By Nick Gelling
Product Test Journalist | Kaipūrongo Whakamātautau Hautaonga
We combed through the catalogues and plans of six major video streaming providers. Here’s our summary of which offer the best shows in the best formats at the best prices.
With a subscription video-on-demand service, you pay a monthly fee to stream an evolving library of TV shows and movies. Unlike broadcast TV, you can watch anything in the library whenever you want.
In recent years, the choice on offer has become overwhelming – more services continue to pop up, and it’s no longer practical to subscribe to everything, so you need to learn to pick and choose.
We can help. We’ve laid out the prices for six common services, their pros and cons, and ranked them from best to worst.
Our two best tips for saving money on streaming
Consider free options first
There are some great free TV-on-demand services, especially for New-Zealand-specific media. We haven’t reviewed TVNZ+, Three Now or Māori+ because you can check them out for free yourself, but we’d recommend investigating them before you spring for a new paid subscription service. Free services often play ads to fund themselves, but far fewer than broadcast TV.
Additionally, if you have a library card, check if you get complimentary access to either Beamafilm or Kanopy, two specialist services that partner with public libraries.
Put your subscriptions on hold
Remember a subscription doesn’t lock you into a long-term deal. If you’re finished with a service after a couple of months, you can pause your subscription, which keeps your preferences and watchlist intact. Then, you can easily resume later – once season 2 of your favourite show comes out, for example.
This tactic lets you cycle through several services throughout the year, while only paying one or two subscriptions at a time.
Need a new TV?
Is your streaming service wasted on a TV with a grainy picture and muddy audio? We can help with that, too. Check out our reviews of 43 TVs to find one that does your favourite shows justice.
1. Netflix
Basic (low-quality 720p video): $18/month
Standard (1080p): $26/month.
Premium (4K): $34/month.
Maximum simultaneous streams: One, two or four, depending on the plan.
Download to watch offline: Yes.
Netflix produces a lot of its own shows and films, which means heaps of exclusive content. Its strategy is to fund droves of shows, see what people like, and renew the most popular ones for a second season. That means the quality bar isn’t always high, but you’re unlikely to run out of stuff to watch.
If you don’t care about video quality, or you watch on a personal device or a small TV, the basic $18 plan is for you. For most people who watch Netflix on a TV, the middle plan is best. If you have a 4K TV, the premium plan lets you tap into the ultra-high-definition (UHD) and high-dynamic-range (HDR) video that’s available for a decent proportion of Netflix’s library.
Netflix can be used on nearly every smart device, and you can download most content for offline viewing.
Those with hearing or sight needs are looked after too – nearly every film and show has English subtitles, and audio narration is also widespread.
While you can watch on two screens at the same time with the Standard plan (or four screens on the Premium plan), Netflix has cracked down on sharing accounts across multiple households, so you can only watch in the same physical location.
Although Netflix has faced more competition in recent years, it is still the gold standard in our TV streaming rankings thanks to its dependable app and diverse library.
Notable shows: Bridgerton, Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters.
2. Amazon Prime Video
With ads: $11/month.
Ad free: $14/month.
Maximum simultaneous streams: Three.
Download to watch offline: Yes.
With the might of Amazon behind it, Prime Video is available on heaps of devices. It’s also cheaper than its competitors – particularly if you’re willing to tolerate some ads. That makes it an easy purchase to justify.
The cost doesn’t reflect the bulk of content – Amazon has amassed a huge collection of TV shows and movies for its Prime Video service. This includes Amazon Originals such as The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The film section favours quantity over quality. It’s bulked out with a lot of B movies, but there are plenty of gems to dig out too.
There’s plenty of 4K content on Prime Video, including most of the high-profile Amazon Original series. Even better, it’s all included in the same low price, which makes Netflix’s $34/month 4K tier look like robbery. However, the Prime Video app isn’t great at showing which shows and films are available in 4K.
We’ve promoted Prime Video from #3 to #2 in our rankings for 2026. We thought long and hard about it, but Prime Video’s add-on subscriptions sealed the deal.
You can now subscribe to a range of add-on services from within the Prime Video environment. Shows from those services then show up in your recommendations, letting you use Prime Video as a one-stop hub for several platforms – a bit like Sky.
Available add-ons include Apple TV (which also appears in our rankings as a standalone subscription) and specialist services like Crunchyroll (anime), Hayu (reality TV) and DocPlay (documentaries).
Even if you don’t want to dig into add-ons, we think Prime Video’s price point makes it compelling as a low-cost alternative to the likes of Netflix and Disney+.
Notable shows: Fallout, The Boys, Reacher.
3. Disney+
Standard (1080p): $17/month | $170/year.
Premium (4K): $22/month | $220/year.
Maximum simultaneous streams: Two on standard plan, four on premium.
Download to watch offline: Yes.
Disney seems to own everything in the entertainment industry, for better or worse. That means a diverse and deep catalogue of shows and movies, from Marvel to National Geographic to Pixar – a lot of which you won’t find on any other streaming service.
It’s certainly a compelling catalogue, and one that will keep you busy for a long time. It’s also probably the single best subscription to have for keeping children entertained.
