📽️ The big streaming platform problem, solved?

😵 Good day, and welcome again to the Every day Authority. Are you entering into the swing of 2023 but? Truthfully, I simply wrote 2022 about thrice earlier than realizing my mistake. Nonetheless, at present’s major story will take you again to the 2000s when life and media consumption have been less complicated.

Streaming is a boon for content-hungry customers who need a straightforward option to devour their favourite exhibits. However with the rise of a number of platforms, these favourite exhibits could also be scattered throughout a number of providers. Based on my colleague Rob Triggs, this new downside might demand an old-school repair.

All the pieces accessible, nothing to look at

• In case you subscribed to the massive 5 TV streaming providers, you’d be taking a look at $60 a month or $720 yearly.
• Push these as much as household plans, and pricing may balloon by one other 50%.
• Streaming is dear and that’s much more obvious when you may’t discover something to look at on these platforms. It’s an issue Rob has confronted this yr.
• “Studying on-line, I’m not alone in my disappointment with high-budget platform exclusives which have left many questioning whether or not they’re paying an excessive amount of.”
• On prime of this, firms have boosted their costs this yr, when the price of residing is already sky-high.
• However the true downside lies with exclusives. As Rob places it, “the market’s sharp flip to exclusivity has additionally made it too tough to look at what I need.”

Is ditching streaming providers even doable?

• Properly, sure, nevertheless it isn’t simple to justify.
• There are many exhibits that I watch that I can solely discover on the likes of Netflix and Apple TV Plus.
• “You’ll be able to’t watch The Boys with out Prime or Andor earlier than subscribing to Disney Plus, even in case you’d want to pay by episode.”
• Shopping for older favorites continues to be doable, particularly in bodily kind, however this can doubtless be costlier over time.
• Shopping for digital motion pictures and exhibits isn’t any simpler.
• “$2.50 an episode for Home of the Dragon through Apple TV is probably truthful, however $24.99 per season of Futurama is a headscratcher when you should buy the entire assortment in bodily DVD kind for a lot much less.”
• In case you’re on the lookout for one thing cross-platform and seamless, you’re additionally out of luck.
• There’s additionally the reward of prompt gratification that streaming providers present.
• In the end, streaming providers are powerful to kick.

So what’s the answer?

• There’s no blanket answer right here, sadly, however Rob has come to one thing of a compromise.
• “I’ve managed to wean myself off subscriptions in favor of renting motion pictures, principally from Prime and through Google TV. It’s nonetheless not preferrred, although, and I’ve all however given up on TV exhibits within the course of.”
• Moreover, he’s been backing up traditional motion pictures and TV exhibits from DVDs to a tough drive, which might be accessed by means of house server platform Jellyfin.
• He argues that is essentially the most handy various, at the very least for now. However it’s an issue of comfort that’s plaguing streaming providers.
• “Gaming and music platforms have already proven that the easiest way to safe prospects isn’t to lock down content material and name within the legal professionals; it’s to make paying for content material extra handy than not.”

Monday meme

It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day throughout the States at present, however a daily working Monday for a lot of worldwide. Our US viewers won’t admire this meme, however at the very least it applies to me proper now.

Have an excellent day of relaxation.

Till subsequent week,
Andy Walker, Editor