My Streaming Life

There have been news reports that Bally Sports will be declaring bankruptcy soon, and those regional sports networks will be shuttered. If this happens, that will impact lots of sports fans. Of course, the fact that there aren't enough customers for the Bally regional sports networks (RSNs) means that not enough people will care to prevent it from happening. Now, there is word that AT&T SportsNet RSNs will be closing down, according to the Wall Street Journal : In a letter sent Friday from the unit's president Patrick Crumb -- a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal -- teams were warned that "the business will not have sufficient cash to pay the upcoming rights fees," people familiar with the letter said. The teams were also told that Warner Bros. Discovery "will not fund our shortfalls," they said. The letter proposes that AT&T SportsNet transfer ownership of the networks and programming rights to the teams for no purchase price...

One of the great things about streaming is the amount of content that you can access. A lot of the content is free, though ad-supported, and can offer much to watch at an excellent price (free is excellent). The downside of free, ad-supported television (FAST) services is that not everything is available free. A lot of free content is excellent, but some content is only available via a paid subscription service. Many people think that they must subscribe to a lot of services. And, I suppose that some must. But I don't have to, and it's likely you don't either. Or, if you do, you may not need as many as you actually have. A recent study by C+R Research indicates that many people subscribe to services they don't even use : On average, $86 per month was the initial amount consumers estimated they spent on subscription services.  But upon closer look at their itemized expenses, the average monthly spend for consumers was more than 2.5 times the amount they thought at $219 –...

I'm a fan of streaming boxes, but not so much streaming sticks. The fact is, most of the drawbacks of a stick don't really apply to me, and I could just as easily use a stick rather than a box. If you asked me, I'd usually suggest a box, because if something does go wrong, it's easier to restart a box that is frozen than it is to restart a stick that is frozen. But that doesn't really happen so much anymore. At least, not on the good sticks. Recently, someone asked Tablo about the differences between the Amazon Fire TV Cube and the Fire TV Stick. And I really liked the answer Tablo gave : Since it's difficult to pack the features and performance of a box-style model into the smaller footprint of a stick, you can almost always assume that boxes will be better overall. However, they also come with a higher cost. That's why it's important to review and compare the features and specs of each device to decide which will be best for your needs. If you don'...

I've given Comcast credit for developing a streaming device that works a lot like their cable box. The idea is that it will help users transition from cable to streaming, and stay in the Xfinity world as they do that. It's good marketing, and anything that makes the transition easier is a good thing for the customer. The problem is that the interface isn't very good. Sure, for cable, it's okay, but it really doesn't work well for streaming. Comcast is doing something about that, according to Cord Cutters News: "Our products are in tens of millions of customers' homes and will soon be enjoyed around the world and in every major U.S. city through our recently announced joint venture with Charter," Comcast said in a letter to shareholders. "We are just beginning to realize the full potential of our proprietary global technology platform, and later this year we’ll launch a new user interface for Sky Glass, X1, Flex, Xumo, and our international partne...

I don't wear a hearing aid, but I suspect I will need to do that one day. Not many in my family wear them. In fact, I'm trying to think of anyone in my family who does. We've been lucky, it seems. However, I do have some friends with hearing issues, and one close friend in particular who may need to get a hearing aid soon. When I saw a couple of articles this week about Amazon Fire TV devices expanding hearing aid support, they had my attention. According to one article, they are using the open-source Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) protocol. That means it isn't limited to any particular brand's proprietary code . Cochlear has configured direct streaming from Fire TV to the Cochlear Nucleus 8, Nucleus 7, Nucleus Kanso 2, and Baha 6 Max sound processors. With ASHA, sound processors connect directly with the Fire TV device, so customers can enjoy audio from their favorite streaming apps, use Alexa, listen to music, hear navigational sounds, and more. ASHA-enab...

If you've followed along for any period of time, you know I'm firmly in Team Roku. However, I also will use and do appreciate the other major streaming platforms. Apple TV's interface is good, as is the Google TV (and Android TV) interface. And, yes, the Amazon Fire TV interface is good as well. My favorite is Roku, because it's not pushing stuff on me. Well, that's not exactly true, because there is that big ol' ad once you move over to select the app you want to launch. However, it stands out as an ad, and can be ignored if you like. On Amazon and Google, they mix the ads and promos in with the rest of the content. Roku doesn't throw stuff at you. Well, there is that big ad, but you see it for what it is. It's a simple interface, and the apps don't jump around. Whatever you place as your first app in the list stays there. On Amazon and Google, they will move them around, with the most recent played at the front. There is a line that doesn't cha...

