Netflix Is “Killing” DVD Sales, Research Finds

The last 10 years, the only CD/DVD/Bluray whatever we ever used in this household was for the Wii, later Wii U.

The movie business is so far behind on streaming.

Joke is on the Movie industry if they stop selling content to Netflix based on stuff like this.

At this point I would pay Netflix their sub money for Netflix original alone.

They add more and more all the time... and it seems every couple months a show I wasn't even expecting like The OA shows up and blows me away.

Actual content creators love Netflix for the freedom they have been affording them. As time goes more and more of their customers will be like me... and not really care if Netflix stops licencing terrible hollywood movies. Frankly 99% of the movies made these days are terrible beyond words. 10-20 super hero sequels and 90s action movie re-imaginings a year... almost none of which worth "owning" on a disc format.

The handful of actual talent in the industry are more and more working for and with Netflix and Amazon.

For a customer just coming to netflix right now for the first time... they have high quality original content to keep them busy for months. It may not be to the point where you can't keep up quite yet. A year or two out from now though... a new sub won't have enough time to get caught up on all of the Netflix content.

I would say as it is right now it would take a few months and a lot of binge nights for a Netflix newbie to catch up.
House of Cards 52 hours... Orange is the new Black 52 hours... Blood line 23 hours.. Narcos 20 hours... Sense 8 12 hours... Stranger Things 8 hours... Brit Mannings fantastic show The OA 8 hours... The Crown 10 hours.. LS U Events 8 hours... The marvel stuff DD/JJ/LC 52! hours... Bojack 15 hours.. Master of none 10 hours.
That's like 262 hours and is only around 1/8 at best of Netflix current original content.

Netflix really doesn't need the movie industry any more... personally I hope more and more they stop selling content to Netflix. It will only push them to create even more content. The old movie industry can't die fast enough, customers need to ignore their discs in the same way we all stopped buying CDs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_original_programs_distributed_by_Netflix

Uncle said:

Thats the point, drop your expectation to a reasonable level. Don't expect to watch new, out of the gate block busters for $10.

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You're not understanding. I'm not frustrated that they don't have new stuff, I'm frustrated that they keep dropping shows while I'm in the middle of watching them. A lot of times, this is older stuff. And it also seems like they have a really mediocre selection that tends to get worse over time instead of better.

westrock2000 said:

If you can't find something interesting on Netflix you either are limiting your interests or you haven't tried to watch anything.

It's like walking into library and seeing they don't have your favorite book and proclaiming they just have shit.

You may not realize your favorite book IS there, you just didn't know it was your favorite yet.

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Yes, but libraries don't tend to randomly "drop" books and say they're probably never coming back. Sure, sometimes the book you want is checked out and you have to get on a waiting list. But with Netflix, if you miss the window when it's available, you don't know when or if it's coming back. My big problem with it is, even if you do put the work into compromising and trying to find shows on there that you like (even if they're not the ones you're really interested in watching), there's no guarantee that they'll be there in a week or two. You can't plan around their limited selection. So if you DO find a show you want, you pretty much have to binge watch the whole thing within a week... if you try watching one episode a day, they might remove it before you finish. That happened to me more than once.

Look, I don't "limit my interests," I just happen to be interested in a lot of movies that aren't on Netflix. Some of them are movies I've never watched before that I want to see. And then I would check Netflix, and always be disappointed. Whereas Microsoft/Google/Amazon/On Demand would very nearly always have the title on offer, or at least be able to tell me where to get the DVD.

Netflix for me was basically just a time sink when I was bored and willing to watch anything. The only things I would find on there worth watching were mostly children's shows and documentaries. Occasionally a good Sci-Fi series like Doctor Who or Red Dwarf might crop up. Maybe something cool that I haven't thought about for a while, like the A-Team. But nothing I watched on there ever ended up being my "favorite" movie. It was a lot of third-tier movies that were basically licensed as cheaply as possible, and it shows. And an occasional gem showing, only to disappear a few months later. If I were bored and didn't have cable, it might be tolerable... but I'd rather have cable. Even then, watching random junk on YouTube is roughly as entertaining. Ever since they raised the price to $10 a month, Amazon Prime is arguably a better deal, because you get more for your money.

athenian200 said:

Netflix isn't even that good of a platform. I cancelled my subscription when it went up to $10 a month. I don't watch a lot of movies, so it's cheaper for me to just rent movies using either my cable provider's On Demand, or else Amazon, Google, or Microsoft streaming services. Netflix has a terrible selection, and they're constantly getting rid of movies I watch. It's $10 a month for access to a mixed bag of stuff that's mildly appealing to a large number of people, and if you end up using it an average of once a month... it doesn't pay off. There were months when I didn't even use it.

