Why are all streaming services rubbish?

 Film  Like most film fans, I'm subscribed to a lot of streaming services and in terms of the television versions of their apps, they're all an absolute mess to use.  With each utilising a different interface, most are more interested in pushing new content than making it easy to get back to the films and television we've already been enjoying.  Watchlists are often hidden away or take several clicks.  The iPlayer's the absolute worst example with its "your added programmes" section at the very bottom of the page.

Much of this has to do with a lack of standardisation between the apps.  When streaming was first introduced, for the most part, the app producers had to the follow a template which was baked into the technology.  So on my first "smart" DVD player, the Amazon and Netflix apps worked pretty much identically.  But with more powerful technology, that's no longer the case and that freedom has come with a usability cost.  The user has to learn how to use each streaming service separately which as I found with my elderly parents creates a barrier between the user and the content.

Hypercritical suggests here a standard spec for streaming apps to adhere to and it all seems eminently sensible.

"There must be a way for the user to manually create a list of media. In the common case, this is a list of media that the user intends to watch (eventually), but it can be used for any purpose. The important part is that the user makes the list intentionally. Nothing gets added to this list automatically.

"At a minimum, the list must accept top-level items in the hierarchy (e.g., TV shows, movies). The list could also accept more granular items, like individual TV episodes." [via]

My solution has been to largely abandon smart apps altogether.  Instead, I have my TV set up as the third screen on my PC with a very long HDMI cable around the room to the television with the mouse positioned within hands length of the armchair.  Many streaming services have Windows apps and although they're somewhat like their TV counterparts, are much easier to navigate with a mouse and keyboard.  Plus it allows access to streaming services which don't yet have a workable tv app and remain stubbornly in the browser.

As for watchlists, my LetterBoxd Pro subscription allows me to tell it the services to which I'm subscribed and the free streamers which means I can have a unified list of films things I'd like to see which acts as a kind of off-site (honestly ITV Player and 4od are significantly less shit in a browser).  The list can also be sorted chronologically by release date and date added, filtered by decade or genre and shuffled so that if you have a list as long as mine, some of the more unusual stuff will surface.