How many streaming services are you subscribed to?

[Jay 37,336]

[Thor 7,490]

He, he...yeah. Very spambot-ish, but they're getting increasingly difficult to identify these days.

[mstrox 6,649]

I think the way of the future (as each of these streaming services jacks up their pricing to try to attain profitability) will be to rotate through streaming services.  Watch the stuff you want on Netflix and then cancel, maybe pick it up a year later for a few months and then cancel again.  That’ll be my plan at least.  Otherwise at some point, my streaming bills combined would look like a cable bill (which is why I dumped cable in the first place).

[Jay 37,336]

Yea that's what I've mentioned we do a few times in this thread.  Like we had Apple TV+ until we finished both seasons of Ted Lasso, then had Paramount+ until we finished whatever we watched on there, now we have AMC+ until Better Call Saul is over, etc.

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Is anyone subscribed to Audible? Do i really have to pay $15 a month for just one book? As I understand it, the $8 plan is not enough for most titles. That's pretty stupid.

[mstrox 6,649]

The $8 plan gives you access to their streaming library which does not include every book ever made (similar to how your monthly Netflix fee gives you access to their specific library).  The more expensive plan also allows you to listen to a book that ISNT in that library.  So instead of paying $20 or whatever for that audiobook, it’s only $7 on top of the fee you pay for access to the others.

 

I don’t know if it’s a good deal or not since I’m not much of an audiobook person.  For my purposes, I just watch for deals on the small list of ones I actually want to listen to.

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Right. Wait, are you saying that Netflix has different libraries too? I never knew that. I thought you paid for access to everything. Oh well, I'll go with the Audible Premium plan then.

[mstrox 6,649]

You get everything they have on Netflix, but not every movie that ever existed.  It’s a bad example.
 

Amazon is a bit of a different beast, as they keep their various streaming services running in the same stream as their much larger purchase library.  Even though you can buy any movie on Amazon to stream, you only get access to certain ones with a Prime membership.  You still have to buy the rest.  Audible is the same - your extra $7 earns you “X dollar off of purchasing an audiobook from our shop” which is really only valuable if 1) you listen to a ton of audiobooks instead of reading, 2) the books available on the basic streaming library aren’t enough for you, and 3) you don’t have access to a library or similar for the other audiobooks you want, or those books are all not available at a library.

 

For me, the extra $7 isn’t worth it, but neither is the base subscription.  I only listen to audiobooks of books I’ve already read, and even then only if it’s a book I really like and only if the price is good.  I’ll also pick up a cheap audiobook for my kid, since she digs it and can’t read much herself yet.

[Edmilson 7,424]

Netflix Ranks Last Among Streamers for Perceived Value — but It’s Still the No. 1 Must-Have Service, Survey Finds

 

Netflix remains the most indispensable service among major streaming platforms, with 31% of U.S. members saying they would keep the service if they could only have one video subscription, according to Whip Media’s 2022 Streaming Satisfaction Report. In second place is HBO Max, with 19% saying that’s the single SVOD they would keep.

In addition, Netflix ranks No. 1 for both user experience and content recommendations on the survey. But on perceived value, it comes in dead last among the nine subscription VOD services tracked; HBO Max ranks highest and Disney+ is in second place.

 

 

 

Netflix’s move to hike prices earlier this year — with the Standard two-stream plan rising 11% to $15.49/month in the U.S. — was the main reason customers said they canceled their subscription: 69% of former Netflix customers said the price increases led them to drop the service, per the Whip Media survey.

HBO Max, now part of Warner Bros. Discovery, leads the field in terms of overall customer satisfaction, with 94% of respondents saying they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the service. Netflix, which ranked second overall in 2021, drops to fourth place this year (with 80%) behind Disney+ (88%) and Hulu (87%).

