I really like Discovery Plus. It has a very wide variety of shows from many of the cable channels.

Netflix is worth it. We also have Paramount+. We switched away from cable last summer, and now have Firestick and YouTube TV. And we love it. Wonder why we didn't do this long before.

Firestick isn't a service, it's the hardware dongle device brand. Similar to its hardware competitors Roku, Google Chromecast, Apple TV, etc. That is, these companies' hardware, not their content offerings. Buying one is no tie-in to their content and vice versa

I have YouTube TV and BritBox. I'm not sure where you are located, but for other shows and podcasts, PBS and public radio have offerings for subscribers included with the membership. You might also want to see what your local library makes available online.

Yes, Elmer, I know that Firestick is not a service, but used to easily access a lot of different subscriptions on my older TV.

Kanopy is free through your public library but not unlimited monthly views

Sushiup, the others listed do exactly the same thing as a Firestick.

We'd been using a Roku device on an older TV. We bought another TV, a smart one as all are now, and its user interface was awful. Easy solution, we put a Roku device on it too, by-passing the onboard smart features to use instead Roku's familiar and superior features.

I have a ROKU, Which means, I guess, That I can pretty much watch anything offered anywhere. (for a price). I also have Netflix mainly because of "The Crown". Haven't watched it much since then. Then I have prime for its obvious on line shopping benefits, plus some VERY important football games were shown only on prime. Then I also have PBS passport, which I highly recommend. I admit though to being a hopeless, dyed in the wool TV snob. I guess the one that is most often used here would be PBS. Hulu and Peacock etc. seem to offer mountains of stupid movies that I don't care for.

Thanks, everyone.

I guess I should have mentioned that my goal is to have the ability to download various forms of material to entertain myself on long fights, while keeping subscriptions to a minimum.

I would like to point out that you can turn most of them off and on at will, without contracts. So if you want to download a bunch of movies one month, sign up for netflix for a month. It there a series you like? They recently moved all the Star Trek series to Paramount plus which is an add on to Disney I think? We have a lot of shared family plan subscription services to keep costs down. You can switch it up monthly, turn it on, binge, turn it off. I received a youtube premium account as a gift and it is awesome. Now I am curious to see what youtube tv is. I have been having a lot of fun with my new GAIA TV subscription. It really depends what you are in to.

I can't speak to music or books, but relating to movies (or tv shows), managing subscriptions is a moving target these days!

For travel purposes, I think of it as analogous to choosing wardrobe/ doing laundry/ packing and just plan what to watch in advance and subscribe to that service, take the time to download for the trip, and then remember to cancel afterwards. So far I've been able to unsubscribe afterwards without much of a commitment (takes remembering and having the willpower to do the unsubscribing).

When I fly I like to binge tv shows - for example, I remember the show Alias Grace getting me through one long trip.

Do you have a library card? See if your library system has Hoopla, Cloud library, Libby, or others. Free.

Thanks, again! Many good suggestions which I'm looking forward to trying. :)