I never understood the appeal of cord cutting, unless you just do it on principle. ISPs tend to also be cable providers, and jack up your rates if you cut off the cable to the point that you only save about $20 a month if you cancel your cable anyway... plus, they tend to not count their own services against any data caps you might have, while you have to worry more about going over with streaming. Maybe in the future, it will be a good deal... but right now, cable company ISPs are in a position to make cord cutting very, very painful.

I buy DVDs if I can't get the movie I want on any streaming service... especially if it's something I know I'll want to watch over and over again. Older movies and foreign films that weren't very popular tend to fall between the cracks.

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I don't know where you live, but where I am they don't jack up your internet for cutting your cable. The appeal of losing cable for me is I hardly watch anything on live TV as there is little I consider worth watching. Due to channel bundles and the few channels I actually want being spread out among the premium channels I'm paying max price for 3-4 channels. So the decision was "Are these 3-4 channels worth $200/mo to me"? The answer to that was pretty obviously no. For that kind of money I could literally buy outright every series at the end of the season I care about plus a brand new TV.

MavericK said:

I have Netflix and I buy Blu-rays on occasion still. If it's a movie I want to watch repeatedly, I want it permanently (could leave the streaming library eventually) and I want maximum video and audio quality.

As for DVD sales specifically...well, I'm surprised DVDs are selling at all given the fact that they are 480p and 4K TVs are being pushed these days.

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Older content is just fine on dvds and they're cheaper to make.

I think a lot of this is hollywood/tv has to compete with other sources of entertainment (gaming being #1), a bad economy and also a percieved lack of value for $20+ bluray movies.

Part of the trouble is that physical media is not keeping up with new display and audio technologies. While many of us recognize issues with streaming, most consumers just see that BluRay has no K's, but Netflix has 4 of them! Physical meia prices need to come down to reasonable levels. The industry needs to get its act together on hardware standards and one or two things need to accidentally be forward compatible for a change. The movie industry only has themselves and the hardware technology industry to blame.

Dekoth-E- said:

I don't know where you live, but where I am they don't jack up your internet for cutting your cable. The appeal of losing cable for me is I hardly watch anything on live TV as there is little I consider worth watching. Due to channel bundles and the few channels I actually want being spread out among the premium channels I'm paying max price for 3-4 channels. So the decision was "Are these 3-4 channels worth $200/mo to me"? The answer to that was pretty obviously no. For that kind of money I could literally buy outright every series at the end of the season I care about plus a brand new TV.

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Wow, $200 a month for just cable?! I'm getting one bill that's around $120 per month. I used to pay around $60 for Internet and $60 for cable. But right when we were thinking about dropping cable and using the Internet for everything, they introduced these "bundle deals" and made Internet by itself $100 a month, so that you could only save $20 by doing that. I mean, the people on the phone I argued with said, "Basically, our new policy is that we're not going to let our customers get away with paying us less than $100 a month anymore. We'll charge you $100 a month for the lowest Internet speed we offer if we have to. You can get a lot more if you're willing to pay over $100 a month, but that's the baseline, and the more you try to cut and get it cheaper, the more you pay for fewer services. That's our policy. If you bundle services like phone, Internet, and cable, you get a deal. If you don't bundle, you get penalized. I don't know how much clearer I can make it." I was pissed off and thought about switching to another ISP after that, but it turned out that the only other cable-based broadband ISP in my area was doing the same thing. DSL services were priced well, but I couldn't get them without paying something like $50 a month for a landline on top of it. Without a landline, I was locked into whatever the cable company wanted to charge me for Internet access, and they knew it.

I have to admit, though... their strategy is paying off... my neighborhood is one of the few that doesn't have cord cutters. Even people that like Netflix and other streaming services still get cable in addition to their streaming services, whether they end up using it or not.

athenian200 said:

Wow, $200 a month for just cable?! I'm getting one bill that's around $120 per month. I used to pay around $60 for Internet and $60 for cable. But right when we were thinking about dropping cable and using the Internet for everything, they introduced these "bundle deals" and made Internet by itself $100 a month, so that you could only save $20 by doing that. I mean, the people on the phone I argued with said, "Basically, our new policy is that we're not going to let our customers get away with paying us less than $100 a month anymore. We'll charge you $100 a month for the lowest Internet speed we offer if we have to. You can get a lot more if you're willing to pay over $100 a month, but that's the baseline, and the more you try to cut and get it cheaper, the more you pay for fewer services. That's our policy. If you bundle services like phone, Internet, and cable, you get a deal. If you don't bundle, you get penalized. I don't know how much clearer I can make it." I was pissed off and thought about switching to another ISP after that, but it turned out that the only other cable-based broadband ISP in my area was doing the same thing. DSL services were priced well, but I couldn't get them without paying something like $50 a month for a landline on top of it. Without a landline, I was locked into whatever the cable company wanted to charge me for Internet access, and they knew it.

