Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) 2017 - 2020

[JustVisitingThisPlanet]

^Aren't monthly options available for those just casually into sports? They can sub just during the season. Depends on what one wants and I'm not into sports anymore so will acknowledge that for now trad LiveTV still has its place for those into sports, especially if into many sports. For those with little to no interest in sports, the 'primer' may apply to you.

 

[Cobra9777]

Sports is a big part of the issue... baseball in particular for us. We follow our local team very closely and watch about 80-90% of games. MLB.TV is not a good solution. We would either have to cheat and use a VPN to see games live, or watch them after the fact.

But there are other reasons people want live TV. I don't watch the local news, but DW does, especially if there's a breaking story. Also, we live in tornado country, so it's essential to have access to the local weather break-in's during these events. Again, we have no OTA, so we have to subscribe to something to get this critical information in real time. I watch PBS NewsHour live every night on YTTV, but it's also available as a livestream on free YouTube.

DW also watches one of the "morning shows" which is live. And she occasionally watches some awards shows and reality competition stuff, where you get to vote in real time. Not my cup of tea, but she likes it. She also watches some primetime shows when they first air, just because she's really "into" the story and wants to see it ASAP.

We both like watching debates, election coverage, important speeches, etc, although there may be alternative ways to get some of that live... not sure.

Anyway, it still boils down to cost. YTTV was OK at $35-40, questionable at $50, but unreasonable at $65 for our needs. We can use Locast for the locals. So basically, we're paying $65/mo mainly for baseball, which works out to be $13/game in 2020 with the shortened season. Wow!

 

[ivinsfan]

Sports is a big part of the issue... baseball in particular for us. We follow our local team very closely and watch about 80-90% of games. MLB.TV is not a good solution. We would either have to cheat and use a VPN to see games live, or watch them after the fact.

But there are other reasons people want live TV. I don't watch the local news, but DW does, especially if there's a breaking story. Also, we live in tornado country, so it's essential to have access to the local weather break-in's during these events. Again, we have no OTA, so we have to subscribe to something to get this critical information in real time. I watch PBS NewsHour live every night on YTTV, but it's also available as a livestream on free YouTube.

DW also watches one of the "morning shows" which is live. And she occasionally watches some awards shows and reality competition stuff, where you get to vote in real time. Not my cup of tea, but she likes it. She also watches some primetime shows when they first air, just because she's really "into" the story and wants to see it ASAP.

We both like watching debates, election coverage, important speeches, etc, although there may be alternative ways to get some of that live... not sure.

Anyway, it still boils down to cost. YTTV was OK at $35-40, questionable at $50, but unreasonable at $65 for our needs. We can use Locast for the locals. So basically, we're paying $65/mo mainly for baseball, which works out to be $13/game in 2020 with the shortened season. Wow!

We are just getting ready to restart Hulu live for baseball season. We pay monthly for Hulu only during baseball season. I know this doesn't fix the local issue.

 

[Midpack]

^Aren't monthly options available for those just casually into sports? They can sub just during the season. Depends on what one wants and I'm not into sports anymore so will acknowledge that for now trad LiveTV still has its place for those into sports, especially if into many sports. For those with little to no interest in sports, the 'primer' may apply to you.

Nope, that’s the flaw in your earlier proposal. You casually mention adding sports in season as if it would be a bargain, when it’s not even an option, and you’d still miss most of what most viewers would want. And those apps are not cheap. Your proposal is perfectly fine for a lot of people who don’t care about live sports or news, but that’s not how it read. Cheers. If you want live sports and/or news, Hulu Live, YTTV, Fubo, Sling, etc. are the best value for most viewers.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Locast expanded in Florida again today. The article mentions that of 1.4 million users the majority do not make the $5 donation which is pretty sad unless they rarely use it. So if the lawsuit doesn't shut them down, maybe lack of funds will.

https://news.locast.org/locast-org-launches-in-miami-and-west-palm-beach/

 

[ivinsfan]

Nope, that’s the flaw in your earlier proposal. You casually mention adding sports in season as if it would be a bargain, when it’s not even an option, and you’d still miss most of what most viewers would want. And those apps are not cheap. Your proposal is perfectly fine for a lot of people who don’t care about live sports or news, but that’s not how it read. Cheers. If you want live sports and/or news, Hulu Live, YTTV, Fubo, Sling, etc. are the best value for most viewers.

