this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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With the simultaneous rollout of restrictions on account sharing and price increases/addition of advertising, I’m cutting back severely on streaming services.

I allowed my streaming subscriptions to grow without thinking about it. Without trying to remember the constant merging and bundling, I was subscribed to probably a dozen services at one point. They ranged from Netflix and HBO and Hulu to Shudder and Showtime. I had Paramount, Criterion, Disney, Peacock, and others. I’d do the typical thing where I’d search for a movie, find it is exclusive to a platform, and grab the free trial and forget to cancel. I excused it if I found a movie even every couple of months on it. There were still nights where it’d take an hour to find something I wanted to watch. I was probably closing in on $200/month all told, and I don’t have sports subscriptions.

I’m interested in learning what other people are doing regarding the price hikes and service compromises. Are you cancelling? Are you taking advantage of bundles with your internet services? Are you rotating on some interval? Or are you not changing at all?

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[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

I rotate one subscription at a time and binge everything I want to watch and then cancel. Only subscription I have full time is Paramount+ because of their soccer.

[–] Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Bro wtf... How do you get to 200$ a month without seriously considering cancelling some? Like don't you have to work for your money?

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[–] WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

I think this post begs the question: What is everyone's private trackers? Also let me in.

[–] Weslee@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I cancelled Netflix a few months ago, I still pay for Disney+ and my bro pays for Paramount+, and we share those with each other

I ended up also installing Plex on my rapsberry pi and going back to pirating.

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[–] Khrux@ttrpg.network 8 points 1 year ago

I'm keeping Spotify because I already split a family account (Β£18.99 per month I think) between 6 people. I pay for a few other subscription services like something for D&D and my phone bill but they are things that I feel I require.

I haven't paid for any streaming, gaming or other services for at least a year or two. As soon as I started sailing the high seas for specific content not on the big services, I realised that it's so little extra work for infinite free content.

Funnily enough, my partner and I have been considering picking up a Β£10 Photoshop subscription that's currently about, just because she uses an up to date Photoshop at work and swapping between the 2023 and 2020 versions is a small pain.

[–] ThatGuy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

I almost never watch stuff outside of YouTube and the like. If I really did wanted to watch something, its likely an older show that I can just torrent.

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really want to cancel Youtube, and I watch a LOT of it. But Lemmy users have got me on that NewPipe / Piped / Invidious train. So... Maybe soon I will be able to watch youtube for free and without ads on all of my devices.

I also have local TV for the Sunday news, and Netflix for like one show a month. So much for a la carte, the value for my money has gone down the drain compared to live TV and those early cord cutting years.

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Not only have I cancelled them almost a decade ago - I don't even watch series or movies anymore, and barely listen to music outside of the radio. I'm disgusted with the many crimes committed by Big Media and want to have as little as possible to do with it.

[–] ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m a pirate, always will be.

Real debrid. Kodi. Fen add on. Nvidia shield. Done.

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[–] Cyberflunk@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Put.io + Plex $120/year, zero isp warnings

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] Delusional@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm cancelling mine because my job lied and never gave me a raise and my other debts are also piling up. Pirating and eating rice for the next few months maybe longer.

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[–] Vyllenor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 year ago

Hoist the black flag!

[–] IsoSpandy@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I got tired of all this B's long time ago and just resorted to torrenting. I missed the series management and resume feature so I coded a app to do it.

PS: in case anybody wants to use it... It's open source. https://github.com/Dr-42/offflix

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[–] set_secret@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago
[–] nogooduser@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

If the ads come to Prime, then I might cancel that. It’s already our least watched service and it’s been getting a free pass because of the next day delivery.

I don’t want to watch ads, I don’t want to pay an extra Β£30 per year to not see ads and I don’t need next day delivery often enough to keep it for that.

[–] theKalash@feddit.ch 6 points 1 year ago

The only streaming service I use is my own homeserver running plex, so no.

[–] Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 year ago

πŸ΄β€β˜ οΈπŸ«‘

[–] MrShankles@reddthat.com 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Already did earlier this month, specifically because of password issues. Canceled everything except our family music plan. Stremio with debrid works just fine for us

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[–] mojo@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

I've reduced as much as I can. I really just keep Spotify for entertainment. I watch YouTube with my AdBlock most of the time. Haven't been kicked off of my parent's Netflix yet but I barely use it in the first place unless a popular show drops. The rest I just pirate.

I'm down to:

  • Prime, because next day delivery
  • Disney, because the pricing here in Australia, for the sheer volume and originality of content, is still worth it

All others hammered the last nails in their coffins through a combination of greed and apathy.

Piracy is good.

We are down to Netflix in my household. That was from having prime, crave and Disney at one point. Even Netflix is close to getting the chop, but my wife enjoys it enough. That said, I'm an audiophile and listen to more Spotify and traditional radio (I know I'm a loser, listening to a.m. talk radio and public broadcasting). I just rather listen to stuff while also getting stuff done than sitting on a couch these days.

[–] wildcardology@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Already cancelled mine. Netflix, prime, hbogo. Now I'm back sailing the high seas.

[–] Zugyuk@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just use fmovies.to and up your antivirus. Much cheaper

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[–] Jamie@jamie.moe 5 points 1 year ago

I just have Spotify and, if it counts, YT Premium. Spotify is on the family plan where my dad has his own account tied to mine, and he can just pull up basically any music he feels like listening to instead of asking me to find it for him.

As for YT, I'm just too lazy to set up blocking the ads on my TV.

[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I had someone recently canceled everything except for Amazon prime since I am still shop there but I don't pay for any other services other than my seedbox and emby

[–] warlaan@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

When I start a free trial I immediately set a reminder in Google calendar. And when I am looking for a specific movie I buy it used online. That way I have all my favorite movies on my NAS and can cancel my subscriptions when there is nothing especially interesting.

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[–] octobob@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Haven't had any for like 6 years, and back then it was just Netflix and Crunchyroll.

Embrace the pirate lifestyle out on the seven seas

[–] Kekzkrieger@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

I cancelled netflix cause i was barely watching and the only reason i kept it was because we were 3 friends sharing it. We pay for 4 screens so we expect that to keep working which it didn't. So we cancelled cause we spoke about it and nobody really watched a lot.

In the end unfortunately for Netflix it is worth it, just look at their stock which is going up again, which means more people bought the extra subscription rather than cancelling.

Sad times but if the majority of people don't go against enshittification they will keep squeezing as much money out of everyone as long as it is profitable

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