2020 has been a rough year, to say the least, and with everyone being stuck inside people have been doing multiple things to pass the time, one of the most popular things that people have been doing is watching movies and TV shows through streaming services.

“I think the best thing about streaming services are the shows that they have available on them and how you can watch them at any time,” senior Ryan Christensen said.

Streaming services have been around for a while and were first launched back in 2007 with a website called Netflix. Now there are many streaming services such as Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and HBO Max.

“I’m subscribed to Netflix and Funimation,” senior Dominic Dilworth said.

There are many different kinds of streaming services that have their own types of genres, such as Funimation, Crunchyroll, and Shutter. Funimation and Crunchyroll focus on anime tv shows and movies and Shutter focuses on horror movies.

“Netflix has a good library of originals that I feel are very quality and I think they are pretty good at recommending shows you’ll like based on what you’ve watched,” Dilworth said.

As of now, Netflix is currently the number one streaming service with over 182.8 million people who are subscribed to it. Amazon is currently in second place with over 126 million users subscribed.

“My personal favorite streaming service is probably Hulu because they seem to have a lot more shows that I’m more interested in,” Christensen said.

Hulu has gained popularity over the years with its 36.6 million subscribers. Hulu currently has a wide variety of TV shows along with some that are exclusive to their services, such as “Handmaid’s Tale” and “Castle Rock.”

“I think the only way for the streaming services to try and outdo one another is through their original movies and shows,” Dilworth said.

Many streaming services have their own movies and tv shows that they produce to strengthen the pull of their service, with Netflix and their originals, such as “Stranger Things” or “Bojack Horseman.” Disney+ also has its own exclusive shows with their really popular series, “The Mandalorian.”

“It seems like all Disney+ has is just its Disney related stuff, which not everyone is into, so I can see it surpassing some of the other services, but definitely not Netflix,” Dilworth said.

Disney+ is one of the more recent streaming services that emerged back in November of 2019. However, as of December 2020, the service now has over 60 million current subscribers.

All of the current major streaming services offer paid subscriptions with multiple plans that provide quality of life changes, such as ad-free or 4K support. However, a lot of these streaming services can end up being on the expensive side with some of them even increasing their prices, such as Hulu who recently raised one of their plan’s prices from $54.99 to $64.99.

“I would have to say that my biggest problem with streaming services right now is their payment options and that they can be super slow and not load titles properly,” Christensen said.

“I think cable has become useless now that streaming services are here and I wouldn’t be surprised if I stopped seeing them in every household,” Dilworth said. “I don’t think it has a chance at all, because streaming services are by far more convenient and cheaper.”

Cable was first invented in 1948 and it seems that after all these years it might be coming to a stop due to streaming services. 

“I think streaming services are bettering the old format just because of how this year has gone so far and since people don’t really use cable anymore I think it’s a lot better,” Christensen said.

With streaming services being more convenient in terms of being able to watch them anywhere you go and how much cheaper they can be, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them surpass cable in the coming years. However, what does this mean for movie theaters?

“Depending on how things go this upcoming year, I think movie theaters are going to struggle and maybe even end, but if COVID-19 ends pretty soon into the year then I can see movie theaters making a comeback,” Christensen said.

Movie theaters have been impacted greatly by COVID-19 due to people not being able to go outside at all and new movie releases have even been going straight to streaming services alongside movie theaters, such as HBO Max streaming all of Warner Bros 2021 movies. 

“I feel like TV has gone as far as it can go with streaming services,” Dilworth said. “I truly can’t think of a more convenient way to watch television or movies.”

Having entertainment anywhere you go is an amazing feat that we have reached in technology. With how innovative streaming services have been, it won’t be surprising to see how far they can go to bring us entertainment