So here in the solost household we’re doing our periodic review of streaming channels to decide what we will keep, what we will cancel, and what new streamers we may want to subscribe to. Like many of you, we rotate, and it’s getting to be ‘musical chairs’ time again. Here’s our current situation:
Hulu/Disney bundle: longtime Hulu subscribers, switched to a 5 mo. Hulu/Disney deal that’s going to be over soon. Hulu is unexciting but seems to consistently have some stuff we’ll watch, so I’d like to keep Hulu, but we never watch anything Disney, or have any desire to. So the bundle was kind of a bust. We’ll probably go month to month with Hulu, on the lowest price tier with commercials.
Paramount+: We have a 1 yr deal that’s up Dec. 5. Pretty much all we watch on it is The Daily Show monologues, Ghosts US and a couple other sitcoms. Maybe we’ll go month-to-month after the year deal and cancel when the Fall season is over. TDS monologues I can always catch on YouTube.
Peacock: we get this free with XFinity. We’re planning to switch to AT&T fiber which was recently installed in our neighborhood. So we might go month to month until Fall season is done, as with Paramount, or there’s a Peacock / Apple TV bundle we might go for. We definitely want to get Apple TV in some form. I hear there have been black Friday deals on ATV in the past for $5.99 for 6 mo., so that’s a possibility if we don’t go bundle.
HBO Max: We have a deal that goes until July 4, then we’ll cancel until they have more stuff again we might want to watch.
Netflix: the granddaddy of the streamers, used to be a must-have channel, but now that they’ve lost a lot of their syndicated stuff, they’re down to occasional original content and dubbed / subtitled foreign shows. They haven’t had a good blockbuster original show in awhile, seems like, and their foreign programs are occasionally interesting, but not really enough to justify $20/mo. I feel like we’ve kept Netflix simply out of inertia for a long time. Definitely on the chopping block.
I’m down to Netflix, Hulu/Disney (I never watch Disney), HBO Max, and YouTube TV (for regular network shows and movies). I mainly watch Netflix because I hate commercials, plus they went all in on True Crime docs, which I always enjoy watching.
I subscribed to Hulu for several years but recently switched to a Hulu/Disney+ bundle for just about the same price. I read someplace that Disney is merging Hulu with Disney+.
Aside from that, I’ve subscribed to HBO Max for years as well, currently am on a one-year Apple TV subscription and like you, get Peacock Premium through Comcast/Xfinity. I’ve had Netflix and Paramount+ in the past. I may subscribe to Britbox in a week or two mostly to watch the second Ludwig series.
In general, I think the best thing is to subscribe to a streaming service for a month at a time, cancel it and then subscribe to a different one.
What are some network shows and movies you can access on YouTube TV?
Hulu used to be a great deal because you could catch shows from all the major networks, until NBC and CBS pulled their shows form Hulu for their streamers, Peacock and Paramount respectively. Now it’s pretty much only ABC and Fox shows on Hulu, plus a few random movies.
I did notice if and when we switch to AT&T Fiber, they offer a YouTube TV deal with it.
BTW, I find I watch a lot of stuff on the regular, free YouTube service, despite the commercial interruptions. I think I read that people spend more time watching stuff on YouTube than any other streaming service.
That’s true-- after we had cancelled Peacock (and before we got it back through XFinity) we discovered we could find pretty much entire recent episodes of SNL, one clip per skit, through regular, free YouTube. And the monologues of pretty much all the late-night talk shows (which is mostly all we watch anyway- skipping the guests unless there’s one we really like).
Hulu/Disney: I probably use this the least of all subscriptions, Hulu has some good new movies and Jeopardy and Disney has Bluey. That’s about it.
Netflix: Bake Off, some of their docs and crime stuff. Seems I mainly use it to browse and look at what I watch to add to my watchlist then don’t actually end up picking anything.
Paramount+ : All the time to watch CBS shows without commercials, Ghosts from others countries, Dexter, all the Showtime stuff, etc.
Peacock: I use this the most probably, for their original series, NBC shows and REELZ channel for On Patrol Live every Friday & Saturday.
Apple TV+ : Great new series when they are airing. Also now has some new release films that look good like Tenzing.
Prime Video: It’s kinda just there with my Prime subscription. I don’t really use it that much cause of all the ads, but Carrie was awesome!
AMC+ : I got it for a yearly $29 deal and it includes Shudder. Excellent for horror content.
Mubi: Came with my MubiGO sub, they focus on independent and foreign films, rarely ever use it.
HBO Max: Bundled with my parents’ HBO TV subscription (when I can log into it!) If they run a good Black Friday deal I may subscribe on my own, great back catalog of TV shows.
We had a Paramount/Showtime bundle deal at one point. Pretty much all we watched on Showtime was Dexter, so when we were done with Dexter we didn’t re-up with the bundle, and my wife found a 1 year deal on Paramount alone.
Now that there’s a new season of Dexter:Resurrection, we were all set to start watching the other day, until we got ‘Upgrade now to watch Dexter’. D’OH! We forgot we no longer have the bundle. So yeah, might do a bundle deal again after all the D:R eps have dropped.
In general, there’s one must-watch show on any given streaming service at a time. So if there’s a new season of Strange New Worlds, Paramount is worth paying for, or I’ll pay for Apple TV when Slow Horses returns. Very few have multiple new must-watch shows. And the fragmentation of the media means that I just haven’t seen some of the buzzy shows.
