FAANGs really need to expand into more and more industries if they expect to continue their hypergrowth. Apple, at 6% of SPY, especially.
When companies with the resources of a FAANG enter industries like that, they're able to make it price competitive quickly.
For example, what Netflix did to the cable industry.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Now, I can pick and choose exactly what I want, when I want it, and without advertising breaks. Obviously, if you want everything, then you have to pay for everything. All with a few clicks.
Definitely not the same.
I don't pay for Disney+ or Hulu, but I use my friend's (sorry "family's") account.
Additionally, canceling any of these services is trivial, and I can stagger them month by month if I wanted.
Streaming is cheaper than cable because we can use it across a few households. Amortize costs down 2x-3x, on top of the fact that added up all these subscriptions still cost 20-30% less than cable.
This is just an extra bonus on the easy to cancel aspect, and the no ads aspect.
I think longer term you’ll see the Kickstarter/Patreon model for streaming be the final evolution of the Cable to Streaming transition. Which is likely what you’re still waiting for.
You're literally saying "streaming is cheaper if I cheat/pirate/break the TOS".
Cable/satellite are even cheaper if you buy a pirate smartcard too, so we're not really making a fair comparison, are we?