this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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With the simultaneous rollout of restrictions on account sharing and price increases/addition of advertising, I’m cutting back severely on streaming services.

I allowed my streaming subscriptions to grow without thinking about it. Without trying to remember the constant merging and bundling, I was subscribed to probably a dozen services at one point. They ranged from Netflix and HBO and Hulu to Shudder and Showtime. I had Paramount, Criterion, Disney, Peacock, and others. I’d do the typical thing where I’d search for a movie, find it is exclusive to a platform, and grab the free trial and forget to cancel. I excused it if I found a movie even every couple of months on it. There were still nights where it’d take an hour to find something I wanted to watch. I was probably closing in on $200/month all told, and I don’t have sports subscriptions.

I’m interested in learning what other people are doing regarding the price hikes and service compromises. Are you cancelling? Are you taking advantage of bundles with your internet services? Are you rotating on some interval? Or are you not changing at all?

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[–] Zugyuk@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just use fmovies.to and up your antivirus. Much cheaper

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Piracy is good.

[–] wholemilk@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

I cancelled all of my streaming subscriptions years ago to save money. I figured I'd subscribe again when there was anything I wanted to watch that I couldn't find and it turns out there wasn't really anything I wanted to watch.

[–] TomBombadil@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Old Tom here has a Plex server connected to sonarr, radarr, my torrent client, etc. This allows me to more or less search for something I want to watch and with a button click have it downloaded anywhere from a few minutes and up depending on the title's popularity. Ultimately it's actually a better experience than any streaming service.

[–] eugenia@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

My husband and I canceled them all 3 days ago. We had Netflix, Prime, AppleTV+, Max, Paramount+, Hulu, Peacock, and Disney+. We're moving back to Europe in November, so they all had to go. But even if we were to stay in the US, I'd probably just keep Prime, so I could just rent what I wanted to see and nothing else. Instead, I've stocked up with a few classic sci-fi Blu-rays to take with us in Europe, and we will have 2 US-coded BD players to keep us playing them until old age.

For the main streaming services, I had Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+.

I cancelled Netflix back when they announced a price hike in early 2021? I'd been a customer since 2006.

Disney+ I cancelled a few months ago, but the plan goes through November, so we still have it technically. Not planning to renew.

Prime will get renewed, but I don't subscribe to it specifically for streaming, it's just included in the package.

For non-traditional streaming services, I still have a number of subscriptions on Twitch and with Subtember, I've gotten a bunch of 6 month subs to my favorite creators. Also given out gift subs to my favorite creators.

I also subscribe to Dropout and while my subscription is expiring in the next few months, I'll certainly renew it for another year when I have time to binge Dimension 20 again.

I really don't have any interest in streaming services that give traditional options anymore. Even before I cancelled Netflix, I could look in my recent connection history where it shows the five most recent logins and see timestamps going back 2+ years. I transitioned away from that kind of content a long time ago.

[–] mojo@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

I've reduced as much as I can. I really just keep Spotify for entertainment. I watch YouTube with my AdBlock most of the time. Haven't been kicked off of my parent's Netflix yet but I barely use it in the first place unless a popular show drops. The rest I just pirate.

[–] thisNotMyName@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I've never subscribed to more than two - Netflix and Prime. Whenever exclusive stuff is somewhere else, I get it on Bluray or sth and add it to my Jellyfin. Since the first two get shittier every day, I'm thinking about cancelling them, but haven't done yet

I only have Dropout. Everything else is...externally sourced.

[–] Kekzkrieger@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

I cancelled netflix cause i was barely watching and the only reason i kept it was because we were 3 friends sharing it. We pay for 4 screens so we expect that to keep working which it didn't. So we cancelled cause we spoke about it and nobody really watched a lot.

In the end unfortunately for Netflix it is worth it, just look at their stock which is going up again, which means more people bought the extra subscription rather than cancelling.

Sad times but if the majority of people don't go against enshittification they will keep squeezing as much money out of everyone as long as it is profitable

[–] cxg@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Cancelled Netflix today, Hulu comes with my internet plan so I guess that stays. Might keep prime since I have an Amazon credits card but that’s really not worth it anymore. Disney plus probably getting cancelled after Ahsoka ends

[–] xNekoyaki@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Canceled Netflix because they finally kicked my friends off, might get it again for 1 month at a time, here and there. I get Disney for a few months for my brother's bday, we catch up on whatever came out in the past year. My mom shares her Peacock with me. I got a year sub to Dropout, and share it with 2-3 friends. We stay subbed to Hulu and HBO pretty much all the time, and we get Paramount a couple months a year. We have Prime, but I'm probably going to cancel it soon.

[–] Fjor@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Yhup, cancelled all of them recently.

