Overcoming Subscription Fatigue

When I discuss all of the streaming services that have launched or will launch soon with people, most of them respond by telling me “I will definitely not be signing up for all of those services, that is too many.”

Nowadays most TV watchers fall into two camps: those with cable and those without. Those with cable are already paying around $100 per month for content, so they don’t want to sign up for a bunch of streaming services on top of that already hefty bill. Those without cable often feel like Netflix is enough and enjoy their low monthly bill.

So what are the big media companies going to do to get us to sign up?

Low Prices

Apple and Disney entered this market at very low prices, $5 and $7 per month respectfully. WarnerMedia will come in much higher at $15 per month for HBO Max because they can’t undercut the prices cable companies already charge for regular HBO, however Max will include a lot more content than regular HBO for roughly the same price.

Discounts

With most T-Mobile plans you get Netflix for free, Verizon customers get a year of Disney+, and AT&T customers may get HBO Max depending on their plan and if they already have HBO. If you buy an Apple device (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Mac) you get to watch Apple TV+ for free for a year. If you’re a Comcast TV customer you get Peacock for $5 off, so the lowest tier is actually free with ads.

For many of us Prime Video is essentially free because Prime delivery is simply something we’re not willing to live without.

Pull Catalogs From Netflix

Historically much Netflix’s most watched content was licensed from its new competitors who will now be offering that content on their own services. Fortunately for Netflix, most of their top shows are now original (thank you Tiger King!), but their licensed catalog remains popular. The new entrants to this market are hoping that viewers will follow Friends to HBO Max and The Office to Peacock.

Franchise Originals

Baby Yoda… I mean The Mandalorian was a huge hit, and not just amongst Star Wars fans. If you’re a dedicated fan of the Marvel movies, the upcoming Marvel series on Disney+ will tie directly into the future films.

HBO Max has several DC Comics originals in the works as well as a series that will spin out of Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming Dune movie. Mr Robot showrunner Sam Esmail is re-rebooting Battlestar Galactica for Peacock. Prime Video is developing a new Lord of the Rings series. ViacomCBS has Star Trek.

Apple is the only big player here without a recognizable brand in their lineup.

Password Sharing

Passwords are being shared in all kinds of relationships: parents and kids, brothers and sisters, boyfriends and girlfriends, or even just friends. Perhaps this sharing is reciprocal (I’ll tell you my Netflix if you tell me your Hulu), perhaps someone is leaching off of you, or maybe someone watched you type it in one-time, but clearly the number of watchers is much larger than the number of paying customers.

To some extent the streamers except this reality, but if you share your password too widely you’ll see a lot of “too many simultaneous streams” denials. Also, for god’s sake please don’t use the same password for your entertainment that you do for your email, social media, or banking.

Will It Work?

Disney+ recently passed 50 million subscribers, so clearly there’s a market for more than just Netflix. Will demand scale to eight or nine services? Certainly not for everyone, and probably not for most people.

However not every service will need to achieve Netflix’s scale (currently 182 million subscribers) in order to be successful. The cost of internet infrastructure has never been lower and many streamers are relying on content that they’ve already paid for (though they still may have to pay to stream their own content due to contractual obligations with production companies, actors, directors, writers, etc). The economics of streaming are much different than the economics of broadcast and cable television with far fewer middlemen in the new world.

So in the end I’m guessing that many (if not all) of these new services will be successful enough to stick around and hold onto their content despite the fact that they have an uphill battle to fight to convince the public that they need subscriptions beyond just Netflix.

Like it or not the streaming wars are here to stay.