Welcome to April, where shows like Ripley, Fallout, Kaiju No. 8 and Under the Bridge will debut on four different streaming platforms. NCAA games and the NBA playoffs will also be available to stream on Max, along with a new episode of Quiet on Set. If you have Disney Plus and Hulu, you’re now able to watch Hulu content on the Disney Plus app, making it more convenient to catch new installments of American Horror Story, Shōgun, X-Men ’97 and Bluey all in one place. So many choices.
We know it’ll be hard to keep up. Depending on your tastes, you may need to decide each month if you want to cancel a service because of costs and the content that’s currently available. With that in mind, I’d like to offer one tactic: Churn like ice cream. In other words: rotate.
Make it work by subscribing, canceling, watching other services and then resubscribing, ensuring the services you want are on rotation. Rotating streaming services can mix things up and save you cash when Netflix, Disney Plus, Max and others don’t have the content you want to watch at a given time. Just remember to shut off autorenewal for your monthly subscriptions. This method may not fly if you’re sharing your streaming accounts, but if you can work it out, go for it.
Here are my suggestions for which platforms to keep or cancel for April, based on new shows and movies (I didn’t consider live TV streaming services) coming to each platform. Your preferences may be different, but if nothing else, I urge you to consider the concept of rotating for savings. It’s simpler than you may realize, and don’t forget, a VPN can come in handy, too.
Read more: 50 TV Shows We’re Looking Forward to Watching in 2024
Watch Knuckles in April or May.
Patience will save money on streaming
If FOMO isn’t a thing for you, waiting until most or all of the episodes of your favorite series are available on a service is a wise strategy. That way, rather than pay for a service for several months to cover the six- to 10-week run of a show, you can catch up on everything by subscribing for one month. And then repeat the cycle again. This works well if you don’t mind being a binge-watcher.
For example, Star Trek: Discovery’s final season has 10 episodes that will end on May 30, so why not wait until May or June to get Paramount Plus? Max’s The Sympathizer and the new X-Men series on Disney Plus will wrap their seasons in May. Avoid paying for two or three months of these services when you can wait to watch these shows in full anytime in the spring or summer.
