I'm currently waiting for my husband to give me the green light to cut the cable cord. We get a bazillion channels but he watches only the Discovery Channel (seriously, dude?). I'm the one who streams, which is why we have Netflix, Amazon Prime (which I'd have even without the video library), and Hulu right now. Since Xfinity added Netflix capability to their new X1 remotes (and their remotes are awesome, I gotta admit), he does use Netflix a little bit more.
But I can't wait to save that bazillion dollars a month we're currently spending on cable. We have it bundled with a landline and our internet, so we'll have to carefully unbundle those. We love their internet (and it nets us both free mobile service!), but I hate paying for all that TV we don't use. I can add HBO, Starz, and Showtime subscriptions through Prime when we want those. That'd pretty much cover everything we watch anyway. And Hulu offers Discovery Channel shows he watches.
I just wish he had the time to sit down and do the math so we can cut the cord. I typically turn on the TV when he's working night shift and head straight for Netflix. In fact, until reading this thread, I'd forgotten that Netflix even has a DVD option! That's how I started on Netflix waaaay back in the earlier days. We had the 3-DVD plan. Everybody did the DVDs back then. I didn't even give a second thought to any of their streaming because it was junk and leftovers. The movies on DVD were the way to go.
But at some point I ditched the DVDs... I think it was when their playlists just expanded like crazy and we were cutting household costs. I never looked back. If there's a movie I feel I HAVE to watch as soon as I can, I can always rent or buy it through Prime or elsewhere. Instantly. No waiting for a DVD on a waiting list.
I say all this, but I also still buy DVDs. I typically buy things that are tough or impossible to find on any streaming service, or things I just want to have permanent access to. So, older, quirky Gene Wilder movies, for instance, and entire TV series sets (LOST, BSG, Monty Python's old shows from the '70s, Firefly, Mad Men, Deadwood, Six Feet Under...). Plus cheap movies as I see them advertised. A lot of these were only a coupla bucks. Heck, some of the Gene Wilder movies were "add-on items" on Amazon and I had to order OTHER things in the same order before I could even get them!
Hulu's been great for The Handmaid's Tale and one or two other things, but not much else right now. That's probably because we still have cable so I can use Xfinity's On Demand feature to get anything I want to stream right to the TV without the internet issues. We have the cheapest Hulu ($8/month) so there are commercials. Once we cut the cable, Hulu will likely become more prominent in our rotation.
Initially, I thought Netflix's idea of making their own content was a bit silly. I don't know WHY I thought that, since HBO long ago proved it was the smartest way to get people to choose YOUR premium channel over the next guy's. (I remember when HBO first came out and it was the only game in town. Back then the big deal was just getting uncut movies with no commercials. Revolutionary!) Once HBO started producing their own series, they could do no wrong. And they almost never have a flop.
So I don't know why I didn't expect Netflix to succeed. I think the brilliant part of their strategy is the bingeing. Releasing the whole season at once. It gives them a slight edge for me over Hulu, which is releasing The Handmaid's Tale one episode a week like a regular broadcast TV show. Of course, that means you'll keep your Hulu subscription long enough to see an entire season -- months rather than a week or two.
Still, I've had to get used to waiting a week for episodes of The Handmaid's Tale, when I'd gotten used to bingeing episodes of Santa Clarita Diet like Lay's potato chips. (I swear you cannot watch just one episode of that, or Kimmy Schmidt!)
I like most of Yoda's original list. I'm a middle-aged woman, though, so I'd have to add Grace & Frankie.
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