 Hello, I'm your host, Sydney Britt on SMM and you're watching January Jamboree, the greatest tournament for streaming platforms out there. Now let's meet our contenders. In round one, we have Peacock owned by MBC and Prime Video owned by Amazon. Then we have the green giant Hulu battling out with Showtime streaming service, Showtime and next we have Old Faithful, Netflix up against Walt Disney's Disney Plus. And lastly, we have HBO's newest service, HBO Max duking it out with Apple's Apple TV Plus. Now let's see how round one played out with our field correspondent on the streaming scene, Sadney Britt. Thanks, Sydney. Now, round one was a real nail biter with each contestant displaying their own unique strengths and features. In the first match of round one, we saw Peacock versus Prime Video. Let's take a closer look at these two contestants, shall we? First up, Peacock. This streaming service owned by MBC Universal popped up pretty recently and was the first in a slew of network owned streaming services. Now Peacock's two greatest points of advertising were the fact that it was free and that it was streaming the office, which had recently been removed off Netflix. In fact, Peacock has different collections of the office, such as superfan episodes and the best moments of Jim and Pam. In addition, Peacock has its own original content that is exclusive to Peacock, so you wouldn't catch it on MBC. Peacock also has the rest of your favorite MBC shows as well as a bunch of universal movies. Peacock's really easy to use, it has a good UI and it also has some unique features such as displaying the Rotten Tomatoes score on different movies and TV shows. Furthermore, Peacock has some live TV options and it has special channels that are specific to Peacock, such as the SNL Vault. As surprising, Peacock is of course free with ads and it has most of the favorites that MBC has to offer, but if you want to unlock everything that Peacock has to offer, it is $4.99 a month. And if you want to Peacock without ads, it's about $9.99 a month. And both of the paid options have 7-day free trials. Now let's get to know Prime Video. Prime Video, owned by Amazon, comes with any Amazon Prime account, which is a subscription with Amazon that gets you a bunch of shipping benefits for $12.99 a month with a 30-day free trial. When you consider the perks that come with a Prime membership, it's really not a bad price for the streaming service. If anything, the streaming service is really just a bonus added on to a Prime account. I don't feel like I know many people who get Amazon Prime just for Prime Video. In my opinion, the best part of Prime Video is that it doesn't just have the content that comes with Prime Video, it also has the option of renting and buying movies and TV shows that aren't free for free on Amazon. And Prime Video has a huge selection of movies and TV shows that you can rent or buy. It's rare that I can't find what I'm looking for if it's not being streamed for free. Plus Amazon Prime's really easy to use with a great selection of genres and collections to choose from. And it gives you a fair amount of information when you drag your cursor over a title, which I really like. And while original programming might not be the thing you think of first when you think of Prime Video, Prime has come out with some really great original programs. What comes to mind for me is the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and the boys. In addition, videos on Prime have timeline scrubbing and the ability to change the language or turn on or off subtitles while staying on the video. But what's really unique to Prime is the X-ray feature that tells you what actor is in a scene as well as bonus trivia, which I think is super fun. And Prime features some live TV options and watch party, which means you can stream stuff with your friends. When these two platforms faced off, it was truly a sight to behold. Peacock came out swinging with the whole free thing. But Prime wasn't about to back down. Bezos, I mean Prime, hit back with the whole near endless library of content and easier browsing experience thing. And in the end, Prime KOed Peacock with the fact that you can actually buy the office on Amazon Prime and download it. So you can actually watch it anywhere you go at any time. Your power goes out. You no longer have Wi-Fi. You still have the office if you rented it on Prime. And so Prime came out victorious. In match two, Hulu faced off against Showtime. Starting with Hulu, this streaming service for me is really the king of TV. It has so many TV shows to choose from, but we'll come back to that. Now, as for pricing, Hulu has two options. For $5.99 a month, you can watch Hulu with ads. And for $11.99 a month, you can have all of Hulu with no ads at all. With a 30-day free trial period for both options. Now, Hulu's a great experience. It's got a very seamless browsing system. It's not the best one out there, but it's definitely one of the better ones. But in my opinion, it's the special features that Hulu boasts that really make it a great streaming service. One of the bigger ones being next day uploads for TV shows. So the day after a select TV show airs on cable, it'll be uploaded to Hulu. Furthermore, Hulu offers a lot of add-ons, such as channels you can add on to your subscription, like HBO or Showtime. Each with a 7-day free trial. Other add-ons are specifically unique to Hulu. You can pay an extra $9.99 a month for unlimited screens and enhanced cloud DVR, respectively. Live TV is another great point that Hulu has, as it allows you to totally unplug from cable and just use Hulu Live. And the prices for Hulu Live are great, at $64.99 a month for basic Hulu and Live TV, or $70.99 a month for Hulu without ads and Hulu Live. In regards to content, Hulu has a really large library of TV shows with a lot of genres. I'm especially impressed by their selection of anime and reality TV shows. Plus, Hulu has a lot of great original programming, like A Handmaid's Tale. Just begging to be binged. And while you're binging, you can binge with friends via teleparty. Now, Showtime. Showtime is of course the streaming service for the premium cable channel, Showtime. So the lineup