I’ve been writing a monthly streaming preview column for MarketWatch just over a year ago, advising readers what streaming services they should pay for next month. With the sheer volume of streaming content today, a shake-up strategy – adding and dropping certain services month by month – can save you money and keep you ahead of the pop culture curve.
Research has found that most consumers don’t want to pay more than $ 40 to $ 50 a month for streaming, and there are many creative ways to watch everything you want, while keeping that kind of budget. Do you love “The Mandalorian”, but are you bored with everything else at Disney +? So there is no reason to sign up for more than a month or two. Do you have an Amazon Prime Video subscription, but go months without watching it? This is just money down the drain.
Getting the most out of streaming while paying the least comes down to three basic rules:
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If you’re not watching enough service, give up.
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If you want to add a new service to watch a specific program that launches new episodes every week, wait until it ends (or reaches the last episodes) so that you can enjoy the entire season for just one month. And remember to cancel after 30 days.
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Don’t be afraid to sign a long-term contract with services that you know will be of great assistance.
I went back to see how my monthly 2020 choices behaved, with the benefit of a retrospective, and I also compared my choices with other reviews to see what I may have missed. In short, I found that consumers would have done better last year with a Netflix NFLX subscription,
and package Disney + and Hulu (ESPN + comes with that too), for a combined total of about $ 27 a month, with a potential fanfare for HBO Max (which would total $ 42 a month) or Amazon Prime Video (US $ 40 per month in total). Quality? Checks. Amount? Checks. Accessible? Checks.
But it’s all about being flexible, and the new year is a good time to consider a different approach, as an annual subscription to the go-to service can also be an economical way to go.
An annual Disney + subscription, for example, currently costs $ 69.99, a savings of around $ 16 on a monthly subscription, and is a double bargain now because Disney DIS,
it is raising prices in late March to $ 7.99 a month and $ 79.99 annually. If you know you’re going to be watching all of the upcoming Marvel and “Star Wars” series in 2021, then it’s worth pulling the trigger for an annual subscription now, before prices go up.
HBO Max will have a successful year, thanks to Warner Bros. film streaming. in service the same day they opened in theaters, and is offering a 20% discount for six months ($ 69.99 in total) to new subscribers – expensive, but still a good deal, as HBO rarely sets prices with discount.
The start of the year is also a good time to check out what other businesses you may qualify for. Not everyone understands Amazon.com’s AMZN,
The Prime subscription for deliveries automatically comes with a Video Prime subscription. Apple AAPL,
it even offers a free 12-month trial of Apple TV + if you buy a new device. And check with your cell and cable / internet providers – Comcast CMCSA,
Cox, AT&T T,
and Verizon VZ,
among others, it offers free offers for various streaming services to its customers. You can’t beat the free one, just search a bit to find the right offers.
To get an idea of what services you want in 2021, review what you liked in 2020. I compared my monthly picks to critics’ year-end lists and my own list of this year’s favorite series.
Each month, I assigned major streaming services a rating: “Play”, “pause” or “stop”, similar to the buy, hold and sell investment analyst ratings in an effort to guide viewers to the best services for the money. In 2020, Netflix was my clear winner, with a perfect record of 12 “plays”. Here’s how the rest was evaluated:
| Service | Touch | Break | Stop |
|
Netflix |
12 |
||
|
Hulu |
5 |
7 |
|
|
Disney + |
5 |
7 |
|
|
Amazon Prime Video |
4 |
4 |
4 |
|
HBO Max |
two |
1 |
5 |
|
Apple TV + |
1 |
11 |
|
|
CBS All Access |
1 |
11 |
|
|
Peacock |
6 |
But a look at the main programs was a little different.
The best of 2020
Here are my favorite streaming series from 2020:
- “I May Destroy You” (HBO Max)
- “Ted Lasso” (Apple TV +)
- “The Mandalorian” (Disney +)
- “What we do in the shadows” (FX / Hulu)
- “Betty” (HBO Max)
- “Harley Quinn” (HBO Max)
- “ZeroZeroZero” (Amazon Prime Video)
- “Bojack Horseman” (Netflix)
- “Ramy” (Hulu)
- “Dark” (Netflix)
- Honorable mention: “High Fidelity” (Hulu), “The Queen’s Gambit” (Netflix), “How to With John Wilson” (HBO Max), “Lovecraft Country” (HBO Max), “Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet” (Apple TV +), “The Expanse” (Amazon Prime Video), “The Flight Attendant” (HBO Max), “Devs” (Hulu)
There are six from HBO Max, four from Hulu, three from Netflix, two from each of Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV +, and one from Disney +.
And since I apparently had a lot of time available, I compiled more than a dozen lists of the “best” end-of-year critics from TV * to discover the programs most praised by the critics of 2020 and thus find out which streaming services had the best shows.
Based on my calculations, HBO Max was by far the best service, with 75 mentions of the show overall, followed by Hulu (62), Netflix (52) and then a big gap for Apple TV + (10 ), Peacock and Disney + (5 each), Amazon Prime Video (4) and CBS All Access (3). This suggests that I probably rated Amazon Prime very high and HBO Max very low in my monthly choices.
(Disclaimer: I have classified HBO Max as a “stop” so many times because, for much of its brief history, the service has not been accessible to about half of streaming viewers – those using Roku and Amazon Fire streaming devices TV, as well as Comcast’s Xfinity X1 There’s no point in paying for the most expensive service if you can’t watch it on TV, but last month AT&T’s WarnerMedia closed HBO Max’s licensing deals with Amazon, Roku ROKU,
Sony’s SNE,
Playstation 5 and Comcast console, greatly expanding your audience. Now that almost everyone can get it, consider HBO Max back to my good graces. Meanwhile, Disney + was recommended frequently because it has become a must for families with young children.)
So, taking everything into account above, here is the final result:
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Netflix may have been the most popular service, but it wasn’t the best.
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HBO Max was the highest quality service, but the least consumer friendly (although the Roku / Amazon Fire TV problem has been resolved, it is still the most expensive).
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Hulu was the best value for your investment.
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Apple TV + had some gems, but was hampered by its shallow library.
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Disney + had some successes, but it went on for many months without major additions (this will change in 2021 with the Marvel attack).
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Amazon Prime Video was a success and a failure.
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Peacock and CBS All Access were generally late.
But changes are underway and that dynamic is expected to change in 2021, as Disney +, Apple TV + and Peacock dramatically increase their originals, and HBO Max has a list of new shows that may be even more impressive than its lineup. of eye-popping movies. Much more about that tomorrow, in my 2021 preview.
(For what it’s worth, here are the year-end lists I’ve compiled from: Vulture, The Ringer, The AV Club, NPR, New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Paste Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter , Variety and weekly entertainment.)