Where do you watch?

[elisheva_m]

A conversation with corvidology  about subscriptions shaping viewing habits suggested a good starting point for another get to know each other thread.

Plus I'm a wee bit excited about making my first subscription to a Thai channel tomorrow. Decided to sub earlier this month but knew I wouldn't use it during the Japan Film Festival Online so I decided on the 24th when a short lesbian-centered lakorn with two of my favourite actresses, Orm Kornnaphat and Prigkhing Sureeyares, begins airing. I doubt anyone will notice a new random foreign subscription but I can pretend it's a show of support :) Nervous too because I don't know when or if it will be subtitled in English or how I'll fare without subs. Anyway, it's The Secret of Us. Also on Netflix but I'd rather give £22 to Thailand than whatever to the behemoth. Oh if it's airing on Netflix it will surely have Eng subs 😍

So what platforms do you use and how does it shape your viewing habits?

I happened onto a recommendation for Moonlight Chicken, it sounded good and was something from a country and genre I hadn't seen so I gave it a go. And it was Moonlight Chicken so I was hooked on GMMTV's youtube channel before I'd even navigated to my first [2/4] of an episode 😊  A lot of GMMTV (GMM's youth-orientated), some Line, a bit of one31 (GMM's primary) and other channels but pretty much all on youtube. It's where I look first unless I know it's Thai PBS or Channel 3. Thai PBS is also free to stream, has lots of earnest series and lakorns with progressive values ranging in quality from an endearing way to spend a couple of hours to I will never forget this excellence. Gingko on MDL maintains a list of Thai PBS titles with English subs.

While I was in the GMMTV & Line bubbles, it was easy enough to find something through favourite actors' credits listings. Sometimes I follow algorithms (failed searches on bilibili for older movies and series can be great for random never would have thought of this one entertainment) but finding people with good custom lists on MDL has been the best way to break out of the bubbles and explore more deeply.

That moonlit walk at midnight completely scuppered my plans to sub to Viki and I'm very glad it did 😍

Comments

[profiterole_reads]

I used to watch Thai drama on YouTube, but I've noticed that the latest two (Two Worlds, and currently Love Sea) have only been on iQiyi.

[aurumcalendula]

I think most of what I've watched so far has been on YouTube. I have a Viki subscription and tend to rotate a couple others (iQIYI, Netflix, etc), depending on if they have something I'm planning to watch soon.

[corvidology]

As I mentioned when we were chatting, I have subscriptions to Viki and iQiyi (has a LOT of BL Thai dramas if not much else).

On youtube, I also have paid subscriptions to Strongberry (which is Korean and really is a show of support as they don't have the money to produce much) and Youku (Chinese). I have watched Thai series on GMMTV on YT and I sometimes find things I'm searching for on dailymotion.

I do have a subscription to Netflix but that's where I get a lot of my Kdramas. It's thin on the ground for Thai dramas... so far at least.

[autodach]

Subscription-based streaming services stress me out. Every second I’m not watching, I feel like I’m wasting money. I have Netflix, but you never know when shows will randomly disappear (Beyond Evil is gone! I will never forgive).
I have been eyeing Viki however, because it often has pretty good subtitles in German.

[elisheva_m]

I'm the same. Was saving up shows to binge on Viki during the winter when I got waylaid by free Thai series. Channel 3's premium works out to be about £22 for an entire year at the current exchange rate so that's under my uff that's expensive threshold. If I watch one lakorn a month it's still under £2 for each and I'm ok with that, especially as it's going to the channel itself. Can you tell I've been over-thinking this? 🙃
Hopefully they won't play Netflix or Prime kinds of games with their content either.

[autodach]

Can you tell I've been over-thinking this?

Haha, that’s exactly what it’s like for me too. I know I’m stressing for no reason XD

[elisheva_m]

My sense of injustice re price-gouging + the times we're living in + so many years of real struggle = worrying about the cost of nearly everything. Hard to break old patterns.