Explore whether subscription fatigue and piracy signal a real demand for flexible streaming models.
Assess if pay-as-you-watch micropayments can provide value to viewers and streaming platforms.
Uncover motivations, pain points, and opportunities to shape Driipp’s design and adoption strategy.
Introduction
My first exposure to this concept came from reading about the Lightning Network in the cryptocurrency world. It fascinated me that payments could be broken down to the tiniest unit. One clear use case was streaming: paying only while you watch.
That thought stayed with me. Over time, I noticed something else while browsing social media: people engaging with short movie clips. At first, the comments were often, “Is this on Netflix?” But gradually, the question changed to simply asking for the movie’s name. The assumption was clear: finding out where it streamed no longer mattered. When legitimate access feels too fragmented or costly, people often turn to piracy.
My goal is to rethink how we pay for streaming. With so many services and content spread across them, people need a flexible way to access movies without the burden of monthly subscriptions, and without resorting to piracy.
Initial Assumptions
User Assumptions
Users experience subscription fatigue and want more flexible ways to access content.
Users are willing to pay for content legally if it feels fair and affordable.
Casual viewers prefer to pay only for what they watch, rather than commit to full subscriptions.
Users will be comfortable with or open to using digital wallets / QR payments for media.
Heavy viewers may still find subscriptions more cost-effective, but light-to-medium viewers will prefer pay-as-you-watch.
Market & Business Assumptions
Streaming platforms are actively searching for solutions to reduce churn and attract casual viewers.
Smaller platforms are more likely to adopt alternative models than larger platforms (which are invested in subscriptions).
A metered billing model could open up new revenue streams, particularly from users who currently rely on piracy.
Content owners (studios, distributors) will accept metered billing models if revenue is predictable.
Platforms will see value in differentiating themselves with more flexible pricing models.
Technology & Feasibility Assumptions
Existing digital wallet infrastructure can support real-time micropayments (per-second or per-minute). paypal
While technically feasible, integrating a metered billing system into streaming platforms would require substantial backend changes and new licensing agreements. Smaller or emerging platforms may find it easier to experiment with such models, while larger services may face significant disruption due to entrenched subscription-based infrastructure.
Network reliability and payment processing speed will not negatively impact the viewing experience.
Transaction fees on micropayments can be minimised so they don’t eat into revenue.
Key Insights
Subscription fatigue is widespread, with rising costs driving cancellations and piracy.
Casual viewers want flexibility, often subscribing briefly for specific shows before cancelling.
Smaller platforms are more open to new models, while larger ones remain tied to subscriptions.
Micropayments are technically possible, but adoption depends on overcoming user and industry barriers.
Problem Statement
The U.S. streaming market highlights the limits of today’s subscription-driven model. With over 40 services and an estimated 340 million OTT contracts, outnumbering the country’s population of 330 million (Ampere Analysis), subscription saturation has set in. One in four U.S. internet users now subscribe to five or more SVoD services. At an average of $16 per subscription (Deloitte Insights), many spend nearly $80 per month on streaming, leaving 47% of consumers feeling they overpay (Deloitte Insights). This imbalance between cost and value is fueling widespread subscription fatigue.
If left unresolved, fatigue drives churn across the industry. Larger platforms can weather this rotation of users, but smaller services are more vulnerable, losing share as consumers cut costs. Even big players aren’t immune: Disney+ lost subscribers after its October 2024 price increase. Meanwhile, piracy is resurging. To watch titles like The Crown, Game of Thrones, and The Handmaid’s Tale legally, viewers must juggle three separate services. Many turn instead to illegal sites; video piracy visits hit 141 billion in 2023, up 12% since 2019, with subscription fatigue cited as a key driver (MUSO & Kearney).
The industry has experimented with solutions. Ad-supported tiers, such as Netflix’s $7.99/month plan, reduce costs but don’t address subscription overload. Bundled packages promise breadth but are difficult to execute as major platforms resist revenue sharing. These partial fixes reveal a gap: consumers still lack a model that offers true flexibility.
What remains unknown is whether an alternative approach, such as a wallet-based, metered mode, could balance consumer freedom with platform sustainability. Key questions include:
Would users embrace per-second or per-view payments over subscriptions?
Could micropayments deliver sustainable revenue for providers?
What adoption barriers exist around wallets, QR-based payments, and integration?
Hypothesis
If streaming services adopt a metered billing model, users will pay only for what they watch, reducing subscription fatigue and churn while opening new revenue streams for platforms.
Concept Overview
Driipp: A New Approach to Streaming
With subscription fatigue rising and piracy resurging, consumers are signalling the need for a more flexible way to access streaming content. A Deloitte survey found that one-third of users were planning to cancel at least one subscription if prices did not come down. To better serve existing customers and attract new ones, the subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) model must evolve toward greater flexibility.
