Cancelling your Netflix subscription does not should be painful

Like many others, I have been a long-time subscriber to Netflix. The streaming platform is close to ubiquitous, with it getting into the scene and carving out a dominant market place quite early on within the internet-based streaming era.

For the previous a number of years, I have been allotting month-to-month charges for entry to Netflix’s catalog of films and TV shows, and for probably the most half, I have never thought twice about it. My blasé angle started to alter, nonetheless, when the corporate began to raise its pricing tiers on a extra frequent foundation.

Extra just lately, I turned pissed off by the truth that many of the traditional sitcoms I really like to look at on repeat — together with Mates and How I Met Your Mom — merely weren’t accessible on the platform on the time once I wished to binge just a few episodes.

These gripes finally led me to my choice to cancel my Netflix subscription altogether: my plan was to take a break from the platform, at the very least for the short-to-medium-term future. What I wasn’t anticipating, nonetheless, was to come back away realizing that I by no means wanted Netflix within the first place.

Netflix

Netflix is a world streaming service providing on-demand entry to motion pictures, TV reveals, documentaries, and unique content material. Based in 1997 as a DVD rental service, it transitioned to streaming in 2007 and now operates in over 190 international locations.

Subscription with adverts

$6.99

Premium Subscription

$15.49 or $22.99 choices

Simultaneous streams

2-4

# of profiles

5

Originals

Sure

Dwell TV

No

Free trial

No

Develop

It is not 2010 anymore

Nowadays, on-line streaming choices are aplenty

Pocket-lint / Tubi / Netflix

The chilly and onerous reality is that the media streaming panorama has drastically developed lately. In its earlier days as an internet streamer, Netflix loved a close to monopoly on content material availability — it was a one-stop store for each blockbuster motion pictures and all the easiest TV reveals.

Extra just lately, we have seen a democratization of the streaming panorama. One after the other, mental property (IP) house owners have pulled their reveals and films off of Netflix, opting as a substitute to launch their very own on-demand streaming providers.

In case you’re hoping to look at Star Wars, Marvel, Nationwide Geographic, or Pixar content material, you had higher be prepared to join Disney+. In case you’re thinking about watching Recreation of Thrones or The Sopranos, you may should pony up for Max. The listing goes on and on: whether or not we’re speaking about Paramount+, Apple TV+, Peacock, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video, every provides its personal catalog of unique content material.

There’s an argument to be made that this current phenomenon is an entirely detrimental improvement — streaming platforms have flooded the market, turning the web streamer area into a sort of ‘cable 2.0’ as it were. In fact, that is neither right here nor there. From my vantage level, Netflix shedding out on beforehand accessible content material makes the platform much less interesting on the entire.

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I’ve mended my damaged relationship with Blu-ray, DVD, and even VHS

After initially parting methods with Netflix, I spent a while perusing a number of the unique content material accessible on competing streaming providers. I discovered that the likes of Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and others provide a broad vary of content material that I wasn’t aware about once I was self-imposingly shackled to Netflix.

I additionally started utilizing free streaming providers like Tubi on a extra common foundation. With out the necessity for recurring subscription prices, Tubi has supplied me with a treasure trove of entertaining content material (and most just lately, even free access to Super Bowl LIX).

Nonetheless, it was the rekindling of my love for bodily media that was probably the most profound improvement in my experiment of residing a Netflix-less way of life. I had forgotten the enjoyment of having fun with the art work on Blu-ray covers, in addition to the tactility of holding an optical disc in my hand.

With all the additional time on my fingers, I even went so far as to drag out a long-forgotten field full of VHS tapes. To my shock, the fuzzy picture high quality and the necessity to rewind the filmstrip felt each nostalgic and comforting.

There’s additionally one thing to be mentioned about actual, bodily possession of a media assortment. In 20 years’ time, there is no assure that I am going to have the ability to watch Squid Recreation on Netflix — I have been paying a whole bunch, if not hundreds, of {dollars} through the years for a license to entry content material, with no possession or bodily piece of property to point out for it.

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It isn’t all unhealthy for Netflix

First-party IP and unique livestreams are the logical approach ahead for the corporate

Pocket-lint / Netflix

In my case, I believed that giving up on Netflix would show at the very least considerably troublesome, however this merely wasn’t the case. I used to be working inside my consolation zone, pondering I wanted to remain on board just because I would all the time completed so previously.

Truly, my choice to half methods with the streamer led to a private renaissance in appreciating and gathering bodily media. My lack of entry to Netflix additionally incentivized me to leverage different streaming platforms extra usually, and to take a look at reveals and films that I would uncared for previously.

That being mentioned, I do not suppose there needs to be a way of doom and gloom with regards to Netflix; I see a path ahead for the corporate — and no, it isn’t venturing into the world of mobile gaming.

Somewhat, it is the acceleration of creating unique content material, pushed by first-party mental properties, that’ll save Netflix from falling into obscurity. The corporate must proceed prioritizing Netflix Originals like Squid Recreation, Stranger Issues, Bridgerton, and Orange is the New Black. These are all examples of content material that you simply will not discover anyplace else, and it provides folks like me a compelling motive to return to the platform.

The opposite piece of the puzzle, unique reside content material, is equally necessary. We have seen Netflix jump head-first into live-streaming, together with with its unique protection of the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul boxing match, and the Beyoncé Christmas NFL halftime present, to call simply two examples.

If Netflix can preserve a gradual stream of unique reside content material going ahead (and if it could actually get its technical buffering issues sorted out), it’d simply be sufficient to compel jaded customers like myself to resubscribe to the service within the medium-to-long-term future.

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