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To really sum it all up in one place, check out the absurdity of the official guide on where to watch the Pokemon cartoon: https://www.pokemon.com/us/animation/

To really sum it all up in one place, check out the absurdity of the official guide on where to watch the Pokemon cartoon: https://www.pokemon.com/us/animation/where-to-watch-pokemon-episodes-movies https://www.pokemon.com/us/animation/where-to-watch-pokemon-... And that doesn't even actually list the movies, which are even more fragmented.

0cf8612b2e1e 1y ago
I have seen this before, but I never realized that was an official product! Thought that started as a joke by a disgruntled fan.
seatac76 1y ago
Thanks for sharing OP, that is just ridiculous, makes cable looks like a sane option.
- 6thbit 1y ago
  With cable you didn’t get this fragmentation cause you also didn’t get many options. Watch at 8am or at 6pm, whatever episode airs that day, probably a rerun or a skipped.
  - frollogaston 1y ago
    Different cable providers each had their own bundles and individual paid channels, so you kinda got a choice, with a lot of fragmentation.
    - 6thbit 1y ago
      I mean you didn't get to watch as many Pokemon show options as those linked in the parent comment, you got choices for channels as you said, but not seasons/shows.
godzillabrennus 1y ago
Wow. It's like an advertisement for torrent sites... I had no idea it was that bad out there...
devjab 1y ago
I wonder if they will eventually go the LEGO route and host their shows on youtube while also letting streaming services have them.
sunrunner 1y ago
And I thought the problem was (just) limited to fragmentation of complete IPs between services. I'd love for someone in the know to explain how you get to this stage. It it some kind of hedging strategy by The Pokémon Company to account for the number of different streaming services (thereby actually making the problem worse)? Was there some kind of timed exclusivity deal that's forced them to put different things in different places? Did one of the streaming services come along at a later time to try to undercut the earlier ones but the earlier licencing deals haven't expired? Anything else?
- LikesPwsh 1y ago
  Another possibility is that every streaming service wants "Pokémon" and parents don't care which season. So each service buys a single season to tick that box.
  - test6554 1y ago
    This. Pokemon likely has an a la carte menu and platforms can choose which seasons they want. Streaming services have a limited budget for kids content so they can’t catch em all without sacrificing other kids content. They need pokemon they need action they meed rainbows and princesses and they needs stuff for babies and toddlers.
mxfh 1y ago
What's the problem with that exactly? Legacy catalogs having some incomplete coverage? That the Pokemon Company can't make a good list if pressed? These are all not new or streaming Problems The gist is here, that the complete first four season are on YouTube for free and the 5th is being added as we speak? (200+ episodes) https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialPoke%CC%81monTV/playlists https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialPoke%CC%81monTV/playlists There was nether the expectation with streaming that third party content doesn't rotate. If you want a bit more persistent access you can buy them on Apple TV (Season 1-5 and 10-25) Oh Boy, Pokemon is really not the example I would bring up here, when the aim is completeness on official channels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_episodes_removed_from_rotation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_episodes_removed_...
- Gud 1y ago
  It’s pretty obvious that no one wants to subscribe and look for some content on 5 different platforms. While the pirate goes to his or her favourite torrent site and downloads it all, with the added bonus of having offline, permanent access.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- gjvc 1y ago
  with a sample size of one, there is no obvious problem. presumably any given household wants to watch more than just pokemon, though and this is where things become unstuck. suddenly, to satisfy the demand for the range of things people in the household want to watch they are forced to make subscriptions to multiple services, perhaps sometimes for one-offs. scale this up, and you have a population forced to make multiple subscriptions to multiple streaming providers to satisfy their demand for content. or people just choose a couple of them and that's that. either way it seems that there is a symbiotic relationship between the content authors and the streaming companies. but wait, read the page carefully, multiple seasons of the same thing spread across different streamers forcing consumers to subscribe to multiple streamers .... and now we are into Phoebus cartel territory.
barbazoo 1y ago
And it doesn't even reflect availability outside the US it seems as my Netflix catalog does't have some of the seasons that list says it should.
aucisson_masque 1y ago
Holy mother of God, that’s insanity. How could someone come up with that and get it approved is beyond human understanding.
SllX 1y ago
The problem with Pokémon isn’t that it’s fragmented across streaming services, it’s the anime itself where by Advanced you’re getting enough of the same formulaic bullshit it can drive even a kid crazy. I was that kid. Except for some slight deviations, such as the beginning of Best Wishes (Black & White), you can put on a sequence of any 10 episodes from any season and it doesn’t matter what streaming service it’s on. By the end of the episode, Team Rocket is blasting off again.
- mystifyingpoi 1y ago
  > of the same formulaic bullshit Sounds like every single mainline game until SV/PLA which tried the open world a bit. People still like it.
  - SllX 1y ago
    The games actually change though in a way the anime never really did no matter how many characters or Pokémon they cycled through.
kmac_ 1y ago
Well, "Gotta Subscribe 'Em All!"
charcircuit 1y ago
>More fragmented Prime Video has it all which doesn't sound fragmented to me. It seems Prime Video is for old seasons and other services are fine for watching the current iteration of the show.
thaumasiotes 1y ago
For reference: Season 1: Amazon Prime Video (also, Netflix) Season 2: Amazon Prime Video Channels 3-5: Prime Video 6-13: Prime Video Channels (with 10-13 also available on the Roku Channel) 14-19: Prime Video (with 17-19 also on Netflix) 20-22: Prime Video Channels (and Hulu, and the Roku Channel) 23-25: Prime Video (and Netflix) So, they're all on Amazon in some sense. I was aware that there was some kind of concept of Prime Video Channels, but when I tried to find an explanation on Amazon's website, I failed.
- thaumasiotes 1y ago
  Following up, "Prime Video Channels" seem to be an Amazon offering in which you have your subscription to a separate video service (the "Channel") billed through Amazon, for "convenience". (And you can also watch their stuff on Amazon's website.) So Pokemon has licensed about half of their series to Amazon, and they reserve the remaining half for people who subscribe to the Pokemon Channel.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