Yes the ease of going in and out of pay streaming services can't be underestimated. For people without decent local reception it's a harder choice. Though Sling does steam a couple of my local channels.. on the downside no regional Fox sports at any price.

 

[RunningBum]

Yes the ease of going in and out of pay streaming services can't be underestimated.

I found it not quite as easy to get out of a streaming service as I thought. You can put in your suspend or cancel YTTV any time, but it only takes place on a specific day of the month. I assuming this is related to when you join.

You also have to specify when you want to resume. It looks like later you can resume earlier, but I'm not clear if you can extend your suspension. I suppose I should've scheduled if for 6 months out and just restart when I wanted. I don't think I want to start until college football starts, and that is very uncertain right now.

 

[JustVisitingThisPlanet]

But there are other reasons people want live TV. I don't watch the local news, but DW does, especially if there's a breaking story. Also, we live in tornado country, so it's essential to have access to the local weather break-in's during these events. Again, we have no OTA, so we have to subscribe to something to get this critical information in real time. I watch PBS NewsHour live every night on YTTV, but it's also available as a livestream on free YouTube.

NewsOn is a good app on most streaming devices that allows getting local TV news around country. Great for severe storm/hurricane coverage. I use it when not at my winter FL home to watch hurricane coverage as the local coverage is better than national.

PBS Newshour is also available on PBS app, not sure if it requires a passport subscription. I subscribed to Passport a couple years ago, it expired yet they still give me passport content. You can also switch to any PBS station in country, which is nice.

 

[JustVisitingThisPlanet]

Nope, that’s the flaw in your earlier proposal. You casually mention adding sports in season as if it would be a bargain, when it’s not even an option, and you’d still miss most of what most viewers would want. And those apps are not cheap. Your proposal is perfectly fine for a lot of people who don’t care about live sports or news, but that’s not how it read. Cheers. If you want live sports and/or news, Hulu Live, YTTV, Fubo, Sling, etc. are the best value for most viewers.

Just checked and MLB, NBA and NFL offer monthly subs, will take your word they're not good enough as I'm no longer into sports.. I do concede that "LiveTV" still has its place for those into sports - for now. For those who don't like paying for sports channels or paying for ads, the guide applies.

 

[Midpack]

NewsOn is a good app on most streaming devices that allows getting local TV news around country. Great for storm/hurricane coverage.

PBS Newshour is available on PBS app, not sure if it requires a passport subscription. I subscribed to Passport a couple years ago, it expired yet they still give me passport content. You can switch to any PBS station in country, which is nice.

+1. NewsOn is a good free news app (lots of ads), though you may not get every station in every metro market, and none is some metros.

PBS Newshour does not require a Passport subscription (so far), but you can't watch live. You CAN watch Newshour on free YouTube live, or on demand shortly after broadcast - the whole episode, or segments. We have the PBS app and YouTube and find YouTube to be more convenient.

 

[ivinsfan]

I found it not quite as easy to get out of a streaming service as I thought. You can put in your suspend or cancel YTTV any time, but it only takes place on a specific day of the month. I assuming this is related to when you join.

You also have to specify when you want to resume. It looks like later you can resume earlier, but I'm not clear if you can extend your suspension. I suppose I should've scheduled if for 6 months out and just restart when I wanted. I don't think I want to start until college football starts, and that is very uncertain right now.

It's a month at a time and yes you can do a hold but I usually just cancel outright.

 

[Cobra9777]

NewsOn is a good app on most streaming devices that allows getting local TV news around country. Great for severe storm/hurricane coverage. I use it when not at my winter FL home to watch hurricane coverage as the local coverage is better than national.

PBS Newshour is also available on PBS app, not sure if it requires a passport subscription. I subscribed to Passport a couple years ago, it expired yet they still give me passport content. You can also switch to any PBS station in country, which is nice.

+1. NewsOn is a good free news app (lots of ads), though you may not get every station in every metro market, and none is some metros.

PBS Newshour does not require a Passport subscription (so far), but you can't watch live. You CAN watch Newshour on free YouTube live, or on demand shortly after broadcast - the whole episode, or segments. We have the PBS app and YouTube and find YouTube to be more convenient.

