There's two key differences between the cable situation and the streaming situation. First, under cable, theoretically the subscriptions would all go through on

There's two key differences between the cable situation and the streaming situation. First, under cable, theoretically the subscriptions would all go through one provider. That's how direcTV worked (15-20 years ago, not sure if it still does), and it was a pretty cool model. Having to maintain subscriptions with a dozen streaming providers is a nightmare vs one. Amazon's channels system is more akin to it, where I can choose to pay a little extra for Shudder if I want horror content. Second, cable channels had a genre. If you like food, you might want food network. If you like music, you might want VH1 and the MTV's. If you're into cartoons, there's Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. Bravo has lifestyle stuff, Lifetime is "womens content", G4 was tech stuff, Weather Channel is weather, etc. With the streaming choices...they all serve all kinds of stuff, so picking and choosing makes way less sense. Instead of picking interests, you're picking brand loyalties, and that sucks.