TV Tuesday: Streaming Expectations

[yourlibrarian]

Most major streaming services now have a lower-cost tier with ads or are completely ad supported. This article suggested other changes to the viewing experience may be on the way with breaking news interruptions What do you see as essential or desirable in the streaming experience?

Poll #29902 Streaming Expectations

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 37

View Respondents

What are your expectations for a streaming service?

View Answers

On demand viewing
32 (86.5%)

Being able to save stopping points across many shows
25 (67.6%)

Being able to watch across devices and locations
21 (56.8%)

No ads
25 (67.6%)

Automated recommendations
3 (8.1%)

Links to find related content
7 (18.9%)

Ability to share with others in different places
2 (5.4%)

Bonus content
1 (2.7%)

No promos of other content during the show
22 (59.5%)

Ability to create your own watchlist
22 (59.5%)

Shorter seasons for original content
2 (5.4%)

More accurate viewing numbers
6 (16.2%)

Something else I'll discuss in comments
6 (16.2%)

Comments

[donutsweeper]

I have enough other ways I will be notified of "breaking news." I don't want a streaming service to interrupt what I'm watching to inform me of whatever they consider important (and I really don't trust they'd only interrupt for something truly important rather than random celeb nonsense.)

My needs and wants for a streaming service are simple: let me chose something to watch, pause it and pick it up at that spot when I need to, and don't interrupt me while I'm watching it. Sadly, I feel like less and less services are interesting in this type of viewership.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, that's a huge issue with those sorts of interruptions -- not only unwanted but most often unmerited.

The writing was on the wall a few years back -- not enough people willing to pay for monthly service, or at least not enough to stem the red ink. Plus a lot of people wanted continuous broadcasting sort of services rather than picking and choosing content. It's pretty much the opposite of what I want.

[veritas_poet]

My thoughts, exactly. The only streaming service I watch / can (barely) afford right now is Britbox, and that is only for Classic Doctor Who. I can't stand ads/commercials of any kind. The thought of being freaking interrupted like that would make me cancel any subscription.

[rodo]

I guess I'm a pretty simple person when it comes to ads: I accept them if I don't pay for TV or movies. I don't accept them if I do. So this mixed tier is just a big no for me. Basically, the only form of promotion I accept from Netflix and co is those incredibly blatant product placements in Korean dramas - and that's only because they're part of the show (and I still wish they weren't).

[yourlibrarian]

Product placement is definitely a mixed bag for me. Sometimes it throws me right out of a story. Other times it can actually be a nice in-joke or fannish thing. There's certainly an art to making it natural.

But I agree -- if I have to sit through more than 1 ad when watching a show, I don't want to be paying for it.

[feurioo]

Old topic (sorry!): Original audio and the availability of subtitles in my language of choice. Today, for example, I saw that Prime Video only offers Broadchurch in German. Disney+, on the other hand, has it with the original audio in place but only with German or French subtitles?! The joke: They don't even offer German or French dubbing.

Other things I prefer:
- settings for general language preferences (interface, sub, dub)
- the ability to make profiles (mainly for sharing the service with friends and family members)
- being able to download content for offline viewing

I adore the idea of bonus content but I don't really like the way Prime Video, for example, has implemented the feature. It felt like such a hassle looking for the Good Omens 2 bonus material, and I'm really happy that it already made its way onto YouTube. Likewise, not a fan of the skippable ads Prime Video sometimes puts in front of shows/movies. I could overlook it if it were similar content based on my general preferences or the content I'm about to watch, but I've been seeing the same annoying Jennifer Lopez movie ad throughout the entire first season of Deadloch...

Ads are okay in my book if it concerns things like Freevee on Amazon. However, they shouldn't be an unskippable part of the streaming experience I pay for.

[yourlibrarian]

Someone else also mentioned captions and downloading content. The profile thing annoys me enormously -- not that they offer profiles, I get why those are useful. But given that my services only have 1 user then there should be a way to disable that so I don't always have to click through the profile screen when opening the service.

I haven't used Prime much so I didn't even know they offered it. Disney+ does though and makes it pretty easy to access. Most of the time it's nothing more than a trailer, but sometimes there are behind the scenes featurettes or interviews or other things found on DVD releases.

[feurioo]

As far as I know, the only way to access Prime Video bonus content is by clicking on the screen while you are currently watching the show/movie. In the case of GO2, you can only access episode- or even scene-specific bonus content (or trivia) by viewing the episode/scene in question. It's really a weird choice considering they have an extra discover tab for character intros and two, three short trailers.

[8hyenas]

If I'm paying then I feel like I'm paying for there to be zero ads (or news!?). I like related show previews though.

I do REALLY like the algorithm/recommending that some streaming services have. I'm always worried I'm missing out on another great show because my ways of finding shows are so unreliable.

[yourlibrarian]

Heh, funny you should mention previews because Paramount+ does this before most episodes and I hate it! For one thing, I either don't need the reminder or wouldn't be interested anyway, plus they are often repetitive. Secondly, I want to start the show right away and I can't forward through those.

But yes, the payment options for no-ad service are definitely increasing. Some of it I mind less, because it's the result of services merging and thus giving me more content options. I've heard Disney+ may end up absorbing Hulu, though this shouldn't change the bundle cost if they do.

[8hyenas]

I have to admit. I don’t actually have any streaming subscriptions as my internet won’t support them. I didn’t realize you couldn’t skip the previews!

