Filmed Entertainment Providers’ Streaming Subscription Services as an “Iron Cage” With No Escape – A Weberian Perspective

By drawing on Weber’s conflict theory, this research seeks to explore whether mainstream consumers may experience the digital filmed entertainment providers’ streaming subscription services as an(other) ‘iron cage’ limiting their choice of accessing movies and TV shows. We found that filmed entertainment providers, as producers of popular movies/TV shows, are in the powerful position of using them as exclusive ‘subscription bait’. Consumers increasingly fear of becoming trapped forever in the ‘iron cage’ of multiple streaming subscription services.