Rental Agency

What does unlimited access cost us?

Steve Levitt said that one of the best decisions he ever made was to stop worrying about things that cost less than $5. That’s probably good advice, but I spent $4 recently that I’m still trying to get to the bottom of:

My darling wife and I watched Kindergarten Cop the other night—the 1990, still-surprisingly-pretty-good Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle. We found it on AMC+ (which we don’t have), or to rent. For 10 minutes we discussed the merits of a free trial. We could always cancel it. Maybe there are other things on there we’d like. Didn’t we already do the trial once? Which email account was that?

We rented it. $4.

Four. Dollars. On top of some not-precisely-known monthly amount of money that I, like the vast majority of Americans, pay monthly for streaming. Subscriptions promise access, convenience, and affordability. Instead, they reliably invoke an ongoing and painful calculus. Mitch Hedberg once said, “I’ll just give you the money, you give me the donut. End of transaction.” A relatable desire for simplicity.

I started wondering–with how much we pay for subscriptions and how often we rent things anyway, maybe it would be cheaper, simpler, better to cancel all the monthly stuff. Just rent. I probably should have just made a spreadsheet to figure this out, but I thought it would be neat to make some interactive bits so you could explore too, dear reader. I ended up going down a few adjacent rabbit holes, but I did find a little something unexpected at the end of the rainbow. So come along to see if we can’t get to the bottom of whether renting has all the stuff we’re looking for.

1. Affordability

Subscriptions are weird. Their value comes from how much you use them. You could pay $100 per month and never watch. This would cost a lot and not be worth anything. If we want to figure out how renting compares, we need a cost per watch-hour that takes this into account.

Lucky for you, I have devised an elaborate calculator experience to help you find your cost per watch-hour. Click your stuff below:

Americans, I am told, spend an average of $68 per month for streaming services and watch 1.5 hours a day. That’s $1.50 per watch-hour.

That means, on average, a 2-hour movie costs $3 to stream versus $4-$6 to rent.

Renting is probably more expensive, in other words. Though, your mileage may vary.

2. Access

As it turns out, you can rent a lot of stuff, but you can’t rent everything:

Newer stuff (which people seem to like a lot) is not as rentable. Anime: not as rentable. Don’t even get me started on how rentable documentaries are.

What’s going on here? If you want to rent things, is it a matter of waiting it out?

To some extent. Many newer movies aren’t immediately available to rent because of the old-school, Hollywood release window playbook:

For as long as home movie watching has been a thing, this is how it’s been, more or less. Increasingly, though, as streaming platforms eat the movie business, this is happening:

Apple acquired CODA at the Sundance Film Festival and released it on Apple TV+ in 2021. The movie had a very short theatrical run, partly so it could qualify for an Oscar. (It was the first streaming original film to win Best Picture.) Then for 1,460 days, you had to have Apple TV+ to watch it.

Roma, which Netflix released in 2018, earned 10 Oscar nominations and is a similar story:

These are significant pieces of culture and you may never be able to rent them.

Television is even less rentable. This makes sense from a business perspective: a movie comes out once and is consumed in 2 hours, while a season of a hit show trickles out over months. If Apple can get you hooked on a Ted Lasso or Ted Lasso Equivalent, you’re more likely to keep a subscription going.

Also, there are no rules. HBO is keen on putting its stuff out more widely a year or so after release. They also prioritize physical media releases. Respect.

Let’s see if we can quantify this somehow. If you went rentals-only, how often would you be let down?

In the calculator below, toggle categories and subscriptions on and off to see the odds that something you want to watch isn’t available, given your selections.

You may notice certain subscriptions lower your overall disappointment more than others. This is why exclusive content is so valuable to streamers: the more exclusive stuff, the more a subscription lowers disappointment, the more reason to stay subscribed.

In other words, subscription-exclusive, un-rentable content is kind of core to the business model.

3. Agency

At the start, I wanted to know if we could just ditch subscriptions for a more straightforward means of transacting–that is, renting. No more complex behavioral projections, customer lifetime value analysis, propensity modeling, expected utility. Only cost/benefit. Decide what you want to watch, pay money, move on.

We’ve uncovered some serious drawbacks though. Renting is probably more expensive. And the latest and greatest stuff is subscription only. This is somewhat disappointing. Not too terribly satisfying.

We’ve made an error, though, I’m realizing. We missed something critical: we only examined disappointment in one direction–that is, what we give up by cancelling subscriptions. But what do we give up by having them?

Here’s what I think we give up: choice. Choosing. We unknowingly give up our agency over what we watch.

Djuna (darling wife) tells a story of talking with a relative about a TV show. The relative says, “that sounds interesting, how can I watch it?” Djuna responds with the name of a streaming platform. “Oh that’s too bad,” says the relative, “I don’t have that one.”

It’s kinda like you’re on the turnpike and you get hungry and stop to eat at Roy Rogers. You don’t eat at Roy Rogers! You’re only eating Roy Rogers because it’s what was available. It was either that or Sbarro. Except, you could have packed a sandwich. Could’ve had chips on it. Coulda cut up an apple. Could have been an excellent little lunch.

Nothing against Roy Rogers. It’s just: we accept what’s on offer.

”✨ We are The Universe ✨,” subscriptions say. ”✨ Everything you want is here ✨”. Except, they’re not, and it’s not. And when you wander off in search of other things, you get fined. $4-$6. On top of the $68 per month you’re already paying for ✨Unlimited Access✨. This is the discontent.

My proposal, see if it sticks: decouple the “what” from the “how”. Choose with intention. With agency. Then, figure out “how”. “How” might be painful. Highway robbery. Not much to be done. Sorry about that. Probably need to overthrow the system or something. Until then, don’t give it a second thought. Pack yourself a nice lunch.

One idea for choosing with agency: keep a to-watch list. One better, if you have a movie-watching buddy or buddies, have a movie night system:

1. Take turns.
2. When it’s your turn, propose 3 movies.
3. The other person (people) picks (vote), and that’s what you watch.
4. That’s it.

It’s simple–but here’s why it’s great:

It’s a fun little game to curate your 3 movie options.

Everyone technically chooses something, so no one feels uninvested, or like a hostage.

Here’s the important bit: you naturally stop browsing streaming platforms for what to watch as much.

When we first implemented this movie night system, newly tasked with generating movie options more frequently, we both started to-watch lists as a side effect. That might sound overly effortful, but it’s actually just lazy and easier: when it’s your turn to pick a movie, consult the list, done.

Movies and shows come up in conversation. You see a trailer for something that looks good. A relative mentions a TV show they’re watching. Instead of scrolling around for 20 minutes on a streaming service and settling on something you half-watch, you watch what reflects your interests and your life.

Someone in the last few months said offhandedly that Capano from Common Side Effects reminded them of Pamela Reed in Kindergarten Cop. Someone else replied, “I wonder if that holds up.”

Renting did ultimately cost a little more. We try not to think about that too much.

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