What streaming services do you use?

2 years ago

It used to be so simple when it was just Netflix and Amazon Prime. I still have those but finding their content much more limited. Or I find a series of interest and it gets discontinued before I finish it and then I find I have to subscribe to something else to watch it. Something ended up on Peacock but I only watched once because I couldn’t stand the ads. I watch no network TV because I‘m unwilling to be subjected to 20 minutes of ads for every 40 minutes of programming. Amazon has some good choices through IMDB but I’ve had it with the ads. I recently signed up for Acorn and am enjoying some ad free new programs along with some old favorites. I’m willing to pay a reasonable fee for ad free quality programming and wondering what others are using.

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4kids4us

2 years ago

Runninginplace, I’m a novice with most of how YouTubeTV works b/c I mainly use Prime, Netflix and AppleTV but we do have YouTubeTV as well. For network shows I watch regularly which is mostly local news and PBS, I just went to the guide and added the show to my Library. It then records each upcoming episode. For example, when the new season of Unforgiven started on PBS, I added it to my library and as each episode was broadcast, it would be in my Library for viewing at my leisure. No need to remember to record each episode. Hope that helps answer your question.

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Comments (38)

maire_cate
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Prime, Acorn, Netflix

There are several network shows that I watch but I record them just to avoid commercials. One of the nice features of my cable provider is Smart Resume. It allows you to fast forward through programs that you have on DVR. "Smart Resume isn't available for all programs and networks. Right now, Smart Resume is only available for top shows on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, CW, Bravo, HGTV, Discovery, MTV and TLC."

Maire
Eileen
2 years ago
PBS Masterpiece has several good series.
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maddielee
2 years ago
Netflix, Prime, PBS, Acorn, HBOMax, AppleTV, Hulu, - oh my!
Funkyart
2 years ago
Prime + IMDB + Fandor, Acorn, Netflix, Hulu (tier without ads), HBO Max, Showtime

Kind of ridiculous given how little tv I watch. I was going to cancel Showtime but Dexter is about to be released in Nov so I will keep it until we watch the final episode.

Acorn is probably my darling-- I have had it forever and it's by far the cheapest (though there is a rate hike coming in Oct). I am not watching much on it these days-- but the catalog changes regularly and in a few months, i could be watching quite a few series. I don't imagine ever giving it up as it runs content you just don't find elsewhere.

I have an IMDB account with Amazon prime-- it says it comes with ads, but I haven't had ads interrupt my viewing. I don't remember if there was an ad at the beginning-- but if so, i am pretty sure it was a preview like you'd see at the movies. I don't watch anything with ads as I watch with a friend in MPLS and ads make it very hard to synch.

I have been very pleased with my Hulu account which is my newest subscription. It includes some old series that we enjoy and their own productions have been pretty good. We're thoroughly enjoying Only Murders in the Building now.

An aside: another series we are currently enjoying is on Netflix-- we had been pretty disappointed with the Netflix offerings this summer but just started Hit and Run this weekend --- we've found it surprisingly good and engaging.

Hope this helps!
Boopadaboo
2 years ago
Prime, Netflix, Hulu, DIY, Disney, HBO Max - when will "and just like that" be out??? :)
dedtired
2 years ago
I only subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime, of course this is on top of my cable subscription. I get On Demand through that, some shows for free but mostly for rent. I barely watch any of them except the PBS series.
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
The only paid subscriptions we use are Netflix, Hulu, and a PBS Passport. The rest are all free.

We cut our cable a few years ago and now use Roku.

I actually don't mind having ads. Maybe that's because I have a background in commercial art and advertising.
DLM2000-GW
2 years ago
I'm curious if those of you with subscriptions (other than carolb) have those on top of your cable tv costs and roughly what that runs or do you float in and out of subscriptions depending on what you want to see? We have Roku tv as carolb does so there is no cable bill. We have an antennae in our attic for ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS (and their related channels) and a few other pretty worthless channels plus Netflix and Prime but those costs are minimal and actually shared through the family. Something in me can't get past the 'old days' of all free tv! However there are several shows I've read about and would love to watch on subscription stations and heading into winter (which is always more tv time for us than summer) I am tempted to sign up for .....something.
gsciencechick
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
YouTube TV is our main system. We can get local channels, but we also have an antenna because that is the only way to get MeTV. Our new TV came with Google operating system so this is makes it easy. We have Google Fiber internet and they used to have cable TV, but they are discontinuing it in favor of the YouTube TV.

