MVP of streaming channels

In the interests of consumer guidance, I’m going to be writing a series of posts that focus on various streaming channels, as a follow-up to “Streaming along,” my primer for cord-cutters.  Fact is, the best-known of the streaming services, Netflix and Amazon Prime, have gone long in the tooth and would be in line to have subscriptions suspended, except for venerability and the occasional original new production.  Netflix floods the zone with generic programming, but also produces the occasional unmissable prestige presentation.  Amazon has cut way back on its own slate, and offers more product pay-per-view than free on Prime.  Neither is a particularly good place to see either recent or classic films of interest (likely to change some now that Jeff Bezos has gobbled up MGM and its back catalogue).  But a Netflix subscription is a two-decade habit of mine (going back to DVDs and then Blu-Ray) and Amazon’s is just an add-on to free shipping.
 
Truth be told, there is no streaming channel on my Roku (or whatever your device of choice may be) that I go to more frequently than YouTube, for news and sports, comedy and music, history and science, author talks and interviews.  I was late in discovering just how much is available on YouTube – well duh, granddad! – so I may be telling you something you already know.   (And you are probably aware of how they feed you more of what you want to see, based on what you’ve watched or searched for, even if you never sign in.)
 
I first had recourse to the YouTube channel on Roku after cutting cable service, looking primarily for a place to watch Stephen Colbert on a regular basis.  There are other satirists I look at from time to time, but the other regular segment that I watch consistently is “A Closer Look with Seth Meyers” – I didn’t often catch SNL when Seth ran Weekend Update, but now I find his political breakdowns indispensable.
 
The PBS Newshour – which has been the only daily news show that I’ve ever watched, since its debut as The Robert MacNeil Report in 1975, later joined by Jim Lehrer, through Margaret Warner and Gwen Ifill, up to the current anchor Judy Woodruff – is available through the PBS Passport streaming channel, but delayed till later in the evening, whereas YouTube carries a livestream starting at 6:00 pm, so that’s my regular channel for viewing.
 
Similarly, I never listen to podcasts, but when I am following the news, which blessedly I have felt less compelled to do lately, no longer in a perpetual state of alarm over the malevolent idiot in the White House and other disasters, I like to watch the “Pod Save America” boys on YouTube.
 
YouTube is not good for live sports, but great for game recaps and highlights, and superb for sports history.  During the pandemic lapse in current sports, I took to reliving past highlights like the Cleveland Browns NFL championship in 1964, and the Cleveland Indians World Series win in 1948.  Once I saw how deep the visual archives went, I also checked out the Brown season highlights during the Otto Graham era (ten straight 1^st place finishes from 1946-1955), as well as those of QBs Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar.
 
It’s so easy to stumble upon themes and subjects that go as deep as you might want to go.  Two that I recently dived into myself, with great satisfaction, were British Archaeology and New England Forests.  I’ve also found decent copies of old films unavailable elsewhere (e.g. when the pandemic sent me in search of On the Beach, for an apocalyptic scenario that haunted my youth).  So I urge you to pick any topic of interest and explore all that YouTube has to offer.  (While you develop a filter for the good from the bad.)
 
And it’s all free, with fewer and shorter (and often skippable) commercials than broadcast channels.  In coming weeks, I will be commenting on other streaming channels that have taken precedence over the oldtimers like Netflix and Amazon – i.e. HBO Max, Hulu, and the Criterion Collection (with a glance at Kanopy).