I'm new to editing MDL and haven't seen where this feature was announced in full, but I think it's a great idea and exactly what drama fandom has needed for many years for the legal services to have a chance of competing with piracy for recognition (and I wish other sites like AsianWiki had an equivalent).
I would have also brought up (and maybe it was in discussions) integrating with – or just linking to – JustWatch, Playpilot, or another content aggregating service, which would automate this for some services. Being automatic would be particularly useful for services on which things come and go frequently, like MUBI and Netflix.
However, many Asian series and indie movies are available officially with English subs on YouTube and Vimeo accounts, which comparison sites do not and I strongly suspect could not ever aggregate automatically. So something like the current system would still be needed for those.
One other point (which might have been thought of, but I haven't seen it mentioned) is that for many smaller, especially Asian-specialist services, (e.g. GagaOOLala and STRONGBERRY) I think they'd be very happy to add links to all their content themselves, if an admin were to let them know about this opportunity to promote themselves. Because of their small size I wouldn't have thought commissions on links is very likely, but saving the community time by adding the links seems more likely.
Notable ones I cannot see have been added yet:
Alamo on Demand – Purchase/pay per view; Asian content is limited to the USA, maybe Canada; English subtitles. See its Asian category.
Apple TV – Free/purchase/subscription/pay per view; available in 103 countries; subtitle availability varies. Has everything the iTunes Store has to rent/buy, plus some of the same and some different titles to watch with channel subscriptions, so I would include just Apple TV as an option and not the iTunes Store. I'd say that URLs for it are best formatted with the country code and title deleted, like https://tv.apple.com/show/umc.cmc.26skguj8sy9pho6nxak50uzn4 for TV programmes and https://tv.apple.com/movie/umc.cmc.4rxltqekegjv2iwuvc2dxs2yf for movies, so that they are country-independent.
BFI Player – Asian content is available on subscription/pay per view; limited to UK; English subtitles. Huge resource for international films from silents to the last few years on subscription (many Japanese ones in particular), and even more for rent. Each movie is only ever available on subscription or to pay per view, never both, so this could be set on a link by link basis.
Central Park Films (Vimeo) – Purchase/pay per view; available worldwide; English subtitles. Korean distribution, sales and executive production company which sells some of the shorts it distributes directly from this account, at least one of which, D-24, is on MDL.
Commetive Production (Vimeo) – Purchase/pay per view; available up to worldwide; subtitle availability varies. Only legal source to buy/rent this Thai production company's movies, including Present Perfect, online with English subs. They're alternatively also also watchable legally on subscription on GagaOOLala. As a production company, its uploads could come under a general 'Official Vimeo' service.
The Criterion Channel – Lots of classic Japanese and some other East Asian films on subscription in the US.
Dekkoo – Has at least Athlete.
eyelet – Only legal source for seeing Asako I & II in my country that I know of. There are probably therefore lots of other things on MDL on it, though one can only finding out by searching for the titles.
Fandor – Has some movies, such as Yakuza, which don't seem to be available with with English subs officially anywhere else.
FilmDoo – Free/pay per view. Has some movies that are weirder and lower-budget but with well-known actors, like Haruko's Paranormal Laboratory, which I can't find legally anywhere else in my region. It must be legal as Third Window Films have sometimes linked to it as a source for movies licensed by them.
FilmDoo (Vimeo) – Free/purchase/pay per view.
FilmDoo (YouTube) – Free. Mostly trailers, but has a few full shorts.
Film Movement Plus – Has recent movies such as A Girl Missing to see in Northern America.
GagaOOLala – Free/subscription. Allows one to watch MATCHBOX and STRONGBERRY productions like Long Time No See (and it must be official as I've read them and Commetive mention it), mainstream theatrical features like A Cappella and some series on a subscription (and a few indie shorts and first episodes for free).
GagaOOLala (Vimeo) – Free/pay per view. Another source for seeing some content they have executive produced, such as Tale of the Lost Boys, in full, on here by individual purchase/rental instead of subscription.
HBO GO – Subscription. The VOD service of HBO Asia; URLs to shows on it look like https://hboasia.page.link/QpYecny45Nw1L9G76 and wouldn't work for the same title on the US HBO. One of the main legal sources for seeing especially Japanese dramas and movies on demand in SE Asia.
HBO Max – Subscription. There are several different versions of HBO available in the US, but this has everything on the others (such as Miss Sherlock) plus more exclusive to it (such as some classic movies like Ugetsu monogatari), so I'd say include just this and not basic HBO nor HBO NOW. But do include HBO Asia separately, which has largely different content and different URLs.
