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036: Pay tv and streaming
431 Plays4 years ago
This episode gives you top hacks for maximising the value of your pay TV and streaming services.
There are more than 36 streaming platforms in Australia including Crunchyroll (Japanese anime and manga), GuideDoc (documentaries), Mubi (cult classics), Shudder (horror), CGood positive life-affirming), Acorn (mystery, drama and thrillers). If you like a particular genre see if there is a cheaper, dedicated streaming service rather than using a mainstream platform.
Mia and Dinah talk about what you should know about streaming services including:
- The three types of streaming services:subscription services (like Netflix, Stan, Binge)
rent/buy services (like Google Play or iTunes)
catch-up (free-to-air services) .
Their hacks for finding shows and films that suit your taste and mood are:
- Have reference lists on your phone and add to them when others make recommendations or you read reviews
- Have separate reference lists for different types of viewing rather than one long mixed list (e.g. educational shows to watch with the kids, date night films)
- Use a service like Just Watch or Google Watch List to find things available on the streaming platforms you have
- Create separate streaming platform profiles for different types of watching, based on moods, themes or audiences (eg family viewing, documentaries, guilty pleasures, international cinema) so that the streaming algorithm suggests up the same type of content
- Browse the full catalogues of streaming services (eg Netflix Catalogue) to discover content in specific genres (e.g. American 80s comedies, Belgian mysteries), rather than the standard category options.
They talk about the options to view streaming services including:
- Using a harware device (like Chromecast) to stream from your phone, tablet or computer
- Using a media streamer or a hub (like Fetch or Telstra TV) – some of these also allow recording of free-to-air TV
- Using a game console (like Xbox or Playstation)
- Smart tvs.
They also talk about how to decide what streaming services you should subscribe to by:
- Making sure free trials don’t become lurking subscriptions by unsubscribing straight away or adding a reminder in your to-do list
- Consulting your reference list to see which services have more of the things you want to watch
- Reviewing the free to air streaming services to see if there is enough content available for free
- Consider unsubscribing from all services and then adding back as you need.
LIFE ADMIN RESOURCES
- Services to help decide what to watch Just Watch and Google Watch List
- Netflix Catalogue
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Transcript
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Meet the Hosts: Dinara Roberts & Mia Northrop
00:00:30
Speaker
This is Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that gives you techniques, tips, and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money, and improve your household harmony. I'm Dinara Roberts, an operations manager who's watched all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls during stage four lockdown here in Melbourne. I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer who somehow currently has subscriptions to seven different TV and film streaming services.
Maximizing Streaming Services During Lockdown
00:00:59
Speaker
In this episode, we'll help you maximize the value of TV streaming services. And it's one episode I never thought I would have so much expertise on until Corona increased my viewing time exponentially. Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks. Just before we get into it, seven seasons of Gilmore Girls? Yes, well, it's hard to find things you can watch with a teenage daughter, so
00:01:24
Speaker
Oh, that's an achievement. It is an achievement. And it's one I never thought we would get to the end of. And now the challenge is what to watch next. What to watch next. We're going to help with some ideas about that. But it did make me think of a recent Gretchen Rubin happier podcast episode where the podcast episode was called Anticipate Pandemic Regret. And I, you know, seven seasons of Gilmore Girls.
00:01:53
Speaker
We all have to know how best to use our time during this period of pandemic and what self care looks like. And I'm feeling like that's, you've made some good choices there. Anyway, before we get into this episode, I want to give a shout out to those who have recently left us reviews. Thank you, Kate. You took some time to review us on Apple podcasts. It does make a massive difference to the discoverability of a podcast where people leave reviews. It helps other people find it.
00:02:20
Speaker
due to Apple's Wiley algorithms. So if you've gotten some value out of this show, if you've got a new app that's become essential for you, or you've changed your approach based on some of our suggestions, please leave us a few words and a rating so others can find us and benefit as well. So in this episode, we're going to talk about some hacks to choose which streaming services you should subscribe to, maximizing value of free trials and things like that.
00:02:46
Speaker
What devices you can use to stream content and developing and curating watch lists so you always have something you want to watch and don't waste time endlessly scrolling?
Understanding Australia's Streaming Platform Landscape
00:02:57
Speaker
I think that's it. I think when it comes to streaming, it's that idea of you're scrolling, you're browsing, you're trying to find stuff to watch. There are literally hundreds of options there. You're drowning in choice. But if, I don't know, if your family feels like they've got to the end of Netflix, we have literally watched every day and every day until
00:03:14
Speaker
on Netflix. We have watched the 1980s, early 1990s films from my childhood. They've sat through big. We've watched Free Willy. We've watched a whole bunch of things that actually I'm like, is this really brand PG? Because there seems to be a lot of swearing in these children's film. But yeah, finding the stuff to watch and keeping on top of the changes to the catalog is a big deal and really influences whether you feel like you're getting value out of the service.
