By Jake Lavallee
In today’s modern society, most households have at least one streaming service. According to Forbes, 78% of all American households subscribe to at least one or more streaming services, with the influx of different streaming services that are owned by many different companies like Max, Netflix, Shudder, and Investigation Discovery. According to USA Today, the top five streaming services are Netflix, Prime, Disney, Max, and Paramount Plus. These streaming services used to be a subscription that was under ten dollars per month, but now they are getting close to twenty-five dollars per month. How did this happen? Is this better than cable?
This is the home screen of a smart TV with streaming services. The reason these services are flooding the market is that when streaming services first started back in 1997, the cable industry was the main way to consume television. From soap operas to the news, everything went through the many cable networks that existed at the time, like AT&T and Dish. These cable companies had people sign a contract that is, on average, between $50 and $125, according to The Tech Advocate. Then, when streaming services started to roll out, it seemed like a cheaper option to cable, with Hulu being $10 a month for everything and Netflix being nine $9 a month, according to Axios. But that changed once streaming services overtook cable in popularity.
When these streaming services started to roll out, there were ad campaigns to “cut the cord,” which meant ditching cable as a whole and just using streaming services as the one and only way of absorbing the television audience. Because of the size of the audience and inflation, many prices rose. Netflix, from launch to now, has risen $6.50 per month, Hulu has risen $5, and Disney Plus has risen $4. Western New England University student Caylen Hunt, president of Golden Bear Television, says, “I’m not a fan of the price rising. But it makes sense because of the developers for these services.” With the variety of original shows on services like Stranger Things on Netflix, The Bear on Hulu, and The Boys on Prime, the number of services that people have to buy to get the shows they want to watch is either equal to or higher than the cost of a cable contract.
Why should this matter to the average college student? This matters because a big chunk of the consumer base of these services is the 18-34 age group, according to Screen Media. Now, cable is obsolete to the average college student. Gwen Scorpa, a Neuroscience major at Western New England University, says, “You now get streaming services through some cable subscriptions, and anything on cable is on those streaming services.” For a college student, having a streaming service would be an easier and cheaper option than cable, depending on the streaming service of your choice.
Streaming services don’t just affect the audience of the entertainment industry. It also affects people who work behind the camera. Matt Hadley, the head of production at A La Mode Films and a family friend of mine, shared his point of view on how streaming services changed how he works and what he has seen in the industry. “I have seen many changes due to the takeover of streaming services,” Hadley said. “Every feature film that I’ve worked on is trying to sell their movies to streaming services and they avoid the typical theater release model.” In the company that he owns, where they produced content for commercials, feature films, and TV shows (some examples being SNL and Two Sentence Horror Stories), they describe seeing writers and actors being the most affected by the streaming service model of release because of the royalties that come from these services being spread across the larger companies and not the individuals. This ultimately became the reason behind the actor/writer strike by SAG-AFTRA (the union for actors and writers). So, how does anyone find the right streaming service?
The top five streaming services do have high prices. Netflix is between $7 and $15, depending on the quality of the video and ads. Prime is $15 a month. Disney+ is $8 to $14 a month, depending on the ads in the service. MAX is $15 a month. Paramount goes from $6 to $12, depending on ads as well. So, it would make sense that a college student who may or may not be paying for their own streaming service would want to know what would be the cheapest streaming service with the most content to choose from, as well as the content on those services. Some examples of streaming services with the most content that could be a good choice to get are MAX, with all of HBO’s catalog and great series that span from comedies like South Park to dramas like Boardwalk Empire and lots of classic movies. Hulu is also great not only because of the college student discount that you get if you’re in college but also because it comes with a Spotify premium account. Hulu has great content, such as originals like The Bear and comedies like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Peacock, too, has many popular shows like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It all boils down to individual tastes and how much people are willing to spend on a streaming service.
These many streaming services with different prices and content boil down to personal preference. But it’s also great to know the effect of this new industry on entertainment as a whole. The way that the people are paid through these companies, the similarities it’s starting to have to cable when it was a new medium, and why people should care about this in the first place. Just like the internet, streaming is changing everything for both good and bad reasons. The people who work in these streaming and entertainment industries need to know how to work together so that they can make the best application for their users and the people making the content. Streaming is the future, and it turns out the future is now.