HBOMax, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, ESPN+, NFL Sunday Ticket, Peacock, can stream SiriusXM app to TV, Pluto TV for old Match Game shows, Tubi, we also watch some things on Twitch.

We hate to add more but we will need to add Showtime somehow again when Dexter starts in November.
cooper8828
2 years ago
I currently have Prime, Hulu, and Britbox. I do float in and out of subscriptions and Hulu is about to go. I have also had Netflix, Acorn, Peacock, Sling plus HBO. Once I run through what I want to watch, I turn it off and turn something else back on. I just use Roku with no cable.
bpath
2 years ago
We have Fire so along with Prime, Netflix, and Hulu, we also get things called Tubi and, oh, I don’t know, other things. Some we need to subscribe to, some have some free things and others that you havce to ”rent”. Some have commercials, and not well-placed, but at least they have a little countdown clock in the corner warning you that a commercial is coming up in 6 seconds. Otherwise it’s a little jarring to have the commercial come on in the middle of a sentence.

Commercials don’t bother me so much, they make sure I get up and move around to scoop the litter box, put something in the dishwasher, or pour a glass of wine.
maddielee
2 years ago
“I'm curious if those of you with subscriptions (other than carolb) have those on top of your cable tv costs and roughly what that runs or do you float in and out of subscriptions depending on what you want to see?”

Yes, we pay for cable and the streaming services. We have Frontier Fios (abt 166/month) for tv and internet. Added up it’s a lot, plus we also have the same at the lake cabin. . Some cable channels (Sports) that my husband watches aren’t available on streaming services.
Tina Marie
2 years ago
No cable, satellite, etc. or roku here. We have an HD atic antenna which gives us the locals and quite a few others. We have Fire TV and Amazon Prime. TBH we are not big on tv. We will occasionally watch a series on dvd.
3katz4me
Original Author
2 years ago
Wow - some of you really have a lot of services. A friend was telling me about YouTube TV yesterday. I was looking into that but it appears to be a substitute for cable - same stuff for $65/mo. We cut the cord on cable at home many years ago so no interest in that though we do have cable at our lake cabin because there’s no reception with an indoor antenna and I like to watch the news. I am going to see if YouTube is a better deal. We get fiberoptic internet, cable TV and mandatory VOIP phone bundle through a local cooperative so may be no savings if we dropped TV. I love the local coop people, unlike Comcast, so I’m not as anxious to dump their cable TV. About the only thing we watch though is the Golf channel and the news and some channel that plays Law and Order reruns - hundreds of channels and we watch a handful.
bpath
2 years ago
No cable or satellite for us, just an indoor ”Leaf” antenna on each tv. Anything free on Fire, Amazon Prime, and co-pay Netflix and Hulu with our son provide the bulk of our viewing. DH doesn’t watch broadcast at all except for PBS and ”Animals Unscripted” on a local channel. And occasionally MASH on another local channel.
Lars
2 years ago
I use Amazon Prime because already have Prime, and so it is not an additional cost. We also have Samsung smart TV and receive about a hundred free Samsung streaming channels. We have antennas on each TV as well and get over a hundred local channels in L.A. - not so many in Palm Springs.
tishtoshnm Zone 6/NM
2 years ago
Internet speeds in my area are so ridiculously substandard that streaming TV is not very attractive (we get about 3 mbps). We can watch, but it can be difficult depending on how many people are home and using the wi-fi. We have Disney Plus because one of the kids pays for it. We have Prime because of our Prime membership. We get Netflix for a couple of months at a time if there is a series we want to watch. We have an antenna that we pull out on Sundays during football season and have put up the rest of the time. Football is the only sport we watch and while we enjoy it, we do not enjoy it enough to pay for access for Monday or Thursday night games. If there is a series we find interesting, we often grab the DVDs from the library if we can. I do like Britbox in the winter.
cawaps
2 years ago
I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+. The Hulu/Disney+ bundle makes it cost effective to have both, otherwise I'd be cycling in and out of Disney+. I like the original Marvel content, but there's really nothing else on there that I would be willing to pay for.

I probably watch Amazon the least. I don't seem to be their target audience as I find very little of their original programming appealing. But I think Prime pays for itself in free shipping, so the streaming is just gravy.

