Keeping up with the streaming wars is hard work. The movies and shows keep moving around, everyone is always bundling and then unbundling, and services like Paramount Plus and Hulu seem to be both growing fast and only barely holding onto existence.
Technology
The 2024 Vergecast streaming draft
From TikTok and Instagram to Netflix and Hulu to Prime Video and Apple TV Plus, the Vergecast crew picks the best streaming services in 2024 — and looks ahead to 2025.
That’s why, once a year on The Vergecast, we take a moment and take stock of the streaming landscape. By drafting our favorite services! The goal is to figure out what’s working, what isn’t, and which services are likely to be on top 12 months from now.
We recorded this episode live onstage at SXSW — thanks to everyone who came out and saw us! — and started by recapping last year’s results. Here they are:
Nilay Patel’s picks: TikTok, the Disney bundle, YouTube TV with Sunday Ticket, Apple Music, and his friend Vipin’s magical Plex serverAlex Cranz’s picks: HBO Max, Paramount Plus / Showtime, Channels, Criterion, and Apple One. Her bonus pick for spending the least money: Xbox Cloud GamingDavid Pierce’s picks: YouTube Premium, Peacock, Netflix, Discovery Plus, Hulu with Live TV
The audience picked last year’s winner, and we set off drafting. This year, though, we changed the rules and added categories. So instead of picking any five services, we each had to fill six categories:
Cheap (has to have a tier under $10)Awards (has to have won an Oscar)4K (has to offer content in 4K)Live (has to have some live element)Niche (has to be a genre-specific service)Wild card (anything you want)
An hour later, we’d landed in some deeply weird, surprising, maybe prescient and maybe just absurd places. Here are the results. (Don’t look until you’ve listened!):
Nilay’s picks: TikTok, the Disney Bundle, Sony Bravia Core, YouTube TV with Sunday Ticket, MotorTrend TV, and MaxAlex’s picks: Peacock, Hulu, Netflix, Channels, Crunchyroll, and Paramount PlusDavid’s picks: YouTube (with ads), Apple TV Plus, Tubi, Prime Video, Criterion, and Instagram Reels
We all think we won the draft. The audience had a clear pick, too. But only the next 12 months will tell us for sure. And who knows? Maybe half of these services won’t even exist in 2025. And maybe that Hulu-for-sports thing will be the first draft pick next year. Or maybe Nilay will keep picking TikTok and keep getting away with it.