There are millions of people who can afford $140/yr. They just don't complain on forums.

Most people don't even know how piracy works unless it gets as mainstream as Napster did. You tell them about torrenting, -arr programs, debrid services, and they'll have no clue what you're talking about.

What does surprise me is that people actually pay their own subscription for these platforms. Netflix had a win in profit/revenue. I’m surprised that these people did not go for the Piracy method even though, they complain about:

Most people don't like change. Maybe they have a habit of switching on Netflix daily during dinner or something. There's also a big "Netflix" button on their remotes and their TV's homescreen, which serves as a constant reminder. They probably even have the app on their phones. All of this leads to mental conditioning and addiction, it's now a part of their daily lives. Humans are a creature of habit, and it's hard to break out of a routine ingrained over several years.

Piracy could be a option for some people, but it's still either too technical, or not as convenient, for the average Joe. Sure, there are even websites you could simply go to without installing any app, but most people won't bother with that - they just want to hit a single button on their remote/TV and watch something, without needing to go to some website, a website which may eventually stop working.

You'll find that most people would prefer to take the path of least resistance, even if it means paying (more) money. Don't forget that even pirates may sometimes pay money to make things easier - eg usenet/seedbox/debrid users - and that's simply because they too would prefer to take the path of least resistance, even if it means being in the ironic situation of paying to watch pirated content. So it's not too hard to imagine why normal people would just prefer to cough up the extra cash for Netflix and continue with their lives, routines unchanged.

Of it were up to me I'd drop it in a heart beat. I'm outvoted by kids grandkids and wife who watch random things throughout the day.

I barely watch TV these days and would happily hooky the odd things I do want to see

(takes a sip out of 1999 The Phantom Menace Taco Bell promotional cup)

I don't know what you're talking about.

no one's ever told me it's abnormally large before - I'm blushing!

They have a good collection of movies and series. They've also started diversifying, bringing in some anime, some documentaries...

The people who said they'd cancel probably did, they were just the minority.

Everybody said they’d cancel Netflix over it

What's probably more likely is that the "everybody" that you heard from was an incredibly unrepresentative sample of people from a bubble of nerdy tech enthusiasts.

Great news to be honest. I hope disney sees a similar spike in profits so they can make more great shows for me to pirate.

Ironically I dropped Netflix for the Hulu Disney package because of password sharing and I was the one paying.

Or my child, who shares a house with my ex wife in his laptop that I paid for...

four times as much as an annual subscription

If you're gonna waste money, you might as well waste money on something big.

I'd like to use Jelly Fin, but it has not been a great experience for me on a Mac with an Apple TV. HDR doesn't carry over, some videos are blocked due to music licensing or something, and the library syncing doesn't always work. I'm not sure if it's a Jellyfin problem, a lack of support for Mac hardware, or just my personal incompetence with this sort of thing (very likely). I managed to get Plex to work without issue, so I'm using that even if I don't really like the UX all that much.

i dont even sub to streaming services and currently building my media server (5x 12tb drives in zfs z2) just for archival and setting up a service for some family inthe case they want to bail. aa prices fo up, people are just going to look for a diy way at some point.

The great part is you own it at the end of it.

Even then, I've had hard drives last 10 years. But YMMV.

You will make a difference because you're not the only one. Thx for doing the right thing. With enough pressure maybe they'll learn.

Sometimes the people that need the most help, don't even realize it. Keep fighting the good fight.

It worked for Netflix. It's easy to scoff at the clearly customer-antagonistic policies these services are turning towards, inevitably accompanied by the "well, they lost me as a subscriber" flood of comments. But the unfortunate truth is the vast majority of people just shut up and pay, resulting in big net income for the corporations that enact these policies.

I can get around password sharing rules on every streaming service that has them by using my phone and mobile data lmao.