[–] OnichiCub@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

Canceled everything but my Youtube premium. The beauty of streaming, and why it killed piracy for a time imo, was that it made it so easy to access everything there was no need to bother with anything else. I was happy to pay for a media subscription when it was one subscription. I was even happy to do it when it was two, then three. By the fourth, fifth, sixth, so on and so forth forever, I'd had more than enough. They've done away with the ease of access for consumers and made it painfully obnoxious again, so... back to piracy.

[–] Gabu@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Never signed one to begin with πŸ¦œπŸ΄β€β˜ οΈ

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I used to have Netflix and Disney+ but canceled each after the announcement of the account sharing changes

My sister is in a different city as me and my dad is in a different country. We all like to watch movies

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[–] D61@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

Only ever had two services, Netflix and Hulu. It worked out that a VPN's yearly subscription was cheaper than the base plan of Netflix so I just canceled that and straw-hat-pirates what I can't find on Hulu.

[–] jeanofthedead@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I’ve been using Stremio with Real-Debrid for about 6 months now and I don’t see myself going back. It’s too perfect.

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[–] ElHexo@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I pay for Dropout.tv, otherwise piracy

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[–] dustojnikhummer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have only Spotify and Youtube Premium. Spotify because YTMusic sucks (and I have two other family members on it) and Youtube because I spend more than 12 hours/day streaming Youtube. Both of those are super justified. Rest is high seas with Jellyfin, with some exceptions. Right now I'm on a 3Euro Prime Video tier, which I will cancel after Star Trek Lower Decks is over.

[–] jackmarxist@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

The only time I got a streaming service for Netflix to watch Waltuh and Friends. Never got it again. My family has prime for Amazon so Amazon Prime Video is complimentary and worth it because it's very cheap in India.

[–] Thisfox@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

I cancelled Netflix back when they put the restrictions on, what, six months ago? Longer?

I try to have one subscription at a time, anyhow.

[–] raven@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Mullvad is only $5 a month just sayin'

I've noticed all my British shows have gone missing over the last couple years from the usual torrent sites. I'm kind of surprised because (I'm going to get my head bitten off for this take) the BBC is making better content than anything America has put out in the last few years.

Still on prime because I save more than I spend using it.

Yup. We use to have Netflix and another service depending on what was coming out I.e. Disney plus when Mandi was releasing.

Now we just do the other service,

Please ignore the iPad usb c dock with the hdmi splitter connected to it.

[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I had someone recently canceled everything except for Amazon prime since I am still shop there but I don't pay for any other services other than my seedbox and emby

[–] guyrocket@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can't cancel what I didn't have.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago

Amazon made cancelling Prime an easy choice. Adverts are cancer.

[–] ScreamingFirehawk@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have prime until they bring in ads, and I'm using Apple TV+ but I have near enough a year of free trials through a credit card, buying an LG TV and my phone network provider. I use my cousin's Disney+, my partner pays for crunchy roll but I don't know how much that gets used.

Apple TV+ is definitely worth it, even paying the subscription. I use Amazon enough that the free delivery is sort of worth it, but I can usually get things cheaper elsewhere now.

I use Plex and sail the seven seas for everything I currently can't get on one of the services available to me, and I expect to go more this way in future as streaming services start taking the piss

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[–] cosmiccowboy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I have quite a few of them, and some I'd like to get rid of. Netflix is probably first on the chopping block.

[–] danie10@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

About 3 months back I cancelled Netflix (after being in it for many years) and moved to free Tubi.

[–] hawgietonight@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

We have a budget for streaming services. ATM Netflix, HBO max and Showtime. About 20€ a month. Me and my wife like a good classic flick every now and then, so the two latter stay. The kids eat up crap Netflix series like candy. Everytime they ask to get prime or Disney they have the choice to give up Netflix to change.. but they don't.

If ads come, or the price goes up too much will consider canceling. Until then, it suits our wants.

[–] H3wastooshort@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I dont watch too many series/movies. Never payed for streaming, planning on never doing so because of all that bullshit. I prefer my media on stamped and metallized plastic discs that work offline, or plain DRM-free video/audio files on my HDD.

[–] HexbearGPT@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago

I’ve never paid for a streaming service in my life. You’re a sucker if you do.

I cancelled the last of mine years ago. Been watching a lot of free stuff like Pluto.tv, Roku, Tubi, YouTube, etc.

[–] peter@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, the lionsgate+ and paramount+ existing was the tipping point for me. I paid for Netflix when it had good stuff. I still try to watch on official platforms where its available but sometimes it's literally impossible to get

[–] rockandsock@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I'm deciding what to keep and what to cancel based on what kind of holiday deals I can get over the next few months.

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