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Wow, your cable company is taking anti-competitive to a whole new level aren't they? Let me guess, Cox?

Dekoth-E- said:

Wow, your cable company is taking anti-competitive to a whole new level aren't they? Let me guess, Cox?

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Verizon, actually. Recently became Frontier, but their tactics (and my contract) haven't changed. On top of that, they tried throttling Netflix at one point, and went out of their way to let us know that their own on-demand and mobile channel offerings didn't count against data caps on their own mobile service. I thought this was a normal situation these days, but it seems like it's just normal here. I have to admit, the tactics have worked, though. Everyone I know in my area still has cable... and we've talked ourselves into watching ESPN more often so that we feel like we're getting something out of it.

I have a feeling that they're trying to transition their legacy cable service into a modern streaming service that you can't opt-out of if you have their Internet. The fact that they see Netflix as a competitor, started including things like HBO Go access in some of their packages, and are moving towards streaming themselves speaks volumes.

Dunnlang said:

Part of the trouble is that physical media is not keeping up with new display and audio technologies. While many of us recognize issues with streaming, most consumers just see that BluRay has no K's, but Netflix has 4 of them! Physical meia prices need to come down to reasonable levels. The industry needs to get its act together on hardware standards and one or two things need to accidentally be forward compatible for a change. The movie industry only has themselves and the hardware technology industry to blame.

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Except that all these new technologies have very poor adoption rate. We are just NOW getting 1080P tvs into the majority of homes. People aren't going to rush out and buy a 4K when they just purchased a 1080P recently. They do not replace TVs until they break.

As far as sound? I also laugh at this, especially in the space of ripping media for consumption on ATV, Roku, Media center etc. ZMOG Apple TV only supports AC3 5.1. ZMOG use MKV (which is terrible supported via players) because dobly true HDDDD. Except the majority of the market does not have the hardware to utilize that format.

The majority of consumers use the TV speakers, maybe a sound bar. Then the next segment use HTIAB setups. Then the final segment might have $2500 invested in a nice 5.1 receiver with speakers in wall or around the room. 7.1, home theaters, projectors... all very niche

People do not have the hardware, nor are they going to spend the money on the hardware needed to really utilized these new technologies.

Lastly, physical media (which I purchase some) gets frustrating. A lot of the market purchased a ton of DVDs (this was the first media that was mass produced, VHS was priced high for the rental stores). Then Blu ray comes and they are supposed to "upgrade" their library at the same $20-$30 a pop they already spent. Just as Blu ray gets settled (HD-DVD) here comes 4k, now they are starting to talk about 8k.

People posting on [H] about this stuff are about 1% of the market place. The rest just do not look at it the way most of us do.

So in the end Netflix starts to look "good enough" to watch a movie/tv show at home.

If you don't have a huge TV, surround sound system, or content where high resolution matters - Netflix is every bit as good as a Blu-Ray.
If you're watching movies loaded with film grain and letterboxed to cover 1/3 of the screen on a 20" laptop you aren't going to notice a difference.
Demos make 4K/HDR/7.1 breathtaking in a home theater demo room, but the real world isn't like that.

Since I dumped the DVD drive from my PC a few years ago, I haven't owned any disc players/drives.
Everything I do is either streamed or saved in the cloud. Anything that keeps me from hording physical items I tend to gravitate to.

Yeah, I have no desire for 4k. Most of the time, I can't tell the difference in quality between Netflix and Blu-Ray. That's a hell of an improvement from when they first started Netflix streaming, and you were lucky to get 720p consistently.

I just don't see the draw of 4k in-general for now (prefer under 50", 8 feet viewing distance), so I'm just holding out for prices to drop drastically on OLED.

For Blu-Ray, I think I've already replaced just about all the old library of movies I own that are single-layer DVD, and the dual-layer discs are all serviceable on my TV.