of content is already really strong, with shows like Shameless on the roster. It costs $8.99 a month and comes with a 30-day free trial, which is pretty great. However, the browsing experience on Showtime is not incredible. It's actually a little bit messy. But they do have some cool selections that I thought were really creative, such as a whole section for A24 films or Tommy Lee Jones films. Showtime has some incredible original content, one of the most recent being Your Honor or The Good Lord Bird. However, because of the streaming service's website, I think it may be better to just pay for the add-on on Prime or Hulu. So in the end, Hulu won this match. Now, the third match in the first round featured two of the biggest names in streaming, Netflix and Disney+. Netflix is the OG of online streaming. And with three different types of plans ranging from $8.99 a month to $17.99 a month, it's a great option for a lot of people. Netflix boasts probably the best, most user-friendly UI, with one great point being how much information you get when you drag your cursor over a title. In addition, searching for what you're in the mood for is super easy, with the ability to not only look up genres, but unique tags such as Suspenseful. Plus Netflix has a wide array of genres like Black Stories and unique selections like What's Top in the US Today. And Netflix is famous for its original programming, being really the first online streaming platform to have shows at the Emmys and movies at the Oscars. And every few months, there's a new show or movie on Netflix that everybody just has to see. You know? Plus, Netflix has a really strong history of getting their hands on just incredible source material and things that are already being produced. Like the new show Ratchet, which is of course based on one flu over the cuckoo's nest, and Castlevania based on the video getting the same name. In addition, they got their hands on the great British Bake-Ost distributing rights and the rights to the revival of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Plus Netflix is really the only streaming platform out there that's not anime specific that's producing really high quality anime, like Devilman Crybaby, one of my favorite shows ever. And as for content, Netflix has one of the best spreads out there, touting not only renowned films and TV shows, but also a large amount of indie films and a huge collection of foreign cinema and television. And all of these you can watch with your friends via teleparty, and a strong contender to be sure. Moving on to Disney Plus, now this contestant hasn't been in the game for super long, but boy has it already made a splash and a big one at that. Disney Plus, as you may have guessed, is a streaming service owned by Disney, which is a company that owns a bunch of other companies like Pixar, Fox, National Geographic, and Star Wars and Marvel. So there are a lot of fan favorite franchises to pick from, including those that Disney already owns, like the Disney Princesses. In fact, that really is the genius business move that has made Disney Plus so successful. These are fan favorite franchises, we're talking Marvel and Star Wars, and you can't catch them anywhere else, you have to get Disney Plus to watch them. Disney's a very fairly priced platform for the huge franchises that you get with it at $6.99 a month, and Disney has a pretty great user interface and search system. One of the best features is the fact that you can look up characters and find all the films and television related to said character. As for content, Disney for a while didn't have a ton of original content, but it's starting to really build up a collection, and a lot of it is really well received, such as The Mandalorian, which is that new Star Wars show that everybody is freaking out about, you know, with Baby Yoda. In addition, Disney Plus has the major selling point of pure nostalgia. A ton of people grew up watching Disney, it's been around for decades. So now you have a streaming service that shows all the movies and TV shows that people grew up with, and they can only watch it on Disney Plus. And I think it's only fair to point out that they've actually added disclaimers to some of their more controversial movies like Dumbo. And all this is available for a group watch on Disney Plus. Now both contenders are super strong, and the match was neck and neck for most of it. But in the end, it really comes down to what a viewer is looking for. And because Netflix has a bit of a wider berth and a wider reach in terms of content and what it offers, Netflix ended up winning this match. And in our final matchup, we have HBO Max versus Apple TV Plus, both relatively new to the streaming game, both with their own high notes. Now HBO Max may not sound very new to you because of HBO's streaming already on the HBO channel and HBO Go, but this is the newest HBO streaming platform. And it's accumulated everything that HBO is made up to this point, all on the one streaming service, along with a bunch of other movies and TV shows that are not HBO specific. HBO Max is a bit pricier than other services at $14.99 a month. But what you spend in cash you make up for in incredible content. As I said before, HBO Max is gathered all of the previous content made by HBO, which is a lot of high quality, premium stuff, you know. In addition, it has one of my favorite features on the platform, which is different collections, such as the Turner Classic Movies collection, which is my favorite, especially because I'm a film student, so I have to watch a lot of, you know, older films. And it helps that I just have the streaming service already, I don't have to go and pay for Battle of Algiers. And it's worth noting that some of the more controversial titles have disclaimers ahead of time, like Gone with the Wind, which actually has a seminar that you can watch about it. Furthermore, HBO Max is super easy to use. It's very comprehensive and it's very easy to find what you're looking for. It just doesn't have as many of the great features that other streaming platforms have. And once again, discussing content, HBO Max is getting a bunch of movies to actually be released on their platform at the same