[fadedwings]

Ads are a big no for me, especially if I'm paying for the service. When I try out streaming with ads I end up watching very little television. I also need captions which most things have these days but it's still a requirement for me as I have severe hearing loss.

I also like to be able to download stuff for watching offline because with three people sharing our crappy internet, it can often be necessary or the buffering makes watching nearly impossible with some streaming services Disney+ and HBO Max - or whatever it's calling itself these days - are the worst for that, and Paramount+ is pretty bad too.
Though I don't have Max anymore and am unlikely to get it again - especially now as they seem to be the ones planning on "breaking news" That's a big no for me as well.

If everyone goes for ads and breaking news interruptions I'd likely give up on steaming services altogether, honestly.

[yourlibrarian]

Ah yes! I should have thought of captions given we just did a different poll about those. And you're right about watching offline, which can not only improve viewing but also be helpful in terms of watching in more locations.

One thing that would definitely put me off ads is I've seen reports from people that the insertion of ads doesn't always work right, leading to errors in playback.

[jo]

I didn't tick the "something else I'll discuss in comments" option but in retrospect, I should have. I would dearly love an "I've already watched this" option, either for entire shows or for earlier seasons of certain shows. Netflix regularly recommends shows to me that I've already seen --- sometimes shows I've seen ON NETFLIX!!! Do they not keep track of that sort of thing? Or when there's a show that maybe started off on a US network, was dropped, but then picked up by Netflix for additional seasons (e.g. Manifest, Lucifer, etc.), it will keep trying to get me to watch the seasons I've already seen because I watched the show when it was properly on TV.

[yourlibrarian]

I so understand what you mean here. I don't mind them putting stuff in a "watch again" grouping because many viewers do like doing that. But I also would like to be able to mark stuff as already tried out (even more so than watched in full, since I'm more likely to remember those)

[jo]

Which reminds me of another Netflix thing... I'd noticed some months back that they'd finally added a "Remove from my continue watching list" option. However, I've yet to get a show to actually disappear from my Continue Watching list using that option. I repeatedly click it, but yet, the show is always still there the next time I log onto Netflix (on my SmartTV using the Netflix app -- that's the only place I watch Netflix). The only way to truly get a show to disappear is by logging into Netflix on my computer, looking for my viewing history, selecting an episode of that show, and then clicking "Hide" (or whatever the option is) and then it asks you if you want to remove the entire series or just that episode. It would be nice if the "Get rid of this show" option actually worked in the TV app.

[naushika]

In theory I would say no ads, but it kind of depends on the price point for me. Last winter Peacock was running a special, $1.99/mo for a year's subscription, so I signed up. I do get the occasional ads during some Peacock stuff when I'm watching, or other things just have a couple minutes of ads before playing the show/movie uninterrupted. Since I am paying only 2 bucks a month I am willing to put up with it, since the ads are so sparse. However if I were paying $8+/mo I would want there to be no ads at all. So to me, price combined with the severity of the ads both contribute to what I am willing to tolerate.

Honestly, I don't want much else from my streaming. I want to watch what I want to watch on demand, and I want relatively few interruptions. Ideally, no interruptions, ESPECIALLY not for 'breaking news,' which is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard and I don't know what marketing genius thought anybody wanted that at all? Lol.

[yourlibrarian]

That makes perfect sense in terms of the ratio of annoyance vs actual costs. And there are definitely some good deals out there for annual subscriptions. I get a monthly rebate from a credit card for an ongoing subscription.

[olivermoss]

I would drop any streaming service if I couldn't opt out of breaking news. There are so many reasons why. It wouldn't be used just for earthquakes or actually time critical information. *&*&^*%ing microsoft keeps putting trending news into my searches when I am looking for files on my own computer and so much of it is Hunter Biden's bloody laptop. Choosing what news people see, whether they like it or not, yeah, HARD nope. I'd be so out of there.

[yourlibrarian]

Yeah it would sure shorten my subscriptions. And I hear you about having content being forced on you from every direction. I had to replace my computer this past year and the new one had Windows 11. I had to keep shutting off every which thing to get it to shut up and act like it's a computer and not a social media feed.

[olivermoss]

News feeds, outside of natural disaster alerts, don't benefit the consumer. It benefits who is choosing the news sources.

[swingandswirl]

I would not mind ads IF they were matched by a very low price, but news? Oh hell no. I curate my media consumption religiously for my mental health; breaking news in my entertainment would be an automatic cancellation and a very politely pissed off email to the company, plus recommendations on social media that others cancel too.

I really wish more streaming services had good captions in several languages. It's 2023, for heaven's sake.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, I suspect the region-specific nature of several of these services is behind a less comprehensive caption service. I've noticed that Netflix seems to have more options than anyone else.

[veritas_poet]

I also like captions because apparently my hearing is going. Wow.

I abhor ads/commercials/interruptions of any kind. Just let me watch my show! ESPECIALLY if I'm already paying for it!

[yourlibrarian]

We have a YouTube TV subscription and recently watched Lucky Hank which we'd recorded. I was gobsmacked by how many commercials were packed into that show (thank goodness YT has an efficient forwarding system). It's been some time that I've watched anything I had to forward through commercials on.

[veritas_poet]

I stopped watching commercials a zillion years ago with regular TV! I'd put it on mute and go do something else for a few minutes - use the bathroom, wash a couple of dishes, put something away around the house, get something to eat, etc. It was wonderful. I never went back. I can't even imagine how bad it is these days. If I'm watching a show it's to GET AWAY from the world for a little while. Leave me the heck alone!