The term “Netflix and chill” has become synonymous with today’s video-on-demand culture, with the streaming giant easily being the most recognised streaming platform on the market. Other major players such as Disney+, Stan and Prime Video arguably round out the remainder of the main entertainment services.
If you subscribe to any or all of these services, then you probably have more content than you will ever get through in a lifetime. However, while each platform will have its good to great content, chances are you would filter out a sizable chunk of it as not being appealing to your taste.
Thankfully, in today’s entertainment market, we’re not starved for options when it comes to streaming services. If you’ve had enough of what the main players are offering, below are some lesser-known platforms that may contain some hidden treasures waiting for you to discover.
Paramount +
You may have heard of Paramount + through your Prime Video subscription, but chances are you haven’t subscribed yet due to being unsure if it’s worth adding another subscription to your bills. That’s a fair concern, but after a slow start in 2021, Paramount + has really picked up the range of its offerings and is now making its way into the ranks of the big players.
Boasting a catalogue of classic and original content, Paramount + has found a sizable following thanks to making full seasons of classic shows like Cheers, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier and Beverley Hills 90210 available for those who don’t find modern-day offerings appealing and would much rather relive the nostalgia of their early years of free-to-air TV. And if you’re a Trekkie, Paramount provides all your favourite Star Trek movies and shows to re-binge.
This doesn’t mean that Paramount doesn’t have any great, new content to offer. In fact, it hosts some of the most popular shows on TV now such as Yellowstone and its prequel spinoffs 1883 and 1923. And its movie library is no slouch either, hosting a variety of classic and new blockbusters from The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption to Top Gun: Maverick, all the Mission Impossibles’ and the Fifty Shades movies.
Hayu
If you’re addicted to reality TV, and let’s be honest, reality TV can be as addictive as it gets, then Hayu is a no-brainer for you. It’s made up of almost exclusively reality TV shows, old and new. If you can’t get enough of shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Real Housewives or any of the dozens of celebrity reality shows being pumped out weekly, then for under $62 a year, or $6.99 a month, (which is less than that gym membership you don’t use), Hayu will the best money you spend all year.
Hayu is a great service to have if you missed out on shows like Top Chef, Below Deck and the reboot of The Hills, there is no better way for you to get your dose of reality drama in one place.
Rakuten Viki
You may have noticed that Korean film and television have become huge nowadays with films like Train to Busan and Parasite doing well with Western audiences due to their unique style and storytelling.
K-drama is also fast trending among Western and Asian audiences alike, presenting an alternative way to get your drama fix and maybe find your next series to binge-watch.
Viki is packed full of fantastic, original content from all over Asia, including Korea, China, Japan and the Philippines. It’s a great option if you love anime or you’re just fed up with the usual Hollywood offerings. Rakuten Viki might just be the goldmine of entertainment you’ve been needing but never thought to look for.
Tubi
The only free streaming service on this list, Tubi makes a strong argument as to why it’s not as popular as its more well-known peers. The reason for this could be that it consists largely of older movies that the bigger streaming sites typically don’t have room for due to them focusing on newer content.
Featuring a catalogue of over 50,000 movies and TV shows, there is a tonne of classics and hidden gems to be found on Tubi. With movies such as The Matrix, Rush Hour and a whole heap of classic horrors including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, American Werewolf in London and Hellraiser, it’s a fantastic service considering it’s free.
Although Tubi does rely on ads to keep the service free, ads are few and far between and aren’t as intrusive and frequent as free-to-air TV. Considering the amount of content you get for $0.00, there’s no reason not to sign up.
Shudder
With the streaming market being so fiercely competitive, services that cater exclusively to a specific genre are becoming more and more popular. A streaming service consisting entirely of horror films, Shudder is a horror enthusiast’s dream (or nightmare) come true. Although, if you are a horror fanatic, then Shudder should be old news to you. But if you’re someone who likes to watch the occasional scary movie but finds the creepy offerings on the more popular services to be lacklustre (looking at you Netflix), then you will, without a doubt, find something to give you the chills on Shudder.
Horror is by far the most popular genre, at least it appears to be with weekly releases of horror movies coming out of seemingly nowhere. A lot of these are original content from Shudder, so you can rest assured you wouldn’t have seen these movies before anywhere else.
Aside from over 180 original movies in the exclusive category, Shudder is home to a tonne of classics of the genre as well. Movies like Halloween, Ringu (The original Japanese version of The Ring), The Thing, Donnie Darko and Hellraiser are just a handful of great horror titles you can expect to find on Shudder.
YouTube
Yes, YouTube. Some of you may already know that YouTube offers premium members a vast library of movies, but most people aren’t premium members so watching movies on YouTube with what feels like ads popping up every two minutes, isn’t at all appealing. However, if you fork out the money for a subscription, even if it is just to avoid ads while watching your favourite YouTuber eat, you will also get access to a whole heap of original YouTube programming that you won’t find anywhere else.
This content ranges from documentaries to comedy to animation and reality TV. YouTube Premium also gives you access to YouTube music, so if you don’t have Spotify Premium, you could kill two entertainment birds with one stone.
If you don’t want to pay for a YouTube subscription, there are still hundreds of movies you can watch for free (with ads) by heading over to their free movie channel. Rotten Tomatoes has a list of the 100 best free movies on YouTube currently.