Save money on your streaming services | Ustream

Where can I watch my favourite TV shows online?

Here are some of the most searched-for TV shows and movies and where you can find them.

Where can I watch The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power?

The hype around this show started in 2017 when Amazon paid a record-breaking $250 million for the TV rights to the beloved franchise. Set in Middle-Earth, in an era preceding the events of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films and costing around $465 million to produce (and that’s before any marketing or promotion costs) the LOTR TV show is history’s first billion-dollar TV production.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Where can I watch the new Game of Thrones show, House of the Dragon?

While the final season of Game of Thrones was a monumental disappointment, the prequel series House of Dragon is managing to bring fans back to the franchise. Following the story of the book Fire and Blood, which George R.R. Martin decided to write instead of finishing the Song of Ice and Fire series, House of the Dragon is set roughly 170 years before the events of Game of Thrones.

Featuring an impressive cast, including Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Emma D'Arcy and Matt Smith, has House of the Dragon restored your love for the world of Westeros?

House of Dragon airs on Sky Atlantic, which you can watch exclusively through Sky or NOW.

Where can I watch The Crown Season 5?

Season 4 of The Crown was, in my humble opinion, the best yet. Ending with Diana well and truly trapped in her unhappy marriage, season 5 will apparently start in 1992 and run through 1997, covering her tragic death in Paris. Other important events that may be shown are the Queen's golden wedding anniversary, Tony Blair winning the general election, the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother, and William and Kate’s first meeting at St Andrew's.

The Crown Season 5 will premiere in November 2022.

Where can I watch Better Call Saul Season 6

The much-loved prequel to Breaking Bad, which follows the show’s trusty but troubled lawyer Saul Goodman, will enter its sixth and final season in 2022. Over the last seven years, we’ve seen Saul venture further and further into the criminal world, and we’re desperate to finally find out how he’ll land his inevitable role as Albuquerque’s most notorious defence lawyer. Who will Saul meet in the Breaking Bad universe next?

What carnage will Lalo get up to this time? And most importantly, *what happens to Kim?* Find out on Netflix this year.

Where can I watch Succession?

Succession is another popular HBO show, currently filming its third season. You can watch the exploits of the Logan family via Sky or NOW on Sky Atlantic.

Where can I watch Love Island?

The ITV reality TV show that’s taken the world by storm since it premiered in 2015 is pretty much all the TV world talks about each summer. Love Island airs on ITV, but if you want to watch past seasons you’ll need to subscribe to the ITV/BBC streaming service, Britbox.

Where can I watch Friends?

For now, Friends is still available to stream on Netflix in the UK. Even for those of us who know the entire series word-for-word, rewatching Friends is a source of great comfort. Friends has bounced from network to network over the years, appearing on terrestrial and satellite TV channels before making its way to streaming services.

Streaming rights in the US are a little more complicated, as while Friends originally aired on NBC which now has its own Peacock streaming service, it was produced by Warner Bros, owners of HBO. As such, Friends moved from Netflix to HBO Max. And had the reunion special gone ahead, it would have been streamed on HBO Max as well.

Where can I watch The Office (US)?

At the moment, you can watch The US Office on Amazon Prime Video. Even if you were a fan of the UK original series from Ricky Gervais, there’s no denying that the US Office far surpassed the UK original, and remains one of the most rewatched series in the world.  Like Friends, The Office first aired on NBC, and as such rights to the show have since returned to NBC in the US, and it was one of the headline shows when it first launched Peacock. 

Where can I watch The Handmaid's Tale?

Channel 4 has had the exclusive rights to The Handmaid’s Tale since its first season, and it will be the first place to watch season 4 when it is released. Unfortunately, at the time of writing there is still no official UK release date. You can catch up on all the previous seasons on Amazon Prime Video while you wait.

For many of us, streaming services are the best and easiest way to watch TV shows and films at home. But with so many streaming services available, monthly subscription fees can add up quickly. Here’s how to save money on your streaming services and make sure you always have access to the best content without paying too much.

What is TV streaming and how does it work?

TV streaming is any on-demand service that allows you to pick and choose which titles you want to watch and when you want to watch them. And if you’re new to the world of TV streaming, don’t worry. It’s usually very simple and straightforward to get started, so you can stream TV shows and films to your TV or smart device with just a few clicks.  Platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and NOW are online services that you can access either via a computer or smart device or with TV stream devices and smart TVs.

To stream TV shows and films, you’ll need a reliable broadband connection, but most streaming platforms don’t use up a huge amount of bandwidth unless you’re streaming in HD or 4K. We’d recommend a fibre broadband connection of at least 30-40Mbps if that’s possible where you live. Each streaming service gives you access to a different library of content, with most of them producing their own exclusive, original content that you can only watch with a subscription to their service. 

How many streaming services do you need?

Deciding which streaming service to get and the number of streaming services you need will depend on which TV shows and films you just have to watch. Each streaming service has its own collection of content, some of which is exclusive but some of which can be found on other platforms.

This means that, at any given time, your household will probably have more than one subscription to a streaming service, with the average household having around two or three. And at an average monthly cost of between £5 and £10 a service, you could be spending £20-£40 a month on your streaming subscriptions.

How can I save money on streaming services?

Most of us use streaming services to watch TV and films at home, but the cost quickly adds up. You don’t need to miss your favourite TV shows but you also don’t need to be out of pocket each month.