00:03:42
Speaker
There are over 36 TV and film content streaming platforms now in Australia and they can be divided into three main categories. So your subscription services like Netflix and Stan and Binge where you pay a monthly fee. There's also the rent or buy options where you can just use as you need. Things like Google Play or iTunes. But there's also the free-to-air catch-up TV broadcasters. So those also allow you to stream content. But sometimes
00:04:12
Speaker
Those free to air catch ups also have whole seasons available of shows they've previously broadcast.
00:04:19
Speaker
Yeah, this was a dangerous topic to research. We've done some rabbit holes on this one. So when I saw that there were 36 different streaming platforms, I was like, what the hell? What's out there? Apart from the ones that you hear about constantly. This is worth exploring because if you are really into a certain genre, then you might want to get off some of the mainstream services that are just sort of the mass market series and film and get a bit more niche
Exploring Niche Streaming Services
00:04:45
Speaker
There's some great value there in terms of their free trials and their subscription plans. There's Crunchyroll, which just has Japanese anime and manga. That's what you're into. I'd head straight there. There's GuideDoc, which is just documentaries, award-winning, international, just documentaries. There's MUBI,
00:05:06
Speaker
which has cult classics and films and the modern masterpieces from all over the world. The interesting thing about movie is that there's discussion boards for the film. So you can actually, there's 10 million other members. And if you want to actually discuss with people what you're watching and get everyone's take on it, you might like that kind of interactive platform. There's Shudder, which is just horror, thriller and suspense, which literally just going to the landing pages made me scared and I had to run away very quickly.
00:05:35
Speaker
But I know I've got a few friends out there, Josanne, I'm thinking of you, who just really into horror and that's what they watch with their teenagers. There's Curiosity, which is just science, tech, history and nature docos, only $20 a year. Sounds like something that you just plant your kids in front of and feel pretty good about. There's Conscious Good, See Good TV, which is all positive, life-affirming film series and podcasts.
00:05:58
Speaker
And then Acorn TV, which was just mysteries, dramas and crime. So if they're your things, you might want to get rid of Netflix or Binge or whatever and just head over there because you're probably going to find more of what you want to watch and spend less doing it. And some of these three trials are 30 days long. So you can really skip from one to the other and not pay for any TV for a year.
00:06:23
Speaker
Right. So I mean, let's start with the first area of hacks, which I think is probably the more fun one around developing and curating a watch list.
Creating and Managing Watch Lists
00:06:32
Speaker
So you always have something you want to watch and you don't waste your time. So the first hack really is to make sure that you have a reference list set up on your phone or wherever you keep your other reference lists.
00:06:45
Speaker
that you can add shows you might want to watch, add to it when you hear friends talk about shows or if you read some reviews. Think about maybe having a series of lists, you know, something that shows to watch with your partner, shows to watch with your kids, things like that. I've definitely had one of those for a long time, so. And do you create lists on the platforms themselves? So, you know, you can go into Netflix and you can add to my list. Do you have lists there or do you just have it on your phone?
00:07:14
Speaker
So I do in Netflix have those lists set up. And in particular, we've actually set up a profile in Netflix, which is called Family Movie Time. So in that we're always looking for movies that we can watch collectively, which is a tricky thing to do when you've got different age groups in your household and different, you know, things that they like to watch.
00:07:36
Speaker
So having that particular profile in there helps because obviously with those profiles, they make suggestions. And so once you've watched a few of those kinds of movies, then they're always suggesting up things that are similar in terms of both content and ratings.
00:07:51
Speaker
Yeah, I reckon that's an excellent hack to get onto and something that I've just recently discovered during pandemic watching. So, you know, it's common for everyone to have profiles for the different people in the house, but you can just have them for, as Diana has, family viewing movies or for different moods. So if you want to have a profile that's just foreign TV and cinema,
00:08:13
Speaker
or things you can watch as a family or your saucy tit-related late-night viewing without messing up your main profile's algorithm, then you set up the pole butt to different profiles.
