To Subscribe Or Not To Subscribe, That Is The Question: Paid Streaming Services

[Jaded]

Paramount+ Removes 9 Shows Ahead of Showtime Merger — Have These 5 Original Series Been Cancelled?
 

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Ahead of a planned merger with Showtime, Paramount+ has removed nine original series from its platform, including The Real World: Homecoming, comedies Guilty Party (starring Kate Beckinsale), No Activity (starring Patrick Brammall and Tim Meadows) and Players, and the live-action children’s show The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder — none of which have been formally cancelled as of press time.

In addition, Paramount+ has scrubbed previously axed series Coyote (starring Michael Chiklis), The Harper House, Interrogation (starring Peter Sarsgaard) and The Twilight Zone (2019).

Showtime has also been busy removing titles from its library ahead of the merger. Series no longer available include Jim Carrey’s Kidding, Kirsten Dunst’s On Becoming a God in Central Florida, Jeff Daniels’ American Rust (which is moving to Amazon’s Freevee for Season 2) and recently cancelled duo American Gigolo and Let the Right One In. Interestingly, Season 1 of the business-world anthology Super Pumped, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, has been removed as well, though the series was previously renewed for a second season that is said to center on the rise of Facebook under Mark Zuckerberg.

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Jaded

[Anela]

I just started the Kirsten Dunst show, the other night, but decided to wait until I was more in the mood for it. What the hell? This is so annoying. I also started Super Pumped, and decided to wait a little bit longer, too. Damn.

I saw something about The Twilight Zone airing on SyFy now, but I don't have cable, and don't want another app. 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Anela

[roseha]

I canceled Netflix a few months ago when I realized that I wasn't watching it at all, and then I canceled my HBO Max trial after watching a couple of fine documentaries  - on Orson Welles and his art, and the unique New York fashion photographer Bill Cunningham - and then realized that was it for me.

What I find I am still watching is the Criterion Channel.  They have so many classic films that it's easy for me to find one that I've never seen before, and I'm kind of in the mood right now to watch something in the evening that's not too heavy.   Theoretically I could also see this kind of thing on TCM (and I have Watch TCM since I still have a bare bones cable plan) but it's good to have the other option as long as I find myself watching it.

[cynicat]

I'm finding Tubi to be a free hidden gem.  There are some really good non-mainstream documentaries, true crime/forensic shows and even a few fascinating reality shows.

[Jaded]

11 hours ago, cynicat said:

I'm finding Tubi to be a free hidden gem.  There are some really good non-mainstream documentaries, true crime/forensic shows and even a few fascinating reality shows.

HBO Max’s Abandoned TV Shows Adopted by Tubi and Roku

[meowmommy]

On 2/2/2023 at 3:35 AM, cynicat said:

I'm finding Tubi to be a free hidden gem.  There are some really good non-mainstream documentaries, true crime/forensic shows and even a few fascinating reality shows.

If you can stand the ads -- and to me, they are less intrusive and shorter than other streaming services -- you can find an amazing number of titles from all different genres and countries.  For a while I was hooked on MasterChef Australia.  And one night I had an itch to rewatch A Few Good Men.  The few commercial breaks were actually welcome.  Not bad for a free service.

My cable subscription includes a premium channel bundle of HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, and Epix, but not Paramount.  I don't receive itemized charges for each premium service, just a bundled rate.  The cable company has already jacked up subscription rates this month.  So I'm wondering if they are more likely to take Showtime away or give me Paramount, and whether either of those changes would result in a rate adjustment.

On 2/1/2023 at 8:26 PM, roseha said:

What I find I am still watching is the Criterion Channel.  They have so many classic films that it's easy for me to find one that I've never seen before, and I'm kind of in the mood right now to watch something in the evening that's not too heavy.  

I find the best place for art house films is at Kanopy, through the library.  They tend to have a lot of the Criterion and A24 type films.  Also many of the Great Courses which do not count toward your monthly watching total.  Although with as many library cards as I have, it's not too hard to manage the monthly limits.

[Guest]

Netflix just rolled out the new password sharing restrictions to 4 more countries, including Canada. Extra users are more than was expected (7.99 CAD per person). 

[shapeshifter]

20 minutes ago, Dani said:

Netflix just rolled out the new password sharing restrictions to 4 more countries, including Canada. Extra users are more than was expected (7.99 CAD per person). 

per month?

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

per month?

