One of the possible ways of "fixing" it is natural evolution and selection, the way it happened with communication networks. They once ruled, but eventually the

One of the possible ways of "fixing" it is natural evolution and selection, the way it happened with communication networks. They once ruled, but eventually the shifted to being "dumb pipes" (leaving aside for a moment how exact that moniker is) and the end-user device manufacturers taking over as the point of delivery of paid services. The same could theoretically happen for entertainment content, in one way or another. A popular scenario present in a lot of sci-fi is that people subscribe to "channels" or data streams or whatchacallit, and the point of access is actually working as an aggregator and single point of payment. I can see no valid reason why big outfits like Sony or Samsung couldn't do that, effectively defragmenting the subscription craziness and easily dealing with backoffice negotiations on licensing and whatnot (Sony could probably do that without leaving the building). Again, it doesn't HAVE to be the end-user device manufacturer to present such a single-point service, but I think they are best positioned to be first movers for such a paradigm. And not saying it would be easy, because they are subject to the same brain-dead enshittification attempts in their "smart" devices as anyone else, and that is a habit that is hard to quit.