When was the last time you were interrupted by a 10 minute commercial break from your favorite show? It seems like a long time ago, right? The age of streaming services changed our lives and it continues to evolve as the popularity of it grows. Like all natural things, streaming services may see its decline soon. 

The founders of Netflix, Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, birthed this idea of a subscription service that mailed DVDs to your house for $19.95 a month with no late fees or due dates. It began when the two founders received a $40 late fee from Blockbuster after returning a movie weeks after the return date. 

Netflix moved to its digital age in 2007 and soon after, their DVD service was discontinued. The digital age has seen the emergence of other streaming services like Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and many more. Cable has been pushed out the window, as streaming services have become the alternative option to access entertainment. It is cheap and accessible, what more could you want?

Now that each subscription service has become each other’s competitor, it is up to them to create a unique library of entertainment to entice people. People usually have more than one service but the bill racks up each month. The cheapest option for a service can come at the cost of advertisement, it may not be as long as the ones on cable but viewers turn to these services to escape the interruptions.  

Cable started out very differently from its modern iteration. There were minimal to no ads, along with a much lower price tag. Contrast this to cable today, where prices are much higher, and ads are much more abundant to the point where viewers felt they were seeing more ads than content. Streaming services were offered as an alternative to cable. Streaming services advertised a much lower cost, and ad free solution. However, over time, streaming services began to fall into many of the same business models as cable. Prices were rising, ads were starting to be included in many of the services, and many shows were being pulled off of Netflix or Hulu to be included in a smaller independent streaming service. 

Streaming services may not see its decline for many years, viewers would still pay money to watch original content made by Netflix or Hulu. Some viewers would pay for streaming rather than paying for cable. 

“The decline in service for cost is the issue with cable. The issue is that sometimes if your speed is not good enough there can be a delay in streaming but I would rather deal with that and upgrade my network than deal with it,” Ms. Baker said.

There is a pro and a con to everything. The age of streaming services may slow down a bit and make some changes but it will always be around.