Yes

[RealHousewife]

I feel like I'm the opposite of most people in that the streaming services I watch most to least are Peacock, then Hulu, then HBO Max, and last Netflix. I watch Housewife shows on Peacock and The View on Hulu since I'm at work when it airs. I probably watch HBO Max and Netflix about once a week each. 

[Broderbits]

I haven't had a Netflix subscription for more than 5 years.They had fewer and fewer new shows and movies for me to watch, so the asking price wasn't worth it. I had always thought HBO was a must-have until the recent merger. Now they are cancelling stuff willy-nilly and rarely have new movies. In fact, most recently the new releases I want to see have been on Peacock of all places; films like Nope and Tar, series like Poker Face. Even the latest Jurassic Park crap movie was on Peacock, not HBO.

[proserpina65]

On 1/3/2023 at 12:46 PM, proserpina65 said:

It only lists episode 6 under the "episodes" option, but I just clicked on my saved shows.  I'll try going back and searching to see if it will come up differently.  I may have to see if there's some kind of help/customer service listed for Peacock.  Just as well that I'm getting rid of Premium as soon as I'm done watching the show.

Quoting myself to say that, while I never figured out what the problem was, I finally gave up on trying to see the part of episode 5 I slept through and watched episode 6.  Fortunately the "previously" intro filled in most of the blanks.  Afterwards, when I went back to the My Stuff tab on the home screen for Peacock, all 6 episodes were there.  WTF?!

Thanks to everyone who tried to help me figure out this one.

Oh, and I'm keeping it at least until they re-run the Arsenal-Man City match since I won't be home to watch it tomorrow.

Edited February 14, 2023 by proserpina65

[peachmangosteen]

Paramount+ to Raise Prices as It Brings ’Yellowstone’ Spin-offs and ’Yellowjackets’ Together

Going from 9.99 to 11.99 and the ad-supported tier without Showtime is going from 4.99 to 5.99.

[Jaded]

Discovery+ to Remain Standalone Streaming Platform While Still Combining With HBO Max

[SunnyBeBe]

Does anyone else watch CBS on their app?  Lately, I’ve had trouble with it repeating scenes when it returns from a commercial.  It’ll replay the same scenes 2-3 times!  It’s outrageous!  I’ve read about this problem s few years ago, but only noticed it recently.  

[MaryMitch]

Cost of various streaming services, courtesy of Variety:

 

[Irlandesa]

Huh.  Today I learned Amazon had a Prime video only option.

[proserpina65]

I've decided I'm probably keeping Peacock until the end of the Premier League season.  Every time I think about dumping it, they run another Arsenal match and I end up watching it.

[ABay]

This is a question for anyone else with Amazon Prime Video. Can you see an edit button over the videos in the Continue Watching section of your Prime Video home page? It used to be there, I swear. I followed the same directions I used last time and it isn't there. Not on my PC, not on the TV, not on the Kindle. I've checked for updates, I've logged in and out, I spent about 40 minutes on chat with Amazon customer service last night and they couldn't solve it.

[tessaray]

I don't have an edit button in the Android phone app. I think there used to be one on the Shield TV app (also Android) but it's been awhile. 

[Ceindreadh]

Question for anyone who has cancelled Netflix or any other streaming service and then gone back to it.

Does your history and 'mylist' get deleted as well or would they be still there when you went back to it?

I'm in the middle of an analysis of my streaming services to see if there's any that I don't use enough to keep paying for, and would be worth dropping, at least temporarily, but I just wonder whether I'd be able to pick up where I left off if something really good showed up.

 

[Mittengirl]

I have dropped and resubbed to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Disney+ after varying amounts of time and I think they all still had my “favorites”, “watched” and whatever other lists I have made.

[meowmommy]

6 hours ago, ABay said:

This is a question for anyone else with Amazon Prime Video. Can you see an edit button over the videos in the Continue Watching section of your Prime Video home page? It used to be there, I swear. I followed the same directions I used last time and it isn't there. Not on my PC, not on the TV, not on the Kindle. I've checked for updates, I've logged in and out, I spent about 40 minutes on chat with Amazon customer service last night and they couldn't solve it.

I've never seen one on my Roku app, only a "more" button on Amazon.com.  And even there the only options offered are to watch the trailer or hide the movie from Continue Watching.  Not sure what kind of editing you're looking for.

24 minutes ago, Ceindreadh said:

Does your history and 'mylist' get deleted as well or would they be still there when you went back to it?

