Between the fact that a few days ago we unsubscribed from Netflix because with its new policy with shared accounts we did not get the accounts and the launch promotion of SkyShowtime at 50% for a limited time and with a trick, the fact is that we have stung the hook and we have subscribed. Total, they are 2.99 euros per month, less than the 4.49 euros that we paid for our HBO Max halfway and considerably cheaper than the 10 euros that we would pay with Netflix. How about the experience with SkyShowtime? Well, with chiaroscuro, but if you allow me the expression old ladyMy feeling is that nobody gives hard pesetas.
A catalog without new bombings and inexplicable absences
Go ahead, SkyShowtime promises more than 10,000 hours of content from production companies and platforms such as DreamWorks Animation, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Showtime, Sky Studios or Universal Pictures, that’s nothing. Thus, you can enjoy a catalog with 92 series, including hits like ‘Frasier’, ‘Dexter’, ‘Heroes’, ‘Penny Dreadful’ or the mythical ‘Twin Peaks’. All these series have two things in common: They are of great quality and are old. Great for nostalgia, although there are also absences from some old series.
In any case, it’s not bad to review them or directly to see them for the first time (for example, your server tried to see ‘Twin Peaks’ ten years ago and I found it soporific, maybe now is the time). In fact, And for that alone it is worth those three euros which, it should be remembered, in a few weeks will become 5.99 euros for those who subscribe thereafter. If the initial price had been that (by the way, if you don’t subscribe from the browser, you don’t enjoy that 50% discount), I wouldn’t have bitten.
it’s not that miss the winning combo of current bomb series that generate hype, that it does have competition such as ‘The House of the Dragon’, ‘The rings of power’ or ‘The Last of Us’, is that more current titles are also missing, such as Showtime’s ‘The L Word’.
Another notch in his catalog is that there are incomplete series. Not only with long series like ‘Law and Order’ (only the last seasons are there), but also, for example, with a new series like ‘iCarly’, of which you will only find season two without dubbing.
technically inferior
The second issue has to do with its technically inferior and technically inexplicable billing at this point in the film. So while there is a large percentage of homes in the state with 4K TVs, if you subscribe to SkyShowtime you will not be able to enjoy it since its maximum resolution is Full HD. Another thing is if you pull a monitor, the screen of your phone or a tablet. It also does not offer HDR support.
Ok but how does it look? Things as they are: offers good image quality despite being Full HD. From a more technical point of view, they offer decent 1080p with a peak bitrate of about 10Mbps, roughly triple what we watched ‘Game of Thrones’ on the old HBO. SkyShowtime uses the H.264 codec and this is suffered in dark scenes (remember the first world problem of that third episode of the last season of ‘Game of Thrones’ putting our televisions to the test), details in small objects or in analog grain. In addition, having made the jump to the H.265 or later codec, the image quality would be better for the same bitrate. Or what is the same, that it could also maintain its image quality by reducing the bit rate, which means savings in data and servers. Although there are reasons for hope: the SkyShowtime Spain application is very similar to that of Peacock in the United States, which also started without 4K but has implemented it.
But SkyShowtime also lacks in sound: It is not that it does not have Dolby Atmos, it is that it does not even have the basic Dolby Digital Plus, remaining in a simple stereo. There is reason for hope here, too, as there are mentions of multi-channel audio in the interface.
In a sector where competition is frankly tough and without the marketing of its rivals, it is undeniable that SkyShowtime has fully succeeded in its landing in Spain both in the timing with the commotion about Netflix and in the price. Of course, once this promotional period and inertia pass, he will face a reality in which he will have to get his act together showing his best weapons, his proposal in the United States marks the way.