Trickling Streams

Remember the days of cable when you had 500 channels and STILL couldn't find anything to watch? And then streaming came along, with the allure of content-on-demand, telling us we'd be able to watch whatever, whenever, without having to own a library of DVDs?

So why can't I find anything to watch?

Over the last several years nearly all the streaming services have creeped into my Roku…Netflix DVDs morphed into streaming & was the OG service for us, Hulu showed up, Disney+ for the kids, Paramount for my husband, and so on…$7.99 here, $4.99 here, $11.99 there. We cut cable a few years back when we realized we watched more on the Roku than the $100/month cable we were paying for.

And now we're spending well over $100/ month and I find myself spending more time on TikTok than streaming because it feels like the streams are drying up. Even before the writers’strike the amount of noteworthy new stuff was slowing down. My kids watch stuff on YouTube and are unbothered by ads, the lack of which was one of the promised pluses to streaming but is slowly disappearing, along with content we were told would forever be available on demand.

So now that we've reached a saturation point and we have so many services diverting our attention without enough content to keep us subscribed, how long until these services start drying up, disappearing or being acquired by bigger fish, only to sell us a package of content, complete with ads?

Oh wait, it's already happening. Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN come bundled, just like a basic cable package of the olden days. And now I'm watching people on TikTok share hacks for makeshift TV “antennas” to access the local live TV we abandoned for the dream of more choices and on-demand, only to return to last century's pre-DVR days of rabbit ears.

But will folks go back? With TikTok and YouTube out here serving up a never-ending stream of new content for basically the cost of our personal info that's already being scraped and sold off every time we pick up our phones or get online, where's the incentive (or ability with days stagnant wages) to keep forking out cash for dried up streaming services offering less and less while charging more and more?

It'll be interesting to see where TV, or rather, screen viewing and our attention flows as time goes on.