Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) - 2021 version

[GalaxyBoy]

Does anyone have Paramount + ?

I’m on my first week free, using their standalone app. I mainly want it for the local station but I’m disappointed I can’t seem to pause and rewind live TV. The network shows I can wait for the streaming version where I can do that, with no commercials, but not the local news and weather. I tried the local station’s website and it lets me watch individual news stories but each one comes with a 30 second ad. Ugh.

 

[Sue J]

Does anyone have Paramount + ?
Is it part of a package or do you pay for it separately?
One of my shows (Seal Team) recently jumped from CBS to Paramount +.
I see how not every show being available with each service is definitely a draw back or at least something to get used to.

We just added this as a 1 year free promo from our T-Mobile phone plan. I browsed around and much of it looks like stuff we already get on our DirecTV service. I tried the Adele special that I already watched and didn’t bother after the first commercial. When I watched it the first time I DVRed it from DirecTV and skipped the commercials.

I don’t know if I’ll use Paramount+ much. I did notice that it is well organized and within a category everything is listed alphabetically, which is nice. Our son wanted to watch an old movie on Paramount and there are no commercials.

T-Mobile also gave us free AppleTV+ for a year and I’m using that a lot. No commercials there.

 

[Momcpa]

My TV (with a Roku external adapter) lists a lot of difference choices for Streaming Channels that I can or could subscribe to. I am looking at adding AMC+ and/or BritBox using their trial offers at a year's discounted price. When I look at the "icons" currently listed n my TV, they are NOT shown as choices. Not on the list already shown, or by looking at the "Add Channels" icon. If I subscribe on-line to either or both of these, will I have a way to add them to my TV.

(sorry if this is a basic/beginners question, but I'm kinda new to all of this)
Thanks for any help.

edited to add an additional question: Are these 2 subscriptions similar to each other....in other words would I be duplicating the programs/series/movies offered

 

[REWahoo]

Momcpa, on your Roku screen scroll down to "Streaming Channels" and click on it. Then scroll down to "Search Channels" and do a search for AMC+ and BritBox and download each of them to your device.

As to your second question, the programming on these two services is quite different and I doubt you'll be doing much duplication, if any.

 

[Chuckanut]

Here's an interesting article on how the multiple streaming services are causing confusion to the viewers. It focuses on changes made and coming up to the Star Trek franchise, but this could be true for a lot of other content.

Personalty, I currently use Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. I've been thinking of adding a third streaming service, such as Acorn, BritBox, Peacock, Hulu, etc. but none of them offer enough content I am interested in to be worth a paid subscription. So, I do nothing. They can keep their content and I will keep my money.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/11/star-trek-discovery-is-tearing-the-streaming-world-apart/#p3

What Leckie had spotted would soon become a point of outrage for Star Trek fans the world over: Netflix had lost the rights to the fourth season of Discovery outside of the US, and the previous seasons, too. They would now appear on Paramount+, the streaming service formerly known as CBS All Access and owned by ViacomCBS—but not until 2022, and even then, not everywhere.

“A lot of fans, in the UK and around the world, are outraged that they'll have to pay for yet another subscription service to enable them to see Discovery, and eventually the rest of the Star Trek TV series,” says Leckie. Glenn van t’Hof, a Dutch Star Trek fan, is more blunt. “What a dick move to announce this two days before the supposed European release date,” he says. “This is no service to the fans.” Leckie believes the move—which prevents people outside the United States and Canada from seeing season four of Discovery until 2022—will drive many toward pirated versions of the show. The rights deal with Netflix for Star Trek covered 190 countries and territories—but Paramount+ will only be available in 45 countries by the end of 2022. “That leaves three-quarters of their market unable to watch without piracy,” says Leckie.

But as major media companies like ViacomCBS, which are racing to catch up to Netflix, attempt to claim space in the streaming industry, it’s only going to get messier for consumers. Omdia research indicates there are 292 video streaming services available in the United States, and 182 in the United Kingdom.

