The Art of Streaming

The digital age has sure shaped how we view, listen and experience things today. Take Hulu and Netflix, for example, there is something about watching your shows or movies through a website vs. real time through your cable provider. I am a 26 year old who doesn't have cable and streams my shows, while my parents, on the other hand, have had cable for countless years and don't quite understand the direction millennials are taking things.

So, when you sit down after a long day or binge-watching your favorite show on your lazy Sunday, where do you find yourself going to? Is it Netflix's endless supply of "binge-worthy shows" or Hulu's plethora of top shows that arrive on your 'Watch List' the next day? I find that I use both, equally. Hulu is obviously for my primetime television shows: Blindspot, Law & Order: SVU,Lethal Weapon, Taken, (I clearly have a type) etc. while Netflix I primarily watch for their Netflix Originals and their supply of good movies. I have mastered the switching back and forth to find exactly what I am looking for. What I have not mastered is not getting lost in the art of streaming. Spending hours and hours searching for exactly what we want has turned from struggling task to a pure art form. The way we swift through titles, genres, or the given list that is purely based on our previous watched, I can never seem to find exactly what I am looking for in a timely manner. I get lost. We all get lost. So the bottom line is what do we choose? Which one works best for our lifestyle, financially, needs?

The question allows for a few different answers, Netflix once had such a robust library of movie titles, however each year it shrinks roughly by a thousand a year since 2014 which causes serious question of why are we paying more each year for less? This significant shrink of titles and expense increase allows for Hulu to take the unequivocal crown of streaming champion. Hulu not only allows for various subscription options depending on your wants/needs as well as how much you want to pay, which definitely is a good option across demographics, but you also have a growing library of primetime television shows at your fingertips the next day rather than months or years down the line with Netflix, but you also get popular movie titles mixed in with some very solid classics, such as, Mississippi Burning, Thelma & Louis, and Rocky. So when push comes to shove Netflix definitely leaves room to be pushed out by Hulu and constantly developing streaming services: Amazon, SlingTV, PlayStation Vue, Youtube TV just to name a few.

There is nothing that shows an end in sight for streaming capabilities, whether it is for movies, tv shows, or music. We have entered a world where cable cords and tv boxes do not exist and we simply have a TV. Hulu took away cable providers in general by allowing you to watch live TV through Hulu's new and improved subscription capabilities — will Netflix rise to its competitor or step back and be a distant memory of what streaming once was? Netflix has a way of getting you lost in titles and reviews, while Hulu provides a pretty upfront list of shows that they think are tailored to your interests based on an algorithm. My best advice is to see what subscription works best for you; both Hulu and Netflix have viable options.

So what does 2018 have in store for us this year? We will have to wait and see.