DJariya

Question.

When subscribing to a streaming service, do you care about older catalog content like older movies and older TV shows? Or are you one of those who have no time to watch old stuff or think it's a waste of time with so much new stuff coming out every month? I've seen some people here mention that they have no time to watch their old movies and only look for new stuff.

Disney + has hundreds of hours of Disney back catalog movies, shows, specials and such. But, I see online that some people only cared about The Mandalorian and are cancelling because they have no time to watch anything else or don't think they will utilize it enough.

HBO Max will also have hundreds of hours of back catalog movies and shows as well. Same goes with Peacock.

Netflix as you all know has a massive back catalog of older movies and shows.

DC Universe has a limited back catalog of older DC cartoons, shows and comics. I know most here who have it really only cared about Titans and Doom Patrol.

So, do you care about a good back catalog for the streaming services currently out in the market? Or is it a big fat no and you only care about new content and once you're done watching it, you move on to something else with new content. Do you just subscribe for only a limited period of time to get what you want out of it and then cancel and move on to the next service?

As for me, yes I like having it. I like re-visiting something that I may not have on disc and made a good impression on me when I saw it previously. I also like finding an old gem that I may not have seen. Like Chopping Mall, which I mentioned in the Shudder thread. I'm not insistent on only watching new stuff all the time. Yes, I know there's only so many hours in the day and dwelling on old content will put you many hours behind on new shows and movies that keep coming out. Hence, it's a 2-way street on what you hope to get out of it.

fujishig

Yes, I care about a back catalog if it's something I'm already interested in.

I have kids. So the Disney+ back catalog was the main draw to me (even though I own the majority of the major animated films and superhero films). My kids can watch all the legacy Disney Channel content they want, as long as all the Disney Afternoon cartoons, X-men the animated series, Clone Wars, Avengers cartoons, Spider-man cartoons (except Spectacular), Gravity Falls, etc. That's huge for my family, and a lot of it is new to them. If HBO Max has a fraction of the Cartoon Network content, that will be huge as well.

Same with DC Universe. While I wish they had all the DC series available and it's alarming that they are rotating out a ton of content, having BTAS, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Teen Titans, Brave and the Bold and Young Justice is a decent lineup.

Mike86

I prefer a good mix of original content and catalogue content. If I’m subscribing to a service give me options.

TheBigDave

I love a good deep catalog. But it has to be unique content. I have a large digital collection and already own all the mainstream stuff. So having a bunch of James Bond, Harry Potter, X-Men, Nightmare On Elm Street, Friday the 13th, etc movies doesn't mean anything for me. I want a catalog full of obscure films like Chopping Mall. That's why I like Shudder. You don't find most of those movies anywhere else.

dvd-4-life

I have --zero--- interest in streaming services new content(unless it's CBS All-Access current CBS programing).

I dropped Netflix because they seem to only care about new content.

I wish that all streaming services would make it easier to find older catalog stuff and maybe list it by year or by Network rather than I having to look high and low on some websites that do list streaming site's programing.

mndtrp

The only older content I'm really interested in is sitcoms. I often times want to just watch a quick episode of something amusing, and very few of the newer sitcoms are appealing to me. Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time with sitcoms that utilize a laugh track or audience, so that limits me even further. Otherwise, there's enough new, or new to me, content that I can stay busy. Disney+ was entirely for the kids until they start putting out the new Marvel shows. We'll eventually get around to the Mandalorian, as my wife is a big Star Wars fan.

TomOpus

I like some of the new content that streaming services have but I also like having a good catalog. That's why I have Netflix, Amazon and D+.

Some people are missing out on some excellent new content.

Kurt D

Definitely prefer catalog content to new programming, with some exceptions. ^ I have the same subs right now but will likely cut back to just Netflix in January.

davidh777

Priority is new stuff but I like having catalog content. I have some old TV shows that I’d like to catch up on, but I’d more likely watch classic movies.

Artman

I own a lot of the back catalog of movies that I enjoy revisiting (both physical and digital) so it's of much less importance to me. If I wasn't getting D+ for free this yr I'd have cancelled after Mando. Most likely a different story when multiple MCU and SW shows are coming per yr.

Difficult for me to see subscribing to more than 3 services at a time... Netlfix losing it's nbc shows is a big blow, but they still deliver a lot of original content.

milo bloom

Absolutely. We first got into thing like Netflix and Hulu for their deep catalogs. The new stuff is really hit or miss with us.

Reminds me of when Cartoon Network started up, they played all the old classics and it was fantastic, especially Late Night Black & White. Then they started introducing a few new shows, some of which were great (Dexter, original PPG) and others were pretty forgettable and they eventually pushed all the old stuff to Boomerang, which was on another cable tier that was more than we could spend at the time.

If catalog content keeps getting put under studio specific streaming services, then our interest in things like Netflix and Hulu will lessen and we'll just get our stuff some other way.

tonyc3742

Sometimes. I like to check out things I missed, or revisit things sometimes. I have 20 seasons of Simpsons on DVD, but it's nice being able to easily watch a favorite episode on Disney Plus.
DCU did have a lot of old stuff, but I wasn't really interested in any of it (except perhaps Birds of Prey) so I let that sub lapse.
A large catalog is important, that can be a lot of good new stuff, or good old stuff, or a mix of both.

Nick Danger

I joined Netflix streaming last year for three months while I was recovering from surgery. Their back catalog is pretty empty compared to the DVD back catalog. I dropped streaming and went back to DVDs.

Our recent Netflix movies have been:
21 Up
Bull Durham
The Spanish Prisoner
L.A. Story
Lost in Translation
Let the Right One In
Burden of Dreams

Our interests don't overlap much with the top-1000 content that they keep on their streaming servers.

Defiant

Well, I was a subscriber of Warner Archive Digital for a couple of years, when it was around, and you don't get much older than that (I wish there was still a service like that, though fortunately Prime does have a reasonable selection of older movies). I prioritize older catalog content over new stuff, though I will watch new shows when it's on a service I already have (eg, Expanse, The Man in the High Castle, etc), and will on occasion subscribe to something for a new show (eg, Star Trek Discovery, Twilight Zone), but then I'll only subscribe for a month or two and then cancel when I finish watching it.

RichC2

Yes, Yes I do.

joeblow69

We've been getting into watching more stuff from the 50s-70s, so I wish the big streaming platforms had more classics from those eras.

dex14

I'm guessing that is going to be a major component for some of these direct network streamers like Peacock, HBOMAX, CBS All Access does this slightly. But it could be a while before they get the rights back from other places... or they may just not be in the best condition and have to remaster a bit.

TheAllPurposeNothing

With the exception of a couple of series on HBO, the only newer content I tend to be interested in are documentaries. So the older catalog is the value to me. Will eventually subscribe to Criterion. Otherwise, I do almost all of my streaming through TCM and Kanopy.

Giantrobo

Sure. Naturally, the more the better in terms of "bang for your buck". But it's not a deal breaker. Plus, sometimes I think what difference does it make if you have 50 years of back catalog when one hardly has time to watch any of it these days?

beatboks1

The vast majority of my viewing is older content.
it all depends on the variety of that older content. Where Disney + is concerened the ariety of the older content simply wasnt sufficient to hold my interest. There is only a dozen or so movies I'd occasionally rewatch on D+. Amazon on the other hand has a lot of old content I watch multiple times as well as their originals