Streaming TV Prices Double As ‘Enshittification’ Takes Root, Likely Driving Users Back To Piracy

Amazon is now charging Prime customers an extra $3 a month to avoid ads that didn't used to exist. Netflix is charging password sharers extra for sharing passwords, in addition to yet another looming price hike. Apple just doubled the price of Apple TV on the heels of price hikes by Disney, Hulu, and ESPN. HBO Max just announced it would be charging users more money if they want to enjoy content in 4K.

As the streaming market has saturated and growth has slowed, companies in the streaming space have turned toward nickel-and-diming users at an alarming rate in order to deliver Wall Street its sweet quarterly returns (at any cost). Streaming service prices have more than doubled since the technology came to market, and there's really no sign of it slowing down.

One interesting wrinkle in this march towards consolidated annoyance is the streaming sector's interest in driving more users toward ad-based tiers, where profits can continue to skyrocket:

Why? Unlike a paid subscription, which brings in a fixed amount of revenue each month, there is no ceiling to advertising revenue. The number of ads displayed and the rates a streaming platform can charge marketers for the ads are constantly fluctuating, offering unlimited revenue upside."

Higher prices, more restrictions, more ads (in Amazon's case, even if you're already paying $15 a month for Prime). At the same time, just like cable did, you're going to see a renewed push for mindless consolidation as the only solution" to the pesky problem of too much competition and not enough profits:

With so many streaming services, and no end in sight to price hikes, something will have to give at some point. The streaming industry is on the verge of losing some of its major players, analysts agree. The macro, high-level view is that there are too many streaming services losing too much money, and someone is going to raise the white flag," said Rich Greenfield, analyst at LightShed Partners."

As the sector consolidates, it will look for additional options to cut costs, whether it's via layoffs or offshored, lower quality customer service. Again, this precise trajectory was how the U.S. public ultimately got stuck with hugely unpopular giants like Comcast, and there's absolutely zero indication that anybody in the video entertainment industry learned anything from experience.

As we saw with traditional cable, streaming giants seem poised to try and push their luck, driving frustrated customers to other options, including piracy. At that point, as we saw with traditional cable, the companies involved will blame absolutely everything but themselves for the shift.