Too Lazy to be Lured

On Michael Offutt's blog a couple weeks ago he mentioned season 2 of some Locke & Key show on Netflix and I said (again) I still don't have Netflix.  I keep thinking about signing up for Netflix or Paramount+, but then I keep blowing it off.  It turns out I'm too lazy to be lured in by a show or movie.  Maybe even several shows or movies.

A few years ago I got rid of Netflix and signed up for Hulu, mostly because Hulu got a lot of the shows that were abandoning Netflix like Archer, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, American Dad, South Park, and Robot Chicken, though the latter two have since moved to HBO Max.  And I think Hulu was cheaper.  Other than a couple of documentaries I haven't watched much of the original content on Hulu.  I liked the book of Handmaid's Tale but it seemed like the show would be depressing and I just haven't felt like watching it.  None of the other original stuff really pulled at me.  Maybe Season 3 of The Orville whenever that would come out.

As far as other streaming services I hadn't really planned on getting Disney+ but then they bundled it and ESPN with Hulu so it's less than $5 a month for all three, though the ESPN app is pretty useless and any games I watch are usually through Hulu anyway.  Still, it was a good enough value to cut through my laziness.

I didn't plan on using HBO Max either until I found out I could use my HBO login for it.  But then I got rid of HBO, so now I don't use it and don't really miss it much.  I'd already caught up on DC animated stuff, South Park, WW84, and Godzilla vs Kong so there didn't seem like much else I really cared about.  I did have HBO on demand/HBO Go for years so I'd already watched HBO originals I wanted to watch like Game of Thrones, Westworld, Watchmen, and Arli$$ and none of the HBO Max original shows sounded interesting to me--I can't even name one besides the former DC Universe ones Titans and Doom Patrol I didn't really like anyway.

As far as other ones, I see commercials for Apple TV and Ted Lasso and whatever but I never seriously consider it.  I'm not sure I could even get it on my Roku or if I have to have an Apple device.  Since it's Apple it seems like it'd be a big hassle just to sign up for it.

The one I'd be most likely to sign up for is Paramount+ because of the Star Trek shows but whenever I think about doing it, I end up watching Battlestar Galactica on Peacock or the Robocop series on TubiTV or rewatching The League on Hulu or Mike Tyson Mysteries on Amazon/Hulu.  When it comes to original, exclusive shows I'm not really willing to go to a lot of effort for them.  The Star Wars/Marvel shows on Disney+ I watched because like I said I could bundle it with Hulu for pretty cheap.  I watched The Boys, Invincible, and some other shows on Amazon but then I already had Amazon Prime so I didn't have to do a lot to access that.  Amazon Prime does lots of other stuff so it's different than these other streaming services that are just TV/movies.

The only streaming service I really went right out and got was when I found out about the Rifftrax app.  That was something I had been wanting because it was annoying trying to watch them with Amazon Prime and Pluto TV and I didn't have Xumo and they weren't really on TubiTV yet.  So I guess I can be motivated, but it takes a lot more than one show or movie.

Months ago, they announced that Butler Blue III and Butler Blue IV would be on an episode of Netflix's Dogs series starting in July.  I thought, "I should go get Netflix to watch that."  I figured I'd wait until it came out in July though.  But as July came around, I still didn't sign up for Netflix.  I never even seriously considered it.  If cute bulldog mascots won't get me to sign up, what will?

The strategy for all these streaming services is offering exclusive content usually with some big stars--or formerly big stars.  But as I've said, I've never really signed up for anything because of that.  The effort it takes to download the app, sign up, verify with my email, and pay with my credit card rarely seems worth it just for one thing or even a couple of things.  I can usually find something else to watch that's easier.  

I was thinking that probably the future for these services will be bundling them like with Hulu/Disney+/ESPN.  Right now the bundling seems to be just with ones owned by the same company like I saw Paramount+ and Showtime you can get bundled for $10 and both are owned by Viacom.  But with the competitive marketplace, you might eventually see non-affiliated brands bundling.  Like maybe Paramount+ and Apple+ could get together to make an offer to try to boost sales.

And then the irony is eventually everything could get bundled to the point you're basically back to cable TV with its packages.

(Of course after I wrote this entry, I decided I had run out of excuses and got Paramount+.  Lowering the price $1/month probably helped a little.  Still almost no interest in Netflix or Apple+ or restoring HBO Max.)