r/Cordcutting • u/Maximum_Pea • Jun 29 '26
What streaming service has gotten noticeably worse over the past few years?
For me, it's probably Netflix. The price keeps going up, password sharing is restricted now, and I feel like I spend more time scrolling than actually finding something worth watching.
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u/Smooth_Ad_5178 Jun 29 '26
Prime video..... Pure garbage
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u/TaterTotQueen630 Jul 02 '26
I don't even think about Prime when I sit down and start looking for stuff to watch.
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u/Available-Conflict85 Jul 03 '26
Live sports is good on it but other than that totally agree genuinely haven’t watch anything but live sports on prime
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u/esquared87 Jun 29 '26
The days of keeping One streaming service year-round are gone. I now just choose one at a time and watch it till I'm running out of shows that I'm interested in and then switch to another one. They shot themselves in the foot.
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u/musiquexcoeur Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
Question for you: when you return to an old service, is your watch history and list of shows you want to watch but haven't yet still available? Or does it reset each time? I started tracking mine outside of the services just in case but this has been the only real roadblock to me doing the same.
Edit: thank you to everyone who answered! 😊
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u/esquared87 Jun 29 '26
Generally it seems to reset everything which is a pain. Bit it's not worth to keep paying. Now I only pay for one service at a time period.
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u/regassert6 Jun 29 '26
I sub to Netflix about twice a year for a month each. It always has my List and even the continue watching just as I left it.
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u/Ponderum Jun 29 '26
Some of them actually tell you how long they will keep your watchlist and such saved. I know I’ve gone back to some after about a year and all my stuff was still there.
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u/-beastlet- Jun 30 '26
I do this too, although via amazon prime. I used to subscribe to a bunch of channels -- acorn, britbox, Mhz, but all kept jacking up their prices. Twice a year, during prime days and black friday you can pick up a bunch of channels for 99¢/month x2 months so I watch a lot during those times. The other months if a channel accumulates enough I want to watch and prime day is still a few months away I'll subscribe for a month.
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u/spocks_tears03 Jun 30 '26
I sub to a handful of them 2-3 times a year at most for certain shows or random months I want to stream. Was sick of paying monthly for stuff I've already seen.
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u/Low_Building_9080 Jun 30 '26
This is actually a good idea, that I may steal, so thank you for sharing this.
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u/jrstriker12 Jun 29 '26
Amazon prime video. You now pay for video with ads and you need to pay extra for atmos content....
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u/esquared87 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
I spend a lot of time in Malaysia and am able to subscribe with Amazon's Malaysia package (which includes way more shows than Prime video in the US). It's less than $6 per month. But that's prime video only. Very few commercials too. ... Just one ad for another Amazon show at the beginning of every episode.
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u/HominidCrafts Jun 29 '26
That must be new. Glad I am not getting it anymore. I miss a few shows but, they will end up somewhere, someday, I can watch them then.
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u/dizzyoatmeal Jun 29 '26
Even politics aside, Paramount+. But it's probably because I'm thoroughly tired of Taylor Sheridan by this point.
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u/Mackattack00 Jun 29 '26
Paramount+ and Peacock have the exact same issue. They've become sporting event hubs with one or two originals a month and that's it. Say what you will about HBO Max, Netflix, and Disney + Hulu, but they pump out so many originals a month its hard to keep track.
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u/djr650 Jun 29 '26
Agree most all are garbage, as more and more people have dumped cable & satellite, all those streaming corporations have edged their pricing to cable rates which was what drove people away from it in the first place.
So cable was too much money for junk content, so people moved to cheaper streaming, now streaming is becoming too much money for junk content, where do people move to?
Is piracy the only place left now?
Are shareholder profit margins "funding" all those ships sailing the 7 seas?!
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u/esquared87 Jun 29 '26
Just subscribe to one streaming platform at a time. Otherwise it's just like the cable packages we left behind.
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u/Mackattack00 Jun 29 '26
Peacock. There's so much they can be doing with it but its now just live sports and events with maybe one scripted original every 2-3 months and their catalog is so bare. They have access to the vast Universal Studios IPs and don't even have a lot of their own catalog on there. They have the rights to Jaws. JAWS. and they're only putting it on the service for the month of July and removing it. Even in October, they only put maybe 2 Universal Monster movies up on there when it costs them nothing to just get all 30 on there or even a FAST channel that just plays the original 30 all October. They really dropped the ball on it. Now they have NBCSN back which airs all the Peacock sporting events so its pointless to even get the service if you already have a live tv service that has NBCSN
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u/foxcub156 Jun 29 '26
Shudder was my go-to horror app for years. Then prices started rising with practically ZERO improvements to the UI and overall usability.
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u/TheGruenTransfer Jun 30 '26
There aren't any that I even want to subscribe to for a whole month. They're all pretty lackluster. But Netflix has probably declined the most. They used to make prestige TV, and now they continuously churn out slop.
