MHz, Mubi and More App Upgrades.

An updated list of what I'm using, losing and some suggestions for doing the same, plus another PSA about Kanopy and Hoopla and your local library.

If you’ve been paying attention to recent posts then you know I looked into dropping BritBox but instead feel newly invigorated by it, plus did a Deep Dive on Max and found it wanting, then canceled it, but it’s kind of a push because my partner has it.

What I didn’t mention from a while ago is that she talked me into watching Bong Joon Ho’s “Memories Of Murder” on Tubi, under the false pretense that she “thought” this one didn’t contain ads.

It did. Never again.

Loved the movie, which comes as no surprise, but it was tarnished by the experience. I just can’t take the ads. I made a mental note to never use Tubi.

My mentals are erratic. Problems occur.

Exactly one day later she found a movie and said we should watch it that night. It was on Mubi.

“Noooope.”

That was my response.

“No, Mubi. Not Tubi,” she said. “They’re different. Mubi’s like the Criterion Channel.”

Dubious? Oh, you bet I was. But I am no longer.

Mubi is like Criterion Channel.

There’s no shame in not knowing what you don’t know. (You should only feel shame when you find out and then refuse to consider/look into the thing you don’t know about.) It took me exactly one time to realize Mubi was great and that I wanted to use it.

Let me fast-forward this story about a month and my director/wine guru friend Dan Polsby told me he was such an early adopter and frenetic user of Mubi that they actually contacted him to find out why he was doing what he was doing — kind of like an early case study on gathering evidence on your business model.

Since I’ve been kicking up the film content here quite a bit, Mubi is an excellent add.

Let me know if you’ve got it.

I should also be clear that I’m not down on anyone who is fine watching commercials with their streaming in order to pay a little less. I’m just going to find my particular savings elsewhere. “How much is that Saturday Night Wine? Oh. Okay. I think I’ll take this Tuesday Night Wine.”

We all have our methods.

Another app issue arose while watching TV with Viewing Partner KB. I don’t have Disney+ and haven’t for a while because after the first year plus of it I just figured I didn’t need it and preferred to spend elsewhere. She has Disney+. We put a movie on only to find she’s got ads in her Disney. Gross.

We exchanged menacing looks. I judged her. “Don’t tell me your Amazon Prime series have ads, too?”

“I’m not sure. But if you want Disney+ with no ads, help yourself.”

Stalemate.

We’re working out duplications and part of that equation is 1) Which streaming platforms are my kids using in random locations that are mine and would be most inconvenienced not having? 2) Which streaming platforms are going to geo-block me eventually when I start logging in from Portland up to 50 percent of the time?

The app thing can get complicated.

But I just added MHz Choice for its emphasis on international content and its impressive collection. I’m in full “Let’s Get Out Of This Country” mode as you probably know and I’m experimentally sampling all kinds of foreign fare on MHz, which has a long and boring back story of how it started and what it tried to do but all you really need to know is that since 2022 MHz Choice has been owned by Kino Lorber, the respected international film distribution, home video and now streaming service.

It, too, has an excellent curated catalog and at $7.99 a month (or $79 a year) it’s a strong choice if you’re looking to expand into more of what the world has to offer. (If you’re already subscribing to Hulu, which has a lot of international fare — hard to find but it’s there — or forking out for BritBox or Acorn, then I totally understand a hesitancy to increase your international reach, but I’ve already very quickly found that MHz Choice is going to be useful inspiration for content here).

It comes with Topic, too, which is…something.

Before going deeper into MHz and others, let’s do a quick pivot and PSA reminder for new readers or those of you with short attention spans: The absolute best value you can get in the streaming world is Kanopy and Hoopla, both available for free if you have a library card. I find Kanopy more user friendly between the two but, hey, they are both free and you should add them immediately because you’ll probably find that if you’re on a budget, you could maybe drop a more expensive (and more popular) streaming option and use some of that savings for MHz or BritBox or Mubi instead.

Here’s the whole breakdown of what I wrote on Kanopy/Hoopla from May of 2024 (I’ve removed the paywall so it’s free again):

Hoopla, Kanopy and the Most Obvious Thing You're Not Doing Ever.