 

 

Full report here: https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/netflix-lowest-value-must-have-service-survey-1235301080/

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

I've been enjoying re-watching (or watching for the first time, I can't quite tell now I'm well into the second season which doesn't feel familiar at all) Babylon 5 on Amazon, but am quite frustrated by it being "free with adverts". It's not like those streaming services looking to introduce a budget option whereby you can pay less a month in exchange for adverts, there's no alternative on Amazon aside from buying/renting the show outright which kinda misses the point of subscription streaming services. I wouldn't "happily" pay another quid a month to dump the adverts but for some reason they don't offer it. Admittedly the most I've had is probably 3 or 4 15/30 second adverts at random points in the show, but without the benefit of appearing at an appropriate ad break, often they seem to pop up at random, but maybe that's more common US TV than in the UK where advert breaks on regular TV are shorter and less frequent. It's not like B5 was made without taking into account ad breaks! It does make me realise how bloody awful TV is with regular ad breaks though, they are quite ruinous to the atmosphere of watching a relatively serious TV show.

 

This whinge was brought to you by Lucky Charms. I've seen that damn advert so many times... and they still look like one of the world's most disgusting foods.

[Jay 37,336]

In the US you can stream Babylon 5 in HD with no ads via HBO Max

https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/babylon-5

 

It appears that in the UK, Freevee is your only option.  How lame.

 

https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-series/babylon-5

[Edmilson 7,424]

Warner Bros. Discovery Details New Streaming Plans: U.S. Launch of Combined Service in Summer 2023, Free AVOD Service to Follow

The company says the new service is targeting 130 million subs by 2025, and will "continue to have healthy content investment," but at a "more measured pace" than previously indicated.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

It sure would be nice if HBO max subs could be transitioned seamlessly to this new branding.

[JNHFan2000 2,957]

6 hours ago, Stu said:

It sure would be nice if HBO max subs could be transitioned seamlessly to this new branding.

Indeed.

 

I just got HBO Max in my country. And I've been catching up on more than 20 years of HBO series I've never been able to watch outside DVD purchases.

So I do hope this new service will be available faster outside the US that the 2.5 years it took for HBO Max to get here

[Edmilson 7,424]

Would you pay $8 a month to watch 4 minutes of ads for every hour of Netflix? Apparently, this will be their new ad-supported plan.

 

https://www.indiewire.com/2022/08/netflix-ad-plan-pricing-1234755866/

[Alex 2,835]

Isn’t Netflix with ads basically just cable TV? F*** that!

[Mr. Who 919]

On 27/8/2022 at 2:59 AM, Edmilson said:

Would you pay $8 a month to watch 4 minutes of ads for every hour of Netflix? Apparently, this will be their new ad-supported plan.

 

https://www.indiewire.com/2022/08/netflix-ad-plan-pricing-1234755866/

That’s just awful. Who would pay for this?

[mstrox 6,649]

People who can’t afford Netflix, or who want to have Netflix but don’t want to pay the full amount.  Other services have cheaper ad-supported versions (Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock).  Rumors came out in the last year that both Netflix and Disney+ are considering it.  All part of the drive to make the streaming services profitable.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Not just a rumor, Disney announced an ad-supported tier a couple of weeks ago.  Basically, if you want to stay at the current price of $8 a month, you have to have ads, otherwise you’ll have to go to the new ad-free price of $11

[Bespin 8,480]

I'll have the Disney-free version for $0.

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

It doesn’t strike me as much different to subscribing to Sky or whatever in the U.K. only with Sky there is no ad free option and the ads are in American quantities (i.e. over 15 minutes per hour of tv versus terrestrial commercial tv which is more like 10 minutes per hour).

 

I have been (addictively!) watching Babylon 5 on Amazon, which is part of their FreeVee offering so it’s free with ads or you can buy each season (which was about £9 per season when I started but seems to have increased to about £16 per season recently) to skip the ads. While I find the ads annoying (even worse because they are all US ads so well over half the things being advertised I can’t actually buy… like Verizon or various insurance products). However, the number of ad breaks and length of ads is surprisingly variable. Sometimes I won’t get any ads in an episode, usually I’ll get a couple of breaks and occasionally every ad break is filled (including that massively annoying US tv habit of sticking an ad break right after the opening credits which even satellite tv in the U.K. doesn’t do). Even then, the length of each break is only between 30 and 60 seconds (and there’s a timer so you know how long you’ve got) so you rarely see more than a couple of adverts per break so the interruption is pretty brief.