I also watch CW shows on their website for free and watch free content on YouTube and IMDB.
User
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
I'm so annoyed with these streaming wars, no way are we giving the news ones our money year round. We wait for free trials, binge the good shows, and then quit. Like CBS or Apple TV. For others (like HBO), we'll buy just one or two months. Then we wait a few years and repeat.

We also have Netflix and Hulu all the time, the cheaper plans. They get more disappointing every year.

I want to quit Prime. We usually order enough to qualify for fast shipping anyway. But we get secure "amazon key" deliveries in our garage, which that alone is worth it.
terezosa / terriks
2 years ago
We also use YouTubeTV as our primary source instead of cable or satellite. We are saving $100 a month vs what we paid for DirecTV.

We also subscribe to Prime Video and Netflix.

We subscribe to other services when they have content that we want to watch. I switch between BritBox and Acorn TV, and we have a very low cost Hulu subscription right now. When my daughter was here for a month and a half for the holidays she set up AppleTV + on our TV too, which I would be willing to pay for just to watch Ted Lasso.
User
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
terezosa / terriks Ted Lasso! yes. the programming on Apple TV is really good. they're giving out a free year with the purchase of an iphone, and you can watch that channel on just about any device-- it doesn't have to be an apple product.
bac717
2 years ago
We're getting Apple TV free for a year through T-mobile and are definitely enjoying being able to watch Ted Lasso.
terezosa / terriks
2 years ago
you can watch that channel on just about any device-- it doesn't have to be an apple product.

We watch on our Samsung TV via our Kindle Fire Stick. 😉
runninginplace
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
I am trapped for the time being with keeping UVerse TV as my main source for content. That's because I hate, loathe, despise, refuse to experience commercials! Other than the one hour of news we watch on our local affiliate each night I don't ever watch anything other than pre-recorded television and UVerse allows me to FF through all the commercials. I refuse to waste time waiting for dumb commercials to scroll their way through the 2-3-4 minutes allotted. Instead I record what I want to watch for later viewing when I can zip through the interruptions. No muss no fuss.

Unfortunately UVerse is going extinct, no longer offered by AT&T and in fact has been sold to an independent company. So I've been searching in vain for a streaming option that will let me watch commercial free and haven't found it yet. I tried Hulu+ Live with every bell and whistle (commercial free/expanded DVR) but no dice. Still commercials. And by the time I added all those options that didn't work anyway, I was at the same cost/month as just keeping UVerse. Sigh.

It evidently is the nature of streaming-content providers place embedded commercials that cannot be skipped so as a viewer you can not eliminate them.

If anyone knows of a truly commercial free alternative to trad cable like UVerse I'd love to hear it.

And to answer the actual question in the topic(!), in addition to UVerse I have Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBOMax, DIscovery+, basic Hulu and a slew of freebies like Kanopy that I get via my Roku. Those are enjoyable since that content can be generally watched commercial free.
Lukki Irish
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
“I am trapped for the time being with keeping UVerse TV as my main source for content.”

I used to feel the same way about Dish for the same reason. Commercials drive me nuts! . However between the weather disrupting the service and contractual disputes with the various channels, I finally got fed up with Dish and decided to look at other options. I put my service on a vacation hold for 6 months and started testing other services. I ended up going with Youtube TV and have for the most part, been really happy with it. It has 85 channels (including local live & PBS), costs 65/mo, offers free unlimited DVR space and just like Dish, anything that’s recorded allows scrolling through the channels. It also has the option for HBO, Stars and so on at an additional cost. To my surprise it feels much like any one of the Cable or Dish services out there. It’s an at will service, no contracts and they offer the first month as a free trial. When my month was up, I promptly cancelled my Dish service and haven’t looked back since.

The ONLY downfall I’ve experienced is the Live Guide as it only offers programming for a couple of days ahead at best. If I want to record something that’s showing a week out I can’t set it up to record right then, instead, I have to make a note and set it up when the live guide finally has it available. It’s surely an annoyance but with the quality of the service it’s not a deal breaker,
3katz4me
Original Author
2 years ago
@Lukki Irish - good to hear from someone who has YouTube TV. Does the standard $65/mo include HD streaming? I notice they had an extra fee for 4K and that made me wonder if the basic offering is HD or SD. Long ago when I had cable I did use DVR for a few things and that did help with the commercial problem.
nini804
2 years ago
We have AT&T cable bc I love local news, and dh MUST have all of the sports channels. In addition, we have Amazon Prime, Netflix, and AppleTV. I ADORE the shows on Apple…The Morning Show, Ted Lasso, Physical…so good. I also love the ”too young” for me shows on Netflix (Outer Banks, Emily in Paris, Ginny & Georgia) but it’s fun to watch with teenage dd, plus I just like them anyway! 😂 Oh, and I guess we have Hulu bc I saw it on the big Tv in the playroom, but one of the kids must be paying for it bc I don’t think I am. 😂

I am totally confused by all of this, obv obviously. 😂
terezosa / terriks
2 years ago
We watch local news and network shows on YouTubeTV. We can also record shows and fast forward through the commercials.