 

[ivinsfan]

I’m on my first week free, using their standalone app. I mainly want it for the local station but I’m disappointed I can’t seem to pause and rewind live TV. The network shows I can wait for the streaming version where I can do that, with no commercials, but not the local news and weather. I tried the local station’s website and it lets me watch individual news stories but each one comes with a 30 second ad. Ugh.

I found the P+ stand alone app to be very inferior in fact the worst one I have personally encountered. Slow, too much buffering, stop and needing to be redownloaded and on and on. It's awful.

 

[Momcpa]

REWahoo.......thanks for your reply to my questions. I haven't added either of the additional streaming services yet, but I did look at the process to add them just as you suggested. I will be able to do it, thanks to you.

Up until a day or two ago, if I watched part of a show/program on one of my TVs, and then later in the day/weeks sat down to finish watching the program, but on a different TV in our house......the program would resume exactly from where it left off. But now, it duplicates the last minute, or two, or three when I turn it on in the kitchen vs the living room (for example). Not that a couple minutes is a big deal....either re-watch that segment, or fast forward. But just wondering why it started doing that, or if there's a setting to remind the TV sets to 'sync' with each other.

Anyone have this happen?

 

[JoeWras]

I found the P+ stand alone app to be very inferior in fact the worst one I have personally encountered. Slow, too much buffering, stop and needing to be redownloaded and on and on. It's awful.

I don't have a problem viewing non-live programs on Roku. What platform are you using?

Now is the UI the best? No. I still watch Star Trek: TNG on Netflix instead of P+ because Netflix's UI is so much better, what with ability to skip intro credits, "Continue Watching" organization, and so on.

But I haven't seen buffering.

 

[JoeWras]

There's a lot to watch if you don't need sports and news

I'm spending about $35 a month (see below) using a variety of streaming services, and also including the costs of my Tablo (live TV DVR lifetime guide) amortized over a few years.

OTA gives me some sports, enough for me. Same with local news. I dropped YTTV because the only sport I really wanted was my local NHL hockey team, and YTTV doesn't carry it. That's still a problem, but for now we just watch the game recap on the NHL app the next day.

Anyway, once we dropped YTTV (or Hulu Live), it opens up a lot of cash, so I've kind of gone streaming crazy. I'm even thinking of adding AMC+ on the current $2 per month deal.

My Black Friday Hulu deal is about to expire. I have to decide whether to sign up using a different email for this year's deal (rumored to go up $1), or just bit the bullet and get the Disney-Hulu-ESPN+ deal.

One more thing: we reduced our Netflix plan because we have an old TV. The lower resolution doesn't bother us. That's a savings of over $5 a month.

 

[pb4uski]

We've signed up for a number of streaming packages over the last few months... snagging deals where we can.

HBO Max @ 50% off for 6 months....................... $8.23
Upgrade Peacock to Peacock Premium (no ads)....... 5.00
Apple TV+.......................................................... 5.36
BritBox (12-month special)................................... 3.68

Total............................................................... $22.27

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Hulu's Black Friday basic plan offer this year has changed, still, $1.99 for a year but it's now offered to students only with verification.

https://www.hulu.com/student?utm_source=hulu&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=plan_card

 

[JoeWras]

Hulu's Black Friday basic plan offer this year has changed, still, $1.99 for a year but it's now offered to students only with verification.

https://www.hulu.com/student?utm_source=hulu&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=plan_card

I'd still keep an eye out on actual Black Friday, yet I wouldn't be surprised if they drop it this year.

I got the deal last year as I really started streaming and found that I watched Hulu (with ads) quite a bit more than I thought I would.

 

[ivinsfan]

I don't have a problem viewing non-live programs on Roku. What platform are you using?

Now is the UI the best? No. I still watch Star Trek: TNG on Netflix instead of P+ because Netflix's UI is so much better, what with ability to skip intro credits, "Continue Watching" organization, and so on.

But I haven't seen buffering.

I'm on the stand alone fire stick app. I signed up directly from P+. I suspect if I went directly through prime video it would work better but they did not have the year long special.



