Has Subscription Media Peaked?

For someone with a keen interest—ok, obsession—with media business models, I can’t help but notice an interesting trend: Free ad-supported media is back in vogue.

Tom and Jessica wrote about a slew of new ad-supported video services Friday, including Pluto TV, which Viacom is in talks to acquire for $300 million to $500 million, they reported.

The trend is a little bit of a head scratcher since the pendulum has been swinging the other way. Experiencing Netflix envy, more media companies have launched subscriptions for video and text. So have we reached peak subscription? Is a backlash brewing?