 

It’ll be interesting to see if Netflix, Disney etc have fairly brief breaks like Amazon or the usual several minutes worth you getting on regular tv. I think I’ll be sticking to the ad free option but will almost certainly pause subscriptions to certain services (Apple TV looks like the first to go at the moment…) once in a while. 

[Nick1Ø66 4,709]

I have Amazon Prime, for the shipping, the streaming is just a bonus.

I have YouTube Premium, which includes free YouTube music.

 

I also have access to Netflix through a family member.

 

I’ve tried the other major ones through various promotions but none really interested me enough to keep them.
 

And be honest, if it wasn’t for the free shipping, I wouldn’t subscribe to Prime for the steaming only, and if I didn’t get Netflix free I wouldn’t bother with that either.

 

The YouTube Premium, however, is worth every penny for the ad-free experience & the music bundle. Though if I chose a music streamer on its own I’d probably go in another direction.

[Holko 9,515]

Just use uBlock Origin and a proper music streaming service like Tidal, mate!

[Nick1Ø66 4,709]

uBlock doesn’t work properly on Apple devices (at least for video ads). And since I use an iPhone/iPad/AppleTV, it’s not an option.

 

I just need a seamless ad-free experience across all platforms. I…don’t do ads, and wouldn’t pay any streamer a penny for an ad-supported tier. Paying for ads? That’s just wrong. I either pay for no ads, or if I’m watching ads, it needs to be free. 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

uBlock doesn’t work properly on Apple devices (at least for video ads). And since I use an iPhone/iPad/Apple TV, it’s not an option.

 

I am in the exact same situation.  Youtube Premium is the service I get the most use out of since I watch a metric ton of Youtube in the Apple TV/iPhone apps and use the crap out of the music service too.

[Jay 37,336]

Epix to rebrand as MGM+

 

Starz to rebrand as Lionsgate+

 

Can't be long now until HBO Max rebrands to Warner Bros+ and Peacock rebrands as Universal+, right?

 

Meanwhile, why hasn't Sony hopped on the streaming game?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I think it's clear that Sony made the most financially prudent decision here

[Jay 37,336]

Paramount+ to Merge With Showtime, 3 Series Canceled

 

Showtime will not be proceeding with new series Three Women, starring Shailene Woodley, Betty Gilpin, DeWanda Wise and Gabrielle Creevy, which has been completed.

Additionally, Showtime has opted not to pick up Season 2 of two freshman drama series: Let the Right One In, starring Demián Bichir, and American Gigolo, headlined by Jon Bernthal. Both shows also are being removed from Showtime’s streaming platforms.

 

https://deadline.com/2023/01/showtime-three-women-let-the-right-one-in-american-gigolo-canceled-consolidation-paramount-plus-1235244624/

 

Good news for us, we'll definitely get this for a month or so sometime this year to watch Yellowjackets, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Minari, Confess Fletch, and maybe 1923 and one of those new fangled Star Trek shows

[Disco Stu 15,495]

10 minutes ago, Jay said:

Paramount+ to Merge With Showtime, 3 Series Canceled

 

Quote

The merged service will be called Paramount+ with Showtime

 

Catchy

[Jay 37,336]

Next up Warners will rename their service "WB+ with HBO"

[Disco Stu 15,495]

What's this?  Comcast is officially renaming their service "Peacock With... Er.... Bravo?  We Should Probably Quit", wow!

[Jay 37,336]

Netflix Deletes New Password Sharing Rules, Claims They Were Posted in Error

[Jay 37,336]

I joined Netflix almost when it launched; I joined in 2000, doing the 4 disc at a time plan, and did that for many years.

 

Eventually some time in the early 2010s I canceled it as it was just not worth it any more.  But then in 2015 we got it again, now streaming only, and have enjoyed their streaming content ever since.  

 

Well, until the last few years or so, were it seemed like their original content took a serious and notable nose-dive.  It used to be there was some movie or show every month to look forward to, but the last few years it's been hugely spotty.

 

And when I realized we're paying $19.99 a month for it, when many other services are half that price or less, it was a relatively easy decision to drop it this week.  Our subscription runs out on February 28th and I have no regrets!

 

They keep your profile info for 10 months after canceling, so as long as we subscribe again by like December, which we'll probably do to catch up on anything interesting that came out this year, we get to keep our history, etc.

 

Soon we'll add on Apple TV+ when Ted Lasso 3 starts, and we'll also check out Severance, The Afterparty, The Shrink Next Door, Shrinking, and maybe Slow Horses, Roar, Mythic Quest, and some others.  Plus finally see CODA and Cha Cha Real Smooth, probably check out Tetris, and of course MASTERS OF THE AIR is coming soon.

 

Definitely seems like Apple has the best content right now, and $6.99 is way more reasonable than Netflix's $19.99!

[Bryant Burnette 654]

I only have Netflix so that my technologically-challenged parents can also have it at their house; it doesn't even get used in my apartment most months.

[Jay 37,336]

Yea I had to email my dad and tell him it is as going away on the 28th. Was hoping he'd volunteer to pay for it, but alas

[Mr. Who 919]

7 hours ago, Jay said:

I joined Netflix almost when it launched; I joined in 2000, doing the 4 disc at a time plan, and did that for many years.

 

Eventually some time in the early 2010s I canceled it as it was just not worth it any more.  But then in 2015 we got it again, now streaming only, and have enjoyed their streaming content ever since.  

 

Well, until the last few years or so, were it seemed like their original content took a serious and notable noise-dive.  It used to be there was some movie or show every month to look forward to, but the last few years it was hugely spotty.

 

And when I realized we're paying $19.99 a month for it, when many other services are half that price or less, it was a relatively easy decision to drop it this week.  Our subcription runs out on February 28th and I have no regrets!

 

They keep your profile info for 10 months after canceling, so as long as we subscribe again by like December, which we'll probably do to catch up on anything interesting that came out this year, we get to keep our history, etc.

 

Soon we'll add on Apple TV+ when Ted Lasso 3 starts, and we'll also check out Severance, The Afterparty, The Shrink Next Door, Shrinking, and maybe Slow Horses, Roar, Mythic Quest, and some others.  Plus finally see CODA and Cha Cha Real Smooth, probably check out Tetris, and of course MASTERS OF THE AIR is coming soon.

 

Definitely seems like Apple has the best content right now, and $6.99 is way more reasonable than Netflix's $19.99!

Severance is amazing and I’m also enjoying Hello Tomorrow which is currently airing.

[mstrox 6,649]

I’ve watched eight movies on Netflix this year so far which is a much higher pace than last year (17 movies total).  Considering I’d otherwise be paying to rent or buy the movies, it still represents a cost savings for me, though the new prices are not pleasant!

[Jay 37,336]

Your math makes no sense.

 

Netflix is $20/month or $240/year.

 

It costs $3 to rent a movie on Amazon once it's old enough. 

 

So it'd cost $24 to rent 8 movies. 1/10th of having Netflix for a year. 

[mstrox 6,649]

Well, you’re starting with “once it’s old enough,” for starters!  But I’m more inclined to pay to buy something rather than rent, as long as the option is available (there have been a few odd things we’ve stumbled across that were rent-only with no streaming buy option, and otherwise I don’t think I’ve rented a movie since my parents used to get videocassettes at the pharmacy when I was 8 or 9 years old).  Unless it’s a newish release, it’s usually not much more than renting, and you can often find deals to buy things from $2.50-$5.00 if you look regularly.  I’ve amassed quite a large digital collection 

[Jay 37,336]

Ever wonder why Sony is the only major studio without their own streaming service?

