Television is the invention the world may not ever get enough of. Today, nearly 80 percent of the United States watches some TV in a day. At first, we started with 3 channels then, to 11, and it continued to multiply. Movies or shows appeared once at a specific time with advertisement breaks mixed into every program. If a family wanted to watch a movie, DVDs were popularized through companies like redbox and blockbuster, but were very quickly eliminated come 2007. After inspiration from video streaming service, YouTube, Netflix released the first chance to subscribe to a video-on-demand streaming service. Netflix offered an array of movies and shows to watch at any time with no advertisements with the only request being an affordable monthly bill. TV watchers quickly jumped ship to streaming because of the convenience of no wires or cable operators, options to watch at all times, but most importantly being free from the clutches of extensive advertisement breaks. Other companies saw the potential a streaming service can have, resulting in the start of Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and later on Disney plus. 

Flash forward to today and streaming services completely dominate media consumption for everything, including live TV, yet their greed has doubled. The promise of easy watching with no ads and affordable pricing has been broken. Netflix is raising their prices and cracking down on shared passwords. After being bought by disney, Hulu has raised their prices and added mandatory ad breaks per show. Amazon’s Prime Video has also added advertisements while continuously growing to being one of the biggest corporations in the world. These advertisements are considered OTT’s or “over-the-top” advertising. These ads can be extremely useful to big corporations because of how specific they can be to the consumers' likes and dislikes. Streaming services claim these ads can be useful for the consumer due to their specificity, but if ads are not desired, an additional 3 to 4 dollars a month can be paid to become “ad free.”

The problem we face is not drawn from the hatred for advertisements, but in the lack of a point for them. These streaming services very clearly make enough money regardless, but raising prices and adding ad breaks feels like exploitation of our bank accounts. With no alternative options, the public is practically forced into ad breaks or pay more money. Luckily the public has spoken out against streaming services after announcing their decision to add advertisements. Following this backlash, I propose to publicly boycott these streaming services’ use of advertisements and price raises through petitioning and a video message posted on YouTube calling for action against these services. I plan to receive 30 signatures within the first week and a steady incline in the following weeks. I hope my YouTube video can receive traffic from people sharing the same disdain for these recent decisions. Any support from all types of TV watchers is appreciated.  In order for actions to be made, a call for action must take place.