Just as an FYI, if you ever do contemplate canceling Prime, we had Prime for a long time, and I also enjoyed the terrible old Riff-able movies, of which Prime has a lot (including actual RiffTrax movies). When we decided to cancel since we just didn’t really buy enough to make it worth our while, I thought I was going to lose out on access to that old movie back catalog. But it turned out that though you can’t watch new stuff like Fallout or the new Carrie without Prime of course, pretty much most of the old stuff is still available with ads. Since you already have the ad tier, you might hardly notice.
It’s similar to the Prime business model when buying Amazon stuff. They make it seem like cancelling Prime will make your life miserable, and maybe that’s true if you’re used to buying like one $9 item and getting it with free shipping the same day. But if you can just wait until you have $30 worth of stuff to buy to get free shipping, they give you an estimated shipping date that’s like two weeks out and say “are you sure you don’t want Prime? Get the free trial!”. But here’s the thing-- sometimes they do slow-walk the order, but it usually comes way sooner than their bogus two-week estimate.
It’s a pretty good scam-- you cancel Prime and they keep you as a customer by still giving you 80% of what you got with Prime, but keep trying to convince you how much better life will be with the Prime ‘VIP treatment’.
Oh, to be clear, I’m not paying ANYTHING extra for the Prime Streaming Music or Video, it’s all at the most basic level automatically included in the basic Prime membership. And considerings how much stuff I buy for my family and ship to them with my “Free” shipping, I come out ahead.
I don’t think there’s any threads on it, but that was what I thought this thread was going to be about until I had that extra cup of coffee and better processed the OP. It might be an interesting thread of it’s own though.
I actually hardly ever subscribe to YouTube channels, because I don’t need to-- once I discover some content from a certain channel and watch it, I get inundated with other videos from that channel in my YT feed afterward. If I continue to watch that channel’s content, I continue to get served its content.
I guess I should be subscribing to channels whose content I enjoy, for no other reason than it supports them, since their ability to monetize their channels depends on their subscriber base, I suppose. I just have no personal incentive to subscribe, since YT shoves content it knows I like down my throat anyway.
Yeah I just got the email about that. My yearly subscription is good until mid-May, so not really worth it to also subscribe to Shudder for a full year since I’d only get 6 months out of it with the overlap.
I have access to all the major networks (CBS,NBC,ABC,FOX, CNN, PBS, etc.), and I watch the daily news (morning and evening) and live sports events almost every day. I like watching old movies, which I can search for and save to watch later. YouTube TV is expensive, but when I wanted to watch the election results I have a variety of channels to choose from. I will probably watch Citizen Cane or a Humphrey Bogart movie tonight.
Which is mostly why I subscribe - or for older, non-actively updating channels that have some classics that I want to be able to find without doing a thread on the subject “Help me find this classic online bit which had these 3 details that I remember…”
Watch YouTube more than any of the others but can’t bring myself to get YouTubeTV.
I think I might pick up Peacock for a little bit when Dig comes out (big Michael Shur fan). Haven’t really done the pick up and drop streaming services every month or so. There’s a few shows out there that sound really good but oh well.
FYI, if you don’t mind a lot of ads there is a free CBS app for Roku where they make their shows available for free one week after they air for a limited time. This is how I watch Ghosts during the times I’m not subscribed to Paramount+, because that’s the only CBS show I’m interested in watching and it doesn’t seem worth it to stay subscribed just for one show.
PBS has a similar app, and because they’re PBS the ads are much fewer, just two ads before the show starts. Much of their content it free, but the more popular shows like Nova are only free for a limited time.
Not sure about the other networks, but ABC appears to make shows available on their website a week after they air like CBS does, so I would bet also have an app like CBS’s.
Thanks! I have a Firestick, and I see that it does offer CBS and NBC apps. If they work as your Roku app does, making episodes of shows like Ghosts available for a limited time after they air, that would be the perfect way to retire paid apps like Paramount+ and Peacock that we’re keeping just for one or two shows.
Tell you what-- even the ad tier levels of some of these paid apps have banks of commercials so frequent, that last so long, that I often think “why the hell am I paying to watch commercials?!?”. I’ve watched a fair amount of stuff on Tubi, and I don’t think they have any more commercials than the paid ad tier level of some ‘premium’ apps.
Netflix, although content that I’ll watch is getting sparse.
Apple, which will likely be suspended soon for lack of content.
Prime
Britbox, which will likely be suspended after we finish Blue Lights.
PBS, just to support it.
Hulu is suspended for lack of content. HBO is cancelled for the same reason, although the wife wants to watch the new season of Gilded Age at some point.
Right now, just Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. YT Premium if that counts.
I had some others, but I cancelled them all last month, because of both lack of much worth watching, and in case there are any good Black Friday deals.
Yes, YouTube Premium is access to all the usual YouTube content, but without any ads. YouTube TV is essentially their version of cable TV, so a bunch of the usual cable channels. We have both.
We currently pay for the Disney + Hulu + HBO bundle. We also pay for Amazon Prime, but I would be fine with cancelling Prime and not even watching the channel. Don’t like Amazon as much anymore (late or missing packages, reviews being deleted unless they are positive, etc.).
Free channels: Tubi, Filmrise, Roku Channel (you don’t need a Roku stick for it), Pluto TV, Plex, Fawesome. Some of them have much of the same content, but not always.
Just FYI, like I mentioned upthread, if you don’t order a ton of stuff on Amazon, and you’re willing to wait a bit until you have $30 worth of stuff to get free shipping, and then wait a bit more until they slow-walk the delivery, you can cancel Prime and still order stuff from Amazon just fine. I haven’t regretted canceling Prime for a minute, and we do still order occasional stuff from Amazon that’s hard to get anywhere else.
I might, at some point, sign up for a free Prime trial, binge the latest season of Fallout and maybe the new Carrie series, and then cancel before the trial is over
Mild sort-of spoiler: I suggest thinking of the new Carrie series as its own original series - don’t expect a real “remake” of the book and the 1974 movie.