0cf8612b2e1e 1y ago

I have seen this before, but I never realized that was an official product! Thought that started as a joke by a disgruntled fan.

seatac76 1y ago

Thanks for sharing OP, that is just ridiculous, makes cable looks like a sane option.

6thbit 1y ago
With cable you didn’t get this fragmentation cause you also didn’t get many options. Watch at 8am or at 6pm, whatever episode airs that day, probably a rerun or a skipped.
- frollogaston 1y ago
  Different cable providers each had their own bundles and individual paid channels, so you kinda got a choice, with a lot of fragmentation.
  - 6thbit 1y ago
    I mean you didn't get to watch as many Pokemon show options as those linked in the parent comment, you got choices for channels as you said, but not seasons/shows.

godzillabrennus 1y ago

Wow. It's like an advertisement for torrent sites... I had no idea it was that bad out there...

devjab 1y ago

I wonder if they will eventually go the LEGO route and host their shows on youtube while also letting streaming services have them.

sunrunner 1y ago

And I thought the problem was (just) limited to fragmentation of complete IPs between services. I'd love for someone in the know to explain how you get to this stage. It it some kind of hedging strategy by The Pokémon Company to account for the number of different streaming services (thereby actually making the problem worse)? Was there some kind of timed exclusivity deal that's forced them to put different things in different places? Did one of the streaming services come along at a later time to try to undercut the earlier ones but the earlier licencing deals haven't expired? Anything else?

