You may or may not have seen this weekend but allegedly Paramount + and Peacock have been in discussions to merge. Now, I’m a huge fan of both streaming services. Paramount has so much content, including a lot of older movies that may have disappeared from physical release. Peacock, being the streaming services from NBC Universal, has a plethora of TV shows and old b-horror movies. So, having both in one place would be great for cinephiles like me, but it’s cause for concern in the larger streaming discussion.

We’re in the middle of a very interesting time for film and TV. Entire films are being shelved before even seeing the light of day (see: Batwoman and Wilie E. Coyote vs. ACME), you have to jump through a lot of hoops for particular shows (A&E streaming??), and we’re cycling through rebooting and sequel-ing existing IP at a record rate.

Merging Paramount+ and Peacock is a regression back to cable. In case you haven’t noticed, Prime Video and Apple TV are trying to consolidate streaming, making them basically cable carriers again. I feel like we just cut the cord and now we’re moving backwards yet paying more.

As consumers, we should fight back against the multitude of streaming. There’s a reason cable went away.

While we’re at it, quit adding in ads to streaming if that’s not part of the original plan! Prime is getting sued for this very reason and I do agree. They’re trying to make as much profit as they can at the detriment of the customer.