Emilee Aswad and Jordyn Nobrega
Merrimack College has the privilege of offering three major streaming services to students on campus. They’re mostly educational videos, documentaries, and academic films.
Students are able to access them using their Merrimack credentials. The three services are Canopy, Alexander Street and Films On Demand. Currently, there are 95,000 streaming media titles through the different platforms.
Merrimack has a page through the library website with a presentation. Links and a FAQ sheet about the streaming services offered to students.
The head librarian at Merrimack, Lyena Chavez, favors Canopy due to some of the popular feature films. When asking her favorite movies for October, she mentioned that she has a strong interest in Spanish Heritage month.
Currently, they’re looking into getting a trial for Swank digital canvas, so students can have more fun and popular titles.
“I like the editors’ picks for some of these and I do think students would be surprised to learn so I would encourage them to browse and poke around because there might be titles they might want to binge watch on a weekend or in their spare time,” Chavez said.
A few Merrimack seniors who happen to be film students spoke on the topic of streaming services and their experiences with them. Taylor Sawyer, a Communications and Media major and Film Studies minor, has shared multiple streaming services with her family for a couple of years, and has just recently got her own Hulu account.
One of Taylor’s favorite streaming services is Disney Plus, as she has always been a big Disney fan. Taylor likes how she is able to have the opportunity to view a variety of shows and movies whether they are old releases or all the way to the newest Disney release.
Taylor was unaware that most of the popular streaming services offer student discounts. Since she has shared accounts with her family for years, Taylor hasn’t been updated on all the discounts that are available for students.
Dan McGowan, a Communications and Media major and Film Studies minor, says that his favorite streaming service is Prime video because it comes with his Amazon Prime subscription. He expressed his interest in watching the new Andor series that is now on Disney +.
McGowan shared his reasoning on why college students may not invest more into streaming services. He hypothesized that it may be because of disinterest in watching TV shows or movies or that it could be due to monetary reasons,
“I feel like for a lot of college students obviously there’s the money part of it. I know it’s only $5 a month but money adds up after a while,” McGowan.
Many students, including McGowan, are unaware of streaming deals offered to students outside of Merrimack College. Rolling Stone gives recommendations on discounted deals for students that have a .edu email address.
With Prime Student, students can get a six-month free subscription of Amazon Prime, after that, it’s just $7.49/month for as long as you’re still a student. For $4.99/month, students can get ad-free access to Spotify Premium, Showtime, and Hulu all in one bundle. Hulu also offers their own deal on a standalone plan for students at $1.99/month.
Paramount gives a 25% off student discount on their plans. YouTube Premium offers ad free videos for students and downloadable content for $6.99/month.This comes with unlimited access to YouTube Music. Students have the opportunity to get Apple TV and Apple Music for free for one month with a student subscription. If students would like to continue after the one month trial, they will be given a discounted rate of $5.99/month afterwards.
Just by being a student, the Merrimack community can enjoy a variety of TV Shows, movies and even music for free or at a discounted price. Students seeking more information can follow the link to learn more and start streaming.
