It's December and while many new films have been released in the last few months, I wanted to see what you can watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and the result is sobering.
Streaming is cool, but...
A few years ago I opted for a Netflix subscription, at that time they didn't charge €12.99 to watch HD, my sister's boyfriend made Amazon Prime possible for us and so we could stream many series and movies, but what some people have been saying online on various sites for some time now also resonates with me, the promise of streaming remains unfulfilled, that you can watch what you want at any time.
Well, at least that's what was suggested to people a few years ago, more and more streaming platforms appeared and wanted to gain subscribers, so you're then overwhelmed as to what you want to spend money on. Because what you stream doesn't belong to you, and then it feels like once a month you get a newsletter from Netflix saying that films/series will soon be kicked out (everything costs money with the licenses and such), and then you try to watch the movies in a hurry, precisely because you still wanted to see it....
In short, I'm tired of streaming. Sure, you can use streaming for movies that you want to watch once to see if it's worth it. But if the movies then get lost behind other subscription services, you lose the desire to watch them.
Borrowing or buying, and what about owning?
Today, on Sunday, I wanted to watch the first part of the Pirates of the Caribbean So I thought I'd take a look at Netflix, but unfortunately I was out of luck, they don't have the movie there, at least not in Germany. I found it on Amazon Prime, but only to rent or buy digitally, and then you don't even own the movie, it's only tied to your Amazon account, so you don't buy the movie, you just buy the permanent digital access code that allows you to watch it on the platform.
The same for the movie Air Force One from 1997 with Harrison Ford, although this movie is 26 years old in 2023, I can't stream it on Amazon but have to buy it separately. Same for the latest movie Oppenheimer from 2023, where you think you could stream it directly there, after all, you pay €89.99 a year for Amazon Prime, no, you can't. What about Dr. Whothe British sci-fi series, what about it? That works! Well, if you pay €3.99 a month for the BBC Player licensed titles in addition to your Prime subscription.
The series HALO from 2022, can also be watched on Amazon Prime, but only in combination with Paramount+, at least that's how I understand it, which costs €7.99 per month, this also applies to The naked cannona classic among comedies with Leslie Nielsen from 1988, but also Spaceballs from 1987.
Of course, Amazon Prime is not bad across the board, some time ago I talked in sci-fi groups about the movie Lifeforce from 1985, a little hidden diamond in the sci-fi community, and I was able to discover it yesterday at Amazon FreeVee with advertising. The first time I've used the commercials. And while the commercials are okay with a maximum of 2 minutes per interruption, the frequency is annoying and I would prefer it if the commercials were longer, but then you get more out of the movie without further interruptions.
And the spin-off series The Walking Dead - Daryl DixonThis is only available with Telekom's MagentaTV streaming service, which would cost €10 per month.
And what about owning? So that you can watch the movie at any time without using a platform? And then I remembered that you can also buy DVDs and Blu-Rays as normal, something I haven't done for a long time and neither has my family, because well, streaming is more convenient, but actually it's always more annoying when you can't watch the movie you're in the mood for, but have to buy it digitally to be able to continue to have it conveniently and then you don't even own it.
And that's why I'll probably stream less and get good films that I can watch from time to time on DVD and Blu-ray, because I'll have them in physical form, I can watch them at any time without having to search for which provider has them in their program, I don't need this stress anymore, I just take the film, put the disc in the player and watch the film, no hassle with buffering, poorer quality or price increases from the streaming provider.
What you have, you have.
Addendum January 23, 2024
An addendum, as it would probably not be worth writing another blog post for this, various Gaming portals report that gamers should get used to the idea of no longer owning physical games. In other words, in future you will no longer be able to own games, but only get them streamed (see Cloud Gaming) Along the lines of "You won't own any more games and you'll be happy." I think this slightly modified saying should sound familiar.....
Further sources:
English 
German 
French 
Czech