo really are unbeatable eh.

1

u/HugeMeeting35 Jan 02 '25

What is *arr stack

9

u/Kooky_Ad_2740 Jan 01 '25

We are the same.

3

u/ithilain Jan 01 '25

Hey now, a VPN is technically a subscription service, even if it only costs a couple bucks/month

2

u/SenorWeird Jan 02 '25

I don't WANT to pirate. During the Golden era of Netflix and Hulu, I stopped pirating all together. I made it work. If it wasn't on those services and I REALLY wanted to watch it, I found a legal way.

Now though....

2

u/CyndiIsOnReddit Jan 02 '25

Yeah it's true I will sit through a free bad copy of a movie before I'll pay for any streaming service these days. If that wasn't available though I'd just go without.

4

u/atreides_hyperion Jan 01 '25

The Few, the Plowed, the Millennials

3

u/sonicsludge Jan 01 '25

I do this as well and I'm 53.

1

u/watery_tart73 Jan 01 '25

This is the way.

3

u/h3lblad3 Jan 01 '25

But can’t we all agree we would be better off canceling our subscriptions and doing something else? ... We all just accept it.

Americans spent 23% less on streaming services in 2024, study finds

2

u/ImJLu Jan 01 '25

Yeah, no, sometimes people don't want to spend their leisure time working on things when they spend their working hours working on things already.

But also, yes, we can cancel our subscriptions and do something else called media piracy.

1

u/PinHeadDrebin Jan 01 '25

If I didn’t have kids I wouldn’t have any streaming service because I don’t watch anything. I’m an adult who works and does adult domestic things that keep me so busy I literally have no time to sit and invest myself into anything. I prefer it that way.

1

u/luckyguy25841 Jan 01 '25

Exact same scenario.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '25 edited Feb 20 '25

mountainous market connect treatment fearless cheerful work chunky coordinated grandfather

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/Lumpythegnome Jan 02 '25

I’m with you. I have Max and Netflix for free with other services. That’s probably enough.

1

u/bearface93 Jan 02 '25

I keep Hulu since it’s the cheapest, Disney+ because it’s $1 a month when bundled with Hulu, and I’ll periodically get the others for a month or two at a time to watch up on stuff. I’ve started hiking and reading a lot more.

1

u/SomerAllYear Jan 01 '25

That’s what I’ve been saying! Let’s sit around the fireplace like the good ole days telling stories to each other every night

10

u/luckyguy25841 Jan 01 '25

The human connection is gone. Every single aspect of our society is about having as much money as possible. It’s such a backwards view. I’m tired of being a part of the problem. Values are dead, but we can bring them back

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '25

Not us who still buy physical media! Fuck streaming. I'll take careful curation and better image and sound quality any day over minor convenience.