Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) - 2021 version

[Luvtoride]

Thanks for this!

My subscription was to renew yesterday. I went ahead and cancelled after seeing this post and renewed today for a year with the 40% discount.

Ads or Ad-free, that is the question?
As Netflix is now getting ready to roll out an “ad supported” subscription it seems we are getting back to commercial TV!
If I think the content is worth subscribing for, I’ll opt for ad-free.

 

[JoeWras]

Ads or Ad-free, that is the question?
As Netflix is now getting ready to roll out an “ad supported” subscription it seems we are getting back to commercial TV!
If I think the content is worth subscribing for, I’ll opt for ad-free.

I'm having no problem with the ads on Discovery+. Many are only 15 seconds! Hulu is generally 1:30 and under, although they've been throwing in longer breaks. Both of these I can take. 2:00 and above starts to really mess up the flow. And some movies on Hulu w/ads only have an ad before the movies starts. The movie goes uninterrupted. I think it depends on the movie.

I had Paramount+ the last few years, getting deals from $2 to $5 per month ad-free. My deal just ran out so I'm off. They seem to want to sign people up for the new bundle at $8 with ads, or $13 ad free.

That's too much for just Paramount. Sorry. Not enough diverse content to be asking that much. Plus I have no idea what their ad breaks will be like. I got really hooked on watching Star Trek ad-free. At this price, it looks like I'll be letting the news series drop and fill out, then binge them.

We have no idea how Netflix will roll this out. We'll have to wait and see.

 

[tulak]

Ads or Ad-free, that is the question?
As Netflix is now getting ready to roll out an “ad supported” subscription it seems we are getting back to commercial TV!
If I think the content is worth subscribing for, I’ll opt for ad-free.

Ads free, always. I don’t hesitate to pay more for no ads and would cancel any service that doesn’t offer a no ads option.

 

[Midpack]

I'm having no problem with the ads on Discovery+. Many are only 15 seconds! Hulu is generally 1:30 and under, although they've been throwing in longer breaks. Both of these I can take. 2:00 and above starts to really mess up the flow. And some movies on Hulu w/ads only have an ad before the movies starts. The movie goes uninterrupted. I think it depends on the movie.

I had Paramount+ the last few years, getting deals from $2 to $5 per month ad-free. My deal just ran out so I'm off. They seem to want to sign people up for the new bundle at $8 with ads, or $13 ad free.

That's too much for just Paramount. Sorry. Not enough diverse content to be asking that much. Plus I have no idea what their ad breaks will be like. I got really hooked on watching Star Trek ad-free. At this price, it looks like I'll be letting the news series drop and fill out, then binge them.

We have no idea how Netflix will roll this out. We'll have to wait and see.

People in the know, just subscribe for one month and binge watch when something of interest wraps up a season, rinse and repeat, and move on to HBOMax or whatever other streaming service is of interest. We may never subscribe ongoing to any service other than Hulu+Live for now.

 

[MichaelB]

We’ve been watching ad-free streaming for over 2 years. One show we watch, Forged in Fire, has select episodes only available to us on the Comcast streaming app which has lots of commercials. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve watched 3 or 4 episodes with commercials and can’t stand it. We’ll continue to pay for ad-free programming.

 

[ivinsfan]

Hulu add times a getting just hideous basically pushing you to the add free version which really hacks me off.

 

[JoeWras]

Hulu add times a getting just hideous basically pushing you to the add free version which really hacks me off.

So it's not my imagination that a few years ago it was typically 30 or 45 second commercials, and now seems to be going to 2:30?

 

[explanade]

No they definitely lengthened the commercial breaks and added more of them.

Netflix or Disney or maybe both claim they will have 4 minutes of ads in an hour of streaming.

 

[ivinsfan]

So it's not my imagination that a few years ago it was typically 30 or 45 second commercials, and now seems to be going to 2:30?

Nope....it's not, at least they tell if you have time to run to the bathroom!

 

[Qs Laptop]

So it's not my imagination that a few years ago it was typically 30 or 45 second commercials, and now seems to be going to 2:30?

Nope....it's not, at least they tell if you have time to run to the bathroom!

I've made an observation on streaming shows and commercial breaks. Maybe this is just FreeVee and Peacock, but whenever I watch episodes of shows with an IMDB rating of say, above 8.0, there are 4 or 5 commercial breaks about 1 to 1.5 minutes each. When I watch lower rated episodes, say 6.5 to 7.5, there are 2 or 3 commercial breaks of 30 seconds to 1 minute each.

 

[JoeWras]

I've made an observation on streaming shows and commercial breaks. Maybe this is just FreeVee and Peacock, but whenever I watch episodes of shows with an IMDB rating of say, above 8.0, there are 4 or 5 commercial breaks about 1 to 1.5 minutes each. When I watch lower rated episodes, say 6.5 to 7.5, there are 2 or 3 commercial breaks of 30 seconds to 1 minute each.

This is also true of bad and good movies on Tubi.

It's great! Watch a bad movie on Tubi and get little to no commercials.

 

[euro]

We’ve been watching ad-free streaming for over 2 years. One show we watch, Forged in Fire, has select episodes only available to us on the Comcast streaming app which has lots of commercials. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve watched 3 or 4 episodes with commercials and can’t stand it. We’ll continue to pay for ad-free programming.

