The latter really wouldn't surprise me. A service could be making four times the investment in profit and many investors will still push to get a few more cents out of it at any cost.

It was awhile ago but I read that a lot of streaming services don't make a profit and I can understand the logic. With ads, there is a direct link between a show and it's profits. The more people watch a show, the more people see the ads, the more a company can charge for ads on that show. Without ads it becomes difficult. It doesn't matter if 100 people watch or a million, the profits are the same.

I feel it's inevitable that streaming services are going to go back to ads. It's the better business model.