I'm not seeing discussion of key comparison to steaming vs. cable: the ability to buy and access a variety of content from one source.
"Having to buy more than you need", "annoying contracts", "ads", "bundling"... all true... for both streaming and cable in different ways.
What's most annoying with the streaming ecosystem as it exists right now, is having to deal individually with each provider. That means multiple transactions, different apps, silo'd searching, etc.
I like the ability to turn different services on and off at will... I want the ability to manage and access those services in one place. Having a single relationship with a cable-esque provider to abstract away the complexities of different streaming services would be awesome.
At least with cable, I didn't have to buy Verizon and Comcast and Cox to watch ABC, ESPN, and HBO.
Cable would be awesome if it let you purchase channels individually.
I let cable TV go after my bill (including Internet) crawled up to $250 a month and then I realized the only thing I was watching was occasionally Food Network and most of the time everything else had either reality TV garbage I had no interest in, re-runs of shows I've seen a zillion times, or infomercials.
I like streaming. For example, I got bored with Starz so I dropped it, but wasn't anywhere near as bad as the over $100 for cable TV part of my cable bill, nor as painful to cancel.
If I could simply pick and pay for the couple channels I wanted and switch without hassle, yes, it would be awesome. Until then I'm fine dealing with separate providers. I'm sure it will be ruined soon though.
Here's the thing though - we have almost two generations who did not grow up watching broadcast TV and aren't in that habit. Cable TV was able to jack up its price and keep people paying in my opinion because older people grew up with TV being a default background activity and kind of just wanted it there.
That's not true anymore. Your default background activity is your phone. Make these streaming services too complex and too ad-ridden and I think people simply will give them up. They're already really easy to give up. Especially with the current trend of inflation and rising housing costs people aren't going to let subscriptions stick around they aren't really using.
Apple TV+ has a unified search (although Netflix doesn't participate), but something about the handoffs between APIs is painfully sloooow and the UX can get a little confusing if you're managing multiple user profiles (both at the Apple TV level and in each individual service) as well as getting very confused if you're able to access the same content through multiple services (e.g. HBO shows via Hulu or HBO Now).
It needs improvement fast. Ideally we'd decouple the technology/UX side of it from the content library management side of it but that'll never happen.
Well now you're talking about technical delivery! Not withstanding the advancement on 4K content, VCRs, RCA antennas, remote controls, etc.
Heck, for a while I could rent new releases from my Verizon subscription, too! (Or I'd have the o.g. delivery-service Netflix to bring them to my door.)
"Having to buy more than you need", "annoying contracts", "ads", "bundling"... all true... for both streaming and cable in different ways.
What's most annoying with the streaming ecosystem as it exists right now, is having to deal individually with each provider. That means multiple transactions, different apps, silo'd searching, etc.
I like the ability to turn different services on and off at will... I want the ability to manage and access those services in one place. Having a single relationship with a cable-esque provider to abstract away the complexities of different streaming services would be awesome.
At least with cable, I didn't have to buy Verizon and Comcast and Cox to watch ABC, ESPN, and HBO.