A decade ago, one subscription covered most of what you wanted to watch. Today there are a dozen services, each more expensive than the last. The economics explain why.
The subscriber treadmill
Streaming is a fixed-cost business: content is hugely expensive to make, but nearly free to deliver to one more viewer. That math rewards scale — so every platform chases subscribers, and growth, above profit.
Why everything got more expensive
When growth slowed, investors stopped rewarding subscribers-at-any-cost and demanded profit. The result: price rises, password-sharing crackdowns, and ad-supported tiers — all ways to squeeze more revenue from each viewer.
Where it is heading
Expect consolidation. There are too many services for the money households will spend, and bundling — the very thing streaming promised to kill — is quietly returning.
Related from The Digital Weekly: What moves stock prices · Portfolio basics
View 0 comments