This is a rant, honestly.
I don’t know where the world is headed, but companies keep finding new ways to squeeze money out of us. Media companies, in particular, are taking the piss out of millions of customers worldwide.
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, DAZN. The list goes on.
Subscriptions are becoming a genuine problem, and I fear it is only going to get worse.
I was an early Netflix user, way back in 2013. I remember spending the summer holidays before my second year of college binge-watching One Tree Hill for the first time. I was also one of the few people I knew who watched Orange Is the New Black before everyone seemed to decide they needed a Netflix account.
Back then, I was sceptical of digital platforms. Like most people, though, I eventually moved with the times.
Before Netflix took over, I even used LoveFilm, ordering DVDs and games through the post until Amazon acquired it and folded it into what became Prime Video.
That history made streaming feel like genuine progress. It was convenient, affordable and offered almost everything you wanted in one place, without an expensive television package.
But somewhere along the way, the convenience became a trap.
Before you know it, you’ve got five or more services taking money from your account every month just to watch the programmes and sporting events you enjoy.
Netflix. I remember when I was paying £4.99 a month.
There was one plan; the price was reasonable, and the service felt like good value for money. Now, we have multiple tiers, regular price increases, adverts on cheaper plans and restrictions on sharing an account, even with members of your own family.
The fuck do you mean? Because I am paying for the cheapest subscription, I have to endure ads? Is this live TV? All so that they can make a quick buck through these adverts – as if they aren’t making multi-millions… scratch that… BILLIONS!
You are constantly being asked to pay more, yet it rarely feels like you are getting more in return.
Netflix is far from the only offender. Prime Video is another one. I pay yearly for Amazon Prime mainly for next-day or same-day delivery, with Prime Video thrown in as a bonus. It doesn’t feel like a bonus anymore; it feels more like a punishment. It costs another £3.99 to watch without ads, and Prime often has such a limited selection that you end up paying for extra channels like HBO, MGM, Lionsgate or Paramount. The list goes on, and it all adds up.
Every company wants its own streaming platform and its own monthly payment. Films and television programmes are scattered across different services, meaning that subscribing to just one is no longer enough.
Sport is just as bad. You can pay for several services and still discover that the match, fight or event you want to watch requires another subscription – or even an additional pay-per-view fee on top of the subscription you have. Scammers!
That is the part that really pisses me off. We were told streaming would free us from overpriced television packages. Instead, those packages have been broken into smaller pieces, given different names and sold back to us separately. None looks outrageous in isolation, but £5 here, £10 there and £20 somewhere else soon costs as much as the television packages streaming was supposed to replace.
And the problem has spread far beyond entertainment. Music, software, cloud storage, fitness apps and food deliveries all seem to demand monthly payments. What do you mean that after I’ve bought your product, WHOOP, for example, for more than £200, I must keep paying just to use it properly?
Companies no longer seem satisfied with selling us a product once. They want permanent access to our bank accounts.
We have gone from owning what we paid for to renting access that can be changed, restricted or removed whenever a company decides.
That is not progress. It is the same expensive system, repackaged as convenience.
That loss of ownership brings me to another worrying trend: the gradual disappearance of physical media.
When we bought DVDs, Blu-rays or box sets, we actually owned them. Nobody could remove a film from our shelf because a licensing agreement had expired. Nobody could suddenly insert adverts in the middle, reduce the quality, or tell us which household was allowed to watch it.
Streaming persuaded us to abandon physical copies for convenience. Now that many of us have made the switch, companies control what we can watch, when we can watch it and how much we must pay. We are not building collections anymore; we are renting access to libraries that can change or disappear overnight.
The same thing is happening with video games, particularly on PlayStation – but that is a rant for another day.
I understand that technology moves forward. I am not arguing that we should abandon streaming or return entirely to DVDs and cable television. Streaming is useful, and I still use it. The problem is that what began as a cheaper, simpler alternative has become fragmented, expensive and restrictive. We now juggle multiple services, endure constant price increases and pay every month for content we will never truly own.
That is what frustrates me most. These companies grew because consumers supported them, but our loyalty is rewarded with higher prices, fewer benefits and yet another “new plan” designed to take more money from our accounts.
So yes, this is a rant. But I cannot be the only person looking at their bank statement and wondering when convenience became another word for exploitation.
We were promised more choice, better value and greater freedom. Instead, we are paying more to own less.