00:08:25
Speaker
One of the reasons I got onto this is that my mum, when she's talking about, oh, did you see this on Netflix? I'm like, no, I've never heard of that show or seen it. Her algorithm is so different to mine, which gets co-opted by kids' shows half the time. She gets a whole different Netflix experience. So that was one thing that prompted me to just create a different profile that's just porn stuff. So I don't just keep seeing Teen Titans and whatever else explain it.
00:08:54
Speaker
And so another way of finding those things to watch is to use a service like JustWatch. So this is a huge searchable database. It gathers information from all of the streaming services and you can actually enter in which streaming services you have and then
00:09:09
Speaker
It gives you suggestions of things you like and you click on them and then it will offer up things from your current streaming services that you might want to watch. So that's a really good thing to use rather than to simply scroll through the streaming services if you really can't find something to watch.
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah, JustWatch is a game changer. The main way I've used it, so you just nominate which streaming services you have. And then I keep it, I use it to keep on top of the catalog of what's coming out. And they'll publish like every day, October one, these are the three new movies that are coming out on Stan or these are the new shows they've released on Netflix. So if you just want to see what the latest stuff is, JustWatch is prime for that.
00:09:52
Speaker
And Google has a similar service that they've released this year with their watch list. So if you search for a TV show or a film on your mobile on Google, then you might notice that the little button comes up next to the details of that show or film that says Watch Show. And if you click on it, you can edit the services. So you can say, I've got Netflix, or I've got Foxtel, or I've got Stan. And it will, in the future,
00:10:19
Speaker
when you search for a film or a TV show, it'll show you where you can stream it. And the little watch list icon will come up and you can hit that and it'll create a watch list for you. So again, like JustWatch, it's creating a watch list that's across all of the different streaming services that you have and helps you keep on top of what's new and click through to be able to watch things instantly, which is very convenient.
00:10:46
Speaker
Yeah, great. Once you've got your list of what to watch, there's the how you're actually going to watch it on your TV or on your other devices.
Streaming on Your TV: Devices and Tips
00:10:55
Speaker
So there's quite a few different ways that we can do that now. So, Mia, do you want to start talking about some of what you currently use to stream your TV?
00:11:05
Speaker
Yeah. So where I'm living now, there was the television that was already here. It's this massive thing on the wall that obviously no one can be bothered taking it down. It's so big, but it's not a smart TV. And I went into a panic because we only watch streaming services. We watch no free to air. So I got a Chromecast. So Chromecast is one of those
00:11:26
Speaker
hardware streaming devices. It's a little dongle essentially that you can plug into the TV and you can stream content from your phone or your tablet or your computer. So they work for both Android and iOS and essentially you bring up the app on your phone, you find what you want to watch, you press a little button and bing, it just appears on your television.
00:11:49
Speaker
The great thing about these dongles, Chromecast for example, is it only costs like $50, $60. So if you don't want to invest in a smart TV or you travel somewhere and it doesn't have a smart TV but you want to be able to watch your shows, you can take your Chromecast with you and plug it in. As long as you have Wi-Fi, you're good to go. What do you use, Dinah?
00:12:10
Speaker
So we actually have what's sort of termed a media streamer or a hub. So that's a hardware device that you connect to your home network or just stream the TVs. So we've actually got a fetch box at the moment and we previously had a Telstra TV. So they're slightly more expensive, but they also allow things like recording things that are on free to air.
00:12:30
Speaker
which is important for me, who likes to make sure that I can record football games that I'm going to miss out on. So that's why we've got one of those. And we also have an Apple TV. It's a really old one. So it doesn't actually even have all the apps anymore. It's not compatible with the more new version of apps, but we can still use it to connect with the AirPlay feature. So that's what I use as an alternative to Chromecast, where I've got something on my phone. I can stream it through the AirPlay feature.
00:13:00
Speaker
Yeah, most smart TVs now have all of the apps inside them so you can connect to the services that way. Otherwise, there's good old Foxtel, the Foxtel now, you know, you can dump online onto your mobile device, computer and stream things instead of getting a Foxtel box. And then the game consoles, PlayStation, Xbox, most of those have apps now that you can stream straight up to your television. So there's no shortage of ways.
00:13:28
Speaker
of getting TV. I know we actually got also an Apple TV Plus subscription where we last bought a Apple product. I think sort of came with it. So there's the Apple TV Plus streaming service, but then also the Apple TV box that you can get that works similarly to Fetch. It's another media streamer. So many options. I do wonder about the productivity of humankind.
00:13:55
Speaker
so much TV. I think there's a Seth Godin quote about the things we could have solved and discovered if the television wasn't taking up so much time.
