This nifty new app is taking on AMAZON
Fragmentation is the curse of the streaming age, so it help to have an easy way to find those hidden gems.
Streaming was supposed to be entertainment nirvana, but we’ve all found ourselves trapped in scrolling hell as we search in vain for something decent to watch. Even back when Netflix was the only game in town, I soon discovered that searching for a specific movie or TV show usually ended in disappointment.
If you’re a tightwad like me, there’s always that nagging doubt that you’re about to pay for something which is hidden away in the back catalogue of a free catch up service or one of the libraries you already pay for. So I search that bit longer. Meanwhile, my family has given up in digust and snuck off to the garage to rummage through an old box of DVDs.
Every streaming service naturally wants to keep you within its walled garden, so it fell upon content aggregators to come up with the concept of “universal search”: letting you search once and find everywhere. At least in theory, depending on their view of the universe.
The fetch TV set-top box is the latest device to embrace universal search, letting you trawl through the libraries of all the streaming services it offers.
It’s a pretty good cross-search covering Netflix, Hayu, 10 All Access, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and Stan (owned by the publisher of this newspaper). On top of that, it also searches Fetch’s own movie rental store, the five major catch up libraries and free-to-air stations.
Even better, if there’s more than one way to watch something then you’re given a list of options. For example, you’ll find Seinfeld seasons 1 to 9 on Stan and Amazon, but season 7 is available for free on 10 Play. Meanwhile, there’s probably a free-to-air episode on 10 Peach tonight and you can click to record that episode or the entire series.