If anything, cord cutting has convinced me to buy MORE movies this year than I normally would have. To fill-out some seasonal classics that I would have just watched on the networks. But it's a one-time thing.

lcpiper said:

Amazon Prime is $120 + a year, a little over $10 a month, and it comes with all those other "Prime" benefits like free shipping. Now I'll admit, it's not a gimme, but it's a good buy if you already order a couple products from Amazon each month and I do. My wife's orders for Make Up alone covers the costs. I just wanted to bring it up since you mentioned Amazon.

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Fair argument. You also get music, storage, books? -- but i dont like their content as much as netflix. I was on student pricing $79 a year, then i bought 3 amazon fire phones during the "fire" sale $110 each with a year of prime so im paid up for awhile yet. Everyone seems to have a hard on for amazon shopping, but i struggle to find anything on there with prime shipping that i either want to buy or is best price. sometimes its the same price and prime shipping is certainly a perk.

This reminds me of the bullshit from the 80's... about how VHS rentals (or VHS in general depending on the article) were destroying the movie industry.

Here's a crazy idea... if you want people to buy the movie instead of renting it, make them like $10 for the physical bluray plus the digital version.

Discs will always be my preferred method. I only stream when I have no alternative. Like with some shows from the major networks that for whatever god damned reason. Don't get a blu-ray release.

I paid money for Seeso as a channel on Amazon (Because their website for streaming is shit), just so I could watch Parks and Recreation in decent quality. And Amazon's streaming leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of times it just will not switch to the highest quality feed. It's maddening. So in a moment it can jump from decent 1080p quality to worse than DVD.

Maybe if they made movies that were worth buying. There's few movies I want to own a physical copy of, so streaming it is for most. Then there are things you look for on dvd/blu-ray and they simply don't exist.

buttons said:

Fair argument. You also get music, storage, books? -- but i dont like their content as much as netflix. I was on student pricing $79 a year, then i bought 3 amazon fire phones during the "fire" sale $110 each with a year of prime so im paid up for awhile yet. Everyone seems to have a hard on for amazon shopping, but i struggle to find anything on there with prime shipping that i either want to buy or is best price. sometimes its the same price and prime shipping is certainly a perk.

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I only got Prime for The Grand Tour show, when it was on sale. For shipping, damn near everything is free shipping anyways and the Prime free shipping items I do fine, end up costing more than some other seller's price + shipping. I don't plan on re-upping Prime when it runs out. I feel it'll be cheaper to buy The Grand Tour on dvd/blu-ray whenever it release, if it ever does.

As for DVD sales specifically...well, I'm surprised DVDs are selling at all given the fact that they are 480p and 4K TVs are being pushed these days.

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and

I buy Blu-rays when they are cheap due to the higher quality. <snip>I'm fine with shitty movies.

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^this is what I just don't understand; the huge number of people who feel they absolutely can only tolerate watching stuff in 1080 and now 4k, and WILL watch it, even though the show itself truly sucks. Yet, will stop listening to the dialogue, and inspect the pixel count rather than enjoying the story in something like Where Eagles Dare if it's shown in 480. What's weirder still, is very often these are the same people, who, when it came out, said dvd res was absolutely great, and replaced their entire collection of VHS tapes because they couldn't watch them any more. It's kinda like spending ten grand on a sound system, then spend hours, listening to some guy playing a kazoo.

No, pricing the sales of dvd's and Blurays are what is killing DVD sales. Why would I buy one at +$20 if I am only going to view the movie once and never again? I do buy some Blurays but, I always get them on sale unless it is one I really, really want.

I'm going to play tree hugger for a moment and simply say that although the effect may be minimal, it is good that less plastic (and whatever else is in a CD/DVD) is going into the trash/environment.

ZenDragon said:

I'm going to play tree hugger for a moment and simply say that although the effect may be minimal, it is good that less plastic (and whatever else is in a CD/DVD) is going into the trash/environment.

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I am really curious what the comparison is watching a bluray movie versus streaming a 4k movie from amazon prime. All that bandwidth, servers, etc has a carbon footprint as well. Most of our country runs on natural gas and coal right?

I tried streaming with the free month of Prime I got and went over my 1TB cap. The video quality itself wasn't too bad, but until bandwidth caps are killed I am still going to buy physical media.

To be honest the industry also has to deal with consumer burn out.

