Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video… Too many offers encourage piracy?

Occasional “pirates” have been asking for it for years: a simple, rich and paid offer to watch movies and series legally. They had wanted a “global license” – a sort of tax to be paid in addition to the Internet package giving the authorization to download/stream at will – but this never came.

Instead, we had Netflix and Spotify.

A scattered offer

If it is rare not to have what you want with the music streaming service, it is not the same mayonnaise with Netflix, Spotify, Deezer, Prime Music: you have a good chance of finding the same artists. The catalog is almost identical and with a few exceptions, we will find Madonna, Guns n’ Roses, Celine Dion or the intellectuals of French rap on all these platforms. We wouldn’t think of having to look for the Beatles on one and Metallica on the other.

For video streaming, on the other hand, it’s complicated and it’s also a game of musical chairs: the IndianaJones that were on Netflix are now on Disney+. If you want to watch the latest series with Stallone or The Boys, it will be necessary to have Prime Video. Paramount+ is still confidential, but it is optional on Prime Video and in a bundled package with Canal+.

In short, it is anything but simple.

A substantial monthly budget

If we add to this people who are interested in sport, it is quickly the way of the cross to choose its platforms in September: beIN has a partnership with Canal +, but if you want all of Ligue 1, you will have to see on the side of Amazon with a Pass to buy over your Prime Video account.

And that also makes a hell of a lot of money at the start of the month. Imagine a family with Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and Deezer. This represents between 30 and 40 € and the prices are on the rise with a hunt for free riders who scratch the codes with friends.

And all this without the guarantee of seeing what you want.

For a Champions League match, you will have to take RMC (even if Canal is also a broadcaster of certain matches), while the last series Star Wars will be on Disney+, just like the old ones predator Or Alien that you might want to introduce to your children. The Lord of the Rings ? It’s on Prime. Scream ? Top Gun ? Paramount+. Terminator 2 ? Canal+.

The return of piracy?

You want to laugh and watch Megalomania with Louis de Funès and Yves Montand? It’s on Canal+ for rental at €3.99 in HD. A little overused for a 1971 film that has been profitable for years and which is shown on TV once a year, isn’t it? And be careful, you only have 48 hours to enjoy it. In the United States, households subscribe to an average of 4 video streaming services. It’s huge, but it’s also cultural. Americans were used to paying “cable” and its exorbitant subscription to see quality content. For them, paying Netflix+Disney+Amazon+HBO is the same thing and it’s also à la carte. On the old continent, we can congratulate ourselves on the multiplication of quality content, but this scattered offer does not serve the cause. What was practical and helped people put aside their pirate hats is doing the exact opposite.

When will an agreement be reached between the different platforms?

In the past, we pirated the few films or series that were not on Netflix, but now we have the impression that all the content we want can be found elsewhere. The pirates are then back, simply because the legal offers are less and less practical with cascading packs and the cumulative price of all these offers becomes prohibitive. The film and television industry will have to come to an agreement with each other as players in the music industry have done, at least for classic films or series that have been profitable for a long time…