On Friday, Apple launches Apple TV+. Less than two weeks later, Disney will launch Disney+. NBCUniversal's Peacock arrives less than six months after that, in April 2020 — followed weeks later by HBO Max, in May 2020.
That's on top of all the streaming services that already exist, including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, alongside more specialized platforms like Mubi, Shudder, and DC Universe. It's enough to make you go broke, or go batty trying to figure out what precise combination of streaming services might spark the most joy for your dollar.?
Or, you know, you could go with a third option: Just don't.?
Opt out. Decline to take a side in the streaming wars. Close all those browser tabs comparing services to one another. Scroll past that ambivalent See review, that breathless report about new Adventure Time specials, that long list of Disney+ offerings. Sit back. Relax. Let everyone else figure it out.?
Where once, not having Netflix or Hulu may have left you with a distinct sense of FOMO, it's hard to imagine almost anything from Apple TV+ or Peacock having that same effect.?
I'll acknowledge here that this isn't the route I'm taking, not really. As an entertainment journalist, I'm obligated to try and keep up with at least some of the new offerings out there, and thanks to press screenings and screeners, I'm often able to do so without forking over my own money. So, yes, this is me suggesting one thing while doing another.
But for anyone who isn't professionally obligated to have an opinion about some hot new streaming series before it drops, this seems like a great time to give yourself the luxury of just... deciding not to.?
There's already far more quality TV out there than any one person could possibly hope to keep up with. So much of it, in fact, that no one's really watching the same thing anymore. So much of it that even when there is a flurry of conversation around a particular show, it's only matter of days before it gets buried under conversation about some other newer, hotter, buzzier show.
Where once, not having Netflix or Hulu may have left you with a distinct sense of FOMO — what's that Orange Is the New Black show everyone keeps talking about?? — it's hard to imagine almost anything from Apple TV+ or Peacock having that same effect. Not because their originals are likely to be bad, but simply because almost no shows do anymore.
At the same time, the sheer number of streaming services available has made keeping track of all of them its own headache. Streaming isn't necessarily a cheaper option than traditional cable TV anymore, and nor is it particularly convenient. To the contrary, you've now got to deal with several different logins and billing cycles instead of one. I don't know about you, but it's gotten to the point for me where the added inconvenience of subscribing to something else is as much a deterrent as the actual monetary cost.?
Oh, yay, more content. This time from Disney+.
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Why not, then, wait it out? Give it a year or two, see where things end up? The streaming landscape is likely to change again in the coming months, as all these different players fight to the death for your attention. Maybe one of those new services will really take off in that time (my money's on Disney+), maybe some of them will wither away, maybe they'll start getting packaged together as we reinvent cable bundles all over again.?
Heck, maybe I'll be wrong about all my predictions and it'll turn out that all of these services really are completely indispensable, and that subscribing to eighteen different things is jus the new status quo. The point is that it's hard to want to commit right now, when it's hard to see where these services are headed.?
Obviously, if you already know what you want — if you're all-in on Disney+'s The Mandalorian, or you'll happily get on board with Peacock solely for those old episodes of The Office — there's no reason you need to wait. The prices are accessible enough, and the cancelation policies lax enough, that subscribing won't be a huge gamble for most people.
For everyone else, though, the wisest course of action may be deciding to just not give a shit. At least for now. These services will be glad to take your money at any point, as long as they continue to exist; most of this content will still be available in some form whenever you decide to get around to it.
In the meantime, as you wait for the dust to settle, you've got enough other stuff to watch already. Did you ever get around to watching Deadwood? Or When They See Us? Isn't Derry Girls supposed to be pretty good? What about Kidding? Now that you've freed yourself from the pressure of keeping up with all the new stuff that these companies are trying to add to your backlog, there's no time like the present to catch up with all that other stuff you've actually wanted to watch.?