Watched last night and it did buffer but it gets normal after about 5 minutes

 

[REWahoo]

Hulu's Black Friday basic plan offer this year has changed, still, $1.99 for a year but it's now offered to students only with verification.

https://www.hulu.com/student?utm_source=hulu&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=plan_card

I'd still keep an eye out on actual Black Friday, yet I wouldn't be surprised if they drop it this year.

I got the deal last year as I really started streaming and found that I watched Hulu (with ads) quite a bit more than I thought I would.

I also took advantage of the $1.99/mo for 12 months deal last year and was hoping for a new offer. Disappointed that it appears it will not be available except to students.

Went into my Hulu account a few minutes ago to cancel my subscription so I won't be charged the $6.99/mo 'rack rate' when my deal expires on 11/26. An offer popped up for $2.99/mo for six months, so having doubts the $1.99 deal will be available again, I jumped on it. YMMV.

 

[JoeWras]

I also took advantage of the $1.99/mo for 12 months deal last year and was hoping for a new offer. Disappointed that it appears it will not be available except to students.

Went into my Hulu account a few minutes ago to cancel my subscription so I won't be charged the $6.99/mo 'rack rate' when my deal expires on 11/26. An offer popped up for $2.99/mo for six months, so having doubts the $1.99 deal will be available again, I jumped on it. YMMV.

This is why I came back to this forum after a 7 month pause. Thank you, REWahoo!!!

When cancelling from my account page, I chose the "Too Expensive" option. I wasn't sure if the choice here would potentially lead down different trees. So, "Too expensive" gave me the $2.99 pop up. I think this is an excellent value.

If I want the Disney+/ESPN+ I can pursue that later. For now, I'll take the extra $1.07 increase in price.

I've marked my calendar on May 16 to evaluate Hulu.

 

[euro]

I'd still keep an eye out on actual Black Friday, yet I wouldn't be surprised if they drop it this year.

I got the deal last year as I really started streaming and found that I watched Hulu (with ads) quite a bit more than I thought I would.

I'm curious how intrusive the ads are? Is it like PBS where you get ads before and after the shows, or is it like network TV with ad breaks every 5 or 10 minutes? I could sort of tolerate the former, but just can't stand the latter.

 

[explanade]

I'm curious how intrusive the ads are? Is it like PBS where you get ads before and after the shows, or is it like network TV with ad breaks every 5 or 10 minutes? I could sort of tolerate the former, but just can't stand the latter.

No they're very intrusive.

And at the beginning, they were like 30 seconds and often the same ads over and over.

But after a couple of years, they got more advertisers so they insert more ads and have longer and breaks.

Really annoying, if you want to rewatch say the last 10 minutes of an episode and you have to scrub to that point, you will watch the same ads again.

It's definitely worse than Peacock.

 

[JoeWras]

I'm curious how intrusive the ads are? Is it like PBS where you get ads before and after the shows, or is it like network TV with ad breaks every 5 or 10 minutes? I could sort of tolerate the former, but just can't stand the latter.

There are ads inserted. However, I have never had an ad block more than 1:30 minute inserted on my stream. They give you a count-down timer which is really handy. I personally find it tolerable, similar to what I grew up with. It is not 3 to 5 minutes of ads like you see in network TV, especially near the bottom of the hour to the end.

But if you really hate ads, buy ad-free. There's an option. I apparently bought that for Paramount+ and enjoy the no ads.

No they're very intrusive.

And at the beginning, they were like 30 seconds and often the same ads over and over.

But after a couple of years, they got more advertisers so they insert more ads and have longer and breaks.

Really annoying, if you want to rewatch say the last 10 minutes of an episode and you have to scrub to that point, you will watch the same ads again.

It's definitely worse than Peacock.

So maybe this depends on your region, but for hulu, it is usually 45 seconds to 1 minute for me. Maybe every once in a while it goes to 1:30. It gives me a chance to change my water.

I will agree, however, that the ads are repetitive. Very annoying. And if you are watching serious mature content like "Fargo," which is very much R-Rated for violence and language, you may get some really frank ads about genital health. I have no nicer way to put it. Some of those ads are downright crude.

