Who will be the winners and losers in the upcoming streaming wars?

[The Overlord]

Who will be the winners and losers in the upcoming streaming wars? These articles have some interesting ideas:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...quibi-apple-tv

https://www.eastidahonews.com/2019/1...-it-will-cost/

[a moment closer]

I dropped cable about five years ago for Netflix when I bought my Roku TV. The originals shows and movies are the best! And, I still get a lot of the shows that I'd watch on regular cable. I really don't see us breaking up anytime soon.

Shortly after, I subscribed to Amazon Prime. They don't have as many shows that interest me but I keep subscribing because of the other benefits Prime offers.

I bought a year subscription to DC Universe and I'm not convinced the programming will keep me on board. I mean, I'm bored! Really. Luckily they offer digital comics as well and I'm enjoying that more right now.

Disney+ offered a great price for their year subscription and I'm ready for it. So excited!

Then!, to put a cherry on top! I just learned about Apple TV+ a couple of days ago. On the Build network or channel on YouTube. There are a ton of shows that look amazing and it only costs $4.99 a month! So yeah, I just became a member and watched an episode of See and For All Mankind this afternoon. Let me tell you! I don't know who's going to win this war but I feel like it just might be me!

Cable sucks! Subscribe to what you love. Peace!

[wjowski]

The biggest winners?

Pirates.

[AndrewCrossett]

We're headed to a situation where each network and entertainment company is going to have their own dedicated streaming channel, with their content exclusively on it, and charging a separate fee which will of course go up over time. The result will eventually be that you'll be paying a ton of money each month to watch the same dozen channels, only you'll have a dozen different bills to keep track of instead of just one. Eventually the ISPs (in most cases the same corporations you paid for your cable TV) will hit on the idea of offering bundled subscriptions to the streaming services. As bandwidth usage goes up and up... even more when everybody starts streaming in UHD... the ISPs will start metering our usage and charging us more that way, too. And it's only a matter of time before the streamers start greatly increasing the cost of the commercial-free option, or eliminating it altogether.

Since we don't have net neutrality anymore, ISPs will be able to charge streaming services for the privilege of carrying them, and blacking them out in the event of a dispute.

This is why I continue to collect DVDs.

But, at least in the short run, I think Disney+ and HBO Max will be successful, with Disney eventually absorbing Hulu and HBO Max being re-branded as Warner+ or something like that. Netflix will survive mainly on the strength of their original programming (they'll eventually lose most everything else) and Amazon Prime will be OK because they have most of the money in the world.

[TriggerWarning]

I ditched cable nearly 10 years ago.

Right now I have Netflix's base plan for $8.99 a month.

Amazon Prime for $6.99 a month (I'm cheating and using my daughters college email address to get student rates. She uses it too so so maybe its not cheating, just sharing).

And I subscribed to Disney+ a few months ago when they were running the 3 year for under $4 a month promo.

That pretty much covers most things and I can still stream many network shows the day after they air. Except AMC, stupid AMC. Not letting us stream your shows AMC without an actual cable account is why people pirate.

[Joker]

Andrew hit the nail on the head.

Right now, subscribing to all the major streaming services will run you slightly over $100 a month. That's a cable bill.

I've always been pro a la carte tv. But once/if the Internet/Cable Providers get involved out of spite due to lost customers, it'll be a different story.