It should be part of your streaming life

Discovery’s new streaming service has finally arrived.

The company’s official entry into the streaming wars brought all of Discovery’s assets under one roof, covering everything from true crime to reality TV to nature documentaries. Discovery + is home to tens of thousands of episodes from legacy broadcast channels such as HGTV, the History Channel, A&E, Food Network and more. And it’s not all old stuff either – Discovery says it plans to bring more than 1,000 hours of original content to the platform in its first year, with more than 50 exclusive offers available at launch. That’s a pretty good amount of content to offer potential subscribers right out of the gate.

But the service charges for both the ad-free and ad-supported tiers, which cost $ 5 and $ 7 per month, respectively. Do you really do you need to add one more paid streaming service to your portfolio, especially when so many others launched last year? Maybe not. But I would encourage anyone to give Discovery + a try before writing it off. Not only have the originals and exclusives from the natural world been a big draw for me personally – and all the other David Attenborough heads out there – but Discovery + delivered an excellent product at launch that will at least introduce something new to your limited premium content options.

Now I’m not sure what your own quarantine-content diet has been like, but I’ve largely survived mindless reality TV binge-watching (I know, I know) and many documentaries about the natural world and space phenomena. I’ll watch it everywhere I can find it: Netflix, Apple TV, PBS, whatever. If this sounds like you reader, then I have some great news: Discovery + is a smorgasbord of exactly this sort of thing, thanks to both Discovery’s own strengths and exclusive BBC programming, including Planet Earth, Blue planet, Serengeti, and The mating game. Attenborough also narrates the Discovery + original A perfect planet, a five-part series by the same people behind it Planet Earth. This alone should be reason enough to activate at least one of several free trial offers the service is currently active.

But that is not everything. I was genuinely surprised by how much variety was represented on launch day and how easy it was to find things to watch by genre or channel. Home page rows make it easy to find new originals, featured content, popular series and your personalized watch list. I wish the service made finding 4K content a bit easier. Right now, 4K is limited to a handful of natural world series like Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II on platforms that support this. But we’d expect more 4K content to hit the service eventually – possibly even this year.

In terms of support, Discovery + had a refreshingly smooth rollout on most major platforms, including Xbox, Fire TV, Roku, Apple, Android, Samsung smart TVs, and Chromecast, including the latest version with Google TV. I am currently testing a Vizio OLED TV, and while I couldn’t open the app on the TV itself, I was able to cast Discovery + to the TV from my iPhone 11. I asked Discovery if it planned to add support to other smart TVs with proprietary software, including LG and Vizio, aWhile the company didn’t have anything to share right away, it sounds like Discovery is working on extensive support.

Each of Discovery’s dozens of brands has its own bubble in a slider on the homepage, as do content categories such as lifestyle, adventure and exploration, psychic and unexplained, documentaries, as well as science and technology. It was immediately clear to me that instead of simply hitting some seemingly unaffiliated brands against each other and hoping it works (cough HBO Max cough), Discovery put a lot of thought into the organization and design. It just works.

Now you may be wondering how Discovery, with tens of thousands of episodes available at launch, sorts all of its different brands and titles to give you something to watch. The company uses its own proprietary algorithm that takes into account a number of factors related to your viewing habits, and while it does consider pageviews, the company would not go into specific how its system works. But when it comes to user-specific content recommendations, it helps that Discovery + has made user profiles immediately available. Five profiles are supported per account and the service allows up to four simultaneous streams. That means that one subscription can cover almost everyone in an average household.

And as for the originals? Before subscribing, you probably know if you’re a Chip and Joanna Gaines super fan – and there must be many, as Discovery leans into this marital venture very hard – or the kind of aluminum foil hat-wearing sucker who will tune in to a new Project Blue Book series (it’s me). But I was pleasantly surprised at the number of titles that I will definitely add to the watch list that I so badly need to get through the rest of the winter. (I hesitate to admit that these titles contain a paranormal joint called Amityville Horror House, but listen, we’re all doing our best now.)

Discovery + isn’t going to replace your Netflix subscription, and Discovery’s own leadership has said so too. But Discovery + is like CEO David Zaslav described it has recently become a “perfect addition” to your primary portfolio of wire cutting solutions. And who knows! It may surprise you. As the streaming begins, it is thoughtfully exceptional.

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• This recently launched streaming service brings together all of Discovery’s assets under one roof, including HGTV, the History Channel, A&E, Food Network, Discovery Channel and more.
• Discovery + is the exclusive home for BBC’s wildlife programming, including a brand new series from David Attenborough.
• Each profile supports up to five user profiles and four simultaneous streams.
• Both subscription tiers are paid, with one offering ad-supported content for $ 5 per month and another ad-free for $ 7 per month.