1. Figure out which services to cancel and when

First things first, take stock of all your current streaming services and note the last time you watched content on them. If it’s been more than a month, you should probably cancel that service straight away. Don’t worry, unlike traditional pay-TV services, all the major streaming services are flexible monthly subscriptions.

See if you could get better broadband for streaming and save money on your bill at the same time.

So if you cancel your subscription now and decide tomorrow, next week or next month that you want to renew it, it takes just a few clicks and you’ll be back streaming in minutes.

How to cancel Netflix

If you find that you haven’t really been using your Netflix subscription in the last month, it’s fairly easy to cancel. Using your browser, navigate to the Account section of your user profile. You’ll then see a clear prompt to Cancel Membership.

How to cancel Amazon Prime Video

The main difficulty in cancelling your Amazon Prime membership is that they are typically annual memberships. While you can pay monthly, the benefits and discounts of annual membership are so heavily pushed when signing up that most of us are on a 12-month contract. This means that you’ll be able to cancel your Amazon Prime subscription renewal, rather than cancelling your membership immediately. 

Note: If you haven’t used your Prime membership, you are eligible for a full refund of the current membership period and Amazon will process the refund in three to five business days.

How to cancel Disney Plus

If you’ve subscribed to Disney Plus directly, it’s a simple matter of navigating to your Account section, scrolling down to the subscription section, and then clicking cancel.

Like Amazon Prime, if you’ve signed up for an annual membership, you won’t be able to cancel immediately as you’ve already pre-paid for the year. The other complication will be if you subscribed to Disney Plus via Sky.

How to cancel Disney Plus on Sky

Sky TV customers are able to add Disney Plus to their Sky subscription fairly easily via the MySky app. Just as you would add on BT Sport or other additional TV services, you can add Disney Plus to your monthly Sky TV package by simply toggling on the Disney Plus option.

However, it’s slightly more complicated to cancel Disney Plus on Sky, as you’ll need to contact Sky directly to change your TV subscription. In this case, you’ll need to call the Sky downgrade number below to remove Disney Plus from your subscription. There’s also a 31-day notice period to cancel, so it’s not quite so simple to cancel Disney Plus on Sky.

How to cancel Disney Plus on Amazon

If you signed up for Disney Plus via Amazon Prime, you’ll have to follow slightly different steps, but you can cancel online without having to call anyone.

How to cancel Apple TV Plus

You can cancel your subscription to Apple TV Plus a couple of ways. Firstly, by navigating to your profile tv.apple.com. 

Another way to cancel your Apple TV Plus subscription is on your iPhone. 

Note: If you’re using the free trial you got after purchasing an Apple product, cancelling will immediately revoke your access to Apple TV+. You’ll need to wait until the free trial is about to end before cancelling, so set a reminder the day before so you don’t forget.

How to cancel Britbox

Similarly, if you’ve subscribed to BritBox directly you can cancel by simply going to your account profile.

If you signed up via your Apple ID or Google Play account, you’ll need to cancel your subscription on those platforms.  For Apple, follow the same steps as cancelling Apple TV+ detailed above. For Google, visit this Google support page and click Cancel a Subscription.

2. Plan your TV show binge-watching

Since you’re able to cancel and restart most streaming subscriptions as and when you need them, it makes sense to be a little more strategic about what you watch and when. By timing your subscriptions to when TV shows and films are released, you can be sure you never miss an episode without paying for multiple services at the same time.

For example, if you know you’re going to binge-watch the new season of Bridgerton or The Crown when they’re released, you’ll need to make sure you have a live Netflix subscription for those months. And depending on how many hours of TV you watch a night, you may not even need any of the others during those months.

This could save you around £20 a month, or £240 a year. Use our “What to watch” tool to help you plan which subscriptions you need so you can watch all the latest and upcoming TV shows and save money on your streaming services.

2. Make the most of free trials and free platforms

Unfortunately, two of the biggest streaming services, Netflix and Disney Plus, have stopped offering free trials to new customers. But you can still try out some of the other big streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, NOW and BritBox for free.

If that’s not enough, there are actually a number of streaming services available in the UK with a huge selection of content that you can access for free. Services like All 4, My5, UKTV Play and BBC iPlayer allow you to watch TV shows and films without ever having to pay a penny – you will have to watch some ads, though. Read more about how to get streaming services for free with our dedicated guide.

3. Share your subscriptions with friends and family

The act of sharing streaming login details with family and friends became so common that platforms quickly began integrating individual profiles into their interfaces. Streaming giants like Netflix and Disney Plus understood that families and friends would share access to their subscriptions, and in doing so are far more likely to keep their subscriptions for much longer.

However, for the last couple of years, there have been several rumours that Netflix will be phasing out this option, with trials taking place in different regions around the world testing out restrictions and additional charges for adding profiles. So while you’re still able, make the most of being able to share your subscription with family and friends. 

4. Use promo codes and discounts 

Keep an eye out for promotions and discounts. You’ll sometimes be able to grab a promotional code or renewal code that will lower your monthly TV subscription price, but the most common discount to use is a student discount. Amazon Prime in particular offers a student discount on its monthly subscription fee, costing £3.25 a month instead of the usual £7.99 for regular Prime membership.

See if you could get better broadband for streaming and save money on your bill at the same time.