I paid $45 for a 'premium' streaming bundle and got nothing but buffering

Signed up for that Paramount+ and Showtime combo last month thinking I'd save money. Every single episode of 'Yellowjackets' froze at the worst parts. Cancelled after 3 days and went back to my old Netflix account. Anyone else have streaming services just fail on them like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim_west1mo ago

Actually they use the same backend as every other major service, the buffering is probably your home network settings or wifi congestion. People love blaming the streaming company but most homes have like 15 devices fighting for bandwidth during prime time. Paramount+ works fine for me on a regular 4K Fire Stick and I've watched every episode of Yellowjackets without a single freeze. Maybe check if your router is from 2015 or if your neighbor's wifi is on the same channel as yours, those are way more common problems than servers being oversold. The $45 bundle is actually a good deal if you actually watch the ad-free versions of both services, two months of anything else would cost you the same.

oliver21mo ago

Read that Paramount+ actually uses lower bandwidth than Netflix even though they charge more, which explains all that buffering. They probably oversold their servers during the Yellowjackets hype and nobody could stream smoothly. Guess they forgot people actually want to watch shows, not just pay for the privilege of staring at a loading circle.

margaretm231mo ago

Is it just me or is this basically every streaming service now? They all seem to cut costs on bandwidth once they get popular and figure people won't notice. Meanwhile my internet is fine for everything else but somehow a 4K stream turns into a slideshow at 8pm on a Tuesday.