My understanding is that if you resub within nine months, your account settings including watchlist remain intact.  We cancelled for about seven months and went back and everything that the service hadn't gotten rid of was still there. 

Still pisses me, off, though, that they've stopped allowing users to sort their own damn playlists.  Half the time I have to use the search function to find what's in my list.  Might be time to unsub for a few months again.

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, Ceindreadh said:

Question for anyone who has cancelled Netflix or any other streaming service and then gone back to it.

Does your history and 'mylist' get deleted as well or would they be still there when you went back to it?

I'm in the middle of an analysis of my streaming services to see if there's any that I don't use enough to keep paying for, and would be worth dropping, at least temporarily, but I just wonder whether I'd be able to pick up where I left off if something really good showed up.

 

I cancel and resubscribe a lot and my account info has always still been there. Netflix deletes inactive accounts after 10 months. Disney+ and Hulu have no time frame listed and I have read of people resubscribing after a year without losing anything. 

[Irlandesa]

5 hours ago, meowmommy said:

Still pisses me, off, though, that they've stopped allowing users to sort their own damn playlists.  Half the time I have to use the search function to find what's in my list.  Might be time to unsub for a few months again.

Ugh.  And it wouldn't be so awful if things were easier to delete from your watch list but whenever I "remove" something, I'm sent back to the beginning of my playlist and I have to scroll scroll scroll to find where I left off.  I wish there were just a list of everything on my watchlist that I could "unclick" to remove.

[ABay]

13 hours ago, meowmommy said:

I've never seen one on my Roku app, only a "more" button on Amazon.com.  And even there the only options offered are to watch the trailer or hide the movie from Continue Watching.  Not sure what kind of editing you're looking for.

In the past, Edit appeared over the last Continue Watching item on screen. If you clicked it, a small box would appear in the upper right corner of each item so you could delete it. I did this a couple of months ago but now the edit box has disappeared.

[DearEvette]

On the Amazon Fire/Firestick, if all you are looking to do is remove a show from the "continue watching" list, there is a button on the remote with three horizontal lines.  It brings up a little mini menu with just three options:

-Add to Watchlist

-Remove from List

-Mute Previews

[ABay]

Unfortunately, Continue Watching and Watchlist are 2 different things. It's just maddening because I edited the Continue Watching list once and now can't do it.

I have found out how to delete things from my watch history but things I deleted are still in Continue Viewing. I've created a new profile just so I don't have to run through 50 things to get to what I actually do want to continue watching.

So fucking frustrating.

Edited March 6, 2023 by ABay

[Guest]

On 3/5/2023 at 9:11 AM, ABay said:

This is a question for anyone else with Amazon Prime Video. Can you see an edit button over the videos in the Continue Watching section of your Prime Video home page? It used to be there, I swear. I followed the same directions I used last time and it isn't there. Not on my PC, not on the TV, not on the Kindle. I've checked for updates, I've logged in and out, I spent about 40 minutes on chat with Amazon customer service last night and they couldn't solve it.

I still have the edit button when I go through Google chrome on my PC. On my phone app there is no edit but if I press and hold a title it gives me the option of hiding it. 

[ABay]

Thanks for this. I've been using Firefox, so I'll try Chrome tomorrow.

[Soapy Goddess]

Anyone notice that the Paramount+ fast-forward moves at 90mph?

[shapeshifter]

On 3/5/2023 at 6:42 PM, Ceindreadh said:

Question for anyone who has cancelled Netflix or any other streaming service and then gone back to it.

Does your history and 'mylist' get deleted as well or would they be still there when you went back to it?

I'm in the middle of an analysis of my streaming services to see if there's any that I don't use enough to keep paying for, and would be worth dropping, at least temporarily, but I just wonder whether I'd be able to pick up where I left off if something really good showed up.

Not with the same account, but, FWIW: 
November 2022 (3+ months ago), after a daughter canceled the Hulu account we were sharing, I signed up for a cheap starter deal, using an email I had not previously used for Hulu.
I don’t generally watch on my phone (iPhone 7+) these days,   
so yesterday when I accidentally-on-purpose opened the Hulu app on my phone (after reading a review), it warned me that there was a problem with the (cancelled account’s) login and that I should log out and log back in. 
*Then* when I clicked logout, it warned me that my saved stuff would be lost. 
I logged out anyway and logged in with the new credentials. 
I don’t recall that happening on my 2 Roku TVs or my laptop, so maybe it’s a device thing, or maybe it was triggered by the 3 months,   
or maybe it just deleted my old saved stuff on the other devices 3 months ago, and either it didn’t warn me, or I don’t remember the warning?

