Problems with Television Streaming

I came across a good article in Rolling Stone today that describes some of the many persistent problems in streaming television now. As Alan Sepinwall says in the article:

With last week’s launch of the NBCUniversal-backed streaming service Peacock, the number of available streamers on the market right now is approximately a billion. (Note: This is only an estimate. The actual number may be higher.) As Peacock joins Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, CBS All Access, Apple TV+, YouTube, Acorn, Quibi, Tubi, Hoopla, Shudder, Crunchyroll, and so many more (none of those names are made up), the great dream of cord-cutting is long dead. You may be free of your cable bill, but you would have to recreate the cable bundle by subscribing to at least a half-dozen of these things to keep up with all the TV out there. And as shows and movies hop from one service to another, often with no apparent logic, even if you understand which corporations own what content, it can be a mental headache, on top of the financial one, to figure out where you can watch what you want.

...We’re at the point where there are way more streaming services than people are willing to pay for. Netflix still has plenty of brand loyalty, Prime Video comes bundled in with free shipping, and all parents may be legally mandated to keep Disney+ until their kids are at least tweens. But where, once upon a time, it looked like the victors of the great streaming wars would be the services that had the best originals, or perhaps the biggest libraries of old movies and shows, now the big winner might be whoever devises a way to keep viewers from wanting to hurl a remote at the screen the next time they try to pick out that night’s watch.

The whole thing is worth your time. Just in case you are curious, I have subscriptions to PBS passport, the Criterion Channel, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Starz, and I also watch some things (free) through YouTube. If I had to drop things, I think I would be happy with just PBS and Criterion alone. I should also note that Amazon Prime video and Apple TV+ came for no extra charge with my prime subscription and purchase of an iPod touch, respectively.

One final note about the picture. At least around here, no one is wearing jeans. Between coronavirus comfort and heat, jeans are out.