Now that streaming subscriber growth has slowed, we’ve noted repeatedly how the streaming TV sector is falling into all of the bad habits that ultimately doomed traditional cable TV.
That has involved chasing pointless “growth of growth’s sake” megamergers and imposing bottomless price hikes and new annoying restrictions — all while simultaneously cutting corners on product quality in a bid to give Wall Street that sweet, impossible, unlimited, quarterly growth it demands.
Customers are reacting. According to Review’s annual State of Consumer Media Spending Report, the average American spent 23 percent less on streaming subscriptions in 2024 than in 2023. Not because streaming was cheaper, but because customers are being more particular about which streaming service they subscribe to in a bid to do something about soaring costs:
“A total 27.8% of Americans report experiencing “streaming fatigue,” defined as that exact feeling of being overwhelmed with the increasing number of streaming apps.”
Hunting and pecking through eight different streaming services to find the programs and movies you like is getting increasingly annoying, especially when every one of those services is now intent on constant rate hikes and nickel-and-diming users with stuff like password sharing crackdowns.
If Trump 2.0 truly delivers on its obvious plan to dismantle what’s left of U.S. consumer protection, labor rights, and corporate oversight, there’s a not insubstantial risk consumers will face higher costs then ever, driving them to tighten their purse strings further.
Here’s where Cory Doctorow’s enshittification truly steps in.
The reduced revenues from people cancelling streaming services for months at a time will create new pressure on streaming giants to deliver Wall Street those sweet quarterly returns. Streaming profitability was already a challenge (NBCUniversal’s Peacock has always bled money). Improving service quality and expanding catalogs won’t be at the top of the executive menu.
So now the race will be on to thrill Wall Street and goose revenues in other ways. That means more price hikes, more pointless mergers (see: the whole AT&T Time Warner Discovery mess), and more bizarre restrictions. I’d also suspect they’ll soon take another terrible cue from traditional cable: cutting corners on customer service, and making it increasingly difficult to cancel service without headaches.
At which point the customer annoyance accelerates, free services like piracy become even more attractive, and the disruption/evolution cycle begins all over again.
