If you have streaming services, how have they changed your viewing habits?

It’s funny how people say that they binge more with streaming, but I actually find it easier to plan what I’m going to watch for the day and keep track how much I sit in front of the screen.

I both streamed and kept my cable for a number of years, but I cut the cord in January of this year, so nothing but streaming now.
I like that I can revisit old favorite shows and movies for white noise (the dog is much less likely to bark at every falling leaf if there is ambient noise inside).
I kinda miss the old days of “Did you see (whatever) last night? What do you think will happen, next?” In random chats.

I thought I was watching more TV, until I realized that of course I was, because of the pandemic.

I binge, and serial watch individual shows, like you, and I rarely jump around any more.

I will wait until a season or two of a show is available, and watch those seasons until they’re finished. I may intersperse other documentaries with my viewing and I stop at 11 so I can watch the news, but I’ll usually spend the last few hours of the night bingeing the show that I’m into. I find that if I start watching a show and it doesn’t grab me within about a half hour or an hour, I’m done with it.

@rockfan I agree. I’ve never watched a ton of tv anyway but now I have a good idea how much I’m going to watch in the evening.

@canidmajor I also miss the old days when everyone was on the same page, e.g.,having watched the same episode last night. And when people recommend things, if you don’t carry that service, you can’t access it. I’ve just started doing more of adding a service for a time for certain programs and then dropping it.

Made my viewing habit of consuming entertainment media worse. Easy access to this massive media universe is allowing visual forms of entertainment to take too much precious space in my head. That is bad.

I got rid of cable and switched to YouTube TV. This gives me many channels of live television for about $100 less per month. I would have skipped this altogether, if not for my wife, who likes to watch live TV. I never watch it.

Netflix is included in my mobile phone bill for about half what. it costs regularly. Again, my wife watches it. I never do.

Hulu and Apple TV+ I get at the student rate ($1.99 and $5.99/mo). I watch both of these.

I had Disney+, which I love for Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar, but I just cancelled it because they raised their prices again and it’s unaffordable. I’m the only one who watched it, but I’m going to miss it.

My wife still watches TV the “old fashioned” way by surfing channels or recorded shows via YouTube TV. She browses through the homepage on Netflix too.

My daughter and I are destination watchers as we both keep running lists of shows/movies we want to watch and go to them directly via Hulu, Apple TV+, or (the recently killed) Disney+.

I also only watch TV on my actual television set if I’m with my daughter. Otherwise, I watch it in bed or in my car or office on my iPad.

Back when Netflix first shook up the market by offering a centralised place for me to view anything I wanted, I shelved my Jolly Roger.
But ever since all the studios started their own streaming services, thereby fracturing the market into separate monopolies of content, I once again was forced to set sail for the high seas.

@ragingloli I hope you didn’t defenestrate your television?

It is too heavy for that. One of those old CRTs. Has not drawn electricity for over a decade.

Before the pandemic, I went out to movie theaters about 3 times a month.
Over the next 3 years, I only went 4 times.
Last month we went twice. This month, once.
During the P., we got Hulu, Netflix, HBO, Apple, and Disney+. We have let go of HBO, Hulu, and Apple.
Because the internet is very limited in my area, I still largely depend on my DVD collection (which is currently limited because we packed up everything mistakingly anticipating selling our house), and my Dish TV dependent DVR.
Because of the horror of the last four years, I end up watching more news than usual. When we watch something, it isn’t unusual to wait for the entire series to drop before watching it.
That said, we have been watching Loki each week. We haven’t started Ashoka.

@filmfann Did you decide not to move?

@janbb No one wants to buy my house.

@filmfann Hugs. And you guys did so much prep work!

@filmfann A good friend has a center hall Colonial which has been on the market for a few months and she dropped the price a few times and it’s not moving. The realtor told her it’s because the bathrooms aren’t updated and they should paint the outside, which she’s not willing to do because she feels she’s not going to make the money back. I think the problem is it’s a bad time to sell now (as nobody wants to move around the holidays) plus the interest rate issue.

Definitely binging. I’ll watch as many episodes as time allows. TV used to force 1 hour blocks of time. What if you had more or less time than that?

I have a Roku and no cable TV. I also have Amazon Prime that my son gives me every year. It seems there are always things for me to watch.
If a channel/app asks for money or has too many commercials I delete it.
Right now I have about 200 channels on my Roku.
I use Weathernation.tv for weather on demand and watch YouTube for current events and other light entertainment. I really enjoy short videos by students so l do a search and more than I can possibly watch show up. I also watch late night hosts’ monologues the following night.
I do not watch any network TV. I believe I’m healthier for it.