Below is a look at the most exasperating news from streaming services from this week. The scale of this article demonstrates how fast and frequently disappointing streaming news arises. Coincidentally, as we wrote this article, another price hike was announced.
We’ll also examine each streaming platform’s financial status to get an idea of what these companies are thinking (spoiler: They’re thinking about money).
Netflix starts killing its cheapest ad-free plan in June
Sony bumps Crunchyroll prices weeks after shuttering Funimation
Peacock is raising prices
Fubo cuts 19 channels
In a seemingly desperate push, many streaming services prioritize revenue and profits ahead of building the best streaming service for customers.
We could go on about how this might force people to reconsider their subscriptions, but we should publish before another service makes yet another policy change.
I canceled my Hulu+Disney+whatever package this week, as well as my Netflix. Piracy all the way.
What do you use?
I’m not a cop btw
USENET, Sonarr and Radarr. It’s a godsend
NZBGet, Overseerr and Lidarr as well.
Stremio & Real Debrid is soooo much easier than the self hosted approach, and is a piece of piss to set up
Honestly, it’s even solid without the Real Debrid addition (though I use Real-Debrid and think it’s great). Just add the Torrentio add-on and you’ll have tons of streams for just about everything.
Are we talking easier than Plex+ VPN and torrent? My buddy can access all his content anywhere he can login to Plex. It just means pre-downloading.
Genuinely curious if it’s worth giving up an already setup Plex server to look into this.
I haven’t given up on my Plex server but this is so much easier. Hand my kids the remote and they can navigate the Stremio app and watch whatever without me having to hunt for it.
Way easier, the catalogs are ready for you, you don’t need to download anything in advance, you can use it in any device too.
If you use real debrid, there’s no need for VPN either. So it’s cheaper also.
It’s also very low in maintenance, I touch my configuration every 3 months to update my details and that’s it.
Streamio and RD are so easy that even my luddite wife can test all the linux distros she wants without my help.
Personally I set up my own plex server, and have been recruiting family to switch from paid streaming services to me, plus I have a few friends and family with servers so between us we have plenty of coverage and fallbacks
Plex server on a purpose built Linux box with about 34tb. I mostly use Usenet for sourcing stuff, because it’s so quick and comparatively private, but I also use torrents for some harder to find stuff. I also buy a lot of the more obscure music I want from Bandcamp and just download the highest quality version.
I ran in parralel with my streaming services for a month, just in case I ever had trouble finding current shows we’re watching, but I’ve never had trouble finding good quality rips of shows the same day they are released.
I just can’t tell you how good it feels to look at my TV, movies, and music collection and know that it’s mine. Every episode and song and film is mine to store and protect, and not subject someone else’s license agreements.
suspicious
Pb + plex = win
FMHY
Stremio + Real debrid.
Stremio is a platform to watch any media you like (works very similar to Plex), you can use it as it is, and install the plugins that are more useful to you (torrentio for example). If your country has strict laws, then you can use real debrid to convert the torrents to direct downloads, you just need to open an account in real debrid, pay a few dollars a month (no need to pay for a VPN as direct downloads are ok), and link your account to stremio, and then you’ll have access to lots of content.
But I only use it to watch the latest linux distributions, nothing like spending a Sunday afternoon watching Fedora 40 while it’s raining outside.