I’ve been debating most of this year whether or not to continue with streaming services or just reply on physical media.
I‘m all about physical media, but streaming comes in handy for watching films you‘re not comfortable paying money for, or just watching something for something’s sake becaise as a film fan you know you have got to watch it.
Despite that, I currently subscribe to Amazon Prime, Netflix, Shudder, Disney+, and Arrow. I dip in and out of Mubi and I’ve tried Apple TV and Paramount+ which didn’t have enough for me to continue paying for them. Also used to have a Cineworld Unlimited card but I stopped that about a year ago because there wasn’t enough on frequently enough (due to lockdown and film releases being suspended).
There is only so much you can stomach paying for, even for a film fan like myself who watches between 600-1000 films a year. My first year of Disney+ comes to an end this monthl and while there’s still some stuff in my watchlist to get through, I won’t get through it all. Shame. Prime has the biggest warchlist to get through, so I can justify keeping that. Shudder and Arrow I might go back to every so often if I need to, and Netflix I can take or leave, but I kept it going a year or so ago because I‘d only watched the forst two series of Stranger Things, and I hadn’t watched the second series of Mindhunter. I’d drop it right now if I could buy all the Stranger Things in 4K for a sensible price. Might have to just settle for Bluray, which will still be better quality than 4K streaming anyway.
Every time I think of a film I want to watch that I don’t have, I can never find it anywhere on any of those five streaming services, it’s always on one I haven’t got - except to buy or rent, and I’m not paying even more money to rent, and I’m certainly not “buying” a film online for a tenner or more when I don’t actually own it and never will. I buy the odd film on iTunes if I really need to, but I never pay more than £5, and I’ll only pay that much if the film has only ever been released on DVD and the going rate on eBay is upwards of £20, or the limited Bluray release costs even more. I reckon I’m paying about £50 a month for streaming services, and I’m seriously thinking of halting them all and just spending that money on physical media. If I purchase Blurays I haven’t seen before within the £50/month, even if they turn out to be naff I’m not out of pocket, and I’ll get something back off them if I sell them on. I won’t include the expensive limited 4K sets I’ve been buying, as they’re my favourite films and I know I’ll get my money’s worth from them - stuff like the up and coming 4K Arrow box sets like Blood And Black Lace, Hellraiser, and Psycho. Other releases I’ll wit for the standard 4K releases to drop to under £15 or become part of a 2 for £20/25 offer. The only “box set” I bought on iTunes was Transformers, because I wasn’t going to pay £120, particularly as most of them are a bit pants. They came up on iTunes quite cheap in 4K so I thought I’d go for it. I switched off half way through the second one as they just had no bass. Their soundtrack had been altered to keep TV speakers and crappy soundbars safe (an increasingly common thing nowadays). That was a waste of money that won’t happen again.
Sure, I’ll end up with less space (a Kaleidoscape is tempting!), but at least I’ll have what I want to watch when I want to watch it. Browsing through Netflix recently I saw Knives Out: Glass Onion in the listing, so I thought I’d watch the two Knives Out movies again - but they don’t have the first film available! Last night I rewatched Wonderland, a TV movie about the Wonderland Murders in the 70s which involved the porn star John Holmes, and I thought I’d watch Boogie Nights tonight, as I haven’t seen it for years, and it’s based on John Holmes. Can I find it anywhere? No! So jumped online, Amazon, £7.98, it’ll be here tomorrow. Wasn’t any cheaper on eBay, but many films are available from World Of Books or Music Magpie on eBay for a few quid. Bought a number of 3D Blurays through them recently.
So by the end of this year, I could well be streaming service free. I think I’d rather pay zero money to streaming services (because their quality is a backwards step), and out my money into films I own and back into a Cineworld Unlimited card now cinemas have got back to normal. At least it’s doing something to help find cinemas, which are far more important to me than cash-grab streaming services. At least an average quality cinema is a real “experience” that no streaming service can provide.
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