Ask HN: Service to find minimal set of streaming providers?

8 pointsrlewkov4y ago5 comments

Given a set of TV programs, does anyone know of a service that will show me the min set of streaming services I'd need to subscribe to in order to be able to view these programs? Minimize by either a) total monthly cost or b) number of providers

5 comments

5 comments · 2 top-level

robcohen4y ago· 2 in thread

It think something like this would need to scrape the information from each service, which sounds like a lot of scraper upkeep for a variety of different sources.

I think a more interesting question is whether there is a public API that has data for what shows are on what services. The app itself would be pretty easy to build with good data coming in.

My strategy is to subscribe to a service if I want to watch something on it, binge everything worth watching on the service then unsubscribe and repeat in 6 months or a year. Yeah, I need to stop watching television.

mttjj4y ago

This was my thought too (about the API part). From my experience, the TV app on Apple devices has a pretty good search and it shows you all the services a show or movie is available on- even the ones you aren’t subscribed to. For example, if I search ‘Modern Family’, it tells me I can buy seasons 1-11 on iTunes, watch seasons 1-11 on Hulu, watch seasons 1-11 on Peacock, watch season 1 on the ABC app, season 7 on the NBC app, and for some reason also watch specifically season 7 on 6 other apps (Bravo, Syfy, USA, among others).

I really doubt Apple has a public endpoint for these searches and data but I also have never really looked. The point is they’ve done the scraping; they have the data. If someone can leverage it and do the curation, I can see a really useful product.

rlewkovOP4y ago

Thanks, I'll have a look at this. Have been thinking of cutting the cord from cable and want to know most economical way of getting my must-have set of shows/networks

rventure4y ago· 1 in thread

This is a service called 'JustWatch' has some data on TV show availability

rlewkovOP4y ago

Thanks. Gave it a look. Sounds like it might be helpful though not exactly what I want ... was quite sure the exact app that I described didn't exist ... but you never know.

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