Streaming service subscription strife

Price increases and new password sharing regulations lead students away from subscriptions

Shaw Coggin Staff Writer

Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime and many other streaming giants recently started to raise prices and crack down on password sharing.

The companies may find themselves in danger, though, as for the past two quarters, cancellations have outpaced new subscriptions. According to Rocket Money and the subscriber-measurement firm Antenna, these cancellations for Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Prime, and many others are up 49% from the previous year. ney Plus and Netflix account, but I also use my roommate’s HBO Max account a lot,” Esposito said. “I have a site that I can stream sports on and another site that I can stream any show that I want. Those are really good ‘cause it’s annoying finding them on streaming platforms.” students, like Esposito and Weaver, to turn away from these services.

Many college students can not afford to continue to pay for multiple streaming subscriptions after the price spikes, which has led them to get creative with the ways they view their favorite TV shows and movies.

-Haileigh Weaver

Elliot Esposito, a sophomore accounting major, said that though his family does have a Disney Plus and Netflix plan, he finds himself turning to his roommates and online websites to stream whatever Disney does not have on their platform.

“My family has a Dis-

Haileigh Weaver, a sophomore environmental science major, shares a similar sentiment. Though she said that she subscribes to most, if not every, streaming platform, she still finds herself turning to other online services to watch her favorite shows and movies.

“I will look up a movie online, the illegal version, and then watch it, even if my computer gets a virus,” Weaver said. “I still do that very often.”

The price increases and stricter password sharing rules are causing many college-age

“I think it’s stupid and not a good marketing plan, to be honest, because less people are going to want to pay for it,” Weaver said. “My parents at home pay for my subscriptions. Your household can pay for your subscriptions, but since I’m not at my house right now, I won’t be able to watch Netflix.”

“Why increase the price?” Esposito said. “That leads me to use more of these sketchy websites, and a lot of people feel the same way: to get something for free instead of having to pay for it.”

Mason Heard, a sophomore education major, also disagrees with these streaming platform’s decisions to increase prices.

“I don’t think it’s smart on their part, because college students are broke, and we don’t have enough to keep paying $20 a month for a subscription,” Heard said. “I think if they were to lower the price, they would actually get more customers that are college students because we can afford it. Even people in a lower income status want to watch movies too, so if you lower the price, you have a better chance to sell to them as well.”