Not Music Related But…
I am concerned that some film studios are ending their releases on hard copy.
I was waiting for a new 4K release of the Wallace and Gromit series that would include their latest full length film, “Vengeance Most Foul“. But noticed that a pre-order for everything but the latest film was available on Amazon Canada.
This Shout Studios release is also listed on Amazon U.S.A but isn’t available as a pre-order for July 15th yet and appears to be short the “Curse of the Were-Rabbit” blu-ray that was released by Dreamworks Animation in July 2019. And it looks like the blu-ray of that film has been pulled from Canadian shelves.
The Collector’s Edition Boxed Set released last December does include that film but “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” is on Netflix and they only released two seasons out of four of “Stranger Things” on blu-ray.
Are they holding out hoping more will join their streaming service or are blu-ray and 4k hard copies no longer on their table?
“The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” is available to stream and purchase on Prime Video so I can hold off on buying a hard copy until early July if I don’t find that film in Canada beforehand. But it would be great to be able to buy everything in one package.
Now that would be “Cracking”.
(P.S More details on the new Shout Factory release is available by clicking here)
Netflix Canada – Meh!
As readers of this blog know I wanted to give Netflix a try for three months during the holiday period and had hoped that I could get a bonus offer from PC Optimum, Scene, Air Miles or Rakuten on a Netflix Gift Card. But there wasn’t even an offer from Shell for bonus Air Miles or a discount via Amazon.ca from September 2024 to now, which was quite disappointing.
This is why I just bit the bullet and joined in December, thinking I’d binge watch all of the brand new films and television programs. But not only were the offerings sparse but a price hike was scheduled shortly after I joined. And this is why I chose to end my subscription after less than one month.
Former subscribers can attest that Netflix is far from generous with their discounts now.
There were no discounted appeals to re-join before and none when I was going through the process to end my subscription; Only an offer to pause my subscription for up to 8 weeks. But both Paramount+ and Disney+ offer big discounts to subscribers who have been with them for more than a year, the offers I got being a rate of $9.99 per month for three months for Disney+ and 50% discount on a year’s subscription on Paramount+.
Even Apple TV fans can wait until a season of their favourite show ends before resubscribing to binge watch it it’s entirety, with either 14,000 PC Optimum Points per month or with an Apple Gift Card that’s been discounted or obtained with bonus loyalty points. But where are the incentives?
Yes, I can subscribe to Netflix via Apple TV but I don’t own an Apple TV device, iPad or iPhone. And I would prefer being able to use the Netflix button on my Smart TV or cable box remote, like I had for years.
I think I could set it up to work anyway but this is all moot now – The subscription is canceled and I’m only going to rejoin after the fifth season of Stranger Things is up, for a short period.
I just hope that Wallace & Gromit‘s latest film will be released on blu-ray and not be a Netflix exclusive. I’ve put off buying the previous complications on blu-ray to buy a boxed set and not having “Vengeance Most Foul” on disc would be annoying.
Anyhow, I was once happy with Netflix Canada, for years, but now it’s overpriced and bland, mainly because Hollywood is quite satisfied regurgitating trope collections in lieu of films with imaginary plots and three dimensional characters. And innovation in foreign language television like Dark, Rita, Trapped and Bonus Family has dried up.
They’ll need more than a few documentaries to keep me as a subscriber for more than three months.
Netflix Subscription Fee Hike?
Variety has reported that analysts believe Netflix will again raise their subscription fees, and my response to the last hike was to cancel and to plan to only subscribe for three months per year using a discounted gift card or gift card offer that includes extra Air Miles or Optimum points.
This year I think i’ll subscribe either from mid-October to mid-January or mid-November to Mid-February, when holiday programming is full blast on television because i’m not a big fan of that.
Hopefully this would coincide with the release of the last season of Stranger Things and other programs I can binge watch. But I still wonder if COVID’s impacts on production and the recent writer’s strike will cause a shortage of content at the end of this year.