Something that's nice about cutting the cable is that you can place the TV anywhere you want - it doesn't need to be near a cable outlet.
Lukki Irish
2 years ago
nini, YouTube Tv is equal or serves the same purpose as ATT does. It has all those channels available, sports, news, local channels, you can put it on multiple tvs too. If you’re not happy with ATT, you might want to check it out to see if it would be a good fit for you.
Lukki Irish
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
2Katz, I’m not sure about that, but since it’s owned by Google, I would suspect so. The picture on my older Plasma is amazing. If you’re not sure, tell ATT you’ll be traveling and want to put the service on hold, there may be a small fee but at least that way you won’t have to pay for it while testing. There’s no contract for youtubeTV and you can cancel any time, plus it’s a month free if you decide not to stick with it. You just have to have a good internet service for it to stream well. I have Comcast’s mid range service (70/mo or so) and it does the job just fine.

ETA: I just found this on their site:

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3306741?hl=en
3katz4me thanked Lukki Irish
runninginplace
2 years ago
The ONLY downfall I’ve experienced is the Live Guide as it only offers programming for a couple of days ahead at best. If I want to record something that’s showing a week out I can’t set it up to record right then, instead, I have to make a note and set it up when the live guide finally has it available. It’s surely an annoyance but with the quality of the service it’s not a deal breaker,

Lukki, thanks for the Youtube suggestion, sounds like it might be what I'm seeking.

Re. the issue above, does this mean you can't set a show to record every first run episode? That's what I do for series; would I now have to set every episode to record a few days ahead?
Feathers11
2 years ago
When I moved last winter, my kids set up Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and local news apps on my TVs. I had DirectTV before, but don't miss it. I don't watch much TV.

However, I will check out YouTube TV for this winter, especially if there's no annual commitment. And I'll probably get Apple TV, too, since I saw a few "free trial" episodes of Ted Lasso and am hooked. But I'm in a really busy season now and don't have time to watch TV. I just started watching The Kominsky Method (yes, I'm that far behind on streaming), and it will keep me entertained for a few months.
ccrunneroklahoma
2 years ago
Streaming has been my life for the last 19 months. In addition to Netflix and Prime, we have Acorn, PBS Masterpiece, Britbox, HBO Max, Apple TV, Disney, maybe Paramount, MHz (foreign mysteries) and I’m probably forgetting some. I love mysteries and police procedurals from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France and Scandinavia.
3katz4me
Original Author
2 years ago
@Lukki Irish - thanks for that info! I don't have AT&T and we only have cable at our lake cabin because we can't get any reception with an indoor antenna. However I'm thinking we could do the free trial at home and see how it works. It might also eliminate the need for my unsightly Moho Leaf antennas.
daki
2 years ago
we use Netflix, purchased TV series on itunes, and we occasionally temporarily subscribe to one of others, like CBS/ Paramount for the Star Trek shows. We also have a subscription to Viki, for their subtitled Korean dramas - they are occasionally a refreshing change of pace from the US shows. Some are really bad, but others are decent and fun to watch.
terezosa / terriks
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
When we signed up for YouTubeTV the free trial period was only two weeks, which was fine for us because we decided within the first few days to switch.

They may offer longer trial periods occasionally, or sometimes in conjunction with other services, for example I saw that Verizon had an offer that included a month of YouTubeTV.

This article has info on the free trial periods: https://filmdaily.co/news/youtube-tv-trial/
Judi
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Netflix year round.

I take advantage of freebies from other services from time to time. This summer had Hulu and HBO Max for a month. Right now it's Prime for a couple more weeks. May actually subscribe to that one for a month to finish watching Billions.

Thinking about trying BritBox next time they offer a freebie.

There's a new series on Paramount Plus I'd like to see, Mayor of Kingstown, but won't sign up until all episodes drop.

What streaming services do you use?

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