Netflix Maintains Its Spot As The Best Streaming Service

COVID-19 has caused lockdowns and quarantines, giving a lot of people extra time at home which has been a game-changer for the streaming industry that Netflix dominates.

According to the business reporting website Market, “54 percent of Internet users are watching more shows and films on streaming services due to Covid-19.”

Some popular streaming services are Netflix, Amazon Prime, Peacock, Hulu, Disney +, and Red Box. Each of these services has its own studio and originals. One cannot access original studio content on any other platform.

Netflix has lost a lot of content licenses over the past few years. This occurs as new rival services launch, such as Peacock, that now have these content licences..

For example in 2010, Netflix’s standard model cost $7.99 and had plenty of popular shows such as “The Office,” “Friends,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Doctor Who,” and some Marvel movies. Some of those shows are no longer available on Netflix and rather on other competing platforms.

While Netflix has lost a lot of content, it still has plenty of binge-worthy shows and has invested further into its own studios. This has come at a price, to the consumer. Currently, the standard model costs $12.99, and the basic model, with less video resolution, costs $8.99.

When a person buys or uses Netflix, they can access all the content on Netflix. There are no ads or paywalls. This is a key distinction between Netflix and some other streaming services.

Amazon Prime costs $12.99 a month or $119 a year. Prime includes two-day shipping and various other advantages while shopping at Amazon.com.

Prime is a solid streaming service with plenty of content. However, unlike Netflix, Prime has paywalls and ads. Not all content is included in Amazon Prime. It can require a user to pay to watch a movie or a season.

This can be frustrating or annoying because the first season of some shows are free; however, further seasons cost money. It leaves the consumer on a cliffhanger which may not be preferable; Peacock has the same thing.

Peacock is free to use with ads. This is a key advantage because a user is only paying, with time, on how much they watch. If a person does not use Peacock, they aren’t paying, thus there is no real reason to not sign up for Peacock.

Peacock also has premium plans for $4.99 and $9.99. The $4.99 plan includes more seasons, live sports, news, and TV, but this plan includes ads. The $9.99 plan has the same things without ads and offline mode.

Overall Netflix seems to be best in general for a binge-watcher. It costs less than Amazon Prime or the ad-free version of Peacock and maintains a large inventory of unique titles, features, and the largest section of originals. It works on the go with its offline mode and smart download, which automatically downloads the next episode in a season and deletes the previous one.

Other options may be contenders for a person who doesn’t use a streaming service that often or does a lot of shopping online, Peacock or Amazon Prime might be better choices for such people. However, these streaming services lack features and can cost more, in terms of time or money compared to Netflix.