If you have been trashing Roku and praising Amazon because of the ability to remap the buttons on the remote, you're about to lose your passion for the Fire TV. Amazon has an update out that has blocked users from doing exactly that, according to AFTV News : That changed with the recent arrival of software update version 7.6.2.4 to the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. This update contains a more sophisticated method to detect whether the app being launched by the remote app buttons is the expected app or not. Trying to use Remapper to remap an app button results in the line "App [app name] is not trusted. Aborting launch." appearing in the Fire TV's log file. So far, only the Fire TV Stick 4K Max has received this change, but I expect other Fire TV models to also eventually receive a similar update that prevents my Remapper app from working. As mentioned in my introductory post about the app, this was to be expected. It was a nice two years where we were able to crawl back a b...

I have a love-hate relationship with MLB TV. I so want to love it, but MLB blacks out my team -- the one that plays in a stadium over four hours away from my house -- and has for years. And continues to. But now, they are doing something that makes that aggravation even greater. They have raised the price of a subscription. Oh, they've thrown a new wrinkle in as well. In the past, when you auto renewed, you got the previous year's pricing. Not anymore. According to TV Answer Man Phillip Swann, MLB is hitting everyone with the price increase : But MLB TV announced yesterday that it will raise the price of the 2023 plan by $10 to $149.99; the 2022 regular season price was $139.99. In addition, there are no pre-season discounts, which have been available in past years. Which brings us to the issue of the auto-renewal. Earlier today, we noted in this article that MLB TV has had a policy of auto-renewing subscribers every March 1 at the previous year's price. That would be $139....

Today is Washington's Birthday. Okay, it's not the actual anniversary of the day George Washington was born. That's coming up on Wednesday. But today is a federal holiday, and that holiday is called Washington's Birthday. Now, before you argue about what today is, keep reading. And if you were going to argue, if you do keep reading, you may learn something. Here is the listing of this year's holidays from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management : You can't see it in that image, but at the bottom, it says: **This holiday is designated as "Washington's Birthday" in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law. Some of you, maybe most of you, are thinking that today is Presidents Day. It...

A couple of reports this week showed that Fox is making huge strides in streaming and digital content. One report, as cited by The Streaming Advisor, says that Tubi, the free ad-supported television (FAST) service from Fox, grew at an impressive rate last year : Tubi's Total Viewing Time (TVT) is up 44% year-over-year (2022 calendar year vs 2021), with more than 5 billion hours streamed in 2022, and the platform audience has grown surpassing 64 million monthly active users. Tubi's audience continues to be young and increasingly diverse, African American and LGBT audiences grew over 50% in 2022, and audience growth exceeded 25% in each major level of household income and the Hispanic demo – according to MRI. Additionally, Tubi's core younger demographic remains strong – more than 1 in 3 (36%) Tubi streamers are between the ages of 18 and 34. Tubi is proud to offer consumers free access to more than 50,000 titles from 455 content partners as well as a growing curated FAST off...

When I put up an antenna, I tried out three different DVR systems. All worked well. My favorite of them is Tablo, but Air TV (from Sling TV) was good. I wasn't all that thrilled with Amazon's offering, but it did okay. Recently, Tablo posted an answer to a question about setting up a whole home DVR. And the answer is that you can. And with a network connected DVR -- meaning network connected Tablo, as well as Air TV systems -- you get that as part of the setup : Let's say your TV antenna is connected to your Tablo in an upstairs bedroom. The room next door is your office where your Wi-Fi router is located. Downstairs you have a Roku-enabled Smart TV. Your Tablo will connect to your router via Wi-Fi and so will your Roku-enabled Smart TV. Using the Roku Smart TV's remote, you download the Tablo app to the television. The app on the Smart TV connects to your Tablo over Wi-Fi so you can stream live and recorded programs and control the DVR using the Roku remote. Have anoth...

One of the pitfalls of doing something new is needing help, and getting bad search results when you seek that help. This seems to have happened recently to people looking for help with YouTube TV. It seems some scammers were gaming the Google search results and getting their fake Website, voutube.com, listed high in the results. It's kind of funny, in a shake your head way, in that Google owns YouTube TV and YouTube, yet were listing fake results at or near the top of the search results. According to Cord Cutters News, this has been happening recently : Recently some of our readers noticed sponsored Google search results when you look for help with YouTube TV that doesn’t point you to TV.YouTube.com but instead point to voutube.com. A simple switch of the Y with a V can easily be missed if you are not looking closely for it. (Also, we highly recommend you do not go to that other website.) Increasingly scammers are trying to trick YouTube TV customers into thinking they are contacti...

