It’s not a matter of paying for stuff, at least not in Europe. I have 3 different streaming subscriptions (still cheaper than 8 channels of flow tv with its 50% commercials), and I absolutely hate watching a tv show, only to find out the European version of the streaming service doesn’t have the last 4 seasons yet, despite the show being over and the finale having “aired” in the US.
In cases like that I turn to torrents and download whatever seasons I’m missing, watch them and delete them again. I still keep my streaming subscriptions though.
It has gotten better, and the problem is mostly confined to cross studio/service shows, or services not available in Europe.
HBO Nordic hasn’t even announced an air date for Mr. Robot season 4 yet, which I guess is great as I can only dodge spoilers for so long, so when it eventually hits I’ll know the ending.
Even if the show was available on a European streaming service, I’d probably stream it anyway. There’s a limit to how many streaming services I care to have, and torrenting is so much easier than trying to navigate the dark patterns most streaming services put around their unsubscribe pages.
I’m also too lazy to subscribe/unsubscribe multiple times per year to multiple services.
Perhaps a “pay per view” model that bills you X per show watched, up to a maximum equal to the monthly subscription fee. That way I could have multiple subscriptions and only pay subscription fees to the services I actually use, and once I stopped watching them I’d automatically be unsubscribed.
Of course that will never happen while there are a million services.