Promotional Grant: Video Streaming Services

Question

Let's keep the promo grant train a-rolling!

In the spirit of the Gaming Promotional Grant and the DC Comics New 52 Grant, we would like to try providing users with subscriptions to video streaming services to help facilitate your question and answer as well as blog content generation.

Details!

• Stack Exchange would provide (w) subscriptions to scifi.se community members in good standing with (x) reputation; the subscription would last (y) months

• The streaming service will be dependent on both the need of the community members and the ability for Stack Exchange to provide the service for the community members. For example, Netflix is what I have in mind due to both the ease with which we as a US-based company can gift it to community members. If the most eligible/interested members do not have access to Netflix (which is everyone who does not live in the US), we would try to get them a subscription to the streaming service of their choice.

• In return, we ask that you ask and answer (Z) posts about the shows and movies you watch on the streaming service here on scifi.se, as well as possibly create content for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Community Blog.

I'm completely unfamiliar with streaming services outside the US, so please inform me of the alternatives. Netflix really does have a crazy awesome selection (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, most every Star Trek series, both Battlestar Galactica series, X-Files, Firefly, a ton of Doctor Who, most all of the recent DC Animated Movies and nearly all of Marvel's animated and recent film output, as well as others I am forgetting) but is limited due to its US-only availability. From what I understand, Canada's Netflix has a severely limited library.

What do you all think of this plan? Is this something you would like to see happen? And if you are interested and do not have access to Netflix, what other services would you recommend?

Answer 1

I'm have a concern about the efficacy of this grant. All of the for-pay streaming services I know of have content that's not new. All of the items you listed as available on Netflix are available months/years after they've aired/released, so they've passed the prime time for questions and answers. I think it would be more useful to have a grant targeted at new releases. Whether that means getting DVD/blu-rays, movie tickets, or books. This would also be more analogous to the gaming grant you linked. Admittedly what I'm suggesting would also be more expensive than a Netflix subscription. I think the trade-off for getting access to more current, and thus relevant material would be worth it.