Experts say streaming services have evolved in the last few years and not necessarily for the better. “We have been going through a version of what’s called the ‘enshittification’ cycle, which means businesses start with incredible deals for consumers, they will be too affordable with great options for their users and they will have very wide catalogues at a good price so people are excited and say, ‘Hey, I am going to use this service and nothing else.’ They tell all their friends let’s all switch to this, a lot of people do and once people do, businesses start chipping away at that bargain,” says Matthew Hatfield, OpenMedia executive director. Over the years prices have steadily increased and commercial-free options come with a fee. “They raised prices, they reduced the size of their catalogue and created different tiers of services and of course they introduced ads as well, bringing back one of the things people were fleeing cable to avoid,” says Hatfield. Maritimers like Brianne Breau have noticed this, too. She’s grateful to have access to her parents’ streaming services because if not she says she could no longer afford to watch. “I’ve seen it go from, what, $10 to $18, $19 and you’re still getting ads on a lot of them, which I find to be actually scummy,” says Breau. Retail analyst Bruce Winder says consumer behaviour has changed due to the streaming services evolution. “Some people have really held back, and the key too is some people had two or three of these subscriptions and they really consolidated it and said, ‘Do I really need three? I think I can live with one.’ If they are hurting, they may say I will go to the ads,” says Winder. “But then you have folks that are affluent and they don’t want the ads so they are willing to pay more.” Many Maritimers say the quality has dropped for some services and the advertisements are annoying. “The piss off is Prime was actually pretty good value, they had good variety and now they send you an email if you don’t want commercials there is a fee for that, commercials weren’t there for the start, they are just doing it for us to pay more. Netflix has gone up a bit, it’s nickel and diming and it’s really annoying,” says Laura Chan, who lives in Halifax. Hatfield explains people should not be treating these streaming services like a utility and should be rotating streaming consumption. “Subscribe to something for two months, four months, consume a few of the series you’re interested in and move on. And if you can pick after they make one of these changes, it’s your time to move on, so it sends a message to them that you can’t chip away at our benefits indefinitely, there actually will be consequences,” says Hatfield. “Sometimes it’s like a 30-second ad that’s not skippable so it does kinda suck and sometimes I do get tempted to pay for the premium account,” says Peter Lee, who was visiting from Vancouver. Winder says tiered services are tailored to different groups of consumers. He explains one reason why streaming services have made all these changes is to increase their profits. “Part of it is a need to generate cash to generate content, which differentiates each provider from themselves. It can be a very profitable business so we saw a lot of businesses jump in Disney, Crave, etc., HBO, and you started to see customer segmentation through tiered pricing, so what we have now is most companies have raised their prices significantly on the middle and upper tiers,” says Winder. According to Hatfield, streaming services remain the majority option for Canadians. “We have switched in the last three years between cable subscription being the most common consumption choice to most people, especially younger people, choosing one or more streaming services,” says Hatfield. While some have cut the cord on cable, others may switch back, given the direction streaming services are headed. “I never really had cable because it was too expensive but I’m thinking if I keep all the services it’s the equivalent of cable,” says Chan. “I think cable would be worth the dollar, honestly,” says Breau.