 

[chicamuxen]

I also took advantage of the $1.99/mo for 12 months deal last year and was hoping for a new offer. Disappointed that it appears it will not be available except to students.

Went into my Hulu account a few minutes ago to cancel my subscription so I won't be charged the $6.99/mo 'rack rate' when my deal expires on 11/26. An offer popped up for $2.99/mo for six months, so having doubts the $1.99 deal will be available again, I jumped on it. YMMV.

Thank you! Mine was set to expire on the 27th, and I went to cancel and got this pop up deal. So good for 6 months, and we'll see after that. We do like Hulu, so we will probably continue, but is nice to get a deal,lol. LBYM

 

[Golden sunsets]

Hulu's Black Friday basic plan offer this year has changed, still, $1.99 for a year but it's now offered to students only with verification.

https://www.hulu.com/student?utm_source=hulu&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=plan_card

Are you certain about this? The student $1.99 rate has been offered since July. Other sites are predicting that Hulu's Black Friday deals which start Thursday and last through Monday will mimick last year's. I've been waiting for it and hope it's true.

 

[MissMolly]

Premium Subscriptions on The Roku Channel

The Roku Channel — Eligible subscribers can enjoy select Premium Subscriptions for just $0.99 for the first two months. These offers are redeemable through The Roku Channel beginning Nov. 20 until Nov. 30.

A&E Crime Central
Acorn TV
ALLBLK
AMC+
BritBox (available Nov. 23-29)
CuriosityStream
EPIX
Fox Nation
History Vault
KOCOWA
Lifetime Movie Club
NOGGIN
Pantaya
ScreenPix
SHOWTIME
Shudder
STARZ (available Nov. 23-30)
Sundance Now
The Great Courses
This Old House
Topic
True Royalty
UP Faith & Family

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Are you certain about this? The student $1.99 rate has been offered since July. Other sites are predicting that Hulu's Black Friday deals which start Thursday and last through Monday will mimick last year's. I've been waiting for it and hope it's true.

No, I was not aware that they had the student deal for the the last six months so maybe there will be a new official Black Friday deal pop up soon.
My mistake and I hope a better deal does come along.

 

[GTFan]

CNBC: Sports fans are being sidelined as RSNs fight the decay of pay TV

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/21/spo...elined-as-rsns-fight-the-decay-of-pay-tv.html

Interesting (and sad, given forced bundling) to see that 95% of subs in some areas are paying extra fees for the other 5% to watch games on RSNs. Way overdue for correction given all the cord cutting.

I'll be sad to see NBCSN go away this year given that they're going to move some stuff to Peacock that I'll never watch (with forced commercials).

 

[JoeWras]

CNBC: Sports fans are being sidelined as RSNs fight the decay of pay TV

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/21/spo...elined-as-rsns-fight-the-decay-of-pay-tv.html

Interesting (and sad, given forced bundling) to see that 95% of subs in some areas are paying extra fees for the other 5% to watch games on RSNs. Way overdue for correction given all the cord cutting.

I'll be sad to see NBCSN go away this year given that they're going to move some stuff to Peacock that I'll never watch (with forced commercials).

Yep. The only viable solution for me (besides "sailing the high seas," which I don't do) is Direct TV Stream. I swallowed my vomit and subscribed for 2 months last summer for hockey playoffs.

I'd actually pay $20 a month to the RSNs. I'd only subscribe the last month or two of the season, along with playoffs. To pay for it, I'd pause Netflix and others during that period.

 

[Hamlet]

We officially cancelled everything from Comcast a couple of weeks ago. I’m really happy with the T-mobile 5G internet. I’m hoping to never have to deal with Comcast again.

I just started using T-mobile's 5G home internet for $50/month including all fees. So far so good. I get cable-like speeds in Plymouth MN. We had been using Comcast for much more money, but since we rarely watch things on live cable anymore, we decided to try this for internet and then just use an antenna for local channels.

It is working great for us. I'm going to cancel the cable in a week or so once we are comfortable that it is going to be consistent.