By Elizabeth Scalzo
Entertainment Editor
Streaming services are taking over and phasing out traditional cable. For college students, services like Netflix, Hulu and Disney+ are affordable and subscriptions can easily be split with friends.
Many FDU students may not realize that they can receive HBO and Starz for free. The only catch is you must live on campus. At a commuter dominant university, it seems unfair but plenty of people will take advantage by sharing accounts just like with any other service.
Several students told The Equinox that they prefer streaming services because they can binge-watch seasons in one sitting. Another point made is that a lot of students don’t pay for their streaming services. Many students are on a service with a family member or friend.
“I use my boyfriend’s Hulu,” Lexi Martinez, a junior criminal justice major, said. “Why pay for two when we usually watch it together.”
This makes complete sense. Why pay for another account if you don’t have to?
“One of my sorority sisters split the cost of Disney+ with me when it came out. Multiple people can watch at the same time so it seemed like a good plan,” said senior education major Kristianna Mullen.
The main takeaway is multiple people use streaming accounts whether they are logging into someone else’s account or splitting the cost.
What do these students do once they are out in the real world and they get kicked off their family’s accounts? What about students who don’t have someone so generous to let them use their account?
Luckily there are a number of ways to get discounts.
Being a student comes with a number of discounts and benefits, and one of the best deals is the student package with Spotify.
•This Spotify package is only $4.99 per month and includes ad-free music and also includes the ad-supported version of Hulu and Showtime for no additional cost.
•CBS All Access gives students 25% off the monthly $5.99 cost.
•Amazon Prime lets students pay $6.49 per month, which includes Amazon TV shows and movies, Amazon Music and free 2-day shipping.
With all of these great deals, there are still a few things that are keeping students from completely cutting the cord — the biggest being sports.
However, most major games can be streamed online or through some networks like Hulu which offers live streaming for an additional monthly cost and covers the major sports networks.
Some students mentioned they don’t want to wait for a new season to come out on the streaming service and prefer to watch the TV live or record the episode if they won’t be home during that time. Luckily most major TV networks have now curated apps where people can watch the newest episode usually within 48 hours of the episode initially being aired.
Cord cutting is the way of the future and even though traditional cable TV is on its way out that does not mean the TV industry is at risk. The cable companies will also be OK as long as people need to buy internet services through them. The future of TV is here and streaming services will continue to push cable into the bins of history.
By Cindy (Binh) Nguyen
Streaming services are cutting people off of cable TV, and changing the future of TV.
