Why I’m Canceling Netflix
Yeah, you read that headline right.
It’s 2018.
Film is dying, television is thriving, and we now have competitive streaming options to chose from.
I was an early adopter of the Netflix streaming bandwagon. My account’s been active since 2010 when video streaming was an add-on feature for the DVD delivery service. As the library grew, I was able to watch numerous titles, a lot of them being entire television series. Binge-watching was born and I spent days of my life letting the next-episode-begins-in-15-seconds countdown determine my sleep schedule.
You might think that I’m cancelling Netflix because I let binge watching become an addiction.
That’s not the case. Bingeing was a fad that I easily got over once I consumed those vast amounts of content. In all honesty, I’m canceling the streaming service because I really haven’t used it in the past 8 months. The only thing I’ve really watched is Stranger Things 2 (and to be honest, I’m not fully on the Stranger Things bandwagon).
Why would I continue to pay for a service that I don’t use? Especially when Netflix continually increases the subscription prices every year. Okay, it’s $1 increase, but those increases add up after a few years and my $8 service now costs $15.
The Netflix streaming library has become a behemoth with new Netflix Originals being released every other day. It’s a lot to remotely try to keep up with. There was this sweet spot between 2015–2016 where the release schedule was pretty ideal. You didn’t have to watch everything, but there was enough time to know what was being released and the quality usually wasn’t compromised. Now, Netflix will begin marketing a title like Bright a year in advance then promote The Cloverfield Paradox the night of its release. I also didn’t watch either of those movies because, well, I heard they were not great.
I’m over it and I’m breaking up with Netflix. Well, probably just for a few months.
I have a Prime Video subscription that is automatically included in my Amazon Prime subscription and I would much rather pay $15 for HBO Now to watch quality content that might get released at a much slower pace.
Streaming in 2018 is changing.
As a user, my experience has changed, the content has changed, and the platforms have not adapted well. My Netflix subscription will run out tomorrow and I will be left to rediscover our world without the streaming service.
Would you ever consider canceling your Netflix? How do you feel about your current experience with the popular streaming platform?