Streaming TV shows and movies used to be affordable when there were only one or two major streaming platforms. These days, there are almost too many to count, and the prices continue to rise. I’ve ditched several of my streaming subscriptions, but here are the four I’ve kept.
Netflix
Still the king of water-cooler moments
Netflix was the streaming service that changed the game. In the good old days, Netflix was really the only player in town, and with just one subscription, you could access a huge range of shows and movies. As more services launched, popular shows and movies left Netflix and ended up on other sites.
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Despite that, Netflix is still the place to go for some of the best shows and movies that you can’t get anywhere else. Netflix Originals such as Stranger Things and Squid Game have become cultural phenomena, and they’re never going to be available anywhere but on Netflix.
That makes Netflix a must-have subscription if you want to be part of those water-cooler conversations about the latest smash-hit shows and movies. Without Netflix, I wouldn’t be able to watch and discuss shows like Beef and Bridgerton, and my kids wouldn’t be able to watch KPop Demon Hunters for the 8,000th time.
- Subscription with ads
-
Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous streams
-
Two or four
Stream licensed and original programming with a monthly Netflix subscription.
Disney+
My kids would never forgive me
Thanks to my kids, there’s another subscription that I’m not going to be able to ditch, and that’s Disney+. As you might expect, Disney+ is packed with a ton of great kids’ shows and movies, including almost the entire Disney and Pixar animated movie catalog. If you have Hulu bundled with Disney+, you get even more shows and movies included.
Aside from Disney and Pixar, there are plenty of other shows that my kids love, such as The Amazing World of Gumball and Bluey. If you haven’t watched Bluey, I highly recommend it; it’s incredibly heartwarming, and there’s plenty for adults to enjoy.
Disney+ has plenty for parents, too. It has a huge library of Marvel and Star Wars content, and Hulu adds incredible shows such as Shogun, Only Murders in the Building, and The Bear. You can relive your youth watching every episode of Boy Meets World or the new revival of Malcolm in the Middle.
If I ever decided to cancel Disney+, my kids would never speak to me again. Neither would my wife, as we’d no longer be able to watch our guilty pleasure show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
- Subscription with ads
-
Yes, the Disney Basic plan
- Simultaneous streams
-
Up to 4
Family favorites, old classics, and exciting new TV all in one place.
Apple TV
A shared subscription makes this a bargain
While Netflix and Disney+ are subscriptions that I reluctantly pay for because I don’t want to miss out on the shows and movies they offer, there are two more subscriptions I’ve kept because they’re great value for money. The first is Apple TV.
Apple TV is a strange streaming service. Unlike most other options, the vast majority of the content is original shows and movies. While this means that Apple TV doesn’t have the huge catalogs of some other streaming services, what it does have is often excellent.
Apple TV has its own share of must-see water cooler shows, including huge hits such as Severance and Pluribus. It also has some criminally underrated shows, including For All Mankind, Slow Horses, Shrinking, and Silo.
Aside from the great content, the main reason why I haven’t ditched Apple TV is that it can be a steal if you pay for it the right way. An Apple One Family plan costs $25.95 per month, which sounds like a lot until you realize that it covers up to six people, so you can potentially split the cost six ways, with each person paying around $4.33.
For under $5, every subscriber gets access to Apple TV, but they also get 200 GB of iCloud+ storage, Apple Arcade, and Apple Music. It’s well worth paying $5 for Apple Music alone, so everything on top is just a bonus.
- Subscription with ads
-
No
- Simultaneous streams
-
6
Apple TV is the only place where you can stream shows like Severance and Ted Lasso and movies like The Lost Bus and CODA.
Prime Video
I already pay for a Prime membership
The final streaming subscription that I’ve kept is one that I have no reason to cancel — it’s bundled with something I already pay for. I have an Amazon Prime subscription that I use to get free next-day delivery when shopping, and the subscription includes access to Prime Video.
I’d probably keep the subscription even if Prime Video wasn’t included, so there’s really no reason for me to cancel it. However, Prime Video also has some excellent content of its own.
There are some great original shows such as The Boys, Fallout, and Reacher, as well as sleeper hits such as Jury Duty. There’s also an ever-changing roster of other shows and movies to watch, aside from Prime originals.
Prime Video has started to include ads with the standard subscription, which is annoying, as it had previously been ad-free. This still isn’t enough to make me ditch a subscription that I’m essentially getting for free.
- Subscription with ads
-
Yes, via Prime membership or $9/month
- Simultaneous streams
-
3
Prime Video has a large volume of content to watch. The other Amazon perks are a bonus as well.
Streaming costs are getting out of hand
It’s gotten to the point where subscribing to every streaming service has become far too expensive to make sense. I’m happy sticking to paying for two main services and taking advantage of two more that are included with other subscriptions.
