The 5 Worst Things About Streaming Services That I Can't Stand

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Even though streaming services play an important role in how we consume content today, some things about them drive me crazy. In a way, these subscriptions appeared as a way to make access to entertainment easier. For a while, that worked. I only had to open an app to watch what I wanted without any trouble.

But little by little, that experience kept getting worse, and even started to show some problems similar to those with cable TV. Today, in some ways, I feel like I pay more for a service that gives me a worse experience. Either way, streaming price hikes keep coming while my favorite shows get canceled or removed from the service I subscribe to.

I still think some services deserve a subscription, mainly the ones that offer some of my favorite shows, like "The Office." At the same time, considering the direction most streaming platforms are taking, it is easy to understand why these problems frustrate so many users and why complaints keep increasing.

Anyone who followed the early days of streaming services probably remembers what it was like. At first, there was only Netflix, one of the pioneers in this market segment. So, with one subscription, you had access to a lot of content. At that time, many studios did not consider launching their own service, so most productions went into Netflix's catalog.

But little by little, they realized that their own subscription services gave them a way to increase their profits, creating many major platforms. This fragmentation led to a decline in the quality of Netflix's catalog, as studios removed their productions from the service to place them on their own streaming services. Although this change makes sense for the company, it makes streaming less convenient.

In addition, if I want to watch something that isn't on one of my streaming subscriptions, then I need to spend even more money on a new service. There have been instances where the TV show I wish to see is available only through one streaming service, but it is not available in my country, so I have to subscribe to a new streaming service to watch it.

I think everyone who fell in love with a show in the last few years has experienced the frustration of a production with huge potential suddenly getting canceled after one or two seasons because it did not meet the audience expectations executives and shareholders had in mind, or for some other reason. As a result, you lose one of your favorite TV shows without seeing its story properly end.

This happened to me recently. For example, I have always been a big fan of "The Wheel of Time" books, and I was very happy when Amazon announced that it was producing a series based on them. In some ways, the adaptation worked well, especially considering the size of each book, and I liked what I saw, even with the script differences. But when it began to explore even more interesting arcs, Amazon canceled it after 3 seasons.

And while "The Wheel of Time" is my most recent example, many other streaming shows have been canceled despite their quality. After so many shows facing the same fate, when you hear the announcement of a new production, it becomes easier to wait and see if it will actually survive than to watch it at launch while fearing it will get canceled days later.

Another annoying thing about streaming services is how volatile their catalogs are. Besides worrying about whether an original series will be finished or canceled halfway through, I also cannot feel at ease with works that have already ended. Even while paying for Netflix to watch "The Office," one of my favorite shows, it became unavailable on Netflix and moved to Peacock.

Sure, the Peacock version has some cool additions, like the Superfan Episodes, which show deleted scenes already integrated into the story, but it was still an extra service to subscribe to. In the end, you pay for one service, but you do not have the security that it will keep those works in its catalog forever, so you need to check every month what enters or leaves to see if what you like is still there.

This problem also affects movies, and even original productions from the streaming services themselves can disappear from one moment to the next. Usually, this happens because of licensing issues or cost cuts in their operations. So, when I find something I want to watch, especially older shows that are longer, I feel like I need to watch it in a hurry.

This is one of the worst things that happened to streaming, and it also reminds me a little of how cable TV works. At first, the big appeal was that users could pay extra to have a freer experience without interruptions on channels. But that did not last long, just like what happened with cable, since companies found ways to insert ads into their movies and series.

Now, most streaming subscriptions offer cheaper plans with ads and more expensive alternatives without them. I can even understand the tradeoff you make when you want to save money by paying less and accepting some ads during your movies. But at the same time, it is frustrating to see how cable and streaming ads have become normal again, with Netflix showing about four to five minutes per hour.

So now you can pay for something and still have your experience paused at regular intervals to watch ads for something you will probably ignore later. This makes streaming services, which once served as alternatives to cable TV, adopt the same old model again. But now, you still need to subscribe to several different services.

Beyond the fragmentation of movies and shows across different streaming services, another problem we face is the price increases each service undergoes. This also breaks one of the main appeals these subscriptions had when they became popular: paying less than cable TV. But besides needing to subscribe to more than one streaming service, you still have to hope prices do not go up.

Netflix, for example, has undergone more than five price increases since 2020. So, little by little, you see several subscriptions piling up and small adjustments making everything more expensive, increasing your monthly expenses over time. This slowly makes them less attractive, especially when shows or other works you like are not all available in one place.

The problem is that there are not many ways to reduce the amount you pay. For example, for a long time, you could share your subscription with friends and family, and several plans still offer multiple simultaneous streams. But now it is limited to the same household, so the chance to find someone to share it with and pay less has been removed.