Cooper Lewis ‘26, Sports Editor
Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu have been around for decades. However, the industry experienced a massive increase in popularity and demand during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world back in 2020. Stuck at home and not being able to go outside, people turned to streaming services for entertainment. For just a small monthly fee, subscribers could turn their TV or mobile devices on and scroll through the countless movies and shows.
Having instant access to many of your favorite shows and films is a luxury enjoyed by people all around the world. These streaming services, however, may soon be a thing of the past. With inflation on the rise every month, many are looking for ways to cut back on spending money. People need to make sacrifices, and unfortunately, streaming services have become everyone’s first choice.
Consumer research platform, Attest, ran a poll that revealed the fact that not only have TV services declined between October and December, but about 15 percent of Americans have also cut back on streaming service spendings. Attest stated that this may be due to the recent rise in living expenses, thus forcing Americans to make different choices on where they should allocate their money.
Ever increasing inflation and high prices are not the only factors in this situation. The fact that COVID-19 and long periods of quarantine are slowly becoming a thing of the past plays a key role in streaming services becoming more and more unpopular. People are no longer trapped in their homes, craving good and (at a certain point) cheap entertainment because life is returning to normal. Streaming services are no longer being fueled by the “pandemic boom.”
In the past months, we can see streaming services hitting a major decline. AppleTV+, which had steadily been growing in popularity in early 2022, has seen its subscriber count decrease rapidly. Hulu has experienced a decrease in 4.6 percent of its subscribers, and the same can be said for other services. YouTubeTV is down about 3.9 percent and Disney+ goes down 5.4 percent roughly every week.
If you are one of the few lucky people who have managed to hold on to their subscription, enjoy it and watch everything you can while you can. There is an incredible large chance that prices will continue to rise, and these luxuries may not be affordable for much longer. Capitalism will be capitalism, companies will want to make as much money as they possibly can, so do not expect them to lower their prices anytime soon.
Lyon Life 