Once upon a time we had three television channels — ABC, CBS and NBC. We didn’t count PBS for some reason. At some point we were able to pick up a UHF station. And some of us, or our parents or people we knew affixed giant antennas or satellite dishes to the roof of their house or in their yards just so they could pick up stations in the next town over (or Canada). Then cable and satellite TV happened, but I digress.
In 1999, Al Gore infamously said, “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet,” for which he was lampooned. However, Gore also said, “We have a dream for … an information superhighway that can save lives, create jobs and give every American, young and old, the chance for the best education available to anyone, anywhere.” Gore may not have created the internet, but the information superhighway he envisioned truly began to take shape with the proliferation of broadband internet access, which eventually led to video streaming. Somebody at the time promised first-run movies at home while they were still in theaters. I don’t recall who.
Video cassette recorders and the video rental industry revolutionized the way we watched television shows and movies, which was followed by another revolution, the digital or internet revolution. Broadband internet service took off as Blockbuster was falling by the wayside. Some of us recall watching early internet streaming video with RealPlayer and Windows Media Player. Netflix was founded in 1997 as a physical media company and eventually launched its streaming business in 2007. Amazon’s video service, known as Unbox, launched in 2006 and evolved into Amazon Prime.
At some point, every intellectual property owner and mass media publisher on the planet decided they needed their own video streaming service, including established premium channels like HBO. “Cord cutting” became the new catch phrase, although that’s a fallacy we’ll discuss another time. All you needed was a broadband internet connection, an HDTV and a streaming service and you could ditch the traditional cable TV experience and expense (in theory).
The crazy thing is that many of these services now offer a cable TV-esque channel guide live TV experiences. Certain features like rewind and fast-forward and the ability to record to a DVR are disabled, but it looks and feels like cable TV. Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV give you all of the features of cable TV including premium channels and practically limitless DVR storage.
Let’s see if I can name them all (some are, in fact, free) — Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Paramount+, MGM+, Disney+, PBS, Acorn TV, BritBox, Hulu, Roku, Sling TV, Peacock, Apple TV, HBO MAX, AMC+, Tubi, Screambox, Shudder, Fubo. DIRECTV now offers a streaming service, no satellite dish required. Ugh. And I’m not even going to get into YouTube, or which ones I subscribe to. Any number of these can be bundled together under the umbrella of whichever parent company owns them.
This has led to choice overload, also known as overchoice, choice paralysis, or the paradox of choice, among other things. So many options and not a thing to watch.
What makes it worse is the service hopping of movies and TV shows due to the rights changing hands. So, the thing you were watching is now on a service you don’t have, you hop into a free trial and get hit with recurring monthly charges they hope you forget about. I was watching Yellowjackets on one service and then it moved to Paramount+ with Showtime. So, I subscribed to that. The new season of Landman premiered on Paramount+, but not with the Showtime add on. I had two Paramount+ subscriptions going at the same time. Good luck with classic horror films leading up to Halloween with all the service hopping. Free one day, gotta pay extra the next.
Yes, you can watch some movies that are still in the theater. This is known as day-and-date release. You have to pay a premium for that convenience. That’s another maddening aspect to video streaming. I subscribe to Prime Video, a movie drops on Prime and I still have to pay extra to rent or buy the movie. Then, sometime later, that requirement goes away. You are paying for the ability to watch something at that moment. Don’t want to pay extra? You’ll have to wait a while. You could always go to the movies but the only first-run movie theater in Grays Harbor is in Ocean Shores. It’s a great state-of-the-art theater but it only has three screens. I have yet to feel the need to drive to Olympia to see a movie. And who buys DVDs anymore?
Perhaps the biggest complaint I have heard from friends and colleagues in the last six or seven months is the number of streaming services required to watch NFL football. Once upon a time, ABC, NBC, CBS and then Fox engaged in bidding wars for the broadcast TV rights to NFL football games. Now, the NFL TV package is worth $105 billion, that’s billion with a “b.” Amazon pays $1 billion per year to stream Thursday Night Football, ESPN pays $2.7 billion per year, and CBS, Fox and NBC pay roughly $2 billion per year each. YouTube pays approximately $2 billion per year for the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket. Netflix ponied up $150 million for two Christmas day games. According to Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina, you needed no less than 10 channels/networks/streaming services to watch every NFL game during the 2025 season (college football is even worse). The current rights deal runs through 2033. Get used to it sports fans, this is the world we live in.
The most common refrain is that we shouldn’t have to subscribe to a streaming service to watch a football game, that it should be “free” on an over-the-air network like the good old days of one-button clickers and rabbit ears. Those days are long gone. Once the NFL opened it up to streaming services, those services backed the Brinks trucks up to 345 Park Ave. in New York and paid big money for the rights.
I personally would like for all of this to be under one umbrella, competition be damned. One annual or monthly subscription price, one service, one app, and you get it all.
If you’ll excuse me, I have to go figure out which streaming platform the show I want to watch is on. Great, now I can’t find the dang remote.