HIDIVE – Subscription; available in 30 countries; subtitle availability varies. Has a few but notable live-action TV series and movies, such as the 1973 TV version of Lone Wolf & Cub.
Hi-YAH
hoopla
Kanopy
Kino Now
Korean Classic Film (Naver TV) – Free; available worldwide; subtitle availability varies. Same content as the YouTube channel but with less compression and usually the same subtitle options. I would always watch something here if it has English subs, for the quality boost over YouTube, which is why I would like to see Naver TV channels being allowed.
Koto Production (Vimeo)/Koto Production (YouTube) – Free. Official accounts of a Japanese production company which has some of its theatrical shorts, such as And so we put goldfish in the pool. in full, subbed, for free. The quality is lower on YouTube, but it might be preferable for people who don't have away of getting Vimeo onto a TV but can get YouTube on one. As a production company, its uploads could come under general 'Official Vimeo' and 'Official YouTube' services.
Magnolia Selects
Midnight Pulp – Free/subscription; limited to the USA and Canada; English subtitles. Almost all East Asian content on it is also on AsianCrush, but not quite all – e.g. Ghost Squad. However, I think everything from countries MDL covers that's on YUYU is also on AsianCrush.
MUBI – Free/subscription/pay per view; worldwide; subtitle availability varies. Notable for having high-profile movies, but problematic for the present system in that they come and go quickly, and very differently between countries – even more so than with Netflix. However, there's a growing library of some movies for which it holds all the rights to long-term for many countries, among them, the East Asian live-action ones ANTIPORNO, Wet Woman in the Wind and The Wild Goose Lake.
NHK WORLD–JAPAN – Free; available worldwide. Has a few dramas (most notably A Stranger in Shanghai) available on demand long-term, but has others on it temporarily.
NOWNESS/NOWNESS (Dailymotion)/NOWNESS (Vimeo)/NOWNESS (YouTube) – Free. Official uploads of original commissions and licensed content; mostly documentaries, but some fiction, including And so we put goldfish in the pool.. Its own site and its accounts on existing platforms all have the same full uploads, so which one you'd choose to watch on is up to preference (such as which of them have an app for the device one is using). I'm not sure if Dailymotion channels are worth including, with how few official ones with whole dramas or short movies are in use nowadays – but this is one.
OVID – Subscription service created by several Northern American distributors. See its China and Japan categories.
Peccadillo Pictures (Vimeo) – This UK-based distributor's Vimeo account is a legal source for some Korean theatrical shorts, released by them as 'episodes' of some of their Boys on Film collections; particularly, it’s the only legal source I know for Just Friends?.
Plex – Free. The Plex app can potentially be used to do some illegal things, but its own built-in library of content free to stream with ads is legal. Has some older Japanese and some more recent Korean movies.
Popcornflix – Free; available in over 60 countries; English subtitles. Has several East Asian movies and some TV series, such as Penance; as it lacks filters one can only really find if something is on it by searching by its English title.
Projectr
QueerBee – Has The Actor and the Model, though not sure if it has anything else that's on MDL, or even that's both E/SE Asian and fiction at all.
Shout! Factory TV
Shudder – Subscription.
StudioLUNCHBOX (Vimeo)/StudioLUNCHBOX (YouTube) – Accounts of a small production company, the uploads to which might be better entered under general 'Official Vimeo' and 'Official YouTube' services.
TOEI TOKUSATSU WORLD OFFICIAL (YouTube)
TOKU
ULTRAMAN OFFICIAL (YouTube) – Could come under a general 'Official YouTube' service, as the channel is for one franchise and run by its production company.
Viddsee/Viddsee (YouTube)
Vidio
Also, I've noticed the below with what has been added:
It's officially capitalised as Crunchyroll – not "CrunchyRoll".
I'm not sure why Viu is separated into three countries? I thought it used the same site and database throughout the Asian and African countries it is available in, even if the availability of individual titles varies by country? I cannot even access it from where I am to use it, though, so I'm definitely no expert on how it works. But it might be worth asking someone who does use it to check on this.
At very least, I don't think one would want to have a separate entry for every country Viu is officially available in, as there are a lot of those, across two continents.
In contrast, I would say that Hulu and Hulu Japan should be differentiated from each other, as, though they have the same name and logo, they are now separate companies under different ownership.
Estelll:
xxmai:
Ji-N:lucy_lu:
Brownie:Safe for Weebs:
