How to decide what streaming services are for you?
Streaming television shows and movies will keep you entertained while you’re stuck at home
With everyone pretty much housebound for the next little while, glued to their screens, you’re going to have to make some hard choices in order to decide what to watch and what to skip.
Here’s a brief guide to help you make some sense of it all.
NETFLIX
Price: $9.99/$13.99/$16.99/monthly depending on the plan
Netflix has long been a purveyor of shows, movies and standup specials that have brought whole new meaning to the words “must-see TV.” After a stellar 2019 backed by the return of Stranger Things, The Crown and Glow, Netflix ended its year with a slate packed with movies (including Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story and Ryan Reynolds’ actioner 6 Underground). Outside of its originals, which continued last month with season 3 of Ozark, the platform has thousands of hours of programming available that covers classic TV shows, including Friends (10 seasons) and Breaking Bad (five seasons). In 2021, all nine seasons of Seinfeld will hit the service. It’s also the home of the Emmy nominated series The Good Place, which first aired on NBC. Worldwide, the company has upward of 150 million subscribers, so don’t expect the diverse roster to shrink. Later this year, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot team up for Red Notice and in the far off future is another Beverly Hills Cop starring Eddie Murphy.
CRAVE
Price: $9.99/$19.98/$25.97/monthly depending on the plan (pricing varies if you subscribe through your television provider)
Home to Canadian originals such as Letterkenny and Cardinal, Crave is also where viewers can stream HBO’s most popular shows such as Westworld, Game of Thrones, Watchmen and its upcoming adaptation of Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much is True (April 27). Crave also has exclusive rights to Starz series such as High Fidelity and some CBS All Access shows such as Star Trek: Discovery and the recently wrapped Picard spinoff. This year, Crave and CTV will be the exclusive home to content airing on HBO Max, which will include Kaley Cuoco’s Flight Attendant, the new Melissa McCarthy sci-fi comedy Superintelligence, a Snowpiercer television series with Sean Bean, a Game of Thrones prequel, a Green Lantern series from Arrow creator Greg Berlanti, and more.
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
Price: $79/yearly (includes Prime membership)
Amazon has focused on a mix of prestige shows, including Emmy winners The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Fleabag, and mainstream action thrillers and dramas, such as Treadstone, Jack Ryan, ZeroZeroZero and The Boys. Like Netflix, Amazon is also nudging its way into cinema with its recent post-9/11 drama The Report and The Aeronauts, an adventure drama that reunites The Theory of Everything stars Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne.
DISNEY+
Price: $8.99/monthly or $89.99/ yearly
Pretty much anything branded Disney is available to watch here. That includes Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and Disney live-action/animation. Newer offerings, including Onward, which was released in theatres last month, and Frozen II have also recently been made available. In addition, titles from the Fox library, such as The Simpsons, can be relived over and over again. But the company is betting heavily on being able to provide new offerings. The company has also revamped some of its most beloved properties, including High School Musical and Lady and the Tramp. Later this year, new shows revolving around such Marvel characters as Scarlet Witch (WandaVision) and Falcon and the Winter Soldier hit the service.
APPLE TV+
Price: $5.99/monthly (free for a year when you purchase a new iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac)
Thanks to its deep pockets, the tech giant has been able to lure a slew of top talent as it jumps into original content. Late last year saw a flurry of high-profile debuts, including The Morning Show, with Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell taking viewers behind the scenes of the cutthroat world of a morning news broadcast. A reboot of Steven Spielberg’s popular ’80s anthology Amazing Stories hit the service last month, with Defending Jacob, a character-driven thriller starring Chris Evans and Michelle Dockery, debuting April 24. In addition to its fresh programming, Apple TV+ allows users to rent or buy content from the iTunes store, including recent theatrical titles The Invisible Man, The Way Back, Onward and Trolls World Tour (April 10).
QUIBI
Price: Free 90-day trial for sign-ups in April. Otherwise $4.99 monthly with ads and $7.99 without ads.
Launching with two dozen TV fiction or fact shows to start, with stars including Liam Hemsworth, Sophie Turner, Chrissy Teigen and Jennifer Lopez. The twist is that most episodes range from about six to nine minutes long. In Survive, Turner stars as a women contemplating suicide — until an unexpected event may change her mind. In Most Dangerous Game, Hemsworth as prey tries to elude humans hunting him. In the reality show Thanks a Million, Lopez and other celebrities give $100,000 to a needy person — but with the proviso that they have to give half to another needy person, and so on down the line of paying it forward.
HAYU
Price: $5.99/monthly
If the reality of life is too much to handle right now, don’t worry, you can sit on your couch and stream Keeping Up with the Kardashians (now in its 18th season). Designed strictly for fans of reality TV, Hayu’s selection of shows covers everything from the Real Housewives franchise (season 12 of the New York edition just started) to Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live to a never-ending glimpse into the lives of the rich and famous.
BRITBOX
Price: $8.99/monthly or $89.99/ yearly
From mysteries to histories, timeless classics to the best new shows fresh from the U.K., BritBox brings the best of British TV to Canadians. The platform is the exclusive home of such shows as The Bay, dubbed the next Broadchurch, and BBC One’s four-part thriller The Victim with Emmy winner Kelly MacDonald.
CBC GEM
Price: Free or $4.99 monthly for premium access
CanCon fans can watch popular CBC shows such as Heartland, Schitt’s Creek, Murdoch Mysteries, Kim’s Convenience, Anne with an E, and Dragons’ Den, alongside acclaimed international hits like Luther and Kenneth Branagh’s Wallander.
KANOPY
Price: Free with a library card
Perhaps one of the best options for families stuck at home right now is still a little known secret. Select public libraries across Canada let users stream thousands of feature films and documentaries utilizing Kanopy, a service that launched in 2008. A great resource if you’re looking to watch classic movies (like Chinatown), indie titles or documentaries.