00:14:05
Speaker
Something's going to give. So then the final area really to talk about is how to choose which streaming service, if any, you should subscribe to.
Choosing the Right Streaming Services
00:14:12
Speaker
When it comes to choosing, that's where if you've got reference lists, that's a really great way of helping you decide. Cause if there's some things that you've been saving up that you want to watch. And for example, if you're like me or and you feel like you've exhausted everything on Netflix, you can go back and look through those reference lists to find the streaming services that will have that content on it.
00:14:33
Speaker
And almost all subscription services have a free trial. So think about signing up for the free trial. In some cases, you might even be able to get through the show that you want before the trial is over. And this is where it's really important to have a system for yourself to make sure that free trials don't unintentionally become lurking subscriptions.
00:14:55
Speaker
So Mia, how do you do that? Well, you know, that's the whole visitor's portal. The whole visitor's portal is give them a little taste for a week or two weeks or a month and then you're going to have them for three years or, you know, a two.
00:15:09
Speaker
I totally listened to an episode like this. When we give you my most recent experience, I subscribed to Binge, which is a Foxtel offshoot because I wanted to watch Westworld. The last season of Westworld came out way behind. I thought, I'm just going to get in. I'm going to watch the 12 EPs or however many EPs there are, and I'm going to get out.
00:15:32
Speaker
But you fight against their entire marketing machine, which then bombards you with all the other shows that you definitely want to watch. And, you know, what are we? Two, three months later, I'm still subscribing to Binge. And I have set up these watch lists with these things that I want to see now.
00:15:49
Speaker
And for me, I know some people will set up their free trial and they'll set up a reminder before the expiry date so that they actually do turn it off. For me, what I need to do is actually need to unsubscribe. And then I will know, all right, I've unsubscribed on the 11th of October. My billing period goes until the 28th of October. I have
00:16:12
Speaker
17 days to finish all of this television. It actually forces me to prioritise and watch the stuff on my playlist instead of just approaching it in that laissez-faire approach. If I want to cut this off and not spend the $9 a month or whatever it is to have this there, you've got to decide what works for you. Do you put the date in upfront about when you're going to turn off that free trial or perhaps unsubscribe to force the issue?
00:16:41
Speaker
You can also contemplate if you've somehow ended up with six or seven or eight subscription services. Think about having the, you know, the strategy of a clean slate. Why not unsubscribe everything and you know, either start looking at some of the catch up or just choosing one from those based on your, you know, watch list and sticking with that for some time period and only having one at a time might be a good strategy for some people, particularly if you're really budget conscious.
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah. So what have you subscribed
Personal Streaming Subscriptions and Strategies
00:17:10
Speaker
to at the moment? What's going on in your house?
00:17:12
Speaker
As I mentioned, it is a little bit different at the moment because of the restrictions, but we've got- No judgment, Diana, no judgment. We do have Netflix. We've always had Netflix. We have Disney Plus, which we downloaded because my husband and son wanted to watch the whole Star Wars series during the lockdown. And we also have access to Amazon Prime, but that's more for the delivery benefits that you get through that membership rather than the actual content. There is some good free content on there.
00:17:42
Speaker
But it's also really other good way of accessing movies that you might want to download or rent, you know, for three or four dollars. So we have used it for that service as well. And as I mentioned, we've got the Fetchbox and the old Apple TV, which we use. And what about you, Mayor? What have you got?
00:18:00
Speaker
We have Netflix, which I guess was our default option. Then we got Stan, because there are a couple of TV series that I wanted to finish that were on Stan and a few new ones. I feel like they've got a bit of idiosyncratic indie stuff going on that Netflix doesn't have. We did get Disney Plus when the pandemic hit. My kids have discovered The Simpsons, which has been interesting.
00:18:27
Speaker
They've also wanted to watch all the Disney movies and get into some Star Wars as well. And then as I mentioned, I recently got into Binge because I wanted to watch a few specific shows. We have a free subscription to Apple TV+, which we never use. It's got some really weird, mostly exclusive shows on there. We hardly use it.
00:18:47
Speaker
In terms of the free catch-up, ABC iView gets a lot of views in our houses, does SBS On Demand, when Lego Masters was on, we watch Nine Now, but we don't really watch a lot of those other commercial shows. It's also worth mentioning that our local libraries have a few free streaming services. One is Canopy, which streams indie classic films and TV series and docos.
00:19:10
Speaker
And there's also Beamer Film through City of Melbourne, that library service, which streams documentaries and films too. So if you don't want to pay for anything, you can use services like Canopy and Beamer Film through your library and it allows you to log in with your library details and access all sorts of things. Interestingly, in both this house and the other house, the kids' dad's house, we don't have any free-to-air television because we don't have Ariel's long, boring story.
