[DHPersonal]

That's why I don't really believe people who claim that having to pick a streaming service is a burden too great to bear and can only be resolved through piracy. I don't think the issue is too little choice, too much choice, too much cost, or two much mental overhead—I think they just want to pirate and find a reason to use for the moment.

[TeMPOraL]

Because you think exposing yourself to higher risk of malware, financial punishment and possibly jail time is something thrilling that people like to do for fun?

Truth is, because of greed of the IP holders, the existing legal avenues of getting media are garbage and, on top of that, subscribing to several services costs more money than reasonable - all that starts to outweigh the aforementioned risk. And the risk is going down now that pirates run streaming sites too, which shield viewers from liability.

See also Steam, and how game piracy dwindled down thanks to cutting out the bullshit. And wrt. mental overhead, just look at how unhappy gamers are now that more companies are trying to compete with Steam by launching exclusives, making it necessary to install additional game launchers (which are almost universally garbage).

People are not lying in their complaints.

[jsutton]

Why is that hard to believe? If you only have a few shows that you want to watch, and each is on a different streaming service, is it unreasonable to balk at having to pay for several different services (each at over $10 a month) just for a few shows?