Streaming was supposed to be a better alternative to cable TV.
Netflix and Hulu were saviors that gave viewers the ability to access the most popular films, TV shows as well as original content. One monthly fee, no ads, pure convenience. It was the antidote to the bloated mess of cable bundles and blackout restrictions.
The Fragmentation of Streaming
That golden age didn’t last. As soon as Hollywood realized streaming’s potential, the studios wanted a larger piece of the pie. Many of them stopped licensing their catalogs to Netflix and pulled their content to launch their own platforms. HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, Disney+. Each one demands its own monthly fee. Now, that same fragmentation is killing streaming.
The dream of “everything in one place” is gone. Today, viewers are juggling five different subscriptions and using a spreadsheet to track billing dates.
If you’re a sports fan, it’s even worse. To watch every football game live, you’ll need ESPN+ for Sunday and Monday Night Football. Peacock is for NBC’s Sunday Night broadcasts, and Amazon Prime Video for Thursday nights. This doesn’t include local network apps or cable packages for certain games.
These costs add up fast. You can easily spend close to around $100+ per month depending on which services you’re subscribed to, which price tier you’re on, etc. Even then, blackout restrictions can block access. It’s no wonder pirated streams have become common workarounds.
Streaming was supposed to simplify everything. Instead, it recreated the same maze of paywalls and restrictions that made people abandon cable in the first place.
Cable, Reborn
We’ve been here before.
Cable grew on exclusivity, bundling, and price hikes. Streaming has followed the same trajectory. Now, people are once again paying $80 to $120 a month to access a patchwork of content across half a dozen apps. The difference is that, this time, consumers know there’s a better way because they’ve lived it.
Streaming didn’t evolve beyond cable. It just replaced it.
Piracy Is a Service Problem, Not a Moral One
Piracy traffic surged from around 130 billion visits in 2020 to over 216 billion by 2024. It’s a service problem.
People don’t pirate because they want to steal. They pirate because the legal options are now inconvenient, or too expensive. With one search, users can find any movie or show, in high definition. There’s no need to switch between apps or juggling subscriptions.
In the early 2010s, Netflix killed piracy by being better. It was safer, cheaper, and simpler. Now piracy offers a smoother experience.
What Streaming Can Learn From Music
The music industry faced this same crisis a decade ago. Piracy was rampant until platforms like Spotify and Apple Music offered near universal access for one fee. The model isn’t perfect: artists are still fighting for better royalties. Yet it worked because it prioritized simplicity over exclusivity.
Video streaming could have followed the same path. Instead, studios saw dollar signs and split the market. Ironically, even the services like Spotify are cracking under rising prices and missing tracks…and piracy is creeping back there too.
Streaming Killed Piracy Then Brought It Back
Streaming was supposed to kill piracy. Instead, it resurrected it thanks to corporate greed.
Thanks to exclusivity and rising prices, studios have driven audiences back to the very behavior streaming was meant to end. Piracy is a reaction to frustration.
If streaming wants to win back its audience, it needs to remember what made it revolutionary in the first place. Accessibility, affordability, and simplicity.
Until then, piracy isn’t going anywhere.
