We came close for a time, but I think everyone realised it wasn’t what they wanted after all. You could buy standalone episodes of a ton of shows on iTunes, but the calculus changed: sure, you enjoy watching Wheel of Fortune, but are you really going to pay a dollar for every episode?
Was it? I just remember it meaning we could subscribe directly to content creators, which is what the current environment looks like. No one was ever promised both 1-on-1 relationships with content creators AND the value-add of a consolidated service provider, which is just unrealistic to have.
> We came close for a time
When was this, exactly? The PPV era? Things have never been better than they are today for content consumers, we have more options than ever to customize what, when, and how we consume.
I wish everything was PPV so I could à la carte my heart out, but subscription revenue guarantees are what make the current landscape tenable for the investments we're seeing in new content across all the streamers. It used to be cable companies taking on the brunt of the risk of cash flow management, infrastructure, customer acquisition, and marketing. Now every streamer has to do everything themselves.
For people complaining about fragmentation and going to the torrents as a result, it's about price not convenience.