Let’s say I get a hankering to watch a particular old movie or old TV series. And that I have access to several streaming services.
It sure would be nice if there was an online resource where I could enter “War of the Worlds (1953)” or “Upstairs, Downstairs” and it would tell me: oh, that’s available on Netflix (for free) or Amazon (for $5.99)…instead of having to log in to each service separately and perform a search.
It may not be possible for various reasons, but my dream is of a service where I enter the name of a movie or television show and it figures out whether it’s available for streaming, who owns the rights and does the negotiation on the back end. So it just presents me with an offer and if I am willing to pay the required amount, it plays the movie or show. No joining this or that streaming service. No ongoing subscription (unless I want one).
Every streaming service’s goal is to be The One. They have everything you want. Just ask 'em! If they don’t have it, you shouldn’t be wanting it anyway.
So the idea of an independent service facilitating that filthy C-word* is anathema. Under no circumstances would streaming providers cooperate with something that threatens their various walled gardens.
At first I thought you were being snarky, which is fine; but then I tried Google (on War of the Worlds) with some success – it pointed me to Amazon and You Tube.
But then I tried a movie I knew to be on Netflix (African Queen), and Google apparently knows nothing about no Netflix. We don’t got to show you no stinkin’ Netflix.
But it does know HBO GO: it came up as an option for Avatar.
Yes, but my idea is that the consumer shouldn’t need to know who owns the rights, or have to search the various streaming sites to find which has the program available.
The X1 cable box I have from Comcast does much of this already. Yesterday, I was trying to find newer episodes of Midsomer Murders to watch and it told me that it’s available on Acorn TV, and what it would cost to add that to my cable subscription. When I searched for something else, it told me that it’s available through Netflix.
Roku and Tivo devices also allow you to search for content across all of the services they support. I believe that Roku supports many more streaming channels than Tivo.
I used to use CanIStream.it, but it became increasingly unreliable, i. e., not listing things that were available, and I started using Tivo instead.
Can I Stream It is garbage now, looked up 3 different movies I watched on Amazon, HBO Go, and NetFlix recently and said all 3 were unavailable on streaming sites.
It also doesn’t properly handle some of the additional subscription services. For example, I’ve seen things that I wanted to watch listed as “free on Amazon Prime”, only to discover that they require an additional Amazon subscription to Showtime or something.
Still not quite what you want as it doesn’t seem to work for TV shows, but Rotten Tomatoes has “Watch it Now” links that go to whichever streaming services the movie is available on.
I use the Roku app on my phone for this frequently. It will find movies on any service on Roku, and then tune it in with one touch. It also supports voice search, if you don’t already have a voice enabled Roku remote.
I use my Roku, not the phone app, and the search function does the same. I can’t see what’s on my streaming live TV/DVR (Playstation Vue) but it includes hulu, Netflix, Vimeo, Amazon, the various network apps, and a bunch of others. Without that, I’d be sunk.
JustWatch.com was my go-to streaming search for a long time. However, its search results don’t always seem up-to-date.
Lately I’ve been using the Roku search almost exclusively. You can also have your Roku notify you when a movie or TV show becomes available.
Unfortunately, none of these search services include Hoopla, the free streaming channel available through many public libraries. Sometimes movies on the ad-supported services (like tubi.tv) are available ad-free on Hoopla.