Many people signed up for Netlix when it wasn't about the content. There was a time when movie companies just licensed out everything they weren't actively selling on bluray cheaply so Netflix had most of the movies you wanted, and when the most popular Netflix exclusive content had a lot of Marvel shows that have since been taken to Disney+.
As for Netflix's self-produced content, too many shows dropped inconclusively after two seasons discourages investment in new IP.
So now for a lot of people, Netflix is charging triple what they signed up at, for less than half as much content.
Sure, they were forced into it, a lot of this was the big publishers realising they could take their content and run their own streaming service. But for a lot of people, the appeal of Netflix was "the legal site with all the TV" and that's increasingly in the past.
I don't actually see any of this as terribly tragic. We're talking about a recreational service here, nothing of urgent importance.
But...
> Two drinks at a bar can be $20
That entirely depends on where the bar is. I've paid $10 a drink before, but that's an above average price in my area. It also doesn't alter the fact that for millions of people, $20 is a lot of money. They aren't dropping money on expensive drinks at a bar on the regular.
Because it's not just 1 streaming service anymore it's 2-3 or more depending on what content you like. Most people I know that don't share an account stop their subscription a few months at a time and renew when they want to catch up on content.
It's not hard to imagine streaming companies adopting various enterprise strategies like backpay charges to punish intermittent accounts once the services reach market saturation.
As for Netflix's self-produced content, too many shows dropped inconclusively after two seasons discourages investment in new IP.
So now for a lot of people, Netflix is charging triple what they signed up at, for less than half as much content.
Sure, they were forced into it, a lot of this was the big publishers realising they could take their content and run their own streaming service. But for a lot of people, the appeal of Netflix was "the legal site with all the TV" and that's increasingly in the past.