Lockdown viewing options: The streaming services you may not know about

Supplied pix from the documentary Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest directed by Michael Rappaport

Cast your line further than Netflix, Neon and the other biggies and you'll find there's plenty of streaming fish in the viewing sea. Here's a quick look at some you may have missed.

The Auckland Library
This is a viewing guide not a reading guide so hold on to your hat because we're about to blow a gust of streaming knowledge your way: the library lets you stream unlimited movies and docos absolutely free. Whoosh! No card? No problem. Signing up online takes about three minutes.
Okay, you're not going to find the latest blockbusters but there is an absolute treasure trove of cinephile content, including last year's brilliant music doco The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps, cinema classics Metropolis and Nosferatu, modern gems The Babadook and Drive and even categories dedicated to women directors and LGBTQ+.
Price: Free as a bird.

Acorn TV
More British than a cup of tea and a moan about the weather, Acorn TV is the place to go for all those high-end crime thrillers and intriguing mysteries that the Brits do better than anyone else. Shows like the phenomenon Broadchurch and the excellent psychological whodunnit Blood.
The highbrow pleasingly lowers when you hit the comedy section where you'll find plenty to keep you laughing during isolation, try Peep Show, The Inbetweeners and good ol' Black Books.
Price: $7.99 a month, cancel any time. Seven-day free trial.

DocPlay
With DocPlay you can educate yourself to a conversational level on a wide variety of subjects without really trying. There are more than 550 feature docos and more than 100 series for you to fill your knowledge-thirsty brain with. We're talking music doco Shihad: Beautiful Machine, the heartwarming and hilarious competitive chook film Pecking Order and director Florian Habicht's look at the scary crew of Spookers.
You'll also find movies from the wonderful Louis Theroux, series by comedy star Hannah Gadsby and Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, Michael Rapaport's deep dive into rap trailblazers A Tribe Called Quest among many, many others.
Smarten up.
Price: $6.95 a month, cancel any time. Thirty-day free trial.