In some ways, I miss the broadcast era, when you could expect that others had seen the same must-watch shows. And, importantly, everyone saw the same episodes at the same time, so you didn’t need to find out if someone hadn’t binged the entire season in one weekend so you had to be careful about what you discussed.
BTW, here is a gift link to an article by James Poniewozik, television critic for the New York Times, about the fragmentation of television and the cost of streaming services.
TV critics are not traditionally in the habit of considering price when they decide what to cover. This isn’t restaurant criticism. But lately TV consumption has begun to feel like high-end dining, with no limit of upcharges and price hikes and caviar supplements sending the tab to the heavens.
This is frustrating for consumers in inflationary times. But it’s also not great for the art, or at least for the experience and conversation around it. It creates yet another division of haves, choosing from a vast menu in media’s first class, and have-nots, missing out in steerage. It turns a medium that was once universal, if frustrating, into one that is increasingly inaccessible, if often excellent. “American Hostage” [starring Jon Hamm and Giovanni Ribisi and on MGM+] is good. But is it $7.99-a-month good? Is any show?
Weeellll, maybe not so much with the latest season of SNW…
I agree, I also kind of miss the next day water cooler discussions, or the online equivalent. It’s why I first subscribed to the SDMB, to discuss the latest ep of Lost the next day (hence my username).
HBO Max - Currently enjoying the White Lotus Season 3, and will get around to House of the Dragon Season 3 (?). Might cancel after that, although it’s only $10/month with ads.
Prime - It comes with the Prime membership, otherwise I wouldn’t bother. The only thing I look at is Thursday Night Football.
Netflix - Currently watching The Diplomat, season 4. What will that crazy Ambassador Wyler come up with next ? That’s the only show I watch on Netflix but my wife watches lots of historical dramas and would probably chop my arm off if I canceled it, so it’s staying.
I have both AMC+ and Shudder. I don’t watch much on AMC, but got the $29 for a year deal. I don’t know if you saw or not but AMC and Shudder will split when your AMC deal is done. Shudder currently has a $29 for a year deal.
I also have Netflix, which I watch enough of for the $20 a month price.
That’s all I have, I cut my Amazon a couple of years ago and will just pay for movies that I want to see. There wasn’t enough on there and I stopped buying much from them to need the free shipping.
I currently have Amazon Prime Video (ad based tier) as part of my Prime membership (feel free to boo me, but I use it mostly for the shipping and “free” unlimited music tier), though I often enjoy watching some originals (Fallout, 'natch) and a bunch of terrible old Riff-able movies.
I have Hulu and Netflix as “free” additions to my T-Mobile Plan, both at the add supported tier. Hulu I rarely watch, but Netflix still has a few originals (Wednesday, Cyberpunk Edgerunners) that are worth the price of putting up with commercials.
If they weren’t “free” bundles, I’d drop Hulu immediately and probably Netflix as well.
Originally I thought that the @solost was going to be talking about their subscriptions to various streaming channels on Youtube and the like, but that’s a different thread!
I get basic Hulu, Netflix and Apple TV through my T-Mobile plan. All of them are on the block if that goes away. Paramount + has a 50% discount for veterans so I signed up for a year of that. I got a discounted year of HBO Max the last time I was going to cancel - unless they have something compelling when it expires in the spring it will get canceled. Pretty much all of them have very little interesting to choose from - lately we’ve been watching old TV shows on Paramount.
Hulu/Disney+/HBO Max bundle: There wasn’t much I wanted to watch on Disney+, but with the bundle it was only about $1 more per month than subscribing to Hulu and Max separately. And I share the password with my sister, who I split the bill with. So my two year old nephew is probably the main Disney+ watcher. But I am watching Andor since it was highly recommended. And Hulu has most of the network shows I want to watch, like Abbott Elementary and the Scrubs reboot. And Max has the critically acclaimed shows like The Pitt, which I’ve just gotten around to watching.
Netflix: While it doesn’t have as much as it used to, it still has enough stuff I want to watch that it’s still a must have for me.
Apple TV+: I’m freeloading off of my sister’s account – they let you add a limited number of friends/family members, so she added me. Then she canceled, but her friend who was also linked to her account started paying for it. So I’m still getting it for free. They do, IMO, have some of the best original programming.
Peacock: Like the OP, I get this for free (with ads) from Xfinity. Corner Gas is about the only thing I’m watching there at the moment, but there are a few other things I might watch one of these days.
Prime Video: I’m definitely watching this less than I used to. There used to be a decent number of shows I wanted to watch, now it’s just an odd show here and there and the occasional movie. But it’s just sort of there because it comes with my Prime membership. Maybe I’ll check out the new Grand Tour one of these days.
I’m imminently about the resubscribe to Paramount+ where I will watch the latest seasons of Star Trek: SNW, Dexter Resurrection, and Colin from Accounts, and then cancel again.
I have the premium package of Direct TV, so I have Red Zone along with every sports channel in existence. I have a half dozen premium movie channels with it. I have Max, Netflix, and Prime. I got rid of Apple because I just don’t think the stuff they have is very good and the choices are very limited compared to Netflix or Prime.
