Streaming Is in Absolute Crisis. Is It Time to Make Some Tough Choices?

A version of this story appeared in Esquire’s entertainment newsletter, The Cliff-Hanger. Sign up here to receive weekly criticism of the movie or television show of the moment shipped directly to your in-box.

The TV business is in a crisis. Not just because The Late Show With Stephen Colbert's cancellation might signal the end of late-night TV, or because South Park paraded an AI video of the President’s penis with eyes on it. The small screen is facing the end times because streaming finally became a profitable business the second it basically turned into cable again. Sigh.

The original promise of streaming was to provide cord-cutting viewers a wonderland of niche original programming without the restraints of traditional TV. Now, we’re paying the same price as cable to watch advertisements between our shows again across multiple different platforms—and it hasn’t made finding what to watch any easier. In fact, it’s downright impossible.

Streaming's latest doomsday moment? On Wednesday, The Walt Disney Company announced that it planned to merge Hulu into Disney+—even if it sounds like customers would have rather had it the other way around. The move will reportedly save the company billions of dollars, per Variety, but Disney has yet to announce how this move will affect customer’s pockets. The company is also launching a standalone ESPN streaming service, which is for people who want to pay $29.99/month for a cable package that’s basically just sports. Did your eyes just glaze over? Exactly.

For the consumer, it’s yet another headache—and an expensive one at that. Once again, we’re stuck comparing subscription plans, pinching our wallets, and relearning which company owns what. It’s exhausting. So, in today’s streaming wars, we need to seriously consider which streaming services we’ll fly our banners for. The days of blindly subscribing to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video may be over. To help gear you up for fall TV season—and maybe even save a couple of bucks before holiday season—this is how you can show streamers who's boss.

After the news dropped that Hulu would eventually shut down after moving to Disney+, I took a long and painful gander at the current subscription options. How should someone pick from a Hulu/Disney+/HBO Max bundle, a Hulu+Live TV/Disney+/ESPN+ bundle, a Hulu/Showtime/Acorn TV/Britbox+ bundle (I made the last one up), and several tiers of options before you even think about adding on anything else? It’s like I’m reading another language. My first suggestion? Look at what you’re paying for right now and make sure that you’re not accidentally shelling out for something twice. Then, check to see if you actually use the services that you are paying for. Final step? Make some hard decisions. You can live without the Mormon Wives. I promise.

This is what I do every few months. Check out the fall 2025 TV calendar and write down every show that you consider must-watch TV. In last week’s Cliff-Hanger, for example, I highlighted a few fall shows that I consider appointment viewing: Alien: Earth (Hulu), The Paper (Peacock), Task (HBO Max), Black Rabbit (Netflix), and Pluribus (Apple TV+). If you look at your list and find that one of your subscriptions won’t see any action for the rest of the year, then stop paying for it now. You can always renew later.

Here’s a lesson you learn quickly in my industry: you can’t watch everything, even when it’s your job. It’s okay to hold off, wait until a season is finished, and then tear through it later. This is what I used to tell my parents to do about TV shows that I really enjoyed, but were weekly drops on streaming services that didn’t have much else to offer that would warrant a full subscription. You can think of it like paying $9.99 for the season. Then just cancel until that show returns. Sometimes when you threaten to leave, a streamer will even offer you discounted rates to stay—though don’t say you heard that idea from me!

Maybe your buddy is a big cinephile. They pay for a niche service like The Criterion Channel, which houses hundreds of old movies and foreign films. Why not save yourself the money, have a movie night, and watch that one Italian Neorealist flick with good company? Password-sharing crackdowns have made it tougher to pass around subscriptions, but watch parties are a great way to keep up with your friends and pool your subscriptions together. Hell, a good group will even make bad TV more enjoyable.

Just sayin’. Maybe things were better that way.