This post is a guide to using some independent streaming platforms. It’s part of a series I’m working on about leaving the control of massive corporations. I will follow it up in a few days with a post about running a personal Video on Demand platform, and a couple of ways you can set up personal IPTV stations, and why you might want to do that. Until then, this is an article about leaving HULU+DISNEY+HBO+MAX+DISCOVER+FLIX in the bin, and what you might find instead.

If you’re running in the same circles I am, you’ve no doubt seen a wave of people canceling their Disney+ and Hulu accounts in the wake of Disney’s capitulation (and eventual slow walkback) to demands from the FCC chair (and the two corporations which collectively own a majority of ABC afilliates) to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air.

Now, I don’t care about Kimmel at all, but I am very worried about the consolidation of power created by the modern media, it’s something I’ve been writing about for a Long Time. If you’re trying to figure out where to put your eyeballs in the wake of this action by Disney, or your just generally fed up with letting a distant faceless corporation controll what you watch, allow me to suggest some alternatives.

The Last Straw

It was a perfect, damning one-two punch. When a chorus of right-wing media personalities, a major broadcaster, and a federal official pressured them to canel of Jimmy Kimmel over a vague political statement, Disney immediately capitulated, pulling the show from the air. They only reversed course after a massive public outcry, boycott, and wave of cancellations.

Days later, as if to add insult to injury, they significantly raised the price of their streaming services.

If you were trying to organize a mass movement away from Disney+, and Hulu, and perhaps encourage a critical re-evaluation of streaming as a concept, I don’t know what you would have done differently.

This sequence is a masterclass in corporate cowardice. It demonstrated that principle is negotiable and that you, the subscriber, are a revenue stream to be managed, not a community to be respected. But this incident is not an anomaly. It is a symptom of a terminal disease within our media ecosystem.

The beast is sick, and it’s making us sick, too.

The Real Problem Isn’t a Single Show, It’s the Entire System

We’ve been here before. In 2016, I warned about the dangers of the media oligopoly:

“Comcast, Viacom, Disney, CBS, and Time Warner currently control 90% of American media… They collectively control so much of our political and economic landscape that it’s difficult to effectively understand, or begin to trace, the breadth of their influence… Simply put, we cannot afford to have such a vital part of our society controlled by so few.”

Nothing has improved. It has gotten worse. The streaming wars have just created new, digital fiefdoms ruled by the same old kings.

This isn’t a new fight.

In 1971, media activists from the Raindance Corporation published a manifesto called Guerrilla Television. They diagnosed the broadcast television of their era as “the Beast”: a centralized, homogenizing system designed for passive consumption, denying people the ability to talk back or create. “Growing up in America on television,” they wrote, “is like learning how to read but being denied the chance to write.”

Their solution was a “media-ecological” one: a healthy society needs a diverse, decentralized information environment where people have control over the means of production and distribution. The goal was not to reform the beast, but to build a new, healthier ecosystem alongside it.

The shuttering of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting at the end of this year is the final proof that we cannot rely on any single pillar, public or corporate. The vacuum left by CPB will be filled by the very corporate giants that have failed us.

Our response must be to actively build and support a resilient, decentralized alternative.

A Guide to the New Ecosystem: Where to Go Now

Leaving the Beast isn’t about deprivation. It’s about migration to a more vibrant, ethical, and interesting media landscape. Here is a spectrum of alternatives, from easy swaps to radical self-determination.

The Easy Swaps: Better Content, Better Ethics

These platforms offer a familiar streaming experience but are built on fundamentally better models.

• Dropout: Creator-owned and operated, this service is a haven for clever, weird, and genuinely funny comedy (like the wildly popular Dimension 20). Your subscription directly supports artists, not a corporate board. Dropout also follows a profit sharing model for crew and talent.
• Nebula: Built in partnership with top-tier educational creators, Nebula is a direct challenge to the YouTube algorithm. It offers ad-free, deep-dive content where creators have the freedom to experiment. It’s a co-op, not a corporation.
• CuriosityStream & Mubi: For documentary lovers and cinephiles, these services offer focused, high-quality libraries. While they are traditional for-profit companies, they serve niche audiences with respect, unlike the homogenizing algorithms of Netflix.

