Why do people complain about multiple streaming platforms existing?

submitted 2 months ago by overcast5348

People (including me) complain about monopolies all the time for various reasons. At the same time, I've noticed a ton of complaints about the existence of multiple streaming platforms. But isn't that a good thing at the end of the day? If streaming platforms consolidated into 2-3 companies, there wouldn't be much stopping them from raising prices even more.

67

Back to main discussion

hendrik 2 months ago, edited 2 months ago

The issue is, there isn't any real competition. I for example like to watch sci-fi series and there is exactly one streaming service that has Star Trek, one who has Star Wars, one who has The Orville... Similarly the newest Lord of the Rings series is exclusive to one service. And there always being "one" isn't competition. It'd be if I were able to watch any of that on multiple services.

I mean if I go shopping, it's not like oranges are sold exclusive in one store, bread in another and butter in a third and I have to drive to 5 different stores to get breakfast and they all want a membership fee from me. There, nobody can have a monopoly on oranges... Yet in the streaming world there is a monopoly on Disney content, and lots of other small monopolies on franchises.

So you're right in complaining. Having more monopolies isn't better than having a small amount of them.