Over the past two decades, content viewing habits have shifted. Anyone old enough to recall life before 2000 likely remembers a time when you watched “free” local TV, receiving only as many channels as your rabbit-ear antenna could grab, usually around a dozen. At least half came in fuzzy, so you often had to adjust the antenna for a better signal.
Those who could afford it would get cable. Many young people spent years pleading with their parents for this perceived necessity, which might have cost about $50 a month at the time. If they successfully lobbied for it, they could watch Beavis and Butthead on MTV. If not, they would have to content themselves with the X-Files on Fox.
Nowadays, cable still exists, but only older adults, let’s say in their 50s and up, seem willing to even consider it. That’s because cable typically costs approximately twice as much now as it did in the 90s.
People in their 30s and 40s might pay for streaming services like Sling or Hulu. If you’re younger, in your 20s or teens, you likely consider both cable and paid streaming outdated, preferring YouTube or other platforms.
Streaming services like Sling and Hulu were once seen as low-cost, viable cable TV alternatives. Now, as prices rise and benefits fade, they are losing appeal. Let’s examine why these leading streaming platforms are pushing formerly loyal customers toward piracy.
Sling and Hulu Are Much More Expensive Than Before
If you go back 10 years, you could have easily found someone in their 30s who was willing to pay for Sling or Hulu. Either of those services might have cost $45 or $50 for a base package. It may have come with 80 channels or so. This type of model was similar to the cable experience this customer might remember from their teen years, with roughly the same cost and many of the same channels.
At the same time, cable was becoming increasingly expensive at around $80 a month. Both methods offered identical channels, but streaming through Sling or Hulu on a Roku that was a one-time expenditure made significantly more sense. Clearly, streaming services were the cheaper and easier option.
The customer service you’d get through Sling or Hulu was usually no better than what you could expect from cable, but getting excellent customer service from a large company has traditionally been an impossibility. Most people of a certain age who viewed cost as the bottom line felt that this combination, a Roku plus Hulu or Sling, was ultimately worth it for the price if they wanted to watch live TV.
Over the last decade, the most significant change to this equation has been the price of Hulu or Sling. Costs rose from $45 or $50 to $60 or $65. Now, Hulu or Sling can be about $90 per month.
Why Has the Price Gone Up?
It’s certainly debatable why the price of Sling and Hulu has gone up. Some might point to higher licensing fees for certain channels. However, the most likely culprit is nothing more or less than corporate greed.
The price of something will always increase until the customer walks away. That’s why corporations raise prices incrementally: if you pay $1, they’ll try $1.10, then $1.20, to see if you’ll keep buying.
Sling, Hulu, and their many competitors often justify higher prices by bundling more with each plan. For example, Hulu Plus Live TV now includes Disney+ and ESPN+. Such bundling is likely to continue as content providers keep buying each other up.
If you think $90 for Hulu Plus Live TV, ESPN+, and Disney+ is worth it, that’s fine. Ultimately, it’s about the value you perceive you’re getting as a consumer. Still, $90 a month is expensive for many individuals and families right now. Times are tough. Many struggle to pay rent, and they’re much more focused on that than their streaming options.
That’s why many people who have been willing to pay for Sling or Hulu for the past decade are turning away from them. The price has gotten too high. Cable is even higher, but again, only older adults are likely to view it as a viable way to get their content these days. Anyone younger than 50 would probably openly sneer at you if you even suggested it.
What Does All This Lead To?
This brings up a natural question. What are the people who used to pay for Sling or Hulu going to do if they still want access to content? Some of them might be content with free streaming live TV platforms like Tubi or Pluto. These are free streaming apps you can use to watch shows on your TV, phone, tablet, desktop, or laptop. If you prefer watching content on demand, these services offer that option as well.
Free streaming TV platforms are also owned by big corporations. The reason why they are offered for free, while services like Sling and Hulu cost money, is that these large, multinational conglomerates understand that some people are now too poor to pay for a streaming service. They still want their content, though.
The big corporations will let you download and use apps like Tubi or Pluto for free, but you still have to watch commercials. Being exposed to Geico and Home Depot ads is how you “pay” for the content you’re watching. This is true whether that’s a show episode you selected via an on-demand format or the streaming content on a channel you might turn to at random.
However, you can’t watch most of the newest content on Tubi, Pluto, or any of the similar apps you can download and use for free. If you want the latest shows that come on channels like FX or ESPN, you’re expected to pay for a streaming service.
The result is a growing trend toward pirating content. Online communities buzz with advice and resources for accessing illegal streams of sports, new shows, and movies, illustrating that high costs are driving even loyal customers outside the law.
Watching illegal streaming isn’t hard. If you’re even slightly tech-savvy, you’ll figure it out. Yes, it’s frowned upon, but most people won’t lose any sleep over it. They feel they’re gaming an unfair system.
Is Piracy Justified?
Not everyone is going to be willing to pirate content, whether that’s an out-of-market football game or the latest episode of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Some might be worried about being caught, while others will shy away from any type of illegality for moral reasons.
They’re in the minority, though. It seems as though most people are more than willing to turn away from an entity like Sling or Hulu that keeps getting exponentially more expensive and still has the same awful customer service that it always did.
Each person must decide for themselves what they’re willing to do to watch a particular piece of content. Maybe it’s the nobler thing to refrain from watching a show or event if you can’t afford it legally.
Others feel differently, though. If they see a way to watch something they’re interested in for free, they’re going to do it, even if that means bouncing from one illegal streaming site to another, as each inevitably gets exposed and swatted. These sites are like hydras, though, and when one gets taken down by the authorities, three more pop up to take its place.
There are a lot of people at the moment who have precious little to keep them going. AI is taking jobs away while groceries get steadily more expensive. Healthcare is becoming a luxury that many can no longer afford.
In the face of these daily miseries, pirating your favorite show and thumbing your nose at the greedy streaming services might not seem like such a bad option. Or, you can just forget about scripted content, like the younger generations, and instead pass your time watching twelve-year-old influencers play video games on Twitch while giving you running commentary on their thrilling exploits.