NewsOn only carries one of five local stations in our area. Again, I was just listing reasons why some people still need or want live TV programming, as opposed to an on-demand-only streaming set-up. In our case, it's not so much the local news program at 5 and 6pm. It's the fact that they break-in to normal programming anytime 24 hours a day when tornadoes are in the area. We, and family members in the area, have all had several near-misses. It's nice to be able to quickly tune-in to see exactly where the tornado is, where it's headed, and when. Not sure I would be comfortable relying on NewsOn and it's one local station in such cases. Not all stations will break-in, depending on where the tornado is relative to the main population centers.

As for PBS NewsHour, now that we have YTTV, I usually watch it there at 6pm central. If I'm late tuning in, it gives me the option to watch from the beginning. Free YouTube works fine as well. I just find it more convenient on YTTV. From the kitchen, I just say, "Alexa, tune to PBS." That turns on the TV, launches YTTV, and tunes to PBS. The PBS app is not as good... the current day's program is not posted until about 9-10pm, sometimes later. When we drop YTTV, we'll watch it on Locast or free YouTube.

 

[ivinsfan]

NewsOn only carries one of five local stations in our area. Again, I was just listing reasons why some people still need or want live TV programming, as opposed to an on-demand-only streaming set-up. In our case, it's not so much the local news program at 5 and 6pm. It's the fact that they break-in to normal programming anytime 24 hours a day when tornadoes are in the area. We, and family members in the area, have all had several near-misses. It's nice to be able to quickly tune-in to see exactly where the tornado is, where it's headed, and when. Not sure I would be comfortable relying on NewsOn and it's one local station in such cases. Not all stations will break-in, depending on where the tornado is relative to the main population centers.

As for PBS NewsHour, now that we have YTTV, I usually watch it there at 6pm central. If I'm late tuning in, it gives me the option to watch from the beginning. Free YouTube works fine as well. I just find it more convenient on YTTV. From the kitchen, I just say, "Alexa, tune to PBS." That turns on the TV, launches YTTV, and tunes to PBS. The PBS app is not as good... the current day's program is not posted until about 9-10pm, sometimes later. When we drop YTTV, we'll watch it on Locast or free YouTube.

Valid reasons certainly, do you have a NOAA weather radio for alerts?

 

[Cobra9777]

Valid reasons certainly, do you have a NOAA weather radio for alerts?

I do not, but I might check into that. Alerts and warnings are one thing. We also have sirens all over town. But the local news weather teams can show a very accurate doppler radar picture of a tornado, it's precise location, it's size, it's projected path, and timeline, down to the minute. They also have camera crews in cars that can confirm what's happening, often displayed in a split-screen format on TV. This is all happening VERY fast. I've never seen any website or other media that can provide that level of detailed, visual, real-time information. I can't imagine living in this region without access to these live broadcasts.

 

[ivinsfan]

I do not, but I might check into that. Alerts and warnings are one thing. We also have sirens all over town. But the local news weather teams can show a very accurate doppler radar picture of a tornado, it's precise location, it's size, it's projected path, and timeline, down to the minute. They also have camera crews in cars that can confirm what's happening, often displayed in a split-screen format on TV. This is all happening VERY fast. I've never seen any website or other media that can provide that level of detailed, visual, real-time information. I can't imagine living in this region without access to these live broadcasts.

We have tornados but nothing like you guys. Any time I watch a real time documentary of a big tornado such as the Moore tornado, I am nothing but impressed by the local TV guys throwing out street names and neighborhoods and warning those residents.

 

[Sojourner]

If you want live sports and/or news, Hulu Live, YTTV, Fubo, Sling, etc. are the best value for most viewers.

I think one very tiny silver lining of this COVID pandemic is the near-total shutdown of major sports at all levels... and the realization that's dawning on many people (myself included) that they really don't miss it that much. Sure, watching the occasional tennis match or baseball game would be nice, and in the fall I'll definitely miss seeing my favorite college and pro teams battling it out on the gridiron. But, honestly, are the 50 to 70-odd hours that I spend watching sports each year actually worth all those extra hundreds of dollars in (mostly hidden) fees that I'm paying DirecTV for the privilege of having live sports at my fingertips? I mean, they're charging me almost $10/month just for something called "regional sports networks" (e.g. Fox SportsSouth), which I typically watch only 5-6 hours per year. So I'm paying $120/year for something I watch far less than Netflix, which at $156/year is only slightly more expensive. The price-to-value ratio has gotten so out of whack that maybe it's a good thing we're all being forced to take a step back and think about a world without all these televised sports that we've always felt we can't live without. For me, personally, access to live sports will be far down my list of priorities when I finally dump DirecTV and switch to streaming TV.

