Hulu is a streaming platform that offered its 64 million paid subscribers thousands of shows since 2007. In August 2025, the platform announced it would be fully combined into Disney+ by the end of 2026.
After the announcement, many fans took to online platforms such as Reddit to voice their complaints.
“It should be the other way around,” Reddit user TheSonic311
Another comment from Reddit user Mo_Jack said, “This is exactly what ruined cell phones and cable and made them so expensive.”
The definition of a monopoly, according to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, is to have “exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply or concerted action.” This is exactly what Disney did, and this is just the first sign of what else is to come for streaming services.
According to Britannica, since President Theodore Roosevelt started trust busting, the country despised monopolies of any kind. According to the Federal Trade Commission, monopolies are aggressive, charge high prices and ensure no other competitors can enter the market. In the case of streaming services, if only one service existed, it would charge high prices similar to cable.
Many often debate whether streaming or cable is better, and the main point of contention is pricing. Netflix only charges $8-$25 a month, depending on your streaming plan. Cable and internet companies, such as Spectrum, charge $65-$200 per month and also make users pay an additional $30-$65 just to install it, which is just ridiculous to me.
The Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max bundle costs $20 per month with ads and $32 without. This is still less than a cable plan, but I believe as time goes on and more services are added, this price will slowly get closer to cable. In addition, if you look at who owns the services in the deal, Disney owns two out of the three.
For college students, having to pay a monthly fee is rough. Even though 44.3% of college students are working, according to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a large number of them are only working part-time for minimum wage or barely above.
This is why you do not see students with cable and more often see students piggybacking off their parents’ streaming services. Even this, however, becomes tougher for students to do as companies such as Netflix end their free password sharing and track where logins occur. Students are forced to pay for their own streaming, which they might not be able to afford.
Cable can charge these prices because many of these companies are already monopolies in many regions. According to a report from the Federal Communications Commission, only 7% of U.S. households had access to more than one broadband provider option in December 2023. With so little competition, these companies can charge whatever they want.
Although streaming services alone are competitive, cheaper alternatives to cable monopolies are now beginning to follow the same path of consolidation and control. Streaming services are starting to offer bundles, allowing you to have two or more services for just one payment. These bundles may be nice; however, they are evidence of the streaming monopolization.
Another big way streaming services monopolize is through purchasing other media companies and each other. Recently, Netflix acquired Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. for $82.7 billion. When this deal was made, multiple critics commented on the deal’s monopolistic nature. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren even called this deal an “anti-monopoly nightmare.”
According to HISTORY, Hollywood's major studios used to be in charge of every aspect of the movie industry, from the stars on-screen to the theaters audiences sat in. This is very similar to how streaming services, such as Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video, have their own in-house production operations. For example, Amazon’s production studio is known as Amazon MGM Studio, which is known for producing hit originals, such as “Hazbin Hotel,” “The Boys” and “Fall Out.”
All of this evidence makes it abundantly clear that streaming services are starting to monopolize. They are following the path of their cable and television predecessors. These streaming companies, such as Netflix and Disney+, don’t want any room for competition and want only their apps to be installed on people’s devices.
I would not be surprised if, in the future, we only had one streaming app for people to download that costs $65-$200, depending on the tier, because we’ve seen this in the past.
The only way to stop this monopolization is to make people aware of it.
This moment in history shows us how powerful awareness and public sentiment are and why we should use them to squash these streaming monopolies. People already view trust as hurtful, bad and wicked, which means half the work is done. We now must show people these streaming services are the modern Rockefellers. If we do this, history repeating itself may be a good thing for once.
Drew Hoffmaster is a sophomore studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Drew Hoffmaster about his column? Email them at dh384223@ohio.edu.