[ABay]

I know you're all dying for an update on my Amazon issue. The edit button doesn't show up for me in Chrome either, but I can at least hide things in the Continue Watching queue and that's essentially what I want. 

It annoys me no end that Amazon and Netflix will keep things in that queue even though they know damn well I watched it for 15 minutes a year ago and haven't been back.

[Bastet]

11 hours ago, Soapy Goddess said:

Anyone notice that the Paramount+ fast-forward moves at 90mph?

Holy hell, yes.  I don't use it very often, but have access to it via a friend's account.  I recently watched a movie on there and got distracted by my cat during a fast-moving scene, so I hit rewind to understand who'd done what.  In practically the blink of an eye it was back at the scene prior to that.  I'm used to pressing FF/Rew to go ten seconds, holding for 1x, continue holding for 2x, etc. but P+ apparently goes into hyperspeed if you so much as breathe on the button.

2 hours ago, ABay said:

It annoys me no end that Amazon and Netflix will keep things in that queue even though they know damn well I watched it for 15 minutes a year ago and haven't been back.

At least with Netflix it's easy to remove something from the Continue Watching list.  On Prime you can't do that with the remote while you're in the damn app, you have to log onto the website (and, apparently, even that's only partially working now based on your experience). 

(I haven't tried it; my access is through a friend's account, so, yeah, I could log into her account on my computer to remove shitty movies I gave up on/shows that auto-played after I'd fallen asleep watching something else from my Continue Watching and she wouldn't care, but it feels an extra step to log in and see ALL her Amazon info.)

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, Bastet said:

On Prime you can't do that with the remote while you're in the damn app, you have to log onto the website (and, apparently, even that's only partially working now based on your experience).

I can on the iOS app (press and hold) and through my roku (press settings). 

3 hours ago, ABay said:

I know you're all dying for an update on my Amazon issue. The edit button doesn't show up for me in Chrome either, but I can at least hide things in the Continue Watching queue and that's essentially what I want. 

 

Are you going through this webpage?

https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Video/b?ie=UTF8&node=2858778011

It’s the only way that gives me the edit option. Everything else gives the option to hide. There doesn’t seem to be any functional difference between hide and delete  

Here’s how it looks for me. 

[Bastet]

11 minutes ago, Dani said:

I can on the iOS app (press and hold) and through my roku (press settings). 

Press and hold does nothing on the Fire stick (other than, once you let go after holding, it brings up that title), and its Settings button used to allow me to remove a program from my watch list (if it was on there to begin with), but would inexplicably still leave it in Continue Watching.  I just tried it again, and finally -- now that removes it from the Continue Watching section as well.

[peachmangosteen]

This is reminding me of how annoying it is that there is apparently no way to remove things from Continue Watching on Peacock.

[SoMuchTV]

15 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

This is reminding me of how annoying it is that there is apparently no way to remove things from Continue Watching on Peacock.

Speaking of Peacock and annoying - is it just me, or is Peacock the only streamer that doesn’t let you turn off auto play the next episode?  As far as I can tell, if you don’t manage to grab your remote and hit the right buttons within the correct two second window, it’s off to the races!

[ABay]

2 hours ago, Dani said:

I can on the iOS app (press and hold) and through my roku (press settings). 

Are you going through this webpage?

https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Video/b?ie=UTF8&node=2858778011

It’s the only way that gives me the edit option. Everything else gives the option to hide. There doesn’t seem to be any functional difference between hide and delete 

Again, this is so maddening. I followed the link you posted but got the same result I have been getting: no result. As long as the hide option works, I can deal, but it's ridiculous that some of us can see the Edit button and some of us can't, and it doesn't seem to be consistent across devices, browsers, or operating systems.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

This is reminding me of how annoying it is that there is apparently no way to remove things from Continue Watching on Peacock.

 

5 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Speaking of Peacock and annoying - is it just me, or is Peacock the only streamer that doesn’t let you turn off auto play the next episode?  As far as I can tell, if you don’t manage to grab your remote and hit the right buttons within the correct two second window, it’s off to the races!

Two annoying features that combine to fill my continue watching section with things I never wanted to watch. I really dislike auto play when it decides to start a completely different show. 

