With plenty to watch in Marvel’s new Moon Knight, Oscar-winning CODA available on Apple TV+, and more, some of the services available on Google TV are shaking things up a bit. This week, Disney+ teased an expansion to many more countries, while Crunchyroll announced it would lessen free streaming.
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Survey says Google TV was right; there are too many services
A study conducted by Interpret titled the “Future of OTT Aggregation” has found that customers agree; there are too many streaming services. The data, based on 9,000 consumers in the US, found that 20% agree they subscribe to too many streaming services, but more notably, the survey found that 60% agree that navigating between services is “frustrating.”
Of course, that’s a struggle that Google TV tries to fix, as the platform puts content from every service into one watchlist, one homescreen, and one set of recommendations.
Crunchyroll will no longer stream new releases for free
Anime streaming service Crunchyroll announced a major change this week, in that the platform is dropping some of its free, ad-supported releases. Newly released shows will only be available on Crunchyroll’s paid, $7.99/month tier rather than using a free, fully ad-supported account.
Luckily, this new policy doesn’t go into effect immediately.
For the Spring 2022 season and future seasonal releases, Crunchyroll will update our offering on simulcast titles by subscription tier. To view new and continuing simulcasts, a premium monthly or annual subscription will be required.
Notably, Crunchyroll will still stream the first few episodes of some series for free, and over 1,000 hours of additional content will also remain free.
Disney+ is expanding to more countries, delays Obi-Wan
This week, Disney+ announced that its highly-anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi series will be delayed, but only by a couple of days. The series will now debut on May 27, a Friday instead of a Wednesday. On that date, too, the first two episodes will be released rather than just one.
Alongside that, Disney+ announced that it will expand to a whopping 42 new countries in the coming months, as follows:
New Disney+ Regions:
- May 18
- South Africa
- June 8
- Algeria
- Bahrain
- Egypt
- Iraq
- Jordan
- Kuwait
- Lebanon
- Libya
- Morocco
- Oman
- Palestine Territories
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Tunisia
- United Arab Emirates
- Yemen
- June 14
- Albania
- Andorra
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Estonia
- Greece
- Hungary
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Malta
- Montenegro
- North Macedonia
- Poland
- Romania
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Turkey
- Vatican City
- June 16
- Israel
Hulu loses Epix deal
After NBC pulled out last month, Hulu is losing even more content. Hulu’s deal with Epix is coming to an end, which will remove Paramount and MGM content from the service. Hundreds of films will be removed.
Apple TV+ debuts schedule for MLB games
This week, Apple announced the first schedule for MLB games on Apple TV+. 9to5Mac has the full schedule for games kicking off on April 8 with the New York Mets @ Washington Nationals.
FuboTV ditches its mostly redundant ‘Starter’ plan
As live TV streaming continues to escalate in cost, FuboTV has dropped its slightly more affordable “Starter” plan for its $69.99/month “Pro” tier. The other plan was only $5/month less, and while it had the same channel count, it had a much more limited DVR and limited how many people could watch at once. FuboTV’s plans are now available as follows:
Author: Ben Schoon
Source: 9TO5Google
