Study Offers Insights on Which Streaming Services to Consider
Self Financial is a company designed to help people build their credit and savings to reach financial goals. Well, the team recently shared a study they conducted regarding the popular TV streaming services. They analyzed the content available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, and Peacock in an effort to figure out which platforms come out on top in different areas. I’ll do my best to break down the highlights below.
The first thing that is shared is the pure amount of content available on each service in the United States. Here, Netflix is king with 6,475 titles and the next highest being HBO Max with 3,503. The nice thing about the graphic they shared is that it breaks down the content additionally by IMDb scores. The more opaque the color, the higher the score. When you look at only a score of 8+ on IMDb, Netflix has 795 titles while HBO Max is still in second with 463.
The next graphics explore which service is the best bang for your buck. Here, they utilized the cheapest monthly cost the service has available and looked at how many movies are available per dollar. When you look at everything, Paramount+ wins with 458 movies per $1. However, if you look at just movies with an 8+ on IMDb, HBO Max wins with 23 and if you add the 6+ IMDb scores, Netflix wins at 206. They then did the same thing with TV shows and here Netflix wins across the board.
If you’re a fan of 4K content, then you’ll love the next graphic. Netflix wins in the quantity department here again with 667 titles available in the premium format. However, Hulu has the highest average IMDb score of 7.32. That being said, they only have 49 titles available in 4K, so it stands to reason that as more 4K content is available, the average scores may dramatically change. Something that’s important to note here is that in order to access the 4K content on Netflix (and many of these services) you have to pay more than the lowest tier which means the above graphics don’t necessarily hold true.
If you’re looking for a streaming service for your kids and family, the team looked at content that is typically deemed appropriate for a 7-year-old utilizing the ratings such as TV-Y7 and PG. Here, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, but Disney+ wins with 1,139 titles meeting the filtering criteria. Once again, another service has a higher average score (Apple TV+ in this case), but it has the least amount of content in this category with only 38 getting through the filters.
The last thing I’ll include here is the breakdown of IMDb ratings for genres on each streaming platform. HBO Max wins in 11 categories like Biography, Film-Noir, History, and Music.
There’s a lot of fun information to look at here and there are even some extra graphics on Self’s site, so check that out. That being said, it’s very important to note that IMDb ratings don’t always line up with our personal opinions and so while this is one of the most objective ways to look at the data, I wouldn’t recommend using it alone to make decisions about which service(s) to subscribe to. Which services do you think are the best for you?