Streaming quality is excellent on every device, and the $5/month upgrade to the 4K tier is fairly priced. There’s also a dedicated section to make it easier to find shows and movies shot in 4K.
Almost the entire catalogue is available offline and has captions available. That’s the advantage of the platform owner also owning exclusive rights to the content – it also makes for a reliable user experience with no unwelcome surprises.
Notable shows: Andor, The Simpsons, Loki.
4. AMC+
$10/month | $96/year.
Maximum simultaneous streams: Five.
Download to watch offline: Yes.
AMC is a major TV company in America. AMC+ takes content from several AMC TV channels and packages it into a streaming service.
AMC+ launched in New Zealand in 2022. It encompasses both Acorn TV and Shudder, two services that were already available here.
Acorn is AMC+’s hub for British content, including a dizzying slate of detective mysteries, while Shudder is squarely focused on horror and horror-adjacent films and series. By all accounts, both are close to must-haves if you’re interested in those genres.
A subscription to AMC+ gets you these two for free, as well as the more mainstream shows – many of them dramas – that make up the core of the service.
The platform is lower tech than many of its competitors, with no 4K shows available and no closed captioning built into the app. You can, however, download many AMC+ shows for offline viewing.
We think the low price of AMC+ bumps it up into being a great secondary service, to complement your primary subscription.
Notable shows: The Walking Dead franchise, Dark Winds, Midsomer Murders.
5. Apple TV
$18/month
Maximum simultaneous streams: Six.
Download to watch offline: Only to an Apple device.
Apple TV launched as Apple TV+, with the plus sign only dropping from the name last year. Now that several of its original series have taken home Emmys and Oscars, it’s clear what Apple is going for: high-brow, critically acclaimed fare for the discerning viewer – shot in luxurious 4K.
This strategy is in stark opposition to the likes of Prime Video and Netflix. Apple now licenses third-party content to fill out its catalogue, but the focus is still firmly on the show-stopping Apple Originals that are released in a trickle throughout the year.
Unfortunately, the relative lack of content also makes the $18/month price tag look rather steep. You probably won’t want to stay subscribed to Apple TV indefinitely, but it’s a good option to dip into every now and again.
Despite the name, the service doesn’t have much to do with Apple’s streaming device, also named Apple TV. You can use them together, of course, but the Apple TV streaming service will also run on smart TVs, game consoles and streaming devices from other brands. You don’t need to be a part of the Apple ecosystem to enjoy it.
However, if you have bought an Apple product recently, you probably received a complementary 3-month trial for Apple TV as a bonus. Make use of it!
Notable shows: Severance, Slow Horses, Ted Lasso.
6. Neon
Basic (with ads): $15/month.
Ad-free: $24/month | $240/year.
Maximum simultaneous streams: Two.
Download to watch offline: Selected content (except basic plan).
Neon is owned by Sky TV but operated separately. You don’t need a Sky subscription to access Neon.
We think the average quality of a Neon show is higher than many other platforms, but there is less content overall than the major players. There are, however, some New Zealand shows, which are very welcome.
However, Neon has a problem.
In the past, many of its most prestigious and compelling titles were premium dramas from American network HBO, such as House of the Dragon and The White Lotus.
However, HBO is launching its own service, HBO Max, in New Zealand in mid-2026. In June, HBO will pull its shows from both Neon and Sky’s satellite service, leaving a hole in Neon’s catalogue that’ll be tough to fill.
There are closed captions on some Neon shows, but they’re not universal. It’s also a bit disappointing that there’s no 4K video available whatsoever.
Overall, Neon feels overpriced next to the competition. But with that said, it’s still a steal when compared with Sky TV.
Notable shows: Heated Rivalry, Outlander, Inside No. 9.
Bonus: Sky Sport Now
Standard: $55/month.
Premium (additional 4K channel): $60/month | $550/year.
Maximum simultaneous streams: One.
Download to watch offline: No.
Sky Sport is the main paid provider of sport content in New Zealand. Sky Sport Now is essentially the television service, but online. It has all the same sports as on the TV (i.e. nearly every sport), as well as news, analysis shows and pay-per-view events.
We can’t rank Sky Sport Now against the other streaming services because its content is so different, but we can still help you compare what you’ll get if you subscribe.
At $55 per month, there’s no denying it’s expensive. Sky does offer a yearly pass that comes out at about $46 per month.
The nature of sport means you’ll often use Sky Sport Now to watch live. The user interface reflects that, with much more focus on traditional channels than on-demand services, which can make it tricky to find replays at times.
Because you can only use Sky Sport Now on one device at a time, you and your partner are out of luck if you want to watch a different live event at the same time.
Sky Sport Now only supports 4K resolutions for a handful of events, and only for subscribers with the annual pass or who pay an extra $5/month. This feels a little mean-spirited, given the already sky-high cost of the monthly pass.
Overall, the app feels like poor value considering its breathtaking price – but sport fans don’t exactly have any choice but to pay for it.
How we decide rankings
We ranked each service based on several criteria, including:
the range of content across genres and formats (not necessarily sheer quantity)
how much content is available in high-definition (HD) or ultra-high-definition (4K) resolution
how much content is accessible for people who require captions or narration
the number of concurrent streams allowed on separate devices
whether content is downloadable for offline viewing
the price compared to other services.