 

[RonBoyd]

If you want live sports and/or news, Hulu Live, YTTV, Fubo, Sling, etc. are the best value for most viewers.

My choice for Sports coverage is Vidgo... (but I am not interested in Regional Sports so cannot vouge for that aspect.) And yeah, they are new and have some technical issues (like CC in some cases) but they are rapidly getting up to speed.

https://www.vidgo.com/

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I do not, but I might check into that. Alerts and warnings are one thing. We also have sirens all over town. But the local news weather teams can show a very accurate doppler radar picture of a tornado, it's precise location, it's size, it's projected path, and timeline, down to the minute. They also have camera crews in cars that can confirm what's happening, often displayed in a split-screen format on TV. This is all happening VERY fast. I've never seen any website or other media that can provide that level of detailed, visual, real-time information. I can't imagine living in this region without access to these live broadcasts.

Only issue with that is when you are asleep. We also have fantastic weather coverage here (we live smack dab in the middle of tornado alley...Moore, Oklahoma is just a few short miles from us) and is very useful when it's bad out. Nonetheless, in the spring...these outbreaks can last for days and I can't stay awake for ALL OF THEM...so the NOAA radio is quite the life saver. It should also be noted that the sirens are designed to be heard outdoors. We have one that is less than 1/4 mile away and while we CAN normally hear it when we are inside, if we are inside and it's storming/windy, we cannot hear it.

We have tornados but nothing like you guys. Any time I watch a real time documentary of a big tornado such as the Moore tornado, I am nothing but impressed by the local TV guys throwing out street names and neighborhoods and warning those residents.

Yep, the local boys and girls don't mess around here. The nice thing about the mets in our area is that most of them (and all of the chief mets for all 3 major stations) are from here and are VERY familiar with most of the state. Here is a photo of us hanging out in the tornado shelter last spring during a tornado warning (it was about 4:30 in the AM)...as you can see, we were watching what was going on with the local station streaming on my tab.

 

[Cobra9777]

Only issue with that is when you are asleep. We also have fantastic weather coverage here (we live smack dab in the middle of tornado alley...Moore, Oklahoma is just a few short miles from us) and is very useful when it's bad out. Nonetheless, in the spring...these outbreaks can last for days and I can't stay awake for ALL OF THEM...so the NOAA radio is quite the life saver. It should also be noted that the sirens are designed to be heard outdoors. We have one that is less than 1/4 mile away and while we CAN normally hear it when we are inside, if we are inside and it's storming/windy, we cannot hear it...

We can hear the sirens inside our house when they test them periodically, usually once a month at noon. But during a storm, when we're asleep, I agree, it probably would not wake us up.

But we opted-in to a weather alert system run by our town. It sends a loud notification to our phones whenever the sirens are going off, which is controlled by the local fire dept. There is a similar notification system run by the County, which is automatically triggered by NOAA. Those notifications have woken us up at night a couple times. During tornado season, I always have my phone on the nightstand.

Based on the advice here, I will also check into an NOAA radio.

 

[pb4uski]

We have Spectrum internet and I got an email inviting me to use Spectrum TV Stream so I checked it out and thought that I would share.

Base price is $24.99/mo. Cable boxes are $7.99/mo each and DVR is $7.99/mo for one or $9.99/mo for two or more. So their service for 3 tvs with DVR and $6 broadcast TV fee would be $64.95.... essentially the same as YTTV.

If you have Apple TV there are no equipment charges and you can add a 100 show capacity cloud DVR for $9.99/mo.

Not as great a value as YTTV and need to get and return boxes which is a bit of a PITA... but not bad if you already have one or more Apple TV devices for a skinny package with locals ($24.99 + $9.99 for 100 show cloud DVR + $6 broadcast fee for $40.98 total including locals)

 

[Cobra9777]

We have Spectrum internet and I got an email inviting me to use Spectrum TV Stream so I checked it out and thought that I would share.