00:19:37
Speaker
So we really rely solely on video streaming for all of our television.
00:19:42
Speaker
So when lockdown's over, we're definitely going to review. We would never normally have that many streaming services, but it has been great to have lots of choice for everyone at the moment. We used to just have Netflix and then we would just pay to rent a movie once a month or so. And I imagine we'll probably go back to that. In fact, I might delete all the streaming services when lockdown is over and turn the TV off for a month. Mia, what about you? We think things will change post lockdown.
00:20:09
Speaker
Definitely. I'm definitely going to get rid of binge. I feel like Disney Plus is here to stay. It's between Netflix and Stan right now. So, you know, I share subscriptions with my, my kid's dad, my co-parent. So we'll have to have a discussion about who's through what items on their various watch lists to determine which one we want to turn off.
00:20:31
Speaker
And I think what I've just discovered actually with Netflix is that there's a site called whatsonetflix.com and we'll have a link to it in the show notes. But it actually shows you all of the categories on Netflix, not just the 12 they show you on the site where you can browse. There's three and a half thousand categories on Netflix.
00:20:51
Speaker
and this lists all of them. So you can take the number that's on the end of the Netflix URL and just plonk it in the web address and it'll take you to that specific genre. So if you only want to see Australian comedies, or you want camping B horror movies from the 60s, or you want cerebral independent UK comedies, like these are really specific categories, you can pop this number on and it'll bring back what they've got in the catalogue that matches that.
00:21:20
Speaker
So that might revitalise my opinion of what is working in Netflix, because right now my algorithm is serving up just schlock. Yeah, my algorithm is serving up Gilmore Girls related content. So in terms of my watch list, I've always, as I mentioned, kept a list on my phone, particularly of shows and movies that people recommend. And often if it's something that's from free to air TV, so I need to look at it in catch up.
00:21:49
Speaker
I will try and make sure that I add the date when it expires so that I know which things I need to watch more quickly because often those free-to-air catch-up apps have expiry dates that are quite soon. But hopefully I can go back to my old life soon where I don't really need to worry too much about the watch list because I don't have enough time to watch television. Yumia, what system do you have to manage your watch list in particular?
Efficient Subscription Management
00:22:19
Speaker
I have a list in my notes app of things when I'm chatting with friends and they suggest a show that I might like. I tend to pop it in there, but I find that I actually forget about that sometimes and I do rely more heavily on the lists within the streaming services themselves. Usually when I start a new subscription, I will spend an hour combing through everything, creating that list, and then I just work my way through that list.
00:22:46
Speaker
And in terms of managing subscriptions in a post-Corona era or in a pre-Corona era, one of the things I, as I mentioned, is I always put a reminder into my to-do list if I do happen to sign up for a new subscription. And in particular, I always subscribe to KO during the football season to be able to watch football, but I don't watch sport over summer.
00:23:09
Speaker
So I always put a reminder in my to-do list for the last game of the season so that I remember to unsubscribe once I've watched that game. This is a fascinating conversation to have.
Reflecting on TV Choices and Consumption
00:23:20
Speaker
I'm just reflecting on, you know, one of the having discussions with the kids about which app and they snap their fingers and if things have happened immediately, if they can't find something, they just how impatient they get. And I was explaining to them one of those in the olden days when mummy, you know, in the 70s and 80s,
00:23:37
Speaker
When we got up in Perth, there were three channels on the television station. When we moved to Melbourne, we got excited because there were going to be four channels. There was channel 10 that hadn't yet come to Perth. And now what are we? 30 years later, fast forward. So much, so much choice. And now it's a life admin thing that we have to manage. Yep. The choice of modern life.
00:24:02
Speaker
So hopefully this episode has given you some hacks on your streaming services. Our top hacks are make a reference list somewhere of shows that you want to watch. Use a service like Google Watch List or Just Watch to add new ideas to your watch list and establish a system for free trials to make sure you don't inadvertently end up with lurking subscriptions.
00:24:26
Speaker
If you'd like to join us on our Life Admin journey, please head to our Facebook page, Life Admin Life Hacks, to follow us and share your thoughts on what we're doing and feel free to post any comments or certainly post suggestions that we might be able to use. We hope to see you there. Thanks for listening. Show notes for this episode are available at lifeadminlifehacks.com. If you're a fan, please subscribe and share the love and tell a friend or review us in your podcasting app.