Word is that Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to launch a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service. That would join the large number of existing services, including Pluto TV, Xumo, Tubi, Plex, Streamfree (Sling TV free), and others, that provide streamers with tons of free content. Of course, they have ads, but for the cost, that ain't bad. Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent of Warner Bros. (naturally), Discovery (of course), HBO Max, TCM, TNT, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, and others. This would be their first foray into FAST services. Cord Cutters News has more information on that : Warner Bros. Discovery has a vast back catalog of content from Discovery, Scripps, and Warner Bros. programs to build a service on. Now don't look for major hits like Friends being offered free but do look for Warner Bros. Discovery to follow Pluto TV's model by offering a collection of new and older content to help attract subscribers to HBO Max. Pluto TV has been ver...

For the last few years, Fubo TV has been the leader in streaming sports programming. No, they don't have everything, but they have more sports overall than any other live streaming service. Recently, they added Bally Regional Sports Networks -- just in time for Bally to be ready to declare bankruptcy -- filling a huge gap in their sports coverage. They also did something recently that isn't so great. Right before the Super Bowl, Fubo TV stopped monthly subscriptions, and offered only quarterly subscription plans . Now, after the Super Bowl, they offer monthly subscriptions again . Why? Money. It's always money. The TV Answer Man, Phillip Swann, explains . It would appear FuboTV has some concerns about people signing up for one month and then canceling soon after the Super Bowl, although it still permits a 7-day free trial. (Fubo also sends reminder e-mails before the 7-day free trial ends.) A FuboTV spokesperson noted last Friday that the quarterly-only packages were "...

If you are a cord cutter -- and of course you are -- you are no longer in the minority. I cut the cord in early 2011, after getting a Roku device in late 2010. And, according to a study in late 2011, at the time, over 71% of USA homes had cable TV then . A new study from the Leichtman Research Group suggests that 71% of U.S. households still have pay TV. However, the new figure -- which accounts for cable, telco, satellite and internet-delivered virtual MVPDs -- still represents a significant decline from penetration rates five years ago. The research firm said this latest percentage is down from 82% in 2016, 87% in 2011 and 86% in 2006. A new study says that less than half of USA homes have cable TV in 2023 . For years cord cutters were often looked at as this weird small group of people who didn’t watch TV. Now according to Samba TV, 52% of Americans no longer pay for cable TV. You can clearly see this change as broadcasters have increasingly moved content off of traditional broadcas...

Sling TV has announced that Freestream, a live streaming service, has launched. It's on Roku now, and will be on other platforms soon. But think for a minute. Sling TV already had a free tier. Sling TV offered over 160 channels of free content for some time now. I wrote about it in 2021 , and again in 2022 . So, what's new? Well, there are more free channels available. The nag to subscribe upon launch isn't there. That means it's simply an expansion of the existing free tier of Sling TV, although a welcome expansion. Is it worth checking out? Of course. I previously said how much I liked the Sling TV free tier -- which is how it works with Air TV for non subscribers -- so an expansion of that is great. If you want another good free streaming option, Freestream, the free portion of Sling TV, is a great addition to your Streaming Life.

If NFL football, or even just the Super Bowl, is your thing, you have plenty of streaming options. The game is tonight at 6:30 -- well, kickoff will be later than that, but that's the official game time -- and a lot of people will be watching. If you're a streamer, how will you watch? You got options. Lots of options. Fox network is carrying the game, and it's free on lots of ways. Of course, if you subscribe to one of several live streaming services, you have access to Fox network. Fox Antenna, over the air, free. Fox Sports app, free. Vidgo Plus, $60/month. YouTube TV, $65/month. Hulu+Live TV, $70. Fubo TV, $75/month. DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $75/month. My Streaming Life doesn't have any of those paid services, but fortunately for me, I have the free options available.

