I've begrudgingly remained a Netflix subscriber despite the fact that I barely watch any of the new Netflix Original shows, instead sticking to older and non-Netflix titles. However a new change means that it's prime time to jump ship.
In early February Netflix enacted a price hike in the UK, with the ad-supported plan going up by £1 per month and other tiers seeing meatier increases in cost. This follows similar changes worldwide. As a current subscriber, I didn't think that my fees were going to change, but Netflix has just emailled subscribers announcing that, from April, existing members are going to have to pay more too.
I've always been interested in free TV streaming services, which stream older and indie movies and TV shows with adverts instead of paid subscriptions, but there's always been a reason to stick to a paid service. The caliber of content can be quite low, there are loads of commercials amongst content and you can't download for offline viewing.
However given that Netflix's ad plan has gradually been showing me more and more commercials with no offline viewing, and that the quality of its own Originals has been rock-bottom and getting lower over the last few years, the new price hike is enough to make free streamers seem a lot more tempting. Plus, I keep finding that things I want to watch on Netflix are locked to the higher-tiers, including It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and recently my childhood classic Johnny English.
Some of the big free TV streaming services on the block include Pluto TV (owned by Paramount), Tubi (owned by Fox) and Plex, which isn't owned by a major studio. Freevee used to be a major player but it no longer exists in a standalone form, with the shows and movies now streaming on Prime Video (you don't need to be a paid subscriber to see them though, so they're still free).
Between these services, there's a decent library of classic movies and shows. A brief skim of some home pages earlier today showed Dodgeball and Tangerine (from Sean Baker, who just won a bunch of Oscars for Anora) on Tubi, Labyrinth on Pluto and The Big Short and It Follows on Plex, and each streamer has plenty more reputable movies in their libraries... as well as many non-reputable ones.
My girlfriend and I have regular 'bad movie nights' where we try and find something terrible on a free streamer to enjoy. Netflix would never allow the kind of low-budget nonsense that you can find if you delve deep into the libraries of Tubi, Plex and Pluto. It keeps its trash high-budget.
Honestly, between all of the best free streaming services, there's a wealth enough of content that you don't need to rely on the likes of Netflix any more. I'd probably cancel Netflix myself, if I didn't cover streaming services as my job.
Of course there are loads of other great streaming services that you can pay for, with Prime Video my go-to and Apple TV Plus stealing more and more of my attention. But these still cost you money (unless you get an Apple TV Plus free trial or Prime Video free trial) whereas free streaming services are the best pick for money-conscious streamers.
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