It’s movie night! My friends and I came together in my dorm to watch one of the best movies ever made: The Departed. We were talking about how stoked we were to watch it all day. Finally, the time came to put it on, and we realized it was only “free” on Apple TV, a streaming service that none of us had. This exact scenario happens so often, especially in recent years with the increase in streaming services.
Gone are the days of Netflix having every movie you could ever want to watch. Now, there are dozens of different subscriptions that all have a few of the best content, along with their own original movies and shows. There is no single best service to have anymore and purchasing them all would cost a fortune. This is so frustrating because it felt like just a few years ago, we got rid of the need to rent movies because they would all be on one streaming service. Now, if a case like the one described above with the Departed happens, we are forced to either rent the movie, subscribe to Apple TV, or pick a new movie. This is when I proposed my next genius idea: the Super Streaming Service (SSS).
The SSS would combine all of the current streaming services into one. You might be thinking, there is no way these companies would ever agree to such a thing. Plus, this would surely be classified as a monopoly, right? To that I would say, you are absolutely right. That is why my idea entails the government forcing the streaming services to band together into one and operate as a government regulated monopoly. This monopoly will have a fixed price that can only increase with inflation. This would ensure that the monopoly will not raise prices once consumers have nowhere else to go. There will also be price levels (ads, no ads, premium, live TV), to help everyone afford at least the lowest level.
A few of my friends agreed with my idea. However, a few argued against this idea. Aside from this being very idealistic, they had one major criticism. Passing legislature that allows this is a slippery slope. This would set the precedent for the government to do this in tons of other areas. For example, gasoline. There are dozens of major gas companies, and the prices of them are above what it should be to profit a normal amount. However, the competition of multiple different companies helps drive the price of gas down. If the government were to take over this industry, who knows what would happen to the price of gas.
I argued that combining all of the streaming services will be similar to the government controlling the electricity monopoly. Electric a resource that can be cheaper if they are guaranteed a certain number of customers. This means that operating as a monopoly is not bad, so long as they do not raise prices. For this reason, the government stepped in and capped their prices. In my eyes, this is a win for consumers and the companies. I believe that the government can control streaming services in a similar fashion, creating a win for both parties.
I think this would be a good idea because it would facilitate the viewing experience for many. In my eyes this would facilitate the process for many, one of the main forms being instead of being subscribed to countless streaming services you would only be subscribed to one but could find everything. I relate to the problem since it’s very disappointing when you’re excited to see a new show you saw on social media per se but when you look for it one might sadly not have the platform it’s on and it’s honestly a bummer. I would love to have every streaming service combined in one since it would just facilitate the viewing of a show not only for me but for millions. I also think the companies could see it as a win-win situation because they would have an equal number of subscribers no matter what. In this generation though I don’t know how in favor of this the government or even the streaming services would be; but for me it a definite yes.