Video streaming: price, permanence, and viewing privacy
A streaming subscription rents you a shelf that someone else stocks and can empty. Three questions separate the services: what you pay, what the service learns from your viewing, and how long the titles you came for will stay. No service wins all three, so the right answer depends on which one you weigh most.
The short answer. Try the free routes before adding a bill: a library card may bring Kanopy, and Tubi and Pluto TV charge nothing. Pay for one service at a time, for shows you are watching now, and cancel between seasons. If a film matters to you, keep a copy you control, because even a digital purchase inside an app can disappear.
Nothing on a service is promised to stay
The companies say so in their own filings. Netflix's 2025 annual report spreads the cost of each licensed or produced title over "the shorter of each title's contractual window of availability, estimated period of use or ten years." Disney's filing for mid-2023 says it "removed content from our DTC services and terminated certain third-party license agreements," recording a $2.4 billion charge. Mubi's help centre says films stay for varying lengths of time, and those leaving within the next 14 days are always labelled.
Buying a title inside an app is safer, but only somewhat. Prime Video's terms say purchased content "may become unavailable due to potential content provider licensing restrictions or for other reasons." Apple's media terms say content may be removed if Apple loses the rights, and encourage you to download purchases to a device you own and back them up.
Two routes sit outside that churn. Plex's privacy policy covers its media server for files you already have, and says Plex will not collect information about the titles in your personal library or what you play. The Internet Archive's Public Domain Movies collection offers free download and streaming of films marked public domain.
What a service learns from your viewing
- Prime Video. Its terms say the app may tell Amazon "whether and when you viewed" what you download and stream.
- Disney. In February 2026 California's Attorney General announced a $2.75 million settlement, the largest under the state's privacy law, after finding Disney's opt-outs often applied only to the one service or device a person was using.
- Tubi. Its privacy policy says it collects your search history and what you watch, and that some disclosures for advertising "could be considered 'selling' or 'sharing'" under California law.
- YouTube. In 2019 Google and YouTube paid $170 million over allegations that YouTube tracked viewers of child-directed channels without parental consent and used the data for targeted ads.
Getting in and getting out
Leaving should be as easy as joining. In 2025 the FTC secured $2.5 billion from Amazon after alleging it enrolled millions of people in Prime without consent and made cancelling hard. Amazon must now show a clear button to decline Prime and let people cancel the same way they signed up.
Prices move often, so check the page on the day you decide. In September 2026 Netflix listed $8.99 a month with ads and $19.99 without. HBO Max listed $10.99 with ads, with about 16% off for paying yearly. Peacock listed $12.99 for Premium and $19.99 for Premium Plus.
If you care most about...
There is no single best service, only the one that matches your priority.
| If you care most about | Look at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Paying nothing | Kanopy through your library, Tubi, Pluto TV | Kanopy asks for a library card and PIN; ad breaks pay for the other two |
| Keeping what you watch | Discs or files you own, or public-domain films from the Internet Archive | They stay on your shelf or drive whatever happens to a licence deal |
| Viewing privacy | Your own files on a Plex media server | Plex's policy says it will not collect what is in your library or what you play |
| The show everyone is talking about | One paid service at a time | Subscribe for the season, then cancel |
| Films chosen with care | Kanopy, or Mubi if you pay | Mubi rotates its films, so watch while they are there |
A five-minute check
- List what you actually watched last month on each service you pay for.
- Look up your library's streaming services. With a San Francisco Public Library card and PIN, Kanopy gives 30 tickets a month toward more than 30,000 independent and documentary films; most titles cost at least 2 tickets, and unused tickets do not carry over.
- Open each service's privacy settings and turn off ad personalisation or use its opt-out link.
- Put a cancellation reminder in your calendar the day you subscribe.
What we are not telling you
We do not score picture quality or taste in films. Prices here are US prices and change often; Peacock's current page was higher than the figure in our data, and the guide uses the current page. Catalog sizes are hard to compare because services count titles differently.
How we made this
Nobody paid to appear here. The facts come from this site's video streaming data and the pages below, each opened for this guide in September 2026. Found something wrong? Corrections are welcome and get applied with their source.
Sources
- Netflix, 2025 Form 10-K (checked 2026-09)
- Disney, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 1 July 2023 (checked 2026-09)
- Mubi, how long films are available (checked 2026-09)
- Prime Video terms of use (checked 2026-09)
- Apple Media Services terms (checked 2026-09)
- Plex privacy policy, March 2025 (checked 2026-09)
- Internet Archive, Public Domain Movies (checked 2026-09)
- California Attorney General, Disney settlement (checked 2026-09)
- Tubi privacy policy (checked 2026-09)
- Tubi corporate site (checked 2026-09)
- Pluto TV (checked 2026-09)
- FTC, Google and YouTube settlement (checked 2026-09)
- FTC, Amazon Prime settlement (checked 2026-09)
- Netflix plans and pricing (checked 2026-09)
- HBO Max plans and prices (checked 2026-09)
- Peacock subscription cost (checked 2026-09)
- San Francisco Public Library, Kanopy FAQ (checked 2026-09)