The news that Netflix has decided to increase their prices have gone over like a lead balloon to most news outlets. And if not like that, at the very least it’s a baffling move to a company that is facing unprecedented competition that is only going to become worse as established players decide they don’t want to go through Netflix for their back catalogues and would prefer their money direct.
It’s weird, because the logic seems to be rooted in old-fashioned thinking.
Take for instance, the average tech luddite. The person that says they don’t know how to use their phone not with shame, but with an alarmingly apparent sense of pride. This person still pays for premium cable, despite the fact that the only reason it exists nowadays is so that every channel can tell you how much more you will enjoy their service through their app, available on your phone or tablet. They go through the five stages of grief whenever a channel announces it will stop airing. They are sure that the McDonalds automated teller is about to become sentient, the automated car wash is stealing their license plate, and the adblocking software is somehow causing more damage than the actual ads.
That person, when dragged kicking and screaming to the world of streaming services, will sign up for one, then another, then another, and then another. Six months down the line they are paying more than when they weren’t members of the cord-cutter club, ‘no doubt the fault of those godforsaken contraptions’ and ‘life was easier when we just had cable’ et cetera.
However, for everyone else, the solution is rather obvious. Pick a main service for when you just want to stare at electricity happening (I would suggest just using YouTube for that, it’s free and there’s nothing to dislike!) and then whenever something comes up on a streaming service that you just absolutely have to watch…pay for a month. Binge on that thing for the weekend and anything else that takes your fancy. Sure, canceling is a bit of a palaver on most services, but I am willing to bet most people would take that over literal hundreds of dollars spent on literally nothing. The goal should be to have fewer streaming bills than you have eyeballs.
Crucially, to fuel my bafflement at the people who were channeling the price increase as a harbinger of doom for Netflix, being able to pick and choose rather has the effect of making potential customers more flexible about pricing. I mean, $20 is still less money than the average movie outing if you want to support the actual business of the movie theater and get an enormous popcorn with fake butter, a chocolate bar, a hot dog, and a diet soda. In contrast to that, a month of Disney+ and then one of Hulu to finally watch the Animaniacs Reboot, to Apple TV+ to Netflix again when the new season of The Crown drops or something is positively cost effective. Especially since you can buy diet soda in bulk.
Though on paper the promise of untold freedom and flexibility brought by streaming services went away once you had, say, five of them that actually created decent content, it actuality it just became more difficult to sustain. You can still save a ton of cash on it instead of premium cable, it just requires self-introspection and savvy management from potential customers. This is not to say that they will accept any price hike. Push your customers too far, and they will let you remember that there are literal dozens of other ways that they can split that Jackson bill. For instance, doing your usual amazon shop (we won’t judge you for it, sometimes one does need a giant pop vinyl rendition of a youtuber) , and use an additional $13 to pay for prime instead of the inevitably large shipping bill.
