Consumers Are Sick of the Streaming Model

Plus: DP Greig Fraser Talks Shooting "Dune: Part Two"

Author

Steve
April 23, 2024

Aloha Hollywood tech nerds!

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Consumers Are Sick of the Streaming Model

A pair of interesting articles to share with you lovely folks that demonstrate well what I’ve said a few times: streaming is an increasingly consumer-unfriendly business and consumers will continue to respond accordingly.

First from The New York Times: the growing trend of people subscribing to and then canceling their streaming service, and then returning months later when something else they want to watch is on.

Last year, these “serial churners,” as Antenna calls them, accounted for roughly 40 percent of all new subscriptions and cancellations, Mr. Carson said.

The companies “clearly can’t ignore them because it’s such a big, active part of the market,” he said.

I’ve heard that term before! When I was a kid, my parents made fun of my bottomless desire for Honey Nut Cheerios by calling me a “cereal churner.” It’s sort of the same! More from the Times:

Price sensitivity is also a factor. Americans with a streaming subscription are spending an average of $61 a month for four services, an increase from $48 a year ago, according to a new study by Deloitte. The increase was due to higher prices, not additional services. Nearly half the people surveyed said they would cancel their favorite streaming service if monthly prices went up another $5, the study said.

I love that these streaming services presumably employ hundreds of MBAs and yet are surprised to see increasing churn over their brilliant business model “keep inflating prices and removing content.” Who wouldn’t want to sign up for that?

I found similar themes in the unfolding story of Watcher, a popular YouTube channel that announced it was moving its content to its own $6/month subscription streaming service. After intense fan backlash, Watcher walked back the plan and stated that they would continue to upload the shows to YouTube one month after their premiere on the service.

This is a microcosm of the primary issues facing streaming: consumers were trained to expect a certain model for content delivery (in the case of Watcher, monetized ad-supported YouTube videos they could watch for free). Suddenly, an internal demand for increased revenue requires a change, and the decision is made for the change least beneficial to the consumer. The consumer revolts and everyone is shocked! The final quotation from the Times article is instructive:

“I don’t like this new system where you have to have a million different subscriptions to watch what you want to watch. I’m happy to cancel to punish the companies who are making me do this.”

DP Greig Fraser Talks Shooting Dune: Part Two

Dune: Part Two has hit streaming, and now is a great time to share this terrific Dolby: Creator Talks podcast interview on the process of shooting the film and some its most memorable sequences. It’s long but worth it!

Here’s a round-up of cool and interesting links about Hollywood and technology:

Fake war footage is spreading across Twitter. (link)

Civil War’s “revolutionary” new camera. (link)

Redditors identify more horrible AI-upscaling in 4K Aliens Blu-Ray release. (link)