Something that I've been wanting for quite some time will be happening. But not soon. Cord Cutters News had an article this week that covered a point in the Disney earning call that was of interest to me and some other sports fans. According to the report, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that ESPN would offer a stand alone streaming service in the future, but made it clear it would not happen soon. Just eventually : When asked about the future of ESPN as a direct streaming service during Disney's 1st quarter 2023 earnings call, CEO Bob Iger said, "Regarding ESPN and when we might make the shift, if you're asking me, is the shift inevitable? The answer is yes, but I'm not going to give you any sense of when that could be, because we have to do it, obviously, at a time that really makes sense for the bottom line. And we're just not there yet," Bob Iger said. "And that's not just about how many subscribers we could get, it's also about what is the prici...

As many know, and as we talked about a week ago , Netflix has changed its stance on password sharing over the last few years. Well, they have kind of changed their stance. They used to promote password sharing. Now, they are saying don't share. Except where they are saying you can pay to share. Confusing? Welcome to the world of streaming. Streaming itself is a great thing. Companies trying to find ways to get every dollar they can from you is not so great. And now that is happening in streaming. To the point of this post, Netflix has announced the pricing for password sharing. It's not available in the USA yet, so they would rather you not share. But it's coming, and the pricing is available. Netflix has four plans: Basic with Ads ($7/month) Basic ($10/month) Standard ($16/month) Premium ($20/month) The cost of password sharing? That will be $8/month. And, you must have the Standard ($16/month) or higher plan to get a sharing add-on. It would be cheaper to buy the kind...

If you've looked into getting an antenna, but find that you don't get good reception on your main TV, but can get great reception on another TV in an inconvenient location, what do you do? For example, suppose the reception in a guest bedroom is great, but in the living room, you only get a few channels. What then? Well, you can do like I did and get a network connected Tablo . The antenna is located on the side of the house, near a bathroom and guest bedroom. It's not located near the living room. But that's not a problem. In the guest bedroom, I have a network connected Tablo device. The antenna is connected there, and with the Tablo connected to the network, I can watch TV on any TV in the house. I use the Tablo app on my Roku. If you use Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, or Google/Android TV, you can use the Tablo app as well, and watch antenna TV on any of your TVs. If this sounds like a commercial for Tablo, it's not. Well, it's not a paid ad. It's how I actual...

This got past me. It got past a lot of people. But Luke Bouma at Cord Cutters News noticed it several weeks after the fact, and that's where I saw it. USA Today had a list of the best TV shows of 2022 back in December, and the top ten included no cable shows. Well, you could say that one of them is available of cable, since it's on ABC, and most cable systems carry the broadcast networks. However, if you have an antenna and can pick up your local ABC station, you don't need cable to watch that one show. The other nine are all on streaming services : Andor (Disney+) Reservation Dogs (Hulu) The White Lotos (HBO Max) For All Mankind (Apple TV+) Abbott Elementary (ABC) Heartstopper (Netflix) Pachinko (Apple TV+) The Bear (Hulu) Starstruck (HBO Max) Bluey (Disney+) I've not seen any of these shows. Well, I did watch the first two seasons of For All Mankind, but haven't seen the most recent season. And I've seen none of the others listed. I'll look into them. If ...

A little while back, it was announced that Bally Sports Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) were being added to Fubo TV. There was no date announced, apart from "soon." Well, "soon" has now arrived. According to a report from Cord Cutters News , and verified by a visit to the Fubo.TV Website, Bally Sports RSNs are available on the service. In my area, that means Bally Sports South and Bally Sports Southeast. And sure enough, there they are. What I wasn't sure about was which plan would offer the RSNs. And it's the cheapest plan, the Pro, at $75/month. While $75/month is a lot of money, it's cheaper than the DirecTV Stream service that carries the RSNs. The DirecTV Stream Choice plan is $100/month, a full $25 more than the FuboTV package. There are other benefits to the Choice plan, but if RSNs are all you want in your Streaming Life, the DirecTV Stream $75/month plan is the cheapest way to get that.

Sling TV just recently upped its subscription cost. And now, for some people, it's going up again. Don't worry, though, as only five markets are getting the additional price increase. It's a little confusing, but TV Answer Man Phillip Swann has all the details . In five markets where Sling TV will offer Fox, ABC and NBC affiliates, the live streamer will increase the base price by $5 to $45 a month. The five markets are: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Although Fresno, Houston and Raleigh-Durham will get ABC, too, Sling does not provide either Fox or NBC in those markets so they will not get the price increase. The rate hike is only for markets which will get all three network affiliates. (Sling TV has never carried CBS.) Confusing? Yeah, maybe a little. But people threw a hissy fit when Sling TV lost ESPN for a weekend last fall. Sling gave in, and now the result of all that is that some will have to pay even more for TV. Sling upped ...