time that they're being released in theaters during this time of quarantine. And HBO probably has some of the most high quality content out there. It's, you know, kind of neck and neck with Showtime. Again, they were both premium channels before, but HBO Max is really doing great, especially when you add on all of the content that's already been made by HBO. You know, HBO Max made Lovecraft Country, but HBO itself made Game of Thrones. Basically, when HBO Max is making something, it's pretty much guaranteed to be good. Overall, the top-notch incredible content that is offered by HBO Max is its top-selling point, and you can actually watch it all with tele-party, so you can stream with friends. Another great point. Now moving on to Apple TV Plus, it's another one pretty new to the game when compared to other services, but it's certainly marked its territory as a strong contender as a streaming service. It's only $4.99 a month, making it the cheapest service out there, and it has a 7-day free trial for you to try it out. Now, it hasn't released a ton of original content, but the original content it has released has been incredible. I loved watching their show Ted Lasso and The Morning Show, which is an Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated drama. As for the streaming platform itself, the website, it's probably the least comprehensive one out there. I actually struggled to use it. I couldn't find out how you could search things on the website, but to be fair, it works far better on the television. As for overall content, it's acquired a lot of non-Apple TV Plus-specific films and TV shows, but what it doesn't have, because it's owned by Apple, which owns iTunes, you can actually rent. So much like Prime, you have a near endless library of content for you to choose from. And yes, Apple TV Plus can be shared via teleparty. Great for quarantine. Overall both streaming services produce incredible original content, but in terms of usability and overall library of content, HBO Max won this match, meaning it's moving on to the second round. Back to you, Sydney. Thanks, Sydney. That was a very in-depth description. Let's update that bracket and now let's move on to round two with Cindy Brick on the scene in a basement somewhere. Thanks, Sydney. Round two. Four contestants left. Let's see what panned out, shall we? In the first match around two, we had Amazon's Prime Video face off against Hulu. Both contestants were very strong for their own reasons, so it was important to compare what they had in common first. In regards to price, Hulu was cheaper and also had more pricing options, so it was more flexible. And when looking at the fact that both have live TV, Hulu's live TV was a bit more complete and comprehensive. It would allow you to completely unplug from cable. And overall, Hulu's user interface and website were a lot easier and cleaner than Prime's. And with so many strong points in their corner, Hulu ended up beating Prime, moving Hulu to the final. Next we have the much anticipated match between Netflix and HBO Max. Now, both of these services are very strong and well known for their incredible content. Netflix, while they're not constantly producing Game of Thrones-level shows, they do produce a lot more original content than HBO Max does, and a lot of it is really good. Plus, Netflix has a wider array of international original shows, which is really something special. Plus, there's always some new masterpiece coming out of Netflix that everybody needs to see, the most recent being Queen's Gambit. And overall, when looking at UI, Netflix honestly has the best out there. Netflix has timeline scrubbing and the ability to turn on and off subtitles and change the language in video without having to exit out of it. And while I think in regards to having classic historically significant cinema, HBO Max takes the title, I do think that Netflix has a wider array of content. In the end, they're both amazing platforms with amazing content, but the fact that Netflix has a more diverse array of content and has better UI, well, that won Netflix this match, sending Netflix to the final. Back to you, Sydney. Thanks, Cindy. Great synopsis. Let's update that bracket and move on to the final round, which I'll be commentating on live with my colleagues Cindy Brick and Sadney Bratt. Absolutely, so let's get into it. First, we see both contestants entering the arena with very strong logos. Indeed, though I am more fond of Netflix's badum. A classic, Cindy. Oh, and right off the bat, we have Hulu coming up to Netflix touting a cheaper price and a number of add-ons including live TV. Ooh, that's super effective, really rubbing in that live TV, eh? Yep, yep, but Netflix is not about to back down. They're starting out slow with their profile customization and often looked over but charming feature. Indeed, and now Netflix is coming down hard on Hulu with their incredibly diverse and well-received original programming. Now Netflix is actually striking Hulu over the head with an Academy Award now. That's gotta hurt. I hear they're hefty. Ooh, and now they're hurling an endless amount of Emmys at them. That's gotta hurt. Ooh, but Hulu won't take that lying down. They're rising up and they're waving around massively popular TV shows with next day uploading. Certainly a strong move, but it's not deterring Netflix. One bit. Oh boy, Hulu just pointed out that they actually have the entirety of the Naruto series. Unlike Netflix, it's super effective. Hold on, it's not over yet. What's that? Oh my god. This is just whipped out the Great British Bake Off. Ooh, a brutal move. Oh, Hulu's down, struggling to get up. And Netflix, though exhausted, is winding up for the finishing move. Oh, and here it comes. Ooh, and Hulu is KO'd by Netflix's near impeccable UI. Wow, what a sight. An incredible battle, a real close call indeed. Absolutely. Thank you, Cindy, Sadney, for joining me. Now let's get back to the bracket. All right, and there you have it. Netflix has won the final and the entire tournament. So I guess this means my top recommendation for a streaming service this year is Netflix. Thank you for watching the January Jamboree. Happy New Year and stay safe, Arlington.