Physical formats used to really appeal to people. They simply don't the same way anymore. I have bought a handful of my favorite movies on VHS then DVD... then Special Edition DVDs... then Blu Rays. At this point they can take their discs and shove them. I'll watch the discs I already own... and for anything newer I'll watch it digital. I for one have gotten off the merry go round of taking 20-30 bucks out of my pocket every 4-5 years. Sure better transfer, better tech, restored print ect ect... they have been nickel and diming us for years on content.

Technology changed the music industry because the internet needed to get to a specific average bandwidth to make change inevitable. The movie industry had a few years more due to the required bandwidth for change in their industry to also become inevitable. If they haven't been preparing for that its their own fault 100%. The music industry could have stopped the Apples and the streaming services had they moved early. (with their own services) The movie industry had an extra 3-5 years at least to watch what happened there and adjust. They instead chose not to... and we have the rise of Netflix and a few other streaming companies that may or may not last. Its obvious to most consumers what is going to happen... yes disc sales are going to drop through the floor in the next few years, its inevitable.

The movie industry doesn't really seem willing to adjust... just like the music industry resisted change. Its clear to me that Netflix will continue to grow and push their own content... and at some point in the next few years a lot of movie studios and even cable networks are going to be coming to Netflix wanting to sell content. To be fair it is already happening... in Canada where I live Netflix signed a very nice deal with Disney. In Canada they are streaming a lot of 2016 Disney/Marvel/Lucas movies. Star Wars TFA hit Canadian Netflix about a month after the disc hit the Wal marts. I am sure disc sales played into that deal, the studios want to sell their content... and people aren't really buying discs like they where. The faster the average consumers internet gets the faster disc sales die.

There's also groups that sell and trade digital codes. Those that don't care about owning discs can get some cheap movies. But if discs go away then so will the codes and then you'll pay as much for a digital movie as you would the disc.

companies like Netflix is the future, we all want to stream movies instantly browsing a list of movies digitally. We all want that, its easy and fun. I even like to that with a console gaming machine, instead of switching disc, have a full list of games just like steam on the PC, although a lot of disc space is needed. Why couldn't they build a 5 disc changer in their PS4/XBOX lol.
I buy movies to have it in my collection, but mostly blu rays (DVD's is like VHS, it will cease to exist eventually). Sometimes, we need a change that will probably hurt other companies...example. New cars that doesn't required gas, bye bye gas companies.

Streaming for me is only for TV shows. I don't stream movies as the quality is not there. I assume when they say DVD sales they mean Disc based sales, who buys a DVD anymore when you have BR and 4kBR?

I have a dedicated theater with 7.1 so I want the full DTS Master audio or whatever they have. Eventually I'll make the jump to 4k and Dolby Atmos, you won't be streaming that anytime soon. The LFE tracks on most streams are terrible.



For watching through your 50" LED TV and cheap sound bar, sure streaming is fine.

athenian200 said:

I never understood the appeal of cord cutting, unless you just do it on principle. ISPs tend to also be cable providers, and jack up your rates if you cut off the cable to the point that you only save about $20 a month if you cancel your cable anyway... plus, they tend to not count their own services against any data caps you might have, while you have to worry more about going over with streaming. Maybe in the future, it will be a good deal... but right now, cable company ISPs are in a position to make cord cutting very, very painful.

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IDK where you're at, but here in Baltimore (City), we're trapped under Comcast, and I went from ~160/mo to 61/mo dropping phone and TV, just going to Internet. It's less convenient, but I LOVE not paying that extra money. Between NetFlix, and Prime (Student rate), I don't miss cable AT ALL.

You can also pick up Sling if there are certain "cable Networks" you like. My family does this for AMC, HGTV and a few others.

Design1stcode2nd said:

For watching through your 50" LED TV and cheap sound bar, sure streaming is fine.

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Nice setup.

Its all about time... you are right they won't be streaming the best of the best quality tomorrow. However if making movies was how you made your millions or billions would you not think a little further out then that.

There was a time when the idea of putting a full CD of music on a computer seemed crazy... a full rip is going to be what 600 mb each ? Thats nuts. Then came mp3... no issue we'll make that album 30-60 mb. Then some folks like myself said sure but this quality sucks. So along game FLAC and other lossless codecs, when the pipe got to a point where transporting 200-300 mb wasn't a big deal.