It's the week between the NFL conference championships and the Super Bowl. That means it's the week of the Pro Bowl. Well, it used to mean that. Now, it's something completely different. Beginning this year -- this afternoon, in fact -- the Pro Bowl is no longer being played. Rather, the NFL has the Pro Bowl Games. That makes a meaningless game even more meaningless. Once upon a time, it was an all-star football game. In fact, it was called the NFL All Star Game before World War II. After the war, it was revived following the merger with the AAFC and was called the Pro Bowl. It was a straight up football game featuring stars from the two conferences (sometimes Eastern and Western, sometimes National and American). In recent years, the format was altered in all kinds of ways, and now there's not even a football game. Well, not a real football game. They will play flag football. And do other stuff. There is more than flag football happening : Best Catch presented by Uber...

While the Pebble Beach Pro-Am isn't one of the biggest gold tournaments, it has a long history. It used to be the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, or the Crosby Clambake. The Pebble Beach event remains one of the most known non-major tournament. The tournament actually began Thursday, and concludes tomorrow. If you're looking to watch the last round or two, here is how you can do that. CBS Antenna, over the air, free. Paramount+ Premium, $10/month. Vidgo Plus, $60/month. YouTube TV, $65/month. Hulu+Live TV, $70. Fubo TV, $75/month. DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $75/month. Golf Channel Sling Blue with Sports Extra, $51/month. Sling Orange+Blue with Sports Extra, $66/month. YouTube TV, $65/month. Hulu+Live TV, $70. Fubo TV, $75/month. DirecTV Stream Choice, $100/month. ESPN+ ESPN+ is a standalone sports programming service. It is not the same thing as regular ESPN that you get with cable or one of the live streaming services. Some content from ESPN, ESPN2, or other ESPN networks may ...

According to reports, Frndly TV has added more channels to their lineup. And, these are some good channels that many people enjoy. A report on Cord Cutters News says that Frndly TV has added Ion TV, Grit, and Ion Mystery. Sure enough, those channels are listed on their schedule now. It's true that these channels are often available over the air on secondary local channels, but these channels do carry a lot of family friendly content that people like. As of now, the count of channels and networks offered by Frndly TV stands at 46: A&E BabyFirst BYUtv Circle Cowboy Way Channel Crime & Investigation CuriosityStream Decades Dove Channel Dove Family Movies Dove Kids FETV FMC FYI Game Show Network GetTV Great American Family Great American Living Grit Hallmark Channel Hallmark Drama Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Hallmark Movies Now Heartland TV Heroes & Icons The HISTORY Channel INSP ION ION Mystery Lifetime Lifetime Movie Network Local Now MeTV Military HISTORY Movies! Ou...

Netflix has introduced new rules to prevent password sharing. The company has been testing ways to stop users from sharing passwords in some South American countries for a little while now. The USA is now reaping the benefits of that testing. If this is a surprise to you, you have good reason to be surprised. Netflix itself had once, around six years ago, tweeted " Love is sharing a password. " That sentiment has changed. Netflix posted new rules , or guidelines, about what they're doing to make it difficult to share passwords. When someone signs into your account from a device that is not associated with your Netflix household, or if your account is accessed persistently from a location outside of your household, we may ask you to verify that device before it can be used to watch Netflix. We do this to confirm that the device using the account is authorized to do so. To verify a device: Netflix sends a link to the email address or phone number associated with the primary...

You may have noticed that the Walmart brand ONN Streaming Device and Stick have both been hard to find lately. Maybe you haven't. Some people seem to love the devices, and others are more "meh" about them. I'm in the "meh" camp . As posted a couple of months ago, the devices were disappearing from shelves, with some speculation that Walmart was discontinuing the device altogether . I had thought this was possible because of the deal to carry the new Xumo player from Comcast and Charter. Or that it was simply the older line being discontinued to make way for an updated line. It now appears the updated line is on the way, according to a tweet from @AndroidTV_Rumor : Looks like @Walmart is planning to release a new 4K #AndroidTV Dongle this year. The ODM is @SDMCTECH (model DV6105Z) and it's more than likely using an #Amlogic S905Y4. Not sure when this year it might hit the shelves. Maybe the device will have enough of a bump in specs to change my mind abo...