>A bit like nobody wants to be subscribed to half a dozen video streaming services yet here we are.

Are we? That surprises me. I sure don't. I figured nobody watches that amount of tv & movies to justify that. And at some value of $num_of_services people simply find a torrent tracking site and raise their middle finger? (Whatever you think of the ethics of that or the ethics of hollywood companies etc etc)

There are so few movies I want to see that buying a dvd, ripping it then adding to my kodi library is a pretty small expenditure so maybe i'm an outlier? But man alive does hollywood (and the european, asian and other equivalents) produce a mountain of manure with a "worth your interest" half-life measured in weeks and that's if you're not disgusted with the ethical or moral stance from the start - whatever your ethics and morals you're not learning much from celluloid, ever beyond how to retch.

The uncomfortable truth is that tacit collusion is widespread among large businesses, even in the absence of overt ownership consolidation. There's no free market solution for that, no matter how much you idolize tech entrepreneurs. And it's literally textbook economics / game theory, it should be a surprise to no one.