There’s never been a better time for streaming new TV than right now — and more and more streaming services are just begging for your attention. Come July 15, NBC’s Peacock will be launching too, a streaming service that promises both exciting new shows and movies from NBC top talent as well as old faves like 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation. With so many options to choose from, there’s one consideration that matters more than others when you’re picking for the whole family: which streaming service has the most kid-friendly content? Between Apple TV+, Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, and more, we broke down the offerings on each of these services to see what best matches your needs.
While of course it will be hard for any streaming service to compete with the massive kids’ content library of Disney+, we were pleasantly surprised to see just how many other platforms had made family-friendly viewing a priority. Newcomer Peacock promises series like Curious George and Dreamworks Where’s Waldo. HBO Max has Looney Tunes cartoons, Adventure Time, Sesame Street, and more. And Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu have all bulked up their kids content libraries in recent years as the launch of Disney+ loomed.
Ultimately, you want the streaming service with the best mix of new original series, old classics, and enough kids content to act as your babysitter through the rest of the year (just kidding…kind of). Read on for what each streaming service offers and find your best match today.
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A version of this article was originally published in October 2019.
Peacock
Monthly Subscription Cost: Free (ad-supported plan); $4.99 (premium); $9.99 (ad-free)
NBC Universal’s Peacock has been ruffling feathers (pun intended) by snatching back all its TV shows from existing streaming platforms. Set to launch in 2020, Peacock will offer exclusive access to The Office (starting in 2021) and Parks and Recreation (in October 2020), and nonexclusive access to 30 Rock, Battlestar Galactica, Will & Grace, The Real Housewives, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Cheers, Frasier, Friday Night Lights, Everybody Loves Raymond, Saturday Night Live, and King of Queens.
For original content, Peacock is planning an adaptation of the “Dr. Death” podcast (starring Jamie Dornan, Christian Slater, and Alec Baldwin), Battlestar Galactica and Saved by the Bell reboots, and a new comedy series, Rutherford Falls (starring Ed Helms, and created by Mike Schur), among others.
And as for kids content, Peacock has a whole slate of new kids series planned with Dreamworks, including Curious George, Madagascar: A Little Wild, TrollsTopia, and Where’s Waldo.
Disney+
Monthly Subscription Cost: $6.99
in the end, Disney+ may have the most coveted content library of all. In 2017, Disney announced that they were pulling their titles from other streaming services by the end of 2019 — and their titles encompass not just Disney movies and shows but Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and more.
While Netflix used to offer a wide range of Disney and Marvel classics alike, Disney+ is pulling all of that — and it’s hard to imagine subscribers won’t follow. Combine their old classics with new, original content (such as their live-action Lady and the Tramp, skipping theaters and going straight to their streaming platform), and they’re almost daring potential subscribers to miss out.
Apple TV+
Monthly Subscription Cost: $4.99 (or free for one year with the purchase of an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV)
With its low cost and premium teased content, Apple TV+ is set to be a major new player in the streaming service game. Launching on November 1, Apple TV+ will include original TV series including The Morning Show (starring Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell), See (starring Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard), and Dickinson (starring Hailee Steinfeld).
For kids content, you can look forward to Apple TV+ originals like Helpsters, from the Sesame Street creators, Ghostwriter, and Snoopy in Space.
One more big bonus? One account will allow up to six users, so it works for the whole family (or, you know, you and five friends).
HBO Max
Monthly Subscription Cost: $14.99
WarnerMedia’s HBO Max* is scheduled for a spring 2020 release, and will include the entire HBO library and popular shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Pretty Little Liars,Riverdale, The West Wing, and Batwoman. HBO Max will also offer exclusive access to Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Doctor Who, The Office (UK), Top Gear, and Luther. The service has also just signed a deal to stream Studio Ghibli content, which includes Hayao Miyazaki classics like Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away — none of which have ever been licensed to a streaming service before.
HBO Max will also offer a huge new selection of WarnerMedia titles — which is where the kids content gets really good. Included in WarnerMedia’s properties are Looney Tunes, Cartoon Network, and the CW (for your teens), plus all the classic family movies you could hope for.
