With the simultaneous rollout of restrictions on account sharing and price increases/addition of advertising, I’m cutting back severely on streaming services.

I allowed my streaming subscriptions to grow without thinking about it. Without trying to remember the constant merging and bundling, I was subscribed to probably a dozen services at one point. They ranged from Netflix and HBO and Hulu to Shudder and Showtime. I had Paramount, Criterion, Disney, Peacock, and others. I’d do the typical thing where I’d search for a movie, find it is exclusive to a platform, and grab the free trial and forget to cancel. I excused it if I found a movie even every couple of months on it. There were still nights where it’d take an hour to find something I wanted to watch. I was probably closing in on $200/month all told, and I don’t have sports subscriptions.

I’m interested in learning what other people are doing regarding the price hikes and service compromises. Are you cancelling? Are you taking advantage of bundles with your internet services? Are you rotating on some interval? Or are you not changing at all?

  • Kalash
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    62 years ago

    The only streaming service I use is my own homeserver running plex, so no.

  • @[email protected]
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    12 years ago

    Cancelled everything except YouTube. I could afford them but I just don’t like the direction they are going, especially Netflix.

  • @[email protected]
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    12 years ago

    I can’t really cancel Putlocker and it’s free and has every movie and show that are on the other streaming services.

    So no.

  • Open
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    92 years ago

    I’ve not had any subscriptions for 3 years now. Turning point for me was when I found it easier to sail the high seas rather than to figure out which service the show I had already paid for was on.

  • GadgeteerZA
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    52 years ago

    About 3 months back I cancelled Netflix (after being in it for many years) and moved to free Tubi.

  • @[email protected]
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    32 years ago

    I’m deciding what to keep and what to cancel based on what kind of holiday deals I can get over the next few months.

  • @[email protected]
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    102 years ago

    I quit them a long time ago. Once we got to the point where I had to think about which service a show was on, I was done and cancelled Netflix. I guess I technically have Prime Video, but I almost never use it. Since then the services have only gotten worse.

    The only streaming service I’ve kept and don’t mind paying for is Spotify since you can still get just about everything in one place.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    I get a lot of value out of Netflix, I watch tons of their shows every month.

    I use Prime quite a bit also obviously for Amazon shopping and try to watch Prime Video a few times each month, and now they’ve expanded the music I’ll try that too.

    I will be canceling Disney and just pirate what I want to see, which isn’t much, literally just one show.

    E: I canceled Spotify ages ago and use their free version but for my favorite bands I downloaded their MP3 discographies. I buy their music on CD because it pays them better than streaming their songs thousands of times, plus I buy merch and go to the concerts so I’m OK with that.

    E2: someone mentioned Patreon, I cancelled most of those as well because my gaming group broke up and all my patreons are for gaming 3D files. I have years worth of stuff to print and will never reach the end.

    • @[email protected]
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      32 years ago

      I’d like to yarr, especially anything no longer available via any streaming, but I’m well past my Napster days and pretty positive I’ll screw it up, either privacy wise or safety wise.

      I do know how to avoid keywords after that ISP-reddit court debacle, tho…

  • Abracadaniel [he/him]
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    22 years ago

    Eventually Netflix will kick me off the family account but there’s no way I’m paying for that garbage. I might pay for Hulu as they have a much better selection for my tastes.

  • @[email protected]
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    12 years ago

    I’ve cancelled them all and started sailing the high seas since the beginning of the year. I’m considering picking up Crunchyroll, though. It’s just easier to pay for One Piece than pirate it.