Discover your niche streaming content providers
NETFLIX DOESN’T HAVE WHAT YOU WANT? WE CHECK OUT SIX STREAMING SERVICES THAT HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO BE MASTERS OF SPECIALIST CONTENT.
AS THE VIDEO streaming market has become more mature, it’s only natural that there’s going to be more and more specialisation. Not every streaming service needs to have the broad appeal of Netflix, and a number of services have sprung up to serve more niche markets. These services are designed to do one kind of content, but do it more comprehensively than anybody else.
This month, we thought we’d look at some of these services. So if you have a hankering for anime, a desire for unlimited Bollywood, a love of documentaries or any other particular genre, read on.
CrunchyRoll FOCUS: ANIME Free or $6.95 per month | www.crunchyroll.com
One of the oldest specialist streaming sites, CrunchyRoll is the home of everything anime. It began life way back in 2006 as a site designed to offer subtitled Japanese anime content that wasn’t otherwise available in the West. Originally, many of the videos were actually fan-subbed, since there was no official translation of the original.
Now, it’s much more legit, with licensed access to some 800 different anime series, as well as other Asian series available almost nowhere else in the West. It also sells action figures, T-shirts and pretty much everything else you can imagine with Anime series logos on them.
There is some advertising-supported free content on the site, but relative to the full library, that content is quite limited. The $7/m subscription, on the other hand, gets you access to pretty much as many cartoons as you or your kids can stand to watch. Mobile apps as well as apps for Apple TV, PlayStation and Xbox are also available, so you can watch it on the platform of your choosing.
Dekkoo and Section II FOCUS: GAY AND LESBIAN CONTENT US$10 per month (Dekkoo); pay per movie (Section II) www.dekkoo.com; sectionii.com
Although these are two distinct sites, they’re two sides of the same coin — sites designed specifically for people looking for content that features or focuses on gay and lesbian characters and relationships. Dekkoo is targeted at gay men, while Section II has content focused on women.
Dekkoo operates on a subscription model, although we’re not sure that the volume of content available justifies the current subscription price. It does, however, have a small number of original series and a growing library of the kind of content that is hard to find anywhere else.
The library of Section II is notably smaller, and the site operates on a pay per view model, with typical movies costing around US$4.
DocPlay FOCUS: DOCUMENTARIES. Free or $6.95 per month | docplay.com
DocPlay is a new Australian service, partly financed by Screen Australia, that is made for those of us who just love our documentaries. The site has a considerable library of such, including a notable number of Australian
documentaries as well as plenty of international content.
If you want to watch for free, you’re pretty much limited to a handful of videos in a given month, and can only watch in SD and with ads in the beginning and middle of the show. The subscription, however, gives you access to the full library, HD viewing and takes out the ads. There are apps for mobiles and Chromecast, as well as a web viewer.
As an aside, DocPlay is run by the same company (Madman Entertainment) that runs AnimeLab ( www.animelab.com), a service not unlike CrunchyRoll. It doesn’t have the content library of CrunchyRoll, but it does have ad-supported free viewing of quite a few shows and (we dare say) a far less obnoxious website.
Hayu FOCUS: REALITY TV. US$6 per month | hayu.com
There are those of us who think that the growth of reality TV is one of the signs of the apocalypse. And there are those who just can’t get enough of it. Hayu is made for the latter. It’s a site that has full episode libraries of more than 150 reality TV shows. Most of them are from the US, and new episodes are typically uploaded to Hayu immediately after their broadcast on US TV. Apps are available for mobile, or you can watch in a browser. The site does include a lot of reality series you’ve probably never heard of, but it also includes quite a few of the better known reality series as well. Your Kardashians and Real Housewives are fully covered, and competition style shows (such as Top Chef) have some coverage as well. There does not appear to all that much in the style of home maker/lifestyle reality TV, however.
OzFlix FOCUS: AUSTRALIAN FILM. Rent or buy (typically $3.80 for a feature film rental) www.ozflix.tv
The stated goal of OzFlix is to stream “every Aussie movie, ever”. While we doubt it will ever reach that lofty goal, there is certainly a hefty library of Aussie classics (and not-so classics) available here. It may not literally have every Aussie movie ever made, but it’s a pretty safe bet that any movie that you could actually name is here, with titles stretching back to the original ‘talkies’ of the ‘40s and ‘50s. It’s a hell of a trip through the ups and downs of Australian cinema.
One of the real highlights of the site is its various hosted shows and guides to Australia cinema. These titles are often available for free and are a good place to start, pointing you in the direction of content that’s worth watching. Most of the other videos on the site work on a rental model, with feature films typically costing $3.80.
You can watch all the content in a Web browser, and apps for Android and iOS are also available.
Spuul FOCUS ON: INDIAN FILM. US$5 per month | spuul.com
For all the Bollywood you could ever possibly want, you can get Spuul. A well-designed service with an enormous library of content, Spuul is excellent value for money for those with an interest in Indian cinema and television.
It works on a three-tiered pricing structure. You can watch a limited catalogue with ads for free. You can pay for the premium service, which gives you ad-free HD viewing of most of the catalogue. Unfortunately, the most recent movie releases still require that you pay a rental fee to watch, even if you’re a premium subscriber. It’s the same model employed by Amazon Prime, and we don’t love it, but it’s still fair to say that you won’t be short on content to watch even without paying for rentals.
Apps are available for mobile platforms, as well as the Apple TV.