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Irish Times

Forget Netflix, Prime Video and Apple TV+: 18 of the best free and paid subscriptions, from film and TV to music and theatre

Streaming has changed home entertainment beyond recognition – but it hasn't always elevated us culturally. There is no denying the guilty-pleasure charms of Selling Sunset or Below Deck, or the blockbuster appeal of Stranger Things and Wheel of Time. If you crave something more rarefied, however, options can feel limited. But no more: from Broadway shows to art house films via folk horror, opera and Irish documentaries from the archives, there are numerous alternatives if you're seeking a distraction more sophisticated than a Netflix binge. Some of them are free – and even the paid services tend to offer free or cut-price trials. Here are 18 to get you started. Film & TV Arrow Player For cinema on the fringe, there's perhaps no better one-stop shop than Arrow, which features a huge line-up of horror but also such genres as fantasy, science fiction, Japanese yakuza and cult classics from the 1960s and 1970s. Monthly subscription €4.99. Classix Max Schreck as Count Orlok in FW Murnau's Nosferatu, from 1922 Netflix and its competitors are often accused of recency bias – which is to say ignoring, among other things, the rich history of cinema. Happily, if you love black-and-white movies you can dive in via Classix, which offers free streams of everything from FW Murnau's Nosferatu to Frederick Stephani's Flash Gordon, starring Buster Crabbe. A great new way to enjoy old-school film and television. Crunchyroll Anime is one of the fast-growing genres in film and TV, and a perfect jumping-off point is Crunchyroll, which offers new seasons of shows such as Assassination Classroom and Demon Slayer, as well as classics such as Berserk – much of the content is unsuitable for younger viewers. Monthly subscription €5.99-€7.99. READ MORE Curzon Home Cinema A one-stop shop for digital rental of art house films, as well as original documentaries and films that celebrate subjects such as the streetscapes of Tokyo and the art of Vermeer. There is no subscription: individual films cost between about €6 and €12 to rent. Festival Scope Want to sample films from international festivals without clocking up the air miles? Festival Scope hosts virtual screenings from around the world, allowing you to access tickets just as you would if attending a festival in the flesh, as well as offering an extensive selections of shorts. Online tickets are generally free but limited in number. Mubi Demi Moore in The Substance The art house comes to your livingroom courtesy of Mubi, a streaming demand service with an emphasis on monthly recommendations – a welcome contrast to the overwhelming bloat of many mainstream streamers. Recent picks include the Oscar-nominated Demi Moore body horror The Substance, Barry Keoghan's west of Ireland revenge saga Bring Them Down and the gruesome Danish drama The Girl with the Needle. These films are generally available for a limited time, but Mubi also offers a library of older pictures, often arranged around a theme. A recent strand of postapocalyptic movies included The Road, Escape from New York and Michael Haneke's stomach-turning Time of the Wolf. The selection is still limited – or, as a cineaste might say, curated – to about 750 titles (compared with the estimated 7,000 TV shows and films on Netflix), but the vibe is quality over quantity. Dive in if you dare. Monthly subscription €13.99. IFI Home Housewife of the Year, directed by Ciaran Cassidy The Irish Film Institute's video-on-demand service offers top-notch Irish and international cinema. You can rent and/or buy digital editions of documentaries such as Housewife of the Year (about the vintage 'Irish mammies' pageant hosted by Gay Byrne), the Oscar-winning Palestine documentary No Other Land and the gritty social drama On Falling. Prices generally range from €4.99 to €7.99. It also has the free-to-watch IFI Archive Player, with material from its extensive collection of Irish film and television. This includes work that explores the legacy of the 1916 Rising and the work of the American naturalist Benjamin Gault, who captured daily life along the coasts of Cork and Kerry in the 1920s. No subscription. and Shudder It's a case of the gore the merrier with this horror website, which features everything from folk horror to 1970s Italian exploitation films, slashers and art house body horror. Monthly subscription €4.99. TankTV Mubi (above) isn't the only dedicated art house streaming service. TankTV streams a selection of art house films that are often arranged around a theme, such as escape, the lives of saints or the arrival of a stranger in a small town. Selections include films by Pasolini, Truffaut and Lars von Trier. Monthly subscription about €3.75-€6. Music Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall The Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel in their season finale at the Waldbühne amphitheatre The Berlin Philharmonic, one of the world's most acclaimed orchestras, makes its productions available to watch both live and on catch-up, streaming about 40 performances a year. Upcoming highlights from the Berliner Philharmonie concert hall, in the Tiergarten, include recitals of Strauss and Tchaikovsky plus an evening of big-screen scoring by John Williams. The outdoor season finale features Gustavo Dudamel conducting a Latin American night. The platform's extensive archives, which go back to the 1960s and 1970s, include performances conducted by the acclaimed Herbert von Karajan and Simon Rattle. Monthly subscription €16.99. Styling itself 'the world's premier resource for classical music programming', Medici streams concerts from around the world, including from Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival and Barokkfest Early Music Festival. Subscription €64.50 for first year, then €129. Met Opera on Demand The beating heart of American opera, the Met has been out in front when it comes to making its performances available to an international audience. In addition to live-streaming new performances, it offers a rich archive of old material, including productions of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Monthly subscription about €14. OperaVision Gavan Ring in Irish National Opera's The Flying Dutchman. Photograph: Patrick Redmond OperaVision is a free-to-watch opera streaming service supported by the European Union's Creative Europe programme. There are new streams every week, promising 'a balanced online season of the best-loved titles alongside world premieres and new discoveries'. Current performances include Irish National Opera's production of The Flying Dutchman and Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco from Parma. Stingray Qello Ignore the strange name: this website is a rich resource of live music performances (Madonna's Confessions show) and music documentaries about figures as far-flung as Beyoncé and Ozzy Osbourne. Monthly subscription €8.99; annual subscription €44.99. Veeps A streaming service that offers access to premium live-stream and on-demand concerts and events from music venues around the world, including, for example, an extremely popular night with Laufey at the Hollywood Bowl. All-access subscriptions have yet to be rolled out in Ireland; individual concert tickets cost about €20. Theatre BroadwayHD Who doesn't like to catch a musical now and then, especially the original versions rather than their touring siblings? BroadwayHD offers streams of everything from Into the Woods to Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. Monthly subscription about €8.99. National Theatre at Home Andrew Scott in Vanya at the Lucille Lortel Theater in New York in March. Photograph: Sara Krulwich/New York Times The acclaimed institution founded by Laurence Olivier in 1963 has a rich archive of hit plays, including the Irish actor Andrew Scott in his one-man version of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Gillian Anderson in All About Eve, adapted by Ivo van Hove from Joseph Mankiewicz's black-and-white classic. Monthly subscription €11.99. Scene Saver This free site offers access to dozens of streamed plays from around the world. It was established by the theatre and film producer Caroline Friedman, who wanted to make theatre available to all. 'Not everyone has the time, the availability and the money to go to the theatre. Not everyone can negotiate a rickety staircase or perch on an uncomfortable bench to see a 90-minute show,' she says. 'It was not fair that these people, through no fault of their own, should be deprived of the opportunity to see the often wonderful, groundbreaking, original performances in the little theatres.'