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?
I’ve been cutting down and only keep the ones I actually watch. I had a constant Netflix subscription since 2014 but a month ago I cancelled it. Will resubscribe temporary once enough shows pile up that I’m interested in (which might take a while).
Since Futurama is done, I’ll probably cancel Disney now.
Youtube Premium is the one I will keep for longer because I watch it all the time and I’m splitting the costs with family.
I'm considering adding YouTube premium with VPN pricing to a low CoL country. Not worth it for me at full price, but at a discount price it might be worth it.
Just not sure if there are any risks to getting my Google account blocked for geo-dodging, which would be a royal PITA.
Would creating a new Google account work? You would need to start new but there should be no risk of losing Gmail access.
This is btw the reason I keep my emails and passwords separate from any other services. Too much can go wrong, even accidentally.
Probably worth doing to get an extra layer of safety.