LikesPwsh 1y ago
Another possibility is that every streaming service wants "Pokémon" and parents don't care which season. So each service buys a single season to tick that box.
- test6554 1y ago
  This. Pokemon likely has an a la carte menu and platforms can choose which seasons they want. Streaming services have a limited budget for kids content so they can’t catch em all without sacrificing other kids content. They need pokemon they need action they meed rainbows and princesses and they needs stuff for babies and toddlers.

mxfh 1y ago

What's the problem with that exactly? Legacy catalogs having some incomplete coverage? That the Pokemon Company can't make a good list if pressed? These are all not new or streaming Problems The gist is here, that the complete first four season are on YouTube for free and the 5th is being added as we speak? (200+ episodes) https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialPoke%CC%81monTV/playlists https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialPoke%CC%81monTV/playlists There was nether the expectation with streaming that third party content doesn't rotate. If you want a bit more persistent access you can buy them on Apple TV (Season 1-5 and 10-25) Oh Boy, Pokemon is really not the example I would bring up here, when the aim is completeness on official channels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_episodes_removed_from_rotation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_episodes_removed_...

Gud 1y ago
It’s pretty obvious that no one wants to subscribe and look for some content on 5 different platforms. While the pirate goes to his or her favourite torrent site and downloads it all, with the added bonus of having offline, permanent access.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
gjvc 1y ago
with a sample size of one, there is no obvious problem. presumably any given household wants to watch more than just pokemon, though and this is where things become unstuck. suddenly, to satisfy the demand for the range of things people in the household want to watch they are forced to make subscriptions to multiple services, perhaps sometimes for one-offs. scale this up, and you have a population forced to make multiple subscriptions to multiple streaming providers to satisfy their demand for content. or people just choose a couple of them and that's that. either way it seems that there is a symbiotic relationship between the content authors and the streaming companies. but wait, read the page carefully, multiple seasons of the same thing spread across different streamers forcing consumers to subscribe to multiple streamers .... and now we are into Phoebus cartel territory.

barbazoo 1y ago

And it doesn't even reflect availability outside the US it seems as my Netflix catalog does't have some of the seasons that list says it should.

aucisson_masque 1y ago

Holy mother of God, that’s insanity. How could someone come up with that and get it approved is beyond human understanding.

SllX 1y ago

The problem with Pokémon isn’t that it’s fragmented across streaming services, it’s the anime itself where by Advanced you’re getting enough of the same formulaic bullshit it can drive even a kid crazy. I was that kid. Except for some slight deviations, such as the beginning of Best Wishes (Black & White), you can put on a sequence of any 10 episodes from any season and it doesn’t matter what streaming service it’s on. By the end of the episode, Team Rocket is blasting off again.

mystifyingpoi 1y ago
> of the same formulaic bullshit Sounds like every single mainline game until SV/PLA which tried the open world a bit. People still like it.
- SllX 1y ago
  The games actually change though in a way the anime never really did no matter how many characters or Pokémon they cycled through.

kmac_ 1y ago

Well, "Gotta Subscribe 'Em All!"

charcircuit 1y ago

>More fragmented Prime Video has it all which doesn't sound fragmented to me. It seems Prime Video is for old seasons and other services are fine for watching the current iteration of the show.

thaumasiotes 1y ago

For reference: Season 1: Amazon Prime Video (also, Netflix) Season 2: Amazon Prime Video Channels 3-5: Prime Video 6-13: Prime Video Channels (with 10-13 also available on the Roku Channel) 14-19: Prime Video (with 17-19 also on Netflix) 20-22: Prime Video Channels (and Hulu, and the Roku Channel) 23-25: Prime Video (and Netflix) So, they're all on Amazon in some sense. I was aware that there was some kind of concept of Prime Video Channels, but when I tried to find an explanation on Amazon's website, I failed.

thaumasiotes 1y ago
Following up, "Prime Video Channels" seem to be an Amazon offering in which you have your subscription to a separate video service (the "Channel") billed through Amazon, for "convenience". (And you can also watch their stuff on Amazon's website.) So Pokemon has licensed about half of their series to Amazon, and they reserve the remaining half for people who subscribe to the Pokemon Channel.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]