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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we'll wrap up today's show with a temperature check and a your media budget check on streaming services. How are you navigating this evolving age of streaming? 212-433-WNYC. Tell us your own streaming management practices at 212-433-9692, call or text. Over the last decade, I'm sure many of you listening have made the switch from cable to streaming services, or even added streaming services, even if you still have cable, but the trend is that Americans are deciding they're paying a few bills for various platforms that you'll definitely use rather than a large bill for a lot of channels that never go watched seems like a better use of that hard-earned cash, right? With most of them, most of the services, you can come and go month-by-month if you choose. Have you noticed in recent years the sheer number of streaming services offered in the market? What started out as mostly Netflix and Hulu has ballooned. There's Disney+, Paramount+. Every time you turn around, if you're watching something on CBS, they're promoting Paramount+ now. Max, formerly HBO Max, Peacock related to NBC. I could go on and on listing them, but you get the idea. Not to mention, in the last year, prices for access to many of these platforms have swelled, as many of you have been experiencing it.
Its onset, for example, Netflix was $7.99, now you're paying over $20 a month for the premium tier. You could get Hulu's premium tier for $11.99 in 2019. Now it's $17.99. At what point do these costs outweigh the price of good old classic cable?
212-433-WNYC. Or, whether you have cable or not, how are you managing the streaming service budget in your household as your tastes evolve, as your watching and streaming desires evolve, as your budget evolves, and as they change the rules and what's available where continues to evolve? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. I know one of the areas where it's changing just recently is sports. I'll admit there was a football game I wanted to watch sometime this season, and I discovered it was only on Peacock, which I don't have. Was I going to sign up for Peacock to watch one football game? I could have done it for, I guess, $6 for one month and then canceled, but it's like, "Nah. Get involved with a whole other streaming service to watch one game that I don't even care that much about, no," and it's going on with other sports as well. One of the big draws of streaming was the ability to watch ad-free, and this is another change. A few big platforms like Netflix, and Max, and Amazon Prime Video have recently introduced ad-supported plans at lower price points.
A few of these streaming services have decided, "Well, okay, you can get--" I think Hulu I saw the other day you could get for $7.99 with ads. Well, that goes back to like old-style television, right, watching with commercials. You can get I think it's $7.99 a month without ads. Again, there was a movie streaming on Hulu that I wanted to watch, and it's like, "Okay, well, should I do this? $7.99, but I have to watch commercials, or now they have the premium tier, $17.99, to keep the no commercial version." You get the idea. You can even bundle now, right? You can get Hulu, Max, Disney+, and ESPN+ all in one package, which starts to sound a lot like cable, doesn't it? Anyway, how are you going about streaming in the year 2024? What are you subscribed to, and why? Do you feel well served by this market as a viewer? Where do you draw the line? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, call or text. Or is anybody reattaching the cord? I wonder if anybody in America has decided, "I'm fed up with this, I'm just going back to cable." 212-433-9692, call or text, and we'll take your calls right after this.
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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your calls on how you're managing your streaming budgets. Justina in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Justina.
Justina: Hi there. What I do is I purchase the membership for a month. I am binging currently all kinds of stuff on Netflix. Once that's over, I'm going to move on to, I guess, Hulu or whatever else is there. That's what I do.
Brian Lehrer: Yes, and it takes management, right? That's part of what you have to do. They hope people aren't going to remember to cancel every month if you want to switch around like that.
Justina: Yes, they do that, but what I do, I put a note in my calendar, and I get a reminder a month ahead, and yes, I'm good like that.
Brian Lehrer: There you go. Justina, thank you very much. All right. Sign up, everybody, for the Justina Streaming Service Management Calendar app. [chuckles] Coming soon no doubt. Mary in Somerset, you're on WNYC. Hi, Mary.
Mary: Hi. How are you? Yes, I was thinking of something Bill Moyer said a while back. I'm trying to remember, it was when we had the impeachment hearings. He said something-- he really was imploring PBS to broadcast this because it's really the most available for especially an older population or people who can't afford some of these streaming services. I was just telling the woman who took my call that I still keep my DirecTV because I love that collective experience knowing that if I'm watching the evening news, I'm watching it with other Americans or just other people around the country. I also keep Netflix and all those other things because, of course, if you want to see certain things, you kind of need to. For instance, we always have the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, and that was always really special to me to see that on TV around the holidays with my friends and family. Now it's not available unless you have a streaming service. I think things like that are really unfortunate for people who can't afford it.
Brian Lehrer: Yes, and I was talking about cable. I didn't mention satellite TV, which is, I guess, DirecTV, right? That's similar in that respect. Even with the streaming services, you can get your local channels. In our area, you get channel 2, 4, 5, 7, all of that, and you could still be watching live television if you chose to, if you take those higher tier streaming options where you get your local live TV channel. It's another way to do it. I get what you're saying. You still like that collective experience of watching things at the same time, not going off into your own little watch everything on demand bubble. That's the media world these days, right? It's freeing is the other way to look at that. Of course, there have been DVRs, and before that, tapes and everything for a long time where you could record something and watch at the time of your choosing anyway, but most people consider it freeing, I think, to not have to watch at the same time. All right. How about Simon in Brooklyn? You're on WNYC. Hello.
Simon: Hello. Thanks for taking my call. I want to comment as someone who's worked as a consultant for cable companies. The big myth that they always said was, it's going to be so much more money and take so much more time. My dad pays $175 a month for strictly cable TV and has no additions, no HBO, no ESPN+. I pay about $65, $70 for five streaming services. I can watch anything I want on YouTube Premium, and then I have the standard Amazon and Netflix. The other thing is that a lot of people found out is if you have regular cable, whether you use it or not, you're paying about $12 a month for ESPN, and the majority of people actually don't use that. That's why a lot of people leave and find that with Yes and the others, they're still ahead of the game and they're in control. I think the cable TV company has tried their own myth of, "You can't do it without us." As you said, many, many people are leaving. I think 30 million people left in the last five years.
Brian Lehrer: Yes, yes. It's an existential threat time for cable TV in general right now I think it's fair to say. Listener writes in a text, "PBS is only $5 a month and they have great content. Also, PBS shows are ad-free on YouTube." Let's go to Alexandra in Jackson Heights. Alexandra, you're on WNYC.
Alexandra: Oh, hi. Yes, so I think the big picture here is that I believe the motion picture industry is killing themselves because before, at least a movie would come out into the movie theaters, but now Netflix has so many great movies, and if you don't join Netflix, you're just not seeing it. Personally, I'm just starting to check out. I have like a huge DVD collection. I still use Antenna TV, and there's some really great movie stations in there. I do have HBO and Showtime because it's part of my files platform, and also, during like Thanksgiving, you can get Hulu for $1 for a year, you can get most of them like ridiculously priced if you do it during Black Friday. Ultimately, I'm just starting to get really disgusted because if there's something-- I truly like Apple TV. I don't want to add Apple TV, like that platform. I just feel like I'm starting to check out and doing what Mel Brooks said, just go back to my black and whites and just enjoy my old movies.
Brian Lehrer: Right. Of course, one of the reasons that maybe we should all support that the prices are going up a little bit is so that the writers and actors can continue to get paid decently after the strike when the streaming economy had been hurting their livings so much that caused the strike that we had this year. Last comment will come via text message. Listener writes, "People who stream need to know about a free service." I've no idea if this is real or not, but listener writes it, you could check it out, "free service Kanopy, accessible with just a library card." Kanopy with a K. All right, thanks for your calls on streaming and everything else today. Brian Lehrer on WNYC, stay tuned for Alison.
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