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I know a lot of you already have Kanopy or Hoopla or both, but if you don’t, you should get on it. (Read the piece, for starters). Since I wrote that post, I now have not only a Portland Library card but also a San Francisco Library card so I have a lot of potential free monthly “tokens” to use.

At the end of that piece you’ll notice that I urged subscribers of this very Substack to get Kanopy and Hoopla in part because I was going to expand into writing about the content (movies, television series, documentaries, etc.) on both and wanted to make sure you could follow along, get curated advice and not have to spend any money on a streamer.

Part of that concern was that in the spring of 2024 I did a Deep Dive: BritBox and it didn’t have our usual vibrant and thoughtful comment exchange and while it might have just been a case (which is the norm) of people reading but not commenting, it also felt like maybe the percentage of people who subscribed to BritBox wasn’t huge.

That put a little chill on the let me review a bunch of BritBox stuff, at least for a while until, like, last week, and now I’m here to say that it seems only natural to expand into watching, reviewing and/or simply talking about content from an increasing array of streamers, whether everyone gets them or not. I think the shotgun approach will give everybody a little bit of something (like BB’s to the face?).

Besides, you’ve had almost a year to get off your ass and get that free shit from Kanopy and Hoopla, so you’re running out of believable, sympathetic excuses.

Since I’ve recently enjoyed so much excellent content — films and television series — from Asia, it seemed like a no brainer to sample some of the free stuff on the Viki app. Now, what’s that?, you’re probably asking. Owned by Rakuten (often called “the Amazon of Japan” and also the corporate logo sponsor of the Golden State Warriors), Viki is an all-everything collection of Asian programming with a large sampling of the shows featured being available for free — well, “free” with ads — and then a nudge to upgrade to Viki Pass, the full subscription model.

I watched a few of the series that were “free” but, once again, couldn’t stomach the ads, but the experience also suggested that I can find enough of that content on Hulu and other places and I’m not such a fanatic that I would need Viki as a regular streamer, so I passed and deleted the app.

Current list of streaming platform subscriptions:

• Netflix

• Amazon Prime (my own, paying additional fee for no ads)

• Hulu (same)

• AppleTV+

• Max (via Viewing Partner KB)

• Criterion Channel

• BritBox

• Mubi

• MHz Choice

• Kanopy (free)

• Hoopla (free).

The glaring omissions seem to be Disney+ but I explained above that I’m just not urgently itching for it anymore (and certainly not with ads); Peacock, which I’ve had before and I’m considering getting again; Paramount+ which I have sometimes vaguely considered and then forgot about.

I’ve had Acorn in the past but currently prefer BritBox and MHz Choice is my shiny new toy; some people subscribe to Viaplay for international fare but often specifically for Nordic stuff, but MHz is already extremely strong on that front as well, plus has a very deep bench of international content; I mentioned sampling and passing on Viki Pass.

I also don’t get Starz, AMC+ and maybe one or two others I’m forgetting (I get FX through Hulu), so feel free to point out what I might have missed in the comments.

Of course, listing what I subscribe to doesn’t really indicate what I like best, does it, so here’s a couple of different ranking systems I cobbled together:

Top 5 Favorite Streamers I Get:

1. Criterion Channel.

2. Mubi. (Recency bias.)

3. MHz Choice. (Recency bias.)

4. AppleTV+.

5. BritBox.

Just an endless amount of great, varied, fascinating and entertaining content were you to decide that you’re going to shelter in a dark room with a nice sofa for the next four years.

Top 5 Best Bang For Your Bucks:

1. (tie + duh): Kanopy and Hoopla.

2. Netflix.

3. Hulu.

4. BritBox.

5. Criterion.

Deep vaults = value.

Is this a good place to point out that AppleTV+ might lead the pack by the end of 2025 in number of best series of the year on a streaming platform? Certainly the leader in the clubhouse after the first quarter of the year.

Lastly I will leave you with this thought — I didn’t write extensively about MHz Choice or Mubi content because both will be the subject of upcoming Deep Dive features, as will Kanopy/Hoopla, which might prompt you to add them if you haven’t already.

Okay then: