There is no doubt that the advent of video streaming services has changed the way in which most of us watch television. The only show I watch on free-to-air now is the local news – everything else is via streaming services.
These video streaming services have many benefits – diverse content, no ads, relatively low cost, and watch what you want when you want. However, there are also a number of negatives and that’s what I’ll be discussing here.
Proliferation & Fragmentation
There are so many streaming services available now, and with them all vying for broadcasting rights, it has caused a certain amount of content fragmentation. I’ll give you a typical example – I am a huge football (soccer) fan and up until about three years ago, I could watch the English Premier League, European Champions League, UEFA Cup, and our local top-grade matches (the A-League) all through a single service. Now, those competitions are split between four different streaming services so, if I want to watch all those matches, I now have to pay four separate subscriptions rather than a single subscription.
New Content
Most of these streaming services do not provide new content anywhere near as frequently as I would like, and with some of the smaller libraries, it doesn’t take all that long to run out of material. The one exception is Netflix, which frequently provides new/fresh content. However, here in Australia, roughly 90% of that new content consists of foreign-language TV shows and movies.
Now, I can understand that producing content in foreign countries is probably a lot less expensive but, seriously, Netflix Australia has gone overboard with its foreign language content. Most of it is dubbed in English, of course, but while the dubbing is done quite well, those voice actors they employ are simply dreadful. Regardless of the storyline, when the dialogue isn’t delivered properly or realistically, it spoils the whole show. I am so fed up with all the new foreign content on Netflix, that I have already decided to cancel my subscription, at least for the time being.
And that brings me to the tactic of interchanging services. What I do is subscribe to a service for (say) 3- 4 months and once I’ve completed everything I want to watch, I cancel that subscription and subscribe to a different service, repeating that cycle every 3- 4 months or so. By the time I go back to a service (after 3- 4 months), there is usually a good selection of new content to watch.
Here’s how I rate each of the streaming services I subscribe to for providing new content:
Netflix 4/5 – Disney+ 3/5 – Prime Video 3/5 – Paramount+ 2/5 – Apple TV+ 1/5 – Stan 1/5
Streaming Service Menu Systems
I’m not sure if it’s just me but I find the majority of these streaming services’ menu systems unintuitive and tedious. I won’t go into detail because I’m sure you’ll each have your own pet peeves. Suffice it to say that I suspect these menu systems must have been designed by an out-and-out sadist. Here’s how I rate the menu systems for the streaming services I subscribe to:
Disney+ 4/5 – Stan 3/5 – Paramount+ 3/5 – Netflix 2/5 – Prime Video 2/5 – Apple TV+ 1/5
One thing I will say in Amazon Prime’s favor, when you click a title to view expanded details, that information includes the IMDB rating, which is a huge plus. I wish all the streaming services would include that rating, it’s such a great help when browsing through titles and looking for something decent to watch.
BOTTOM LINE:
Even though I’ve had a bit of a moan, I do believe that the positives of streaming services well and truly outweigh the negatives and I could never go back to a free-to-air-only situation.
What streaming services do you subscribe to and how would you rate them?
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What chaps my butt is that back in the day people switched to streaming to get away from high cable bills, nowadays one can spend just as much as a cable bill for streaming services!
They put the carrot before the donkey and got people to follow the bait and switch
Sure there are free services but most do not offer anything good to watch and if they do they inundate you with commercials …. more than regular TV
Yes, agree 100% Ed. That’s covered in the article under “Proliferation & Fragmentation”, which has meant that people now need to subscribe to multiple streaming services.
Yeah I get having one company being the sole provider isn’t great but I do wish we could get everything on one provider.
It seems newer companies are trying to buy into the streaming market, which just fragments it even more.
Here in the UK Sky does offer a package that includes Netflix and Prime which can be handy (not with sky myself but was previously).
I will also add for those who like horror Shudder can be decent (former user)
Hey Peter,
Yes, Shudder isn’t too bad for horror fans. Shudder is part of the AMC+ package here (in Australia) as well as Acorn TV, which includes quite a few decent British shows. As far as I am aware, AMC+ is the only service that includes three separate libraries for a single subscription.
I don’t pay for ANY TV streaming. NONE. There are too many Free services that offer great content. My only disappointment is that some of them like ION+ are on a continuous loop with limited NEW content. But at the same time, I prefer the Content of VERY old reruns over what is considered worthy today. My biggest concern is that so far I can only find ONE device for recording programming for later viewing and it has some questionable reviews.
“Just one aside mate, three plugs for the ‘yes’ vote shows blatant bias I’d say, nothing for ‘no’? Politics in this game is wrong. I’ve been with you for years, this is sneaky political support which has no place in IT.”
What on earth are you on about Zivan?
What three plugs?? Yes vote?? Nothing for no?? Sneaky political support?? This is an article about popular streaming services, pure and simple.
Hey Zivan,
I think I might owe you an apology mate, or at least an explanation. I now believe you were referring to some of the ads that were being displayed. All the ads across this site are generated by Google and we have very little control over the types of ads displayed. It seems that the vote “Yes” campaign must have purchased an ad deal with Google and that’s why the ads were displayed, nothing to do with us.
I can assure you Zivan that the ad content is purely generated by Google and does NOT reflect our opinions or preferences in any way. We are not happy that these political type ads have been displayed on our site and will be taking steps to try and prevent a repeat.