As for original content, HBO Max will house the upcoming Gossip Girl reboot, an adaptation of Madeline Miller’s Circe, and a Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams’ horror series called Lovecraft Country, among many, many others. The upshot? It won’t be cheap, but you just might need it.
Hulu
Monthly Subscription Cost: $5.99 – $11.99
Hulu has its fair share of excellent original content too: Shrill, The Handmaid’s Tale, Castle Rock, The Act, PEN15, Ramy, and Veronica Mars all come to mind. NBC shows like 30 Rock, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, This Is Us, Manifest, The Voice, Law & Order: SVU, and Saturday Night Live should safely stay on Hulu — at least through 2024. ABC shows like The Bachelor and Modern Family are currently safe as well.
Luckily, Hulu will be working together with Disney+, and will be offered as a bundle with the Disney streaming service and ESPN+ for $12.99. So if kid-friendly content is your concern, we strongly recommend that bundle.
Netflix
Monthly Subscription Cost: $8.99 – $15.99
Netflix is the reason we’re even having this conversation, but, sadly, they won’t retain all the content you know and love as new services emerge. You’ll want to hold on to Netflix for the original content alone, including Orange Is the New Black, Queer Eye, Dead to Me, and more. Honestly, it feels like they’re just getting started as a movie studio, launching star-studded The Laundromat and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman later this year.
As for kids content, Netflix has created iconic teen-and-younger content like Stranger Things, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and — most recently — The Babysitters Club.
Sling TV
Monthly Subscription Cost: $30
Sling TV offers access to 30-50 channels — without needing a cable box. If you and your family are happiest watching what’s already on TV, make your lives easier with a Sling subscription that lets you stream live TV from anywhere. And with Sling TV Orange, you’ll be able to host three streams at once. Just make sure you choose the membership option that includes all your kids’ must-watch channels, and you should be all set.
CBS All Access
Monthly Subscription Cost: $5.99 – $9.99
CBS All Access started in 2014, but it never quite reached the big-name status of Netflix or Hulu. That may be because several of CBS’s biggest hits, like The Good Wife, Criminal Minds, The Amazing Race, Star Trek, The Big Bang Theory, and Survivor are also available on other streaming platforms — but others like NCIS, Hawaii Five-O, and Big Brother are only accessible through CBS.
CBS of course is also known for some of the best kids programming like Scooby Doo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — and their All-Access library includes classics like Madeline, Bob the Builder, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Amazon Prime Video
Monthly Subscription Cost: $8.99 (or free with Amazon Prime membership— get yours here)
Amazon’s original content includes shows such as Fleabag, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Man in The High Castle, Transparent, The Romanoffs, Goliath, and Mozart in the Jungle. And their movies are no less impressive: The Big Sick, Manchester by the Sea, and Late Night number among their hits. In addition to all that, Amazon Prime Video will hold onto a wide library of popular shows, including The Walking Dead, This Is Us, American Horror Story, and Survivor.
Amazon’s massive library also includes plenty of kids shows and movies too, including but not limited to: Jimmy Neutron, The Adventures of Paddington Bear, Charlotte’s Web, A Little Princess, and Blue’s Clues.
Quibi
Monthly Subscription Cost: $4.99-7.99
Quibi may be the most radical new streaming service yet, launching a whole new type of “bite-size” content along with its new platform. In its first year, the service will be unrolling a huge library of brand-new content from stars like Chrissy Teigen, who stars in Quibi show Chrissy’s Court, Chris Hemsworth, who stars in The Most Dangerous Game, and more.
While Quibi is largely aimed at teens and older, there are a few feel-good docuseries like Thanks a Million and Fierce Queens that will work for any age. And if you have kids 14 and up, they may like the streaming service even more than you do.
YouTube TV
Monthly Subscription Cost: $49.99-60.99
YouTube TV may come at a steeper price than most, but it offers over 70 channels of live TV, plus a decent library of recently released TV and movies. As for kids content, it includes channels like PBS, PBS Kids, Nickelodeon, and more.
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