In recent years, streaming services have become increasingly popular as people turn away from traditional cable television. With the rise of platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, viewers are able to access a wider range of content on-demand than ever before. Students use streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Disney+ to watch their favorite shows and movies and also unwind after a long day of classes and homework. However, while streaming services offer many benefits, there are also some drawbacks that cannot be ignored. 

Streaming services offer convenience. Compared to a movie theater or cable, people are able to pause the show or movie and watch it at a different time. In a movie theater or watching live television, people are not able to pause it, therefore missing half or most of the show or movie. 

There are also so many different platforms available where people can choose the service that meets their needs the most. For example, if people want to watch Disney shows or movies, they should choose Disney+. 

However, with this comes a big drawback. People’s favorite shows are only on select services making it frustrating to find the service that has your favorite show on it. It is even more frustrating when your favorite show or movie that is on one service gets removed from that service after a while. 

Netflix offers many different TV shows and movies through its platform. Netflix tends to offer more movies than TV shows, but still has a good amount of TV shows. There are many different categories for shows and movies on Netflix such as crime, sci-fi and comedies. Netflix also categorizes some shows and movies by what the top ten most popular shows and movies are throughout the country. They have affordable plans, but to get the best plan it is pretty expensive. 

Apple TV+ is a newer streaming service that has only been around since 2019. Their content is pretty limited, with one of the most popular shows being Ted Lasso. However, a nice perk about Apple TV+ is that you can watch other channels such as Paramount+ through Apple TV+. Apple TV+ does offer a seven day free trial. This is an added bonus because then if you do not like the content on Apple TV+ you can cancel the subscription without being charged for it. Even if you do the plan on Apple TV+ it is one of the cheaper services out there only costing $6.99 a month. 

For college students with not a lot of money, taking advantage of free streaming services is a great opportunity. There are many different streaming services that do not cost any money. Some examples of free streaming services are Tubi and Pluto TV. 

Pluto TV gives the feel of live TV while not costing anything. Pluto TV offers many different live TV channels, even going so far as to include shows from the ’80s and ’90s. Pluto TV has an option to categorize the channels based on what genre you are looking for. Some different genres on Pluto TV for example are music, news and even shows in Spanish.