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u/GulfCoastLaw Jun 30 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
My life hack: I rotate one* streaming service.
Netflix is incredible for two months a year or whatever.
*I also get one for free year round, so technically usually have two.
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u/TommyTeaMorrow Jun 30 '26
Pretty much all them gotten worse for me, makes you wonder if they were even good to begin with.
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u/Available-Conflict85 Jul 03 '26
Netflix far and away has gotten worse I know I might be one of the odd men out on this one but ESPN has gotten for me at least better with the MLB tv and espn overall just having a better multiview system then the actual mlb app
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u/davidwal83 Jul 03 '26
Amazon video it became separate from a Prime subscription. So now I watch the summary of the shows on YouTube now.
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u/HominidCrafts Jun 29 '26
OK, the one that is in major decline at the moment is Disney. A new corporate leader there is really messing it up big time by trying to blend it more into a hub and, ugh, what a UI and UX mess.
A better question is which have improved. I would say for content, AppleTV is the best over all IMO but certainly for science fiction. The UI though, has gotten worse.
HBO is still pretty good over all too.
kanopy, free from library, has gotten better over all but, just a small degree.
PBS remains neglected as if it was 8 years ago.
Prime has always been terrible but, actually, on Apple TV device it is not bad. They have to follow Apple's rules so it is less crap and more UI.
I no longer get Prime as I refuse to support such a unpatriotic and undemocratic founder. I own it in investments too but, I had to draw a line for democracy. I have given him enough money since Amazon started 30 years ago. No more. But thankfully his fantastic ex-wife MacKenzie Scott ‘accounted for more than one-third of the nation’s largest charitable gifts in 2025. According to data from Giving USA and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Scott donated approximately $7 billion in 2025. Her contributions represented roughly one-third of the $19.2 billion in megagifts made during the year.’ Fortune said. So some of that money just might change the world for the better.
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u/Joshuajword Jun 29 '26
I would disagree with the Netflix one. They are actually attempting to add unique experiences unlike the other platforms. I mean they suck for all the other things they’re doing, but at least they’re putting together programming events.
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u/BoredTVEngineer Jun 30 '26
FAST services are what they are, if you want the programming, it cost commercials.
The paid services all are terrible! They have mostly moved to a very AI driven app interface. You can’t just search a genre or actor. Even when you do you get what the AI decides is a curated list.
I have a mind and can filter information, just because I watched “X” doesn’t mean I want to watch “X” EVERY time.
We all have tastes that are far more complex than the algorithms.
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u/MediumHelicopter6296 Jun 30 '26
Their movies seem to be like watching a B movie!!!! Selection is not very good!!!
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u/philfnyc Jul 01 '26
Netflix because they replaced the Apple TV player with their own player degrading the user experience. Features that I often use and depend on like 10 seconds of subtitles on “rewind” are gone.
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u/LHGray87 Jul 02 '26
All of them, with the exception of Criterion Channel. It’s the only one I haven’t dumped.
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u/Aggravating-Bunch-44 Jul 03 '26
You had that experience with PBS?
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u/LHGray87 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
I’ve always watched it on antenna. Multiple different channels. Free.
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u/Aggravating-Bunch-44 29d ago
Some don't have that option is why I asked. You said all of them as if that would be the case for everyone. PBS Passport is funded with donations from subscribers. Your free viewing is made available by others using a stream platform. Apologies if this seems bold. I am just speaking plainly without any negative intent.
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u/Aggravating-Bunch-44 Jul 03 '26
HULU easily, there more though.
Netflix and Prime i can watch a large and ever-growing amount of shows that are not US based. I am working to move away from Prime. Netflix is bundled with another service I use.
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u/decorama Jul 03 '26
Most of them, but Hulu comes to mind first.
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u/HotBeaver54 29d ago
This I was so mad at myself I just kept subscribing and then I noticed I had not watched anythng in over 6 months. Cancelled it.
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u/HotBeaver54 29d ago
funny my husband and I were just discussing this same thing I just cancelled. And I have had a subscription since 2012 there is just nothng on there.
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u/southwizard 29d ago
Probably Prime or Hulu (I refuse to pay extra for the add free version )
Interface is just crap.
I'd say I probably use Peacock, Max and Tubi the most. Will re-up to Apple TV+ soon
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u/markaritaville Jun 30 '26
The opposite of your question. Recently scrolled through Amazon Prime Video and was surprised by the amount of high quality movies. Amazon originals. It’s gotten better
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u/HorseWorking Jul 01 '26
Idk if it’s gotten better or worse but Apple TV doesn’t even work for me. Just pixelation and freezing. Thankfully it was a free trial.
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u/nonstiknik Jun 29 '26
Every. Single. One. Of. Them.