It needs to be part of your streaming life

Discovery’s new streaming service has finally arrived.

The company’s official entry into the streaming wars brought all of Discovery’s assets under one roof, with everything from real crimes to reality shows and nature documentaries. Discovery + is home to tens of thousands of episodes of traditional broadcast channels, such as HGTV, History Channel, A&E, Food Network and more. And it’s not just old stuff – Discovery says it plans to bring more than 1,000 hours of original content to the platform in its first year, with more than 50 exclusives available on the service at launch. It’s a good amount of content to offer potential subscribers right from the start.

But the service charges for both ad-free and supported layers, which cost $ 5 and $ 7 a month, respectively. You really need to add another paid streaming service to your portfolio, especially when so many others launched last year? Maybe not. But I encourage anyone to give Discovery + a try before canceling it. Not only were his originals and exclusives from the natural world a big draw for me personally, as well as everyone else David Attenborough drives around, but Discovery + delivered an excellent product at launch that, at the very least, will present something new to the your limited premium content options.

Now, I’m not sure what your quarantine content diet has been like, but I survived mainly by watching real TV shows (I know, I know) and many documentaries about the natural world and space phenomena. I’ll watch it anywhere I can find it: Netflix, Apple TV, PBS, anything. If that sounds like you, reader, I have some great news: Discovery + is a hodgepodge of just that sort of thing, thanks to Discovery’s own resources and the BBC’s exclusive programming, which includes Planet Earth, Blue planet, Serengetiand The mating game. Attenborough also narrates the original Discovery + A perfect planet, a series of five parts of the same people behind Planet Earth. This alone should be reason enough to activate at least one of several free trial offers the service is running.

But that is not all. Honestly, I was surprised by the amount of variety represented on launch day and how easy it was to find things to watch by genre or channel. The lines on the home page make it easy to find new originals, featured content, trend series and your personalized watch list. I would like the service to make finding 4K content a little easier. At the moment, 4K is limited to a handful of series from the natural world, such as Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II on platforms that support it. But we should expect more 4K content to come into service eventually – potentially later this year.

In terms of support, Discovery + has had a refreshing launch on most major platforms, including Xbox, Fire TV, Roku, Apple, Android, Samsung smart TVs and Chromecast, including its latest version with Google TV. I am currently testing a Vizio OLED TVand while I was unable to open the app on the TV itself, I managed to cast Discovery + to the TV on my iPhone 11. I asked Discovery if it planned to add support for other smart TVs that run proprietary software, including LG and Vizio, aAnd while the company had nothing immediate to share, it appears that Discovery is working to expand support.

Each of Discovery’s dozens of brands has its own bubble on a slider on the home page, as well as content categories such as lifestyle, adventure and exploration, paranormal and unexplained, documentaries, as well as science and technology, among others. It was immediately clear to me that, instead of simply putting together a bunch of seemingly unrelated brands and hoping it would work (cough HBO Max cough), Discovery thought a lot about the organization and the design. It just works.

Now, you may be wondering how, with tens of thousands of episodes available at launch, Discovery ranks all of its various brands and titles to serve you something to watch. The company uses its own proprietary algorithm that takes into account a number of factors about its viewing habits and, while considering page views, the company does not specifically comment on how its system works. But when it comes to user-specific content recommendations, it helps that Discovery + makes user profiles available immediately. Five profiles are supported per account, and the service allows up to four simultaneous streams. This means that a subscription can cover almost everyone in an average family.

What about the originals? You will probably know before you sign up if you are a superfan of Chip and Joanna Gaines – and there must be many because Discovery leans towards this marital venture. very difficult – or the kind of idiot wearing a foil hat that will tune into a new Blue Book Project series (it’s me). But I was pleasantly surprised by the number of titles that I will definitely add to the watch list that I desperately need to overcome what remains of the winter. (I hesitate to admit that these titles include a paranormal joint called Amityville Horror House, but listen, we’re all doing our best now.)

Discovery + will not replace your Netflix subscription, and Discovery’s leadership itself has said so. But Discovery + is, as CEO David Zaslav described recently, a “perfect complement” to its core cable cutting solutions portfolio. And who knows! This may just surprise you. As far as streaming releases are concerned, this is exceptionally exceptional.

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• This newly launched streaming service brings all of Discovery’s assets under one roof, including HGTV, History Channel, A&E, Food Network, Discovery Channel and more.
• Discovery + is the exclusive home of BBC nature programming, including a new series by David Attenborough.
• Each profile supports up to five user profiles and four simultaneous streams.
• Both subscription levels are paid, with one offering ad-supported content for $ 5 a month and the other without ads for $ 7 a month.