Buy a streaming channel for a month, binge a show, then cancel?

[ftg]

I used to do one-month free trials of Netflix once a year to grab some shows and movies.

[kiz]

It’s pretty common, as others have said. We always grab the free trial of Acorn to binge watch the most recent season of Murdoch Mysteries (it’s running now in Canada, so it won’t be on Acorn until February at the earliest). Did the same thing with Starz to catch up on Outlander.

[AllShookDown]

I got Showtime to watch Twin Peaks and cancelled (even though I kinda liked Ray Donovan I didn’t want to keep paying every month for it). Every March I get Sling TV to watch the NCAA tourney and cancel, and in October I get it again for the baseball playoffs and cancel. I had Acorn TV for a while but wasn’t watching much so I cancelled that and am trying out BritBox now. I’m thinking about getting HBO for a while for The Deuce. I saw them filming a little bit when I was in The Village a couple of years ago and would like to see if anything I saw made it in.

[Sam_Lowry]

I got the free week of Starz in order to watch American Gods and then canceled. I did feel somewhat conflicted though, because while I have no loyalty to Starz, I know that American Gods is an expensive show, and I’m guessing that the channel put it on hoping/expecting that they’d get new subscribers out of it to justify the expense. I know that there will be another season, I don’t know if the show has been profitable for them, or if the attention is enough. I’m guessing other channels and services have the same considerations.

@NeonMadman

I’ve been getting e-mails for the last few weeks offering me a free month if I will “come back” to Hulu, which is interesting since I’ve never subscribed to Hulu, not even for a free trial. I keep thinking about it, because I’d like to see The Path, but that’s about the only thing they have that interests me and is exclusive to them. I suspect that it will eventually be issued on DVD, which means that Netflix will probably make it available at that point. The other thing I’d like to see is Man in the High Castle on Amazon, but again, I don’t want to go through the whole subscription thing for one show.

Hulu might release series on DVD, though I wouldn’t count on it, but Netflix will never have the DVDs for a Hulu show. The reason that the different services have their original series is so you will sign up for their service. It does look like you can watch The Path through other means, like iTunes and Amazon, but you have to pay.

[Dewey_Finn]

@Sam_Lowry

Hulu might release series on DVD, though I wouldn’t count on it, but Netflix will never have the DVDs for a Hulu show.

That’s not true. I saw 11.22.63 on DVDs I received from the Netflix DVD-by-mail service even though the show was on Hulu. I’d like to watch some Amazon shows, though, and they appear not to have ever been released on DVD.

[Sam_Lowry]

@Dewey_Finn

That’s not true. I saw 11.22.63 on DVDs I received from the Netflix DVD-by-mail service even though the show was on Hulu. I’d like to watch some Amazon shows, though, and they appear not to have ever been released on DVD.

Interesting, I’m surprised by that.