 

Sony CFO: Without a Streaming Platform, We’re Free to Sell Films and Shows “to the Highest Bidder”

[Richard Penna 3,679]

On 27/02/2023 at 4:30 AM, mstrox said:

Well, you’re starting with “once it’s old enough,” for starters!  But I’m more inclined to pay to buy something rather than rent

 

I've bought precisely one film on Prime, a film adaptation of a book club book. It was probably about a £ or so more expensive to just buy it, so I did that instead of rent, on the assumption that I'd probably want to watch it again. (Sadly, I was wrong - didn't like the book either)

 

If I were ever to find something that I couldn't get on BD/DVD but could stream, I can't imagine many scenarios under which I'd rent a movie when I could pay a $ or two more and be able to watch it whenever.

 

Strikes me that they could allow very short term renting (like, you've got to watch it within the next few hours) really cheaply, with a purchase being the price it is now. There are lots of recent films I'd pay a few ££s to see once, almost just to find out whether it was worth buying on BD.

 

I do think their pricing for HD purchases for some films are a joke though. Avatar 1 is £15 to buy whereas I could have the Blu ray delivered tomorrow for half that. I suppose they're trying to take advantage of those who want to watch it now.

[1977 1,743]

I am subscribed to Disney+ and Netflix (and Spotify for music), and I plan to subscribe to Amazon Prime Video for a few months at least as well as another local service that none of you will know (it has most of the HBO Max stuff - which is not available where I live). 

[Richard Penna 3,679]

I'm currently finding plenty of stuff to watch on Prime. Almost no reason atm to have Disney+, and I might go for a month of Netflix at some point if I'm in the mood to finish Better Call Saul.

 

But most of my entertainment currently comes from YouTube and Spotify, both of which I pay for.

 

Unless I'm using their website wrong, Netflix doesn't seem to make it that easy to look at what's in their catalogue before signing in, which strikes me as odd. I'm more likely to sign up if I can see that they've got a handful of movies I wanted to see.

[Tallguy 3,381]

1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

I'm currently finding plenty of stuff to watch on Prime. Almost no reason atm to have Disney+, and I might go for a month of Netflix at some point if I'm in the mood to finish Better Call Saul.

 

But most of my entertainment currently comes from YouTube and Spotify, both of which I pay for.

 

Unless I'm using their website wrong, Netflix doesn't seem to make it that easy to look at what's in their catalogue before signing in, which strikes me as odd. I'm more likely to sign up if I can see that they've got a handful of movies I wanted to see.

 

https://www.justwatch.com/ is useful for this.

[Jay 37,336]

https://www.justwatch.com/uk specifically for Richard

[Richard Penna 3,679]

Thanks!

 

Prime still looks like it veers more towards the stuff I watch.

[Schilkeman 961]

When my D+ runs out in a month or two, I will not be subscribed to anything. I'm still thinking about getting PBS, but I really want off this train. I'm rebuilding my dvd collection. I never thought I'd get rid of Netflix, having been subscribed since before the streaming service existed, but once it went, I decided I didn't really need any of them. If a streaming show looks good enough for me to want to own, well, there are places for that sort of thing.

[Jay 37,336]

Ranking the Winners in the Streaming Wars, by Revenue and Subscribers

[Jay 37,336]

Happy surprise this morning:

 

My wife turned on the TV and I noticed that the banner ad on the right side of the Roku homescreen said something about a 3 month free trial of Apple TV being available just for having Roku.

 

So I clicked on it and all I had to do was go to the activate webite on my phone, log into my Apple ID account, and type in the 4 digit number on my TV screen and voila, instead 3 free months of Apple TV, which is long enough to cover all of Ted Lasso Season 3, which runs from tomorrow until May 31st.

And 3 months should be enough time to catch CODA, Severance, The Afterparty, etc while we have it.

 

Thanks, Roku!

[Jay 37,336]

After using Apple TV+ for a week or so now, I have to say: I really like their interface

 

I dunno if it's changed since the last time we had it, or I just have a different perspective on it now, or what.  But last time I felt like it was too different for difference's sake, just Apple being Apple and doing things their own way just to do so.

 

But this time it just feels buttery smooth, intuitive, and not cluttered with any fluff at all