Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) - 2021 version

[REWahoo]

DW would also like Discovery+, but I have been reading about the merging of HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single streaming service (supposedly named "Max" for the moment). We have next to zero interest in HBO Max, so all this is going to do is increase the cost of the content she would like from Discovery+. This just sucks all around.

Even with this merger and others in the works you'll likely end up paying substantially less than $195/mo for whatever slate of streaming services you choose. Last year we averaged $28/mo for streaming, most of that was from the four months of Sling Orange I subscribed to for college football. Found that was largely a waste since most of the games I wanted to see were available with our OTA antenna, at least until bowl season. This year I'll wait to December and only pay for one month of Sling.

I learned today that Discovery+ offers a discount to the military and veterans. Signed up DW for $2.99/mo, with commercials since she isn't bothered by them.

 

[statsman]

Even with this merger and others in the works you'll likely end up paying substantially less than $195/mo for whatever slate of streaming services you choose. Last year we averaged $28/mo for streaming, most of that was from the four months of Sling Orange I subscribed to for college football. Found that was largely a waste since most of the games I wanted to see were available with our OTA antenna, at least until bowl season. This year I'll wait to December and only pay for one month of Sling.

I learned today that Discovery+ offers a discount to the military and veterans. Signed up DW for $2.99/mo, with commercials since she isn't bothered by them.

My DW has roughly 10 or so channels she likes, most having just a single show she is interested in (ex. she likes Cold Justice on Oxygen and little else there). It's going to take Sling Blue plus their Total TV package to get all those channels. $61/mo. Still a sizable cost savings. The next closest option to get all of those channels is YT TV plus Philo plus one of their $3/mo add-ons for $93/mo total for all.

 

[CRLLS]

We have 2 Roku TV's and one older TV with a Roku stick. It occurred to me that when we travel, we might be able to take our Roku Stick with us and keep up with our favorite channels and possibly pick up on new episodes of our favorite streaming programs. Does it actually work this way? Does anyone actually do this?

 

[explanade]

It should work in the US but would need a VPN overseas.

Also, depending on where you stay, some hotels require wifi login that a streaming stick may have difficulty connecting to.

 

[camfused]

We have 2 Roku TV's and one older TV with a Roku stick. It occurred to me that when we travel, we might be able to take our Roku Stick with us and keep up with our favorite channels and possibly pick up on new episodes of our favorite streaming programs. Does it actually work this way? Does anyone actually do this?

I have a Roku stick in my suit case. Whenever we travel, we stick in the hotel TV, and watch our Acorn or Britbox shows. Works great.

 

[foxcreek9]

If you have an Amex card check the deals section for $20 off per month for youtubeTV. 3 month max ends 8/6/23.

 

[JoeWras]

Lately, our goto is PlutoTV. Commercials? So what. Free. Most of it is comfort food like watching Match game episodes from my childhood. Those celebs were a hoot.

DW has worked with a prison group and found out that they got internet and PlutoTV is their go-to TV.

I also read recently Nielsen now records that on average, 1% of the TV viewing is PlutoTV, competing with HBO Max and Disney who are both in the 1 to 2% range.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Lately, our goto is PlutoTV. Commercials? So what. Free. Most of it is comfort food like watching Match game episodes from my childhood. Those celebs were a hoot.

DW has worked with a prison group and found out that they got internet and PlutoTV is their go-to TV.

I also read recently Nielsen now records that on average, 1% of the TV viewing is PlutoTV, competing with HBO Max and Disney who are both in the 1 to 2% range.

I head over to Pluto TV when I'm done streaming programs on other channels but it's too early to go to bed and too late to start a one hour show. I'll get my fix of MST3K and Rifftrax, maybe check out Mission Impossible, The IT Crowd, or flick over to some favorite movies and try to catch some well-known scenes as I channel surf.

The format and layout of Pluto TV is very much like cable TV. Almost all of the content you've likely seen before. There is a list of channels in rows and the time of day is in columns. One can mindlessly scroll through the channel grid until you find something you like. When a commercial comes on, you simply go to another channel. See, it's just like cable. Except it doesn't cost anything. If more people discover this, cable is in big trouble.

The Roku channel also has a similar set up in their live TV feed.

Also, on any given day the movies on Pluto are at least as good as the movies you will see on basic cables stations like TBS, TNT, FX, SyFy, etc.