I routinely browse Amazon.ca upcoming blu-ray releases to determine what might pop up later and it looks somewhat encouraging. But I know I will probably not be interested in what they’ll have to offer until next winter, unless they’re planning to release something from Europe that could be promising; I was surprised by Trapped (an Icelandic detective series) and Dark (a sci-fi series from Germany).
Quite frankly they’ll need to impress me if they keep hiking their prices this often. After all, I still have a film collection and will likely keep adding to it if they don’t. And Apple, Cineplex, Google and Prime also occasionally offer discounted rentals and purchases.
I guess all we can do is wait for Netflix to make it worth our while, again.
Netflix / Optimum Offer
Optimum Points members can obtain 7500 bonus points when purchasing $50 gift cards for Netflix and Uber at participating Shoppers Drug Mart stores from Saturday, the 11th of June to Friday the 17th of June, 2022. Click here for more details.
Adverts on Netflix?
It appears that Netflix may be introducing an advertisement sponsored tier to their subscription options shortly.
This new tier is rumoured to be scheduled for introduction at the end of 2022 and is in response to the mass subscriber losses suffered by Netflix that were recently reported by Variety, which believes another larger wave of subscribers will be pulling the plug.
Hopefully this will be done in an unobtrusive manner, by adding unanimated adverts to the main page, when one browses the titles, and on those reminders that ask you if you want to keep watching. But I suspect they will add adverts prior to the film, halfway in the film, and during the end credits, which could annoy some people if they’re more than 30 second long and run over bonus content.
If a 30 second advert ran in-between the episodes of a series, i’d be fine with that. But I don’t think I would personally like the momentum of an episode interrupted halfway, especially when the episode is 45 minutes or less.
Another option would be clickable adverts, placed strategically in the menus, with special offer coupons exclusive to Netflix that would appear on the screen prior to a film or episode. I wouldn’t mind those running on my paid subscription.
Basically they’re going to need to thread softly and consult with their customers, especially if they’re going to ask for people to both pay for a subscription and still be subjected to adverts.
Netflix Fare Hike Survival Tips
So, Netflix has decided to raise their prices by one or two bucks, depending on your subscription. And although it is a bit disappointing, I know how to save a few bucks whilst being subscribed to this film streaming service:
- I subscribe to the Standard Plan, not the Premium Plan, mainly because Ultra HD only offers a limited visual improvement on many films and some films are not made available in that higher resolution rate. And I rarely have multiple films streaming to several televisions or devices anyway.
- Netflix gift cards are occasionally discounted or sold with bonus loyalty points at some stores and gas stations in Canada so you can stock up for a year’s worth of subscriptions or more using these offers. I take advantage of Air Miles offers at Shell Gas Stations and Optimum Points offers at my Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix, Loblaws, Your Independent Grocer and Real Canadian Superstore stores. These are usually advertised in their flyers.
- You might also consider cancelling your subscription to the other streaming services you don’t actually need. I personally got rid of Paramount+ because they aren’t going to be streaming the new Picard series in Canada and i’ve already watched everything I wanted on Apple+ so i’ve cancelled that one as well, although you should note that offers for free subscriptions to the latter are occasionally made with purchases from Apple.
- In regards to CraveTV, you can save a few bucks by just viewing streaming content on your tablet and/or paying for your yearly membership in advance, preferably with a discounted gift card. And yearly membership is also available on Disney+, who offer a limited amount of Ultra HD films to their subscribers at no extra cost.
- I also personally never subscribed to Spotify because Amazon Music is offered to me free via my Prime Membership at Amazon.ca, along with Prime Video, which has a decent selection of films and concerts.
- I’ve also saved on extra cable outlets by installing an omnidirectional outdoor antenna, connecting my bedroom televisions to that antenna. I was mainly watching my local television stations on those televisions anyway. And some cable companies allow streaming on tablets and/or Roku, which eliminates the need for extra cable outlets.
I hope these tips are useful to some of you.