What's wrong with paying for what you use, assuming prices are reasonable? Why have a cornucopia of crap? In the US a fast net connection costs about $60. Once

What's wrong with paying for what you use, assuming prices are reasonable? Why have a cornucopia of crap? In the US a fast net connection costs about $60. Once you've got that you can watch, say, 3h of whatever you like for $6 every night -- assuming you pay Apple or Amazon $2/h of content. Assuming 50% of your viewing is repeat viewing, that drops to $3/night. Movies cost more, maybe as much as $20. But you probably don't religiously watch 3h of TV per night. So let's say $120/month at the high end. If you read, books are cheaper per hour than TV unless you're a very fast reader. Magazines -- seriously who cares? Music is $20/h but almost all of it is repeat listening. That's pretty much the upper bound. In practice there's pointless friction and inconvenience. Some shows aren't available. Some shows have long delays (HBO, Showtime) before they can be (legally) downloaded. OTOH huge amounts of content are available much more cheaply. The only thing this model doesn't cover is watching TV as mindless background noise -- paying $2/h for reality shows is probably going to drive you broke. I think deliberately picking and paying for content is a better way to consume content, sends the right signals to the right people, and also wastes less time (don't watch stupid background noise shows, think carefully about what you watch, and only watch good stuff with no ads).