The same is happening with Movies. Physical discs have the disadvantage of being locked into formats for years. Blu ray codecs are already showing their age, however they are locked in. Blus 264 codec is good and most streaming is based on such codecs. However newer higher efficiency codecs like 265 are already out their producing the same quality at 1/2 the file sizes. Streaming services are going to have the advantage of not being as locked in on the codec. (right now most of that has to do with content creators trying to hold things off forcing specific codecs, behind the scenes they are trying very much to slow things down and protect their disc sales a bit longer)

Its only a matter of time before the pipe is large enough for the higher quality codecs to become standard. Netflix IS working on those future codecs. Right now its mostly about getting the most out of the slower pipe most people have access to. They are getting ready for the day in the not so distant future where the pipe allows them to start streaming higher quality video and audio.

My point is right now streaming is very much like MP3 was in the early days of the music industries digital conversion. At some point the pipe will get a bit wider and the compression tech will get just a bit better. The two will come together as they have in the music industry. At that point yes you will be able to stream proper lossless audio and smooth 4k video. Its not if it can be done its when.

ChadD said:

Nice setup.

Its all about time... you are right they won't be streaming the best of the best quality tomorrow. However if making movies was how you made your millions or billions would you not think a little further out then that.

There was a time when the idea of putting a full CD of music on a computer seemed crazy... a full rip is going to be what 600 mb each ? Thats nuts. Then came mp3... no issue we'll make that album 30-60 mb. Then some folks like myself said sure but this quality sucks. So along game FLAC and other lossless codecs, when the pipe got to a point where transporting 200-300 mb wasn't a big deal.

The same is happening with Movies. Physical discs have the disadvantage of being locked into formats for years. Blu ray codecs are already showing their age, however they are locked in. Blus 264 codec is good and most streaming is based on such codecs. However newer higher efficiency codecs like 265 are already out their producing the same quality at 1/2 the file sizes. Streaming services are going to have the advantage of not being as locked in on the codec. (right now most of that has to do with content creators trying to hold things off forcing specific codecs, behind the scenes they are trying very much to slow things down and protect their disc sales a bit longer)

Its only a matter of time before the pipe is large enough for the higher quality codecs to become standard. Netflix IS working on those future codecs. Right now its mostly about getting the most out of the slower pipe most people have access to. They are getting ready for the day in the not so distant future where the pipe allows them to start streaming higher quality video and audio.

My point is right now streaming is very much like MP3 was in the early days of the music industries digital conversion. At some point the pipe will get a bit wider and the compression tech will get just a bit better. The two will come together as they have in the music industry. At that point yes you will be able to stream proper lossless audio and smooth 4k video. Its not if it can be done its when.

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I agree that I think in time the codecs and bandwith will be there but I think data usage limitations will keep physical media around at least in a niche way. Even if the pipe is big enough for metro areas there will be data capping going on so people won't wan to stream 4k with Dolby Atmos audio tracks. Once you get to more rural areas the demand for physical media increases.

For me I'd prefer to spend $20 on a BR than stream a high quality one with limited LFE from Vudu or similar for $7-8. Obviously my use case is not the norm.

My teenage kids would rather sit in bed and stream whatever to their 5" phone instead of to their roku enabled TV or even PC. I just don't get that.

Design1stcode2nd said:

I agree that I think in time the codecs and bandwith will be there but I think data usage limitations will keep physical media around at least in a niche way. Even if the pipe is big enough for metro areas there will be data capping going on so people won't wan to stream 4k with Dolby Atmos audio tracks. Once you get to more rural areas the demand for physical media increases.

For me I'd prefer to spend $20 on a BR than stream a high quality one with limited LFE from Vudu or similar for $7-8. Obviously my use case is not the norm.

My teenage kids would rather sit in bed and stream whatever to their 5" phone instead of to their roku enabled TV or even PC. I just don't get that.

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Caps are another thing that won't be around forever... well unless your Gov in the US allows them to. Where I am in Canada there are sort of caps on landline internet but not really... or at least it isn't in an issue in any of the major Canadian markets at least. I have 3 options where I am... and 2 of the 3 do have caps, however they don't enforce them at all as far as I know. Personally I got one call 5 or 6 years back about the amount of data I was using it was the first and last. We had a 30s conversation where I basically said call me again and the other guys who where here 20 min ago trying to sway me on with Fiber offer will be pulling your cables out.

The ISPs here at least get away with everything they can and I have heard the US ISPs are far worse. Still I doubt the market will allow them to continue with the BS caps forever.

Again I think back to the early days of cable/dsl internet and ISPs that would be sweating when customers where using a few GB a month.... over the next few years customers are going to start demanding their ISPs take care of their higher quality streaming. If need be a giant like Netflix will step in and make the bandwidth happen regardless of caps... in some markets I have heard they already have plans that read "X amount of Data + unlimited Netflix streaming".