I see your point. Some years ago I decided that eventually we would drop cable and we could just get a couple of streaming services instead. However, with all of the new streaming platforms grabbing different groups of t.v. or movie (like Disney+), I would have to get a number of streaming services and the cost would probably be the same.
As an example, I was wanting to go see Tom Hanks' movie "Greyhound" when it came out; but, virus hit and everything closed down. Well, Greyhound can be seen on Apple+; but, I don't want to buy a streaming service for just one movie. And, I am seeing a lot of that, where I could see something on Netflix or Amazon; but, not anymore because they now are on a specialized streaming service.
We have Amazon Prime - and we had it for a year before we realized we could use it on our smart TV to see tons of stuff. :)
But now we also have Hulu and Netflix on our kids’ “family plan”. i.e. we don’t pay for them.
Between them, we have all the choice we need. And what we don’t have, we know it will be available for free, eventually. We’re waiting for Jojo rabbit to be free on one of them.
Meanwhile, even Youtube is getting in the act with pay shows or “free with commercials”. I no longer have to see the latest release “right now”. And, frankly, because we don’t have television, we don’t even know what movies are coming out usually until they are already free on streaming.
I’d never heard of Valerium until I saw it free on Amazon. I really liked that movie and watched it several times. Same with that Wakanda movie, but I thought it was pretty lame.
I only know about JoJo Rabbit because I watched it on an Alaska Airlines flight and want my wife to see it. If we get desperate, we can rent it off Amazon. But we’re happy to wait for it to be free.
Meanwhile, we’re discovering Suits, Monk, Futurama, Archer, and a ton of other TV shows that we never heard of until we got these services - and all commercial free and free. It’s pretty cool. :)
Youtube TV has a slick DVR that records movies when they appear on any channel they stream. I cancelled it when they raised the price, though. It’s about $65 a month now. Generally, the film libraries suck on the big streaming services. They’re spending all their money on original programming now.