The Principled Shifts: New Ownership Models

These platforms are built from the ground up with an explicit ethical and political mission.

• Means TV: This is a self-described “worker-owned anti-capitalist streaming service.” It offers a mix of comedy, news, and genre-blending original content. Subscribing isn’t just about watching; it’s about supporting a radical experiment in economic democracy.
• New Ellijay Television: This is what community television looks like in the 21st century. A free service providing on-demand content, live streams, and a 24/7 channel featuring locally produced sitcoms, news, and music, alongside historical archives and syndicated material from independent producers worldwide. It’s media by and for a community.(Yes, this is me! We’re on Roku, and online.)
• Community Media: This is a peertube instance I run to serve the principles of Community Media as discussed in my book “Community Media.”

Public Institutions: Reclaiming Civic Infrastructure

In the wake of the CPB’s defunding, supporting the remaining pillars of our public media infrastructure is an act of resistance. These services are funded by and for the public, offering high-quality, educational, and artistic content.

• Kanopy & Hoopla: These are “gateway” services offered through many public library systems. They provide free access to thousands of indie films, classic cinema, and documentaries. A crucial note: They are expensive for libraries, so using them demonstrates demand and supports the library’s mission. If your local library doesn’t offer them, you can often get a card from a larger library system, like the Queens Public Library which offers a card to anyone in the U.S. for $50 a year, a direct investment in a public institution.
• PBS Passport: This member benefit provides on-demand access to a deep archive of PBS’s stellar programming, and helps to fund your local member station in the wake of the death of CPB. Supporting your local PBS station is a direct investment in the kind of journalism and storytelling the corporate “Beast” neglects. PBS Passport is uaully $5/month.
• Medici.tv: A service dedicated to classical music and opera, often featuring live streams from the world’s great concert halls. It represents the high-cultural mission that public media was created to serve. (Medici is $175/year, but is often free with a library card from a participating library such as the Queens public library.)

The Systemic Solutions: Owning the Means of Preservation

These options bypass the streaming economy entirely, hitting the oligopoly where it hurts: their bottom line and their control.

• Physical Media: The most powerful and underrated form of media independence. Buying DVDs/Blu-rays, especially second hand, or borrowing them from your local library is a decentralized, resilient act. You own the content, it can’t be edited, and it supports public institutions. Couple some physical media with a decent external optical drive and a copy of Handbrake or MakeMKV and you’re off to the races.
• The Internet Archive: A non-profit digital library, it is one of the most important preservation projects in human history. Its collection of films, music, books, and software is a testament to the power of community-driven archiving over corporate memory.

The New Guerrilla Frontiers: Radical Decentralization

This is the cutting edge of the fight for control, directly echoing the cybernetic ideals of Guerrilla Television.

• Jellyfin/Emby: The modern equivalent of a public-access studio. These are free, self-hosted media servers that let you manage and stream your own personal library of movies, TV, and music. The technical hurdle is higher, but the reward is total control. No corporate oversight, no arbitrary removals, no algorithms.
• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) & Digital Preservation: The most radical alternative is the decentralized, community-driven sharing and archiving of media. Tools like yt-dlp allow users to preserve content from corporate platforms like Youtube or Tubi, saving it from the “digital decay” of licensing deals or censorship. This landscape is complex and exists in legal gray areas, but it represents a pure form of the guerrilla ethos: seizing the means of distribution to ensure cultural survival.

That sounds like a lot of work!

Yes, it’s less convenient than having everything in one app. You’ll miss some blockbusters. Your watchlist will be fragmented.

But this is the entire point.

Convenience is the tax we pay for surrender. The slight friction of a diverse media diet is the sign of a healthy ecosystem. It means you are thinking, choosing, and participating rather than just consuming.

Your Remote is a Ballot

Every subscription is a vote for the kind of media world you want to live in. Do you want a homogenized, cowardly landscape controlled by a handful of corporations that see you as a data point? Or do you want a diverse, brave, and curious ecosystem built by creators and communities?

The Beast is sick. It’s time to stop feeding it and start nurturing the alternatives. The future of our media, and our culture, depends on it.

What alternatives are we missing? Share your favorite independent platforms and preservation tools on the fediverse.

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