 

[Sojourner]

DW would also like Discovery+, but I have been reading about the merging of HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single streaming service (supposedly named "Max" for the moment).

Yikes... I really hope that doesn't happen. I'm super happy with HBO Max on its own (at least, at my current, discounted price of $8.50/month!). Hate to think about having to pay more for D+ content I have no interest in. Oh well, life in the age of the streaming TV revolution...

 

[JoeWras]

Also, on any given day the movies on Pluto are at least as good as the movies you will see on basic cables stations like TBS, TNT, FX, SyFy, etc.

And generally uncut.

I start swearing like a sailor after watching too much Pluto.

 

[JoeWras]

Yikes... I really hope that doesn't happen. I'm super happy with HBO Max on its own (at least, at my current, discounted price of $8.50/month!). Hate to think about having to pay more for D+ content I have no interest in. Oh well, life in the age of the streaming TV revolution...

I get HBO with my AT&T fiber. I've run out of stuff. I am not a GoT guy. They took off Raised by Wolves and Station Eleven, among other thoughtful sci fi.

I have D+ for Battlebots and See No Evil. Both will be done in spring and I'll be done.

 

[CRLLS]

Good to know. Looks like we will be packing the Roku stick. Thanks.

 

[statsman]

Yikes... I really hope that doesn't happen. I'm super happy with HBO Max on its own (at least, at my current, discounted price of $8.50/month!). Hate to think about having to pay more for D+ content I have no interest in. Oh well, life in the age of the streaming TV revolution...

Yeah. I thought the solution would be to retain HBO Max and Discovery+ as separate streaming services, with a discount for those who *chose* to combine both services.

We probably wouldn't need Discovery+, but the online streaming of archived episodes for the various individual Discovery family of channels (Discovery, History, Science, Travel, ID, etc.) requires a qualified TV service, which surprisingly excludes Sling TV. Heck, Philo qualifies. A total head-scratcher as to why Sling doesn't qualify.

 

[JoeWras]

Let's face it. HBO Max and Discovery are a mess. Even though I touted the quality of certain shows, they were expensive and green-lit in the period where the goal was to get new subscribers. That party is over. It is all Game of Thrones, all the time.

Another problem is Discovery. I like a few shows, but the CEO wants to fill it up with cheaply produced reality stuff. Both services [-]are going to[/-] have become an empty shell. I seem recall that 0 + 0 = 0, but the suits at Warner Bros. Discovery believe that 0 + 0 = 10. Nope.

It is a time of mourning for the good old, golden days of quality programming on Discover networks.

And what happened to "How the Universe Works?" They apparently canned that too!

Get off my lawn!

(I do have a hypocritical secret about reality TV. I was briefly addicted to "90 Day Fiance." But then they broke that show too by casting the same weird people time and time again. How many engagement periods can someone have?)

 

[REWahoo]

And what happened to "How the Universe Works?" They apparently canned that too!

They obviously never figured it out.

 

[JoeWras]

They obviously never figured it out.

LOL!

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I head over to Pluto TV when I'm done streaming programs on other channels but it's too early to go to bed and too late to start a one hour show. I'll get my fix of MST3K and Rifftrax, maybe check out Mission Impossible, The IT Crowd, or flick over to some favorite movies and try to catch some well-known scenes as I channel surf.

The format and layout of Pluto TV is very much like cable TV. Almost all of the content you've likely seen before. There is a list of channels in rows and the time of day is in columns. One can mindlessly scroll through the channel grid until you find something you like. When a commercial comes on, you simply go to another channel. See, it's just like cable. Except it doesn't cost anything. If more people discover this, cable is in big trouble.

The Roku channel also has a similar set up in their live TV feed.

Also, on any given day the movies on Pluto are at least as good as the movies you will see on basic cables stations like TBS, TNT, FX, SyFy, etc.

And both Pluto TV and The Roku channel also have a ton of on demand stuff as well as live streaming. I clicked on the BBC channel on a gardeniong show that had already started and it asked me if I wanted to watch from the beginning, I said yes and it started over. That never happened before, I don't have a DVR, not sure how they did it but it's happened a couple of times since unless they are pulling it from the On Demand menu.

 

[Rustic23]

In the past year we have had Netflix, Peacock, and Paramedics + (YouTube TV for over the air stuff). For the add ONS it's Netflix, Paramount, and last Peackock. Peackock has some good shows, but limited.

