With Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Now, and Hulu all becoming viable streaming services for TV and movie fans, it feels like we may be headed for a fragmented media future.
Each week I discuss a new episode of The Walking Dead with my brother, and we talk for hours about the popular AMC show, especially season 6’s finale. Since we both pay for cable, it’s easy to catch the show live or on DVR, but what happens when we need up to four different streaming services to catch all the shows we might want to watch?
I was recently discussing this problem with a colleague, the fact that Netflix isn’t the only streaming service on the block anymore, with Amazon Prime picking up multiple new shows and even movies. This got me thinking about the future of streaming content, and what will happen when there’s content I want to watch on multiple streaming services.
We already have a fairly large problem with this if you happen to watch Game of Thrones or Homeland, as they both air on channels that you have to pay additional cable fees to watch.
This has forced many people to use illegal streams to watch these popular shows, with more people pirating Game of Thrones than any other show in the world for the past four years. Walking Dead, on the other hand, comes in at number two, with 6.9 million people streaming it illegally.
The fact that we’re already running into major problems with illegal streaming with shows that are readily available on television seems to indicate that we’re headed for a disaster once more shows become available on Netflix, Amazon Prime and other services.
While streaming services aren’t exactly expensive, it’s mostly about the fact that we’re undoubtedly going to want to watch a show that only airs on one service, and we’ll have to pay for that entire service just to catch that one specific show.
Prices for all services
• Netflix – $7.99/month
Netflix currently gives viewers the most bang for their buck, with $7.99 a month giving one person access to loads of movies and television shows. Netflix is also ahead of the game in terms of creating original content, which is something the other services plan on doing in the next few years.
• Amazon Prime – $99/year ($8.25/month)
Amazon Prime costs $99 per year, which is a disadvantage of the service, but it turns out to be around $8.25 a month and includes services other than streaming media content. If you purchase items from Amazon often, you get free two-day shipping as well, which could potentially be an important reason for someone to purchase the service.
• HBO Now – $14.99/month
HBO Now is the most expensive service, but the service also allows limitless devices per account. This is something you have to pay extra for with Netflix, so you can stream different movies and shows on multiple devices without worrying about paying additional fees. HBO Now also has some newer movies you won’t see on other services, as well as the popular Game of Thrones series.
• Hulu Plus – $7.99/month
Hulu Plus is probably the weakest of the four services right now, and it also includes advertising, which is certainly a disappointment (though a $11.99/month plan with no advertising does exist). The service is good for watching shows after they’ve aired, and with limited advertising, but their original content is lacking compared to Netflix and Amazon. They’re aware of this and have been making big moves to improve. Over the past couple months alone they’ve introduced highly-publicized original series like The Path, co-starring Aaron Paul, and 11.22.63, starring James Franco.
The monthly cost of all these services would be around $40, which doesn’t sound bad, but there’s going to be quite a bit of overlap in terms of on-demand TV shows. In the image at the top of this post I did a mock-up of what we might see in the future, with all the services being available together, but it’s unlikely we’ll see a service with these different companies working together anytime soon.
Streaming vs. cable cost
As for whether this would be better for you than paying for cable, it’s impossible to know everyone’s needs, but it’s clear we’ll have to make this decision in the future. A normal cable bill is around $100 per month depending on your service.
The big question remains as to whether people will be willing to pay for a single service just for one show. Will we see more people pirating shows like we have with Game of Thrones, which saw 13 million people illegally stream the first episode of season 5? EW reports that one source says illegal streaming of that one episode cost HBO $44 million dollars.
That’s a huge amount of money for HBO to lose for a single episode of the show, and just imagine in the future where millions of people will stream entire seasons illegally. This could actually cripple some smaller services, which could result in less content for all viewers.
There’s obviously a moral angle to all of this, which is that if viewers weren’t willing to stream content illegally, this problem might not exist. But the fact is with so many services becoming available, and offering quality content, can we all be expected to pay for multiple services?
It’s a hard decision to make, because while some people have the resources to pay for these services, we imagine there’s many that don’t. This becomes less of a moral question, and more about giving fans a way to watch one show from a service without committing to paying for the entire service. This is something cable TV has done at least a little better than online services have so far.
Maybe if viewers had the option to pay for only one show they might be willing to go that route, but we may still see millions illegally streaming content. It’s actually surprising that these services and TV networks haven’t taken this seriously, because as more exclusive shows like Netflix’s House of Cards become popular, it can only get worse.
There doesn’t seem to be an answer to the question just yet, but with so many streaming services creating attractive content, we’re curious how these companies plan on keeping illegal streaming as a final option instead of the only option.