For as long as I can remember, Netflix has reigned as the streaming service king. The streaming service race was my Space Race, with online streaming platforms appearing left and right hoping to capitalize on the impending doom of cable. Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Apple TV+, Peacock and Max all fought to be the new top dog. For years, Netflix remained an immovable force, untouched by the peasants desperately climbing a hill they would never summit. I was a loyal Netflix subscriber — for almost 11 years, I stayed tried and true. Yet, little by little, the Netflix fortress began to crumble — from the five price increases in six years to the household wifi rule that tried to limit account sharing. After taking a deeper look at Netflix’s dirty laundry, I decided to embrace the emancipating, exhilarating renewal of life on the other side, unshackled and liberated from the chains of Netflix. I have finally canceled my plan. Here’s why you should, too.
Before canceling my Netflix subscription, I received an email stating that my subscription plan would be changing again. For the past couple of years, I never looked too deep into these automatic “upgrades” because I knew the price was increasing just a couple of dollars. But it felt like these emails were becoming more and more frequent — so I decided to look into why my $15.99 plan would become $24.99 a month. This new “premium” plan includes ad-free streaming, 4k Ultra HD resolution and content downloads on six devices. So basically, the same features they had on the “basic” plan ten years ago, but with slightly higher resolution and the ability to download movies on the plane. I could have downgraded to the standard plan with ads at $7.99 and practically shifted back to cable, or without ads at $17.99, but I realized I was in a cycle of sly psychological commitment tactics. Netflix was taking advantage of my loss aversion — when a continued commitment is harder to let go because it feels like a drastic loss of socially significant service — to keep me paying. My cultural, societal participation in streaming seemed to justify each price hike, but at what point does feeling included in online discourse about “Bridgerton” get too expensive?
The price increase feels especially unwarranted given that Netflix lacks captivating films and TV shows, new or old. At most, they have season five of “Stranger Things,” a show that’s begging to finally end, and bottom-of-the-barrel Oscar nominees e.g. “Emilia Perez” and “The Power of the Dog”. Netflix Originals have begun to feel like over-budgeted Hallmark Channel movies, pumping out dreary, lifeless content at an ungodly, unnecessary rate, filling the platform with “Kissing Booth” knockoffs. This sort of content is fun to play off as laughs, but fails to justify the cost of the subscription. Successful new shows like “Nobody Wants This” are now a dime a hundred dozen. It is a lighthearted, quick watch that gives a spike of dopamine with fresh, new concepts (sex podcaster Kristen Bell falling in love with Rabbi Adam Brody) that are comedic and attempt to explore discourse on gender, expressing sexuality and religion with a “modern” twist. But once the quick 20-minute episodes are over, the rest of the recommendations are floods of … Season 8 of “Love is Blind.”
Outside of Netflix’s barren, worthless closet of content, its once-feeble competitors are starting to bring new life to the playing field at a much more reasonable cost. Apple TV+ earned a record of 72 Emmy nominations in 2024, with shows like “Severance” and “Ted Lasso” gaining immense popularity in recent years — all for $9.99 a month without ads ($2 more than Netflix’s ad-inclusive plan). Bundles from Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN+ offer access to all three platforms for $16.99 a month, also without ads. These platforms are filled with variety for every person in the family — from reality TV and live sports to award-winning content and adorable animated shows “Bluey” — all for a full dollar less than Netflix’s standard plan. Just Netflix. If you’re like me, you probably assumed that Apple TV+ or bundled streaming services were a lot more expensive than Netflix, but after finally taking a step back, I realized that these platforms might be worth the investment.
I signed up for Netflix in 2013 and thought I’d never look back. It was the epicenter for new content, the driving force of pop culture. It was as essential as wifi or cellular data — just another monthly subscription that I would always need. Yet, that need has fizzled away, and I canceled my subscription out of principle. Out of protest. Who does Netflix think they are, trying to automatically sign me up for a price increase with essentially no benefit? Scam me, and likely countless other users, out of $7 when nothing about the platform has improved? Rather than wait around on Netflix and hope for something good this month, save the money and buy yourself a dinner out with friends and some sweet treats instead.
The once-lowly streaming services have put in the work to prove their worth, all while the Netflix monarch sits still on a dusty throne. While the instinctual next step is to sign up for the new streaming king, the hierarchy is now arguably irrelevant. The streaming service landscape is becoming increasingly democratic — where users can fall in love with content on all sorts of platforms simultaneously, instead of devoting themselves to one ruler. So rather than sulking around in the comfort and safety of Netflix, comb through the weeds of new platforms and find stories that seem worth your time. Sign up for them all, subscribe to only one or maybe just cancel the lot.
Daily Arts Writer Maurice Tobiano can be reached at mtobiano@umich.edu.