Driipp proposes a pay-as-you-watch solution powered by micropayments. A payment session begins the moment a user plays a movie and pauses automatically if they pause or stop. The session closes when they close the app or remain inactive for an extended period. At the end of a session, viewers receive a clear notification of the amount spent. To make the experience seamless, the model introduces:
Wallet-based login — similar to social authentication, enabling users to move across platforms without re-entering payment details.
Transparent, standardised costs — instead of paying $25 per month whether they binge or barely watch, users only pay for the exact minutes consumed.
Flexibility with no financial lock-in — lowering barriers to legal access while giving viewers complete choice and control.
Importantly, this model is not designed to replace subscriptions altogether. Instead, it complements them—offering casual viewers a low-commitment entry point and giving smaller platforms a competitive payment alternative. In an industry defined by rising costs and uneven access, Driipp positions itself as a bridge between consumer demand for freedom and platform need for sustainable revenue.
Wallet-Based Login:
While a crypto-based model is technically elegant, its reliance on crypto wallets can limit its adoption. So we want to focus on a fiat-based system by leveraging Driipp’s digital wallet (B2C) or a bank’s app that is connected to Driipp (B2B).
The process would begin when the user selects "Log In with Mobile Wallet," and the platform generates a unique QR code. The user would then use their banking app's or payment app's built-in QR code scanner. This QR code would contain a secure, one-time link to the streaming platform's API endpoint. Upon scanning, the mobile banking app/wallet would display a secure login request, asking for the user's permission to share a unique, tokenised identifier with the streaming service.
To confirm the connection, the user authenticates within their banking app using its security protocols, be it a transaction PIN, biometric authentication, or an OTP. This action doesn't authorise a transfer of funds but rather an exchange of a secure, one-time-use token. Once authenticated, the banking app transmits this token back to the streaming platform's server. The server, in partnership with the bank or payment provider, validates the token, linking the user's authenticated session to a unique, non-sensitive identifier. This ID allows the streaming platform to recognise the user on subsequent logins without ever handling their personal financial information or bank credentials.
Real-time billing system:
The billing system is an elegant solution designed to charge users only for the content they consume while mitigating the complexity and cost of frequent, small transactions. It operates on a foundation of a pre-authorised payment session and a staged billing cycle. When a user selects "play" on a movie, the system initiates a real-time billing session by making a secure, non-binding pre-authorisation request to the user's wallet or linked payment service. Instead of checking the entire balance, the system simply asks for confirmation that funds are available to cover an initial, small charge, for example, the cost of the first 10 minutes of the movie. As the movie plays, a virtual meter tracks the cost per second, which is visible to the user on the interface, providing full transparency. To prevent constant debits, the system only charges the user at pre-defined intervals, such as every 10 minutes of consumed content, for the total cost accrued during that period. In this interval charge, the system also checks if there is enough money to cover the next interval. If there isn’t, it checks how much the balance will cover. If a user ends the movie, pauses for an extended period, or logs out before the next 10-minute interval, the system calculates the remaining cost for the partial period and prompts for a single, final pro-rated charge to settle the full amount.
The system is designed to be fair and intelligent, billing the user based on what they actually watch, not just elapsed time. The billing is tied directly to the movie's timeline, not a simple timer. This means if a user jumps to the 60-minute mark, billing starts from there, and they are not charged for the preceding 60 minutes they skipped. Furthermore, if a user rewinds to a section they have already watched, the system recognises this and does not bill them again for that content. The system also handles skipped content intelligently: if a user fast-forwards and later rewinds to watch a previously skipped section, the system's tracker identifies this as new consumption and bills them accordingly for that specific portion.
To maintain a fair and clear user experience, specific rules govern the session state. When a user presses pause, the billing timer immediately stops. The system monitors a grace period; if the user resumes playback within this period, billing continues seamlessly from where it left off. If the user does not resume within the grace period, the payment session is ended, a final pro-rated charge is initiated, and a new play action would then start a new session. Finally, the re-watch policy is clear: a single "session" is defined as one continuous login, and if a user logs out and then logs back in, they must pay for a new session for the same movie, but if the session is still active, they can re-watch the movie just once.
Next Steps
The next steps for this research involve validating assumptions and refining the concept through direct engagement with users and stakeholders. First, user research, through interviews and surveys, will help uncover real attitudes toward subscription fatigue, piracy habits, and openness to pay-as-you-watch models. Building on these insights, a lightweight prototype focusing on wallet-based login and billing flows will be developed and tested with users to evaluate usability and overall experience. Parallel to this, market analysis with streaming platforms and payment providers will be essential to gauge partnership opportunities and assess technical feasibility. The findings from both user testing and market exploration will inform iterative refinements, ensuring that Driipp evolves into a solution that balances user needs with platform sustainability.