1. Profit‑driven price increases and corporate greed
Commentators repeatedly note that streaming services raise prices to boost profits, indifferent to pushing users toward piracy.
- “That's how you double profits, indeed.” – java‑man
- “It makes sense from the point of view of a giant corporation. If people are paying despite of recent price increases and declining quality, why not try to increase profits even further?” – glimshe
- “They don't care about pushing SOME people to piracy as long as line goes up.” – SketchySeaBeast
2. Piracy offers a superior user experience
Many argue that pirated content provides a simpler, ad‑free, all‑in‑one experience that legal services cannot match.
- “It's absurd that piracy is the best user experience. 1 app, 1 place for your content, no licensing deals to worry about, no outrage pulling old episodes, local streaming, the list goes on.” – joshstrange
- “Streaming services have become the worst of all worlds.” – hypendev
- “Oof. I guess sailing the high sees is back on the table.” – avgDev
3. Fragmentation and exclusive licensing create inconvenience
The proliferation of separate services, each with exclusive libraries, forces users to juggle multiple subscriptions and apps.
- “Instead these media owners got greedy and every media producing company decided it also needed to be a streaming company. But further, they licensed the media out exclusively to single streaming companies.” – cogman10
- “Instead the content is silo'd in a bunch of massive companies that don't care about UI/UX and exist only to force more ads down our throats.” – joshstrange
- “People expecting that the content companies were going to just accept lower revenue forever … are fooling themselves … they're planning on making more money than they did under cable.” – mixdup
4. Streaming is reverting to the cable‑TV model (price, ads, bundling)
Discussants see the current landscape as a repeat of cable’s drawbacks—rising costs, ads, and bundled offerings.
- “We are back to cable pricing.” – mixdup
- “We are worse than cable pricing at this point from what I can see.” – joshstrange
- “People comparing these streaming services to cable really don't seem to understand just how bad cable was …” – nater5000
- “They discounted to encourage the transition away from cable and DVR … then they raise prices to the magical ‘fraction of monthly budget for entertainment’ level …” – drob518