Base price is $24.99/mo. Cable boxes are $7.99/mo each and DVR is $7.99/mo for one or $9.99/mo for two or more. So their service for 3 tvs with DVR and $6 broadcast TV fee would be $64.95.... essentially the same as YTTV.

If you have Apple TV there are no equipment charges and you can add a 100 show capacity cloud DVR for $9.99/mo.

Not as great a value as YTTV and need to get and return boxes which is a bit of a PITA... but not bad if you already have one or more Apple TV devices for a skinny package with locals ($24.99 + $9.99 for 100 show cloud DVR + $6 broadcast fee for $40.98 total including locals)

If you click where it says, "Notification of Rate and Service Changes," you'll see that the broadcast surcharge increases from $6.00 to $8.95 effective 8/6/2020.

For whatever reason (I'm sure it's not technical), they don't support Fire TV. But they do support Roku in addition to Apple TV. I confirmed this with a chat session while I was on the sign-up page. They just try to sell Apple TV boxes when you sign up.

Also, they still offer "Spectrum TV Choice", which is the one that includes all locals plus 10 a-la-carte cable channels from a list of about 60. The a-la-carte channel list includes some sports like ESPN, ESPN2, FS1, NBCSN, NFL Network; and news like CNBC and Fox News. Those aren't available in the "Spectrum TV Stream" package you quoted, which seems like mainly entertainment channels, similar to Philo.

Anyway, at $40-45 all-in, they are both fairly reasonable skinny options for Roku/Apple people who already have Spectrum internet. We have FiOS currently, but Spectrum is an option at our address.. The deal killer for us is no Fire TV support and no local Fox RSN.

 

[MichaelB]

Things are not looking good for AT&T. ARS Technica reports they continue to lose subscribers https://arstechnica.com/information...mount-as-another-954000-video-customers-flee/

AT&T lost nearly 1 million TV customers in Q2 2020, continuing a rapid exodus of users from DirecTV and other AT&T-operated video services.

In the three months ending June 30, AT&T reported a net loss of 954,000 video customers in earnings results released today. That includes an 886,000-customer net loss from AT&T's "Premium TV" services, a category that includes DirecTV satellite, U-verse wireline service, and the AT&T TV online service that mimics cable TV. Another 68,000 customers left AT&T TV Now, a separate streaming service formerly known as DirecTV Now.

The article mentions HBO as one area AT&T is counting on

Through cable customers and HBO Now subscribers, the company already had more than 30 million subscribers it could move over to HBO Max," The Verge wrote. "[AT&T CEO John] Stankey noted [in an earnings call today] that getting people subscribed to HBO through traditional linear cable packages to sign up for HBO Max has been slow, and that's an area they want to focus on improving."

We get HBO through Comcast, but can’t “move over to HBO Max” because they have no agreement with any of the major STB/device makers.

 

[Peter]

Things are not looking good for AT&T. ARS Technica reports they continue to lose subscribers https://arstechnica.com/information...mount-as-another-954000-video-customers-flee/

I'm one of the 954000. AT&T would not renew my promotional rate for DirectTV, and could not offer anything attractive with a TV/internet twofer over fiber. Seems like they are deliberately trying to lose revenue!

Since I already had Comcast internet, I added a TV package. Incremental cost was less than YTTV, and frankly the UI is more convenient. So no cable cutting right now!

 

[Midpack]

DQOTD: Not important, just a curiosity, may be unique to Hulu + Live or two different Roku models?

When we have two TV’s streaming the same program, they’re never completely in sync - sometimes off a couple seconds, sometimes nearly 10 seconds. We only watch the same program on two TV’s without realizing it, but they’re a little out of sync every time when we do. Just puzzling.

 

[Dave J]

DQOTD: Not important, just a curiosity, may be unique to Hulu + Live or two different Roku models?

When we have two TV’s streaming the same program, they’re never completely in sync - sometimes off a couple seconds, sometimes nearly 10 seconds. Not that we do it often, but it happens every time when we do. Just puzzling.

That is the same as what I experience with 2 ROKU's streaming Sling, was that way streaming Spectrum, and is that way with using my TABLO OTA device. Must be the nature of the beast. When we had Spectrum cable TV with the cable boxes, it was off, but just a tiny bit for some reason.