TV viewers to test ‘subscription fatigue’ theory this fall

The recent announcements by Apple and Walt Disney that they will be launching subscription video-on-demand services this fall have media pundits wondering if consumers soon will experience “subscription fatigue.”
Consulting firm Deloitte says 55% of U.S. households now subscribe to paid streaming video services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. And 43% of U.S. households subscribe to both streaming and traditional pay TV services.
The average U.S. streaming video household subscribes to three such services.
“With more than 300 over-the-top video options in the U.S., coupled with multiple subscriptions and payments to track and justify, consumers may be entering a time of ‘subscription fatigue,’” Kevin Westcott, leader of Deloitte’s U.S. telecom, media and entertainment segment, said in a news release March 19.
Consumers are growing frustrated by the explosion of video entertainment options.
Nearly half (47%) of U.S. consumers surveyed by Deloitte said they are frustrated by the growing number of subscriptions and services required to watch what they want.
I don’t think the number of subscription services is necessarily a problem. The new streaming video services make it easy to start and stop subscriptions. That will create a lot of subscriber churn among the lesser players in the market.
Many subscribers will sign up for a service to watch a new season of a hit show, binge watch it and then cancel the service. They can then move on to another service.
Ultimately there will be a shakeout in the market and consumers will pick a handful of winning services that they will subscribe to month in and month out.
The bigger problem for consumers is just the explosion of content among all of the new and existing channels.
The number of scripted original TV series in production hit a record 495 last year, the Los Angeles Times and Business Insider reported.
The average consumer can’t keep up with the avalanche of video programming choices. I know I can’t.
For instance, I didn’t finish the last seasons of “Marvel’s Iron Fist” and “Marvel’s Daredevil” until months after they were canceled already by Netflix. I've got over two dozen shows on my watch list that I haven't started yet. Some of those I likely will never watch.
Plus, there are shows of interest on other services. For example, I’d like to watch the second season of “Star Trek: Discovery” on CBS All Access and “Future Man” on Hulu, but I’m already way behind on watching shows on Netflix, HBO and Amazon.
What's a modern TV viewer to do?

Related articles:

Netflix show cancellations point to limits of ‘peak TV’ (Dec. 2, 2018)

Drowning in video in the age of ‘peak TV’ (Sept. 4, 2018)