 

[JoeWras]

And both Pluto TV and The Roku channel also have a ton of on demand stuff as well as live streaming. I clicked on the BBC channel on a gardeniong show that had already started and it asked me if I wanted to watch from the beginning, I said yes and it started over. That never happened before, I don't have a DVR, not sure how they did it but it's happened a couple of times since unless they are pulling it from the On Demand menu.

Yes, they added this for selected shows fairly recently. An extension of on demand.

FAST streaming is catching, and why not? If the streamers are going to serve low quality slop, people look around.

Pluto and Tubi also have a good selection of ethnic focused programming.

 

[explanade]

Let's face it. HBO Max and Discovery are a mess. Even though I touted the quality of certain shows, they were expensive and green-lit in the period where the goal was to get new subscribers. That party is over. It is all Game of Thrones, all the time.

Another problem is Discovery. I like a few shows, but the CEO wants to fill it up with cheaply produced reality stuff. Both services [-]are going to[/-] have become an empty shell. I seem recall that 0 + 0 = 0, but the suits at Warner Bros. Discovery believe that 0 + 0 = 10. Nope.

It is a time of mourning for the good old, golden days of quality programming on Discover networks.

And what happened to "How the Universe Works?" They apparently canned that too!

Get off my lawn!

(I do have a hypocritical secret about reality TV. I was briefly addicted to "90 Day Fiance." But then they broke that show too by casting the same weird people time and time again. How many engagement periods can someone have?)

THat CEO got a huge pay package, though since the Discovery acquisition of Warner, the stock price has plummeted and he's announced plans to cut billions in costs.

 

[aja8888]

I just cut the cord a couple of weeks ago. I have kept Comcast internet @200 MB/sec and at a cost if $89/month, all in, no contract. Tachus internet (fiber) is available but at approximately the same cost.

I have:

Peacock (free with the Comcast internet) - it's pretty good!
Netflix - had for a few years now, really never watched it.
Amazon Prime - pretty worthless (may cancel entirely)
Pluto TV (free) - pretty nice.

This was a good decision.

 

[bmcgonig]

It should work in the US but would need a VPN overseas.

Also, depending on where you stay, some hotels require wifi login that a streaming stick may have difficulty connecting to.

I used mine when I brought it to Mexico and it worked fine for watching Netflix, HBO or Prime. Not for the regular Roku channels.

 

[statsman]

My DW has roughly 10 or so channels she likes, most having just a single show she is interested in (ex. she likes Cold Justice on Oxygen and little else there). It's going to take Sling Blue plus their Total TV package to get all those channels. $61/mo. Still a sizable cost savings. The next closest option to get all of those channels is YT TV plus Philo plus one of their $3/mo add-ons for $93/mo total for all.

Welp, each time I plan our cord-cutting, some little gotcha rears its ugly head. This one has to do with Sling. While nearly streaming TV service that carries them allows the viewing of archived episodes on Discovery's family of channels (Discovery, History, Science, Travel, etc.), Sling does not.

I don't get this. Sling does have some channels with their "TV Everywhere" feature, so it can be done with that streaming service. Just not the channels DW might consider her most favorite that they carry on Sling Blue. Of course, the disconnect between those channels and the streaming service Discovery+ means even adding the latter service is no guaranteed access to all the same archived shows.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Welp, each time I plan our cord-cutting, some little gotcha rears its ugly head. This one has to do with Sling. While nearly streaming TV service that carries them allows the viewing of archived episodes on Discovery's family of channels (Discovery, History, Science, Travel, etc.), Sling does not.

I don't get this. Sling does have some channels with their "TV Everywhere" feature, so it can be done with that streaming service. Just not the channels DW might consider her most favorite that they carry on Sling Blue. Of course, the disconnect between those channels and the streaming service Discovery+ means even adding the latter service is no guaranteed access to all the same archived shows.

Statsman, if your DW likes Cold Justice on Oxygen, have her try Snapped. I thought it was my guilty pleasure, but in talking with my sis, she thinks it is great, too.

 

[statsman]

Statsman, if your DW likes Cold Justice on Oxygen, have her try Snapped. I thought it was my guilty pleasure, but in talking with my sis, she thinks it is great, too.

My DW likes Snapped, too. She hasn't binged watched it in a while, and I thought it was on some other channel in the past. Looking it up, it premiered on Oxygen. I didn't know that.