No, they can’t. I’m not saying they aren’t full of shit but they have to look at how much they could get from Netflix/Apple or whoever and calculate the opportunity cost of licensing vs running their own service. They’ll want to factor in control, branding, etc., etc.

They’re greedy fuckers trying to maximize their bloodsucking…errr…profits.

When they hit a subscription price that loses enough subscribers to make licensing appealing they’ll either lower the price or license the content.

As long as people will pay enough to make running their own service the most profitable option, that’s what they’ll do. And they’ll squeeze subscribers to their breaking point.