I have to agree. Over time, I have come to the conclusion that 99.9% of programming is NOT worth putting up with ads for. The only way I put up with ads is if I have recorded the show (recast) and can fast forward through the ads. If I'm interested enough in the show then I'm willing to pay extra for the "no ads" subscription.

 

[Qs Laptop]

This is also true of bad and good movies on Tubi.

Good movies on Tubi??!

Do tell....

<jk>

 

[JoeWras]

Good movies on Tubi??!

Do tell....

<jk>

Hard to find, but they do exist. Magnum Force, Cape Fear, for example.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

No they definitely lengthened the commercial breaks and added more of them.

Netflix or Disney or maybe both claim they will have 4 minutes of ads in an hour of streaming.

I noticed that with Only Murders in the Building on Hulu, the first few episodes had much fewer commercials than the later episodes. Kind of like when network TV used to show movies and the 20 or 30 minutes were nearly ad-free, but the last 10 minutes had enough to stretch it out to a half hour.

 

[TripleLindy]

I noticed that with Only Murders in the Building on Hulu, the first few episodes had much fewer commercials than the later episodes. Kind of like when network TV used to show movies and the 20 or 30 minutes were nearly ad-free, but the last 10 minutes had enough to stretch it out to a half hour.

That was my experience with The Handmaid’s Tale. I never made it to the end. They’ve defined gotten worse. Some movies will have less than 10 minutes of content before another batch of commercials. Worse than cable. Our free subscription runs out at the end of the year. Unlikely that we’ll renew for the ad-free price and certainly won’t keep the ad-supported subscription.

 

[euro]

Speaking of HULU, I just got an e-mail telling me that they will increase their regular (no ads) subscription from 12.99 to 14.99 per month. Does anyone know whether they usually run discounts to "dampen" the impact? If not, I might just drop them and wait for some sort of new subscriber special.

 

[JoeWras]

Speaking of HULU, I just got an e-mail telling me that they will increase their regular (no ads) subscription from 12.99 to 14.99 per month. Does anyone know whether they usually run discounts to "dampen" the impact? If not, I might just drop them and wait for some sort of new subscriber special.

No way in heck is it worth that. I'm happy with the $1.99 (or $0.99 this year!) ad supported. I know most of ya'll don't like ad supported. I don't either. But for the limited stuff I watch on Hulu, I'll eat the ad for this nominal charge.

 

[euro]

No way in heck is it worth that. I'm happy with the $1.99 (or $0.99 this year!) ad supported. I know most of ya'll don't like ad supported. I don't either. But for the limited stuff I watch on Hulu, I'll eat the ad for this nominal charge.

That's a totally fair assessment and your personal choice. However, it doesn't really answer my question - is the ad-free choice ever discounted at Hulu?

 

[Sue J]

We record Late Night With Stephen Colbert on the DVR. I don’t want to stay up so late and when it’s recorded I can skip through the commercials. The commercial breaks are 4:30 minutes! They used to be 4:00 until a few months ago.

The cure for this is the :30 skip button on the remote. Tap it 9 times to get through the commercial break.

 

[audreyh1]

I noticed that with Only Murders in the Building on Hulu, the first few episodes had much fewer commercials than the later episodes. Kind of like when network TV used to show movies and the 20 or 30 minutes were nearly ad-free, but the last 10 minutes had enough to stretch it out to a half hour.

Yep, definitely getting longer!

 

[audreyh1]

HBOMax is offering 40% discounts if you sign up for a yearly plan:

With Ads - $69.99/year (~$5.80/month)

Ad-Free: $104.99/year (~$8.75/month)

Offer runs until the end of October.

OK! Finally got this along with the Amex $25 statement credit deal for an HBOMax one time purchase of $99 or more which expires 9/15.

I turned this on when I stopped the subscription for the other Amex deal which was the Disney+/Hulu/ESPN bundle where Amex reimbursed the cost through 8/31. So I got the bundle for 6 months and just had to pay the sales tax.

Nice!

 

[camfused]

Does anyone have experience with ScreenPix from Amazon? It is $3/month, if you have Prime, and it has a decent collection of old movies. I am looking at how to replace TCM when I drop Sling soon.

Never mind. I just set me up a Jellyfin media server on my Synology NAS, put the Infuse client on my Apple TVs, and downloaded a boat load of old movies from YouTube. Now I have a collection of old movies I can watch anytime, for free. I am not sure how people are allowed to load these movies up on YouTube, but if its there, I am going to pluck it and store it.

If interested, see the Jellyfin demo here: https://demo.jellyfin.org/stable/we...tml?serverid=713dc3fe952b438fa70ed35e4ef0525a

(enter demo for userid, and no password)

 

[JoeWras]

That's a totally fair assessment and your personal choice. However, it doesn't really answer my question - is the ad-free choice ever discounted at Hulu?

Sorry, I got lost in my rant and lost your question.

I can't definitively answer you, but I will say the last few years I have always looked for the big Hulu deal each Black Friday, and it has always been only the ad supported plan. And that's why I have that plan. I'd consider an ad-free version for $4.99 or under.

 

[ncbill]

For $0.99/month I'll live with commercials on Hulu.

Bet they re-run that special every fall.