It’s hard work being a die-hard comic-book and pop-culture fan.
Traditional TV channels like The CW and Fox in the US have adaptations of comics, science-fiction and fantasy franchises, like DC and Archie Comics. But the plethora of subscription-video services tapping into pop-culture properties mean fans will have to juggle a bunch of platforms to see new shows.
Audiences in the US will need at least seven different streaming services to watch the big TV shows featured at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego this past weekend.
Here’s what you’d need to watch them all:
Amazon $AMZN Prime Video ($8.99 per month)
CBS All Access ($5.99 per month; $9.99 without commercials)
DC Universe ($7.99 per month)
Disney $DIS’s untitled streaming service (price not yet announced)
Hulu ($7.99 per month)
Netflix $NFLX ($7.99 per month in the US)
On both Sundance Now and Shudder ($6.99 and $4.99 per month, respectively)
That’d be about $36 per month in streaming-video subscriptions alone, plus whatever Disney’s services is going to cost, by Quartz’s back-of-the-envelope calculations. Savvy streamers can save money by taking advantage of the free-trial offers, or cancelling the contract-free subscriptions once each show is through.
Other shows, like the upcoming season of AMC’s The Walking Dead and FX’s Sons of Anarchy spin-off, Mayans MC, which each premiered trailers at Comic-Con, require a cable-TV subscription to watch live.
Otherwise, fans will have to wait around for them to land on services like Netflix or Hulu.
Paired with a streaming-TV subscription like YouTube TV or DirecTV Now, which run for around $40 per month, all those streaming-video subscriptions would cost you around $80 each month. That’s not terrible considering that the average cost of a cable bill in the US is around $100. But it’s a lot of subscriptions and apps to keep track of month after month.
Here’s what else debuted at Comic-Con this weekend:
AMC
BBC America
FX
Freeform
Syfy
USA Network
