There was a time when people didn’t have a choice for what they watched on tv. They had to watch whatever was on or nothing. Now you can watch almost anything. Some things you can only watch if you’re willing to pay for it but still, you have a lot of options. You have endless options, more than you probably have time to watch. And yet there are still people who throw a fit that shows and movies are made that don’t appeal to them. It’s so easy to not watch the thing you dislike and pick something else, but some people still want everything made with them in mind. Some people are never happy with anything they watch.
People were complaining back in the days of cable about the same thing. And they weren’t wrong. Bruce Springsteen even wrote a song about it at the time called “57 channels and nothing on.”
Quantity is not the same thing as quality. The ratio of slop to programming worth watching has probably remained consistent. I’d argue it might’ve even gotten worse just in the last couple of years. Cheap reality programming and endless spin offs and reboots are not helping.
Its interesting that YouTube is starting to dominate. Its become the “build your own cable” bundle that people have longed for since cable came on the scene. You can bring back MTV, E!, CNN, TMC, USA, the original TLC, and PBS all from one provider! Old movies, music, educational programming, foreign programming, stuff that isn’t on the streaming channels because no one wants to pay residuals. Its’ all there ready for you to pick out of the giant hat.
Meanwhile the actual cable networks died because they stopped offering channels catered to specific content like news, sports, music, scifi, etc. SyFi became the WWE channel. News channels became propaganda and opinion. Sports channels became talking heads simply talking about sports instead of showing it.
Streaming is starting to suffer the same fate. They put content back into the “vault” never to be seen again. Replaced by throwing cheap reality programming onto channels like HBO. Classic movie channels show VHS fare like Home Alone and DieHard instead of Citizen Kane and Bringing Up Baby. They merge everything back into cable networks more interested in showing infomercials than actual programming.
So no, streamers actually suck right now. I’d argue even prestige shows like “The Pitt” are just what we used to have on broadcast networks for free (The Pitt is just the everything but the name sequel to former broadcast prestige hit ER).
I blame the FTC for allowing every studio to swallow up every network and then merge into just a handful of companies after that. There’s no real competition or independent voices — just vertical integration. Which is exactly what happened with cable.