Speaking of that, Paramount’s autoplay will sometimes to switch shows entirely rather than playing the next episode. 

[roseha]

4 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Speaking of Peacock and annoying - is it just me, or is Peacock the only streamer that doesn’t let you turn off auto play the next episode?  As far as I can tell, if you don’t manage to grab your remote and hit the right buttons within the correct two second window, it’s off to the races!

The last time I looked, Britbox also does this, which is particularly annoying because I'd be watching Vera, and it would jump to the next episode with another gloomy opening and another dead body.  One at a time please.

[shapeshifter]

18 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Speaking of Peacock and annoying - is it just me, or is Peacock the only streamer that doesn’t let you turn off auto play the next episode?  As far as I can tell, if you don’t manage to grab your remote and hit the right buttons within the correct two second window, it’s off to the races!

16 hours ago, Dani said:

Speaking of that, Paramount’s autoplay will sometimes to switch shows entirely rather than playing the next episode. 

Yeah, just like live TV, apps tend to all start another show.

BTW, I ❤️love❤️ your turn of phrase, “it’s off to the races!” @SoMuchTV.  
Mom liked to use that same figure of speech to express her exasperation at times, and probably would for streamers too.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Yeah, just like live TV, apps tend to all start another show.

I’ve really only noticed it with Paramount+ and Peacock. I know that Disney+ doesn’t do it. I think what makes it so bad with Paramount+ and Peacock is that the countdown seems much shorter. 

But my complaint with Paramount+ is that they will sometimes play a completely different show when there is a next episode available of the show I am currently watching. It happened repeatedly when I was rewatching Star Trek: TNG. Mid season the play next episode would be Star Trek: Voyager or Deep Space Nine. And their user interface is really laggy so I have had to exit the app completely to get the correct next episode to show in the continue watching section. 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Dani said:

But my complaint with Paramount+ is that they will sometimes play a completely different show when there is a next episode available of the show I am currently watching.

That happened to me once and I was totally confused.  I don't remember which app it was.  I hate automatically going to a different show when I'm done, so switching to another one when there are still episodes to go of the one I'm watching is extra aggravating.

I only stream in bed, as that's the only TV I have a Fire stick hooked up to (none of my TVs are "smart"), so I fall asleep to whatever I'm watching at some point.  I like that after a period of inactivity, Netflix will ask if I'm still watching, and if I don't respond, stop.  Other streaming services will just keep playing shit until I wake up again and stop it myself, which is how I wind up with completely random programming I need to remove from my Continue Watching list.

[jah1986]

21 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

This is reminding me of how annoying it is that there is apparently no way to remove things from Continue Watching on Peacock.

It is annoying, but if you go to the final episode of a series and fast forward to the end it will remove it from your continue watching list.

[peachmangosteen]

Thank you, I'll try that for the like 10 things on there that I never even intended to watch but I just didn't get to the cancel button quick enough on the autoplay. Fucking Peacock lol.

[peachmangosteen]

Is anyone else having problems with Disney+ on Firestick? My dad keeps complaining to me that it's not working for him lol.

[shapeshifter]

14 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Is anyone else having problems with Disney+ on Firestick? My dad keeps complaining to me that it's not working for him lol.

On Roku, when that happens with any app or channel, the first thing I try is uninstalling and reinstalling the app for that channel/streamer. It's easy on Roku, so I'm guessing it is on Firestick too? 

Edited March 9, 2023 by shapeshifter

[peachmangosteen]

41 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

On Roku, when that happens with any app or channel, the first thing I try is uninstalling and reinstalling the app for that channel/streamer. It's easy on Roku, so I'm guessing it is on Firestick too? 

He said he's done that multiple times. I swear, he's always having some kind of problem with his firestick.

[SoMuchTV]

15 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Is anyone else having problems with Disney+ on Firestick? My dad keeps complaining to me that it's not working for him lol.

Has he given you a more precise description of "not working"?  (He sounds like some unnamed males I may or may not know. "My internet's not working!")  App doesn't open at all?  Not showing his stuff?  Playback hanging up?  FWIW, I hadn't watched anything lately but I just pulled Disney+ up on my Firestick and didn't see any problems playing something in my "continue watching" list.

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I swear, he's always having some kind of problem with his firestick.

Another thought - is his Firestick fairly old?  I had one of the earlier ones and eventually it started having problems with some apps and not others.  I eventually replaced it when Amazon was running a special and things have been fine since.