From Netflix to Disney+: What is the best streaming service?
One question plagues lounges across the globe in the 21st century, “What do you want to watch?”. Such prompts endless scrolling through streaming sites like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and the rest of the endless bunch where you ask, “We could watch this,” before your partner responds with either “I’ve already seen that” or the dreaded “I don’t mind” before bemoaning your choice two minutes later.
But apparently, this is what audiences asked for, with the accessibility of streaming services supposedly beating out the cumbersome nature of DVDs and hefty TV box sets. Yet streaming services come with their own issues, requiring increasingly more expensive monthly subscriptions and content that isn’t guaranteed to stay around forever before it’s lost into the ether of the cloud.
Indeed, in the contemporary world, with different platforms offering different things, it can often be difficult to work out which is the best streaming service for you. Some people swear by Netflix seemingly because it is simply the most popular, while others turn to Amazon Prime, and the select few reject the mainstream offerings entirely, choosing arthouse aficionados MUBI or horror lovers Shudder.
As a result, there are several different ways you can decide on the best streaming platform, taking into account a range of particular needs and desires.
What’s the best service for movies on demand?
As an entirely subjective form of entertainment, cinema will attract different types of people on a film-by-film basis. For example, if superhero movies are your bag, it’s a bit of a no-brainer to go with Disney+, which offers you the full range of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but if you prefer a wider range of films, Netflix is probably your best bet considering their sheer diversity of content.
Digging deeper, however, the two services that offer the greatest depth of cinematic options as well as the highest quality are MUBI and BFI Player. Offering the same things in slightly different packages, MUBI provides a conveyor belt of world and arthouse cinema, providing films you’ll delight in discovering despite never having heard of them five minutes previously. On the other hand, the sheer breadth of quality on BFI Player is impressive, giving you a chance to stream classics you’ve been meaning to watch for decades, as well as contemporary British greats, with many of which being introduced by the great Mark Kermode.
On the other end of the spectrum, NOW TV is superior when it comes to new releases, with the service always boasting the latest (but not necessarily the greatest) titles that seemingly only just arrived in cinemas. This can be great if you’re looking to keep up with the mainstream but pretty bad if you also want to find the hidden gems that none of your friends and family are watching.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum are services like Paramount+ and Apple TV+, which are worthless for any cinephile worth their salt, containing almost no content at all. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime has a whole host of good movies hidden away in the shadows for some reason, which you might be able to find if you can be bothered to navigate its awful UI.
Best value for money: Netflix (£4.99 with ad-plan) – For its sheer range and diversity of content.
Best content: NOW TV for new releases, BFI Player for timeless world cinema greats.
Far Out suggests: BFI Player – For its database of classic movies and modern gems.
What’s the best TV streaming service?
As we’ve already mentioned, the best streaming service for TV will depend entirely on your taste. But, with that being said, there are three standouts in this category, Netflix, Apple TV+ and NOW TV. Sure, people could argue that Disney+ and Paramount+ are dark horses, with the former offering mainstream glitz and the latter having a few gems like The Curse and Broad City, but their positives are few and far between.
Apple TV+ has emerged from seemingly nowhere at all to claim one of the top spots when it comes to TV content, creating some of the best series in recent memory, including Severance, Bad Sisters, Masters of Air, The Morning Show and Slow Horses. Severance may, indeed, be the very best series of the current decade, but even their ‘low quality’ content is a lot of fun, with the Idris Elba series Hijack being a bolt of fun from the blue.
If Apple TV+ doesn’t take your fancy, NOW TV is certainly worth consideration since it holds the cheat code of owning all of HBO’s content. Sky broadcasts most of HBO’s shows in the UK, so this means that such classics as Succession, Game of Thrones, The Wire and The Sopranos are all on NOW TV. It’s almost not fair how dominant NOW TV seems to be in this space, with other shows like House of the Dragon, Ren Faire and Dune: Prophecy on the horizon.
Then we come to Netflix, the most popular of the streaming services that is so vanilla that it’s almost for no one at all. Though largely totally inoffensive, it does have its odd successes like Stranger Things, Squid Game and You that will give you severe FOMO if you don’t own the service, as well as such classic series as The Office, Peep Show, IT Crowd and Taskmaster to fulfil your comedy needs.
Best value for money: NOW TV (£9.99 per month for Entertainment package) – For its remarkable backlog of TV classics.
Best content: NOW TV – Thanks to its HBO content of past and present.
Far Out suggests: NOW TV – There’s no denying its dominance given the sheer range of its quality content.
What is the best streaming service for original content?
Original content should be what you subscribe to a streaming service for, with the best platforms having the ability to pump out quality content that hooks you in for months on end. While Netflix has created such original ‘Best Picture’ nominees as Maestro and The Irishman, it’s pipped to the post by a trio of services who take the originality crown: Apple TV+, NOW TV and MUBI.
We’ve already sung the praises of Apple TV+ in the small screen department earlier in this article, but their efforts in the area shouldn’t be minimised. Seeing as they couldn’t boast a backlog of quality content, they were forced to create original programmes that popped with colour, succeeding thanks to the likes of Severance, Bad Sisters, Masters of Air, Slow Horses and Ted Lasso. They’re getting there with their movies, too, creating such greats as Napoleon, Killers of the Flower Moon and Coda.
Meanwhile, MUBI can’t offer you anything when it comes to small-screen content, even if it thrives in the area of original cinema. Producing and distributing some of the greatest movies of contemporary cinema, including Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex and Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, MUBI is truly exemplary.
The final streaming service of true note when it comes to original content is NOW TV, which, as we’ve previously explored, hosts the very best of HBO, from established small-screen classics like The Sopranos and The Wire to modern greats like The Rehearsal and Succession. But this isn’t all, Sky has also provided such hits as Gangs of London and Chernobyl in recent years.
Best value for money: Netflix (£4.99 with ad-plan) – A little inconsistent with its original content, but it’s good enough, especially for the price.
Best content: Apple TV+ are superior when it comes to TV, but MUBI can take the original cinema crown.
Far Out suggests: MUBI – It’s difficult to argue with some of the greatest independent films from across the globe.
What streaming service has the best layout?
Increasingly, the layout of streaming services has become a key point of discussion. Having been around for the longest amount of time, it should come as little surprise that Netflix has the very best of the bunch, with their scrolling feature being pretty easy to navigate, even if it offers some pretty bizarre categories every now and then.
Ever since Netflix moved to this model, the likes of Apple TV+ and Disney+ have copied the winning formula. Both services are also extremely easy to navigate, and their lack of content probably helps in this area. Still, Disney’s handy categorisation of their main franchises at the top of the page offers a nice space where you can totally envelop yourself within the world of Marvel, Pixar, or Star Wars.
NOW TV and MUBI are less impressive in the UI department, however, with their content seemingly mindlessly scattered across the platform for you to find. It helps that NOW TV separates their TV and movie content, but the jump between the two isn’t exactly seamless, and MUBI simply suffers from a case of trying a little too hard, offering so many sub-categories that you’ll quickly become disorientated.
But it would be wrong to leave this section without also mentioning Amazon Prime, the service that, no doubt, offers the very worst user experience. Entering Amazon Prime is like walking into a room you’ve sworn to tidy 1000 times. You don’t know where anything is; all your best clothes are hidden away in the dirty clothes basket, and you have to spend a good 20 minutes trying to find those bastard keys that are “around here somewhere”.
Far Out suggests: Disney+ – It may have essentially copied Netflix’s tried and tested UI, but navigating Disney+ is pure joy.
