As a subscriber to a few streaming services, I’m always on the lookout for new content that’s going to be released soon. I’m on the press list for some of them, and get info on others from showbiz news items or social media posts placed by the streaming companies. The problem is that just because they’ve announced something doesn’t mean I’m able to add it to my queue on those platforms.
For instance, last week I saw a trailer released for a new Netflix series called “Hit Man,” which will debut June 7th. I was interested, so I searched for it on Netflix, but it wasn’t there. It finally showed up yesterday, several days after it first crossed my radar. Why wasn’t there better synchronization between the publicists and the coders who had to add it to the site’s search results?
Also last week, I saw that Disney+ is going to add Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original version of the Beatles documentary “Let It Be,” which has been nearly impossible to find since it appeared in theaters in 1970. Peter Jackson’s team — which did such a great job with “Get Back,” taken from footage of the same sessions — has once again cleaned up the master, and it’s scheduled to debut on Disney+ on May 8th. Or at least that’s what three separate news items said, but if you try to find it on the Disney+ app and add it to your queue, it’s not there.
On Monday, I received a press release with a headline that screams: Apple TV+ announces explosive new documentary event, “Hollywood Con Queen,” featuring the unbelievable story of one of Hollywood’s biggest scams, to premiere May 8. That sounds interesting, but there’s no evidence the thing even exists on the Apple TV+ app.
HBO has Nikki Glaser’s new standup special, “Someday You’ll Die,” scheduled to debut on 5/11, which means I should be able to watch it on Max the next day. But the Max app and website don’t know anything about it.
And just to make sure I’ve covered all the major streamers, I learned from an ad that Iliza Shlesinger’s next standup special will be on Amazon Prime Video, not Netflix. But when I went to add that to my Prime queue, I discovered it’s not even going to be recorded until November — which means I won’t even be able to put it in My Stuff until Halloween.
It shouldn’t be all that hard to coordinate announcements of new content with our ability to find and add the ones we’re interested in. This seems like a problem that could be fixed very easily with a few Slack messages to be sure everyone on the inside is on the same page — and then sync them to make a better experience for those of us on the outside.
You know, their customers.