My Streaming Life

A new report indicates that most U.S. families are cutting cable. Comscore released a report recently that said over 60% U.S. households had cut cable, and increase from 37% as recorded earlier this year, as reported by Cord Cutters News : The report says the amount we stream is also going up as we now watch over 11.5 billion hours of streaming media in a year. That is up from 9.6B during the same period the year before. It is also reported that ad-supported streaming captured the bulk of new viewing as cord cutters look to ad-supported services to save money. "While the top US streaming services are keeping up with the demand for subscriptions, new growth can be observed in FAST streaming platforms like Roku, Pluto and Tubi which are increasingly consolidating their position in the household mix," said James Muldrow, Vice President, Product Management, Comscore. "At the same time, cable/satellite subscribers remain some of the most engaged users in the streaming landsca...

I don't normally use services such as YouTube TV. The only time I ever use a live streaming service such as YouTube TV is during college football season, and then I choose Sling TV. It's cheaper and has what I want. Still, YouTube TV is a good live streaming service. If you're into that sort of thing. As you can tell, I'm not, except under certain circumstances. I don't use such a service year-round. Despite my feeling that YouTube TV isn't worth the cost, I so acknowledge that it is a quality service. If I needed such a service, this would be a good one. I don't need one. If you need one -- you don't, but you may want one really bad and that's okay; I'm not criticizing -- YouTube TV is top notch. Depending on what you needed (wanted) it would either be number 1 or 2 on my list. It's a good choice because it's a good service. But, like most things, there are some things you can do to make the experience better. Luke Bouma at Cord Cut...

I read an article on Cord Cutters News this week that I found interesting. According to the article by Kayla Wassell, more people are using TV as radio. The article by Miss Wassell references a report from Hub Research entitled " Evolution of the TV Set " and refers to many users listening to music : More people are using their smart TVs to stream music and audio services than any other non-TV feature. This year, 49% of people surveyed reported using their televisions for streaming music, up from 27% in 2020. Hub reports that 90% of people between 16 and 34 use at least one non-TV feature, compared to 55% of people in the 55 to 74 age range. The report shows people strongly prefer listening to music through their televisions over smartphones or a speaker like Amazon’s Alexa. Usually, televisions have the best speakers or are connected to a home theater system, making them a popular choice. Even adding a soundbar can drastically improve the sound, giving the televisi...

I read with interest an article last week about the price of the upcoming ESPN streaming service. Let's clarify a few things first. ESPN streaming isn't actually a thing. Disney, which owns ESPN, is planning to launch a streaming service, but has made no official announcements about it. Little is known other than Disney wants to do it. ESPN+ is NOT simply ESPN streaming. It is a supplement to ESPN. The standard ESPN live stream is not available on ESPN+. Some content is streamed on both ESPN and ESPN+, but most is not. Nobody really knows anything (see the first thing) and everything about when it may launch and any pricing is conjecture. Some are educated guesses, others are "pull it out of thin air" guesses. So, what are the rumors? Well, according to The Information, ESPN would cost almost as much as Sling TV : ESPN is considering charging between $20 and $35 a month for its new streaming service, The Information reported Thursday. Such a price range cou...

You probably knew this. Those companies that get your data are selling your data. No, not all are doing it. But most are. [ YouTube ] Privacy should be a concern to everyone. Unfortunately, it's not. I know many people that I consider rather savvy in many ways who are absolutely terrible when it comes to the topic of privacy. My Streaming Life involves other companies, who have data on me. And yes, I'm sure they sell it. (Watch the video again.) But it's a trade-off I make, but I don't like it.

College football is underway. The first games of the season are today. There are only seven games on the schedule, but two involve ranked teams. Today's seven games will be broadcast over six networks: CBS Sports Network ESPN Fox Sports 1 NBC Pac 12 Network SEC Network Between today and next Saturday, there are 17 games involving Division 1-A/FBS teams. Those will air on three additional networks: ACC Network ESPN+ Fox Over the season, there are other networks broadcasting games as well: ABC Big Ten Network CBS CW ESPN2 ESPNU Longhorn Network NFL Network Peacock There may even be another network or two that carries games, but these are the ones that are confirmed as the season begins. So, how to watch those networks? I'm glad you asked. ABC Antenna (free) Sling TV ( 8 markets only ) ($45/month) Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month) Hulu+Live TV ($70/month, $77/month after October 12, 2023...

Recently, we mentioned the new Fire TV Channels that put free content all in one place on Fire TV devices. Google TV, which is Google's interface on Android TV devices, added a bunch of new content recently. The latest addition wasn't a big one, but it did drive home the fact that Google has over 800 channels of free live content : ...offer over 800 live channels for free built into Google TV. With this move, Google TV is becoming a major player in the work of free ad-supported live TV streaming. Now Google TV has partnered with NBCUniversal to add four new channels for free on Google TV devices and Android TV devices. These channels will be powered by Xumo Enterprise Comcast’s free TV service. Think about that for a minute. Over 800 channels of content. That's not to say it's all quality content, but you just might find something in the mix that is to your liking. My Streaming Life is more and more made up of free content, with subscriptions dropping all t...

Amazon has improved the way you can find free content on a Fire TV device. Amazon has grouped their free as-supported television (FAST) content into the "Channels" app, making it a one-stop place for free content on your Fire TV device. What makes it different from other FAST apps is that this pulls from multiple sources. This actually makes it a lot like Roku Channel in this regard. They even took the name "Channels", but that's giving Roku too much credit. The layout is like you would see on cable, where your channels are listed, so this naming makes sense. Credit: AFTVNews . Anything that makes it easier to find free content is a good thing. Amazon did a good thing. My Streaming Life is more Roku focuses, but things such as this are why I still use Fire TV on occasion. This is a good feature, and I suspect that Fire TV users will appreciate it.

A survey conducted by Cord Cutters News recently shows that nearly 60% of respondents are using three or fewer streaming services. I've been advocating the cutting back of paid streaming services for some time. Now, I'm not at all suggesting that others are following my lead. Rather, I'm suggesting that others are seeing the same thing I saw: there is plenty of free content out there. The driving force for the cutbacks is the same: saving money. As streaming services continue to up their prices, more and more subscribers are finding they can drop the services and find plenty of other content by subscribing to fewer services, and watching more free content. Free ad-supported television (FAST) services carry a lot of good content. Sometimes, even original content (think Roku Channel, Freevee, and similar services). And more people are cutting subscriptions. According to the survey, 58% of streamers subscribe to three or fewer services : One type of streaming hit hardest by co...

I no longer have a TV antenna. Well, I do, but I don't. It's complicated. I sold my portion of my mother's house. Two of my sisters and I owned it, and another piece of property. I've traded by portion of the house for their portions of the nearby property. They own the house. And that's where the antenna was. I don't have an antenna at my house. I bought an antenna and installed it at my mother's, and using Tablo Connect , was able to watch TV via the antenna that way. But now, I no longer own the house (or a portion of it) and I'm not going to take the antenna with me. They can have it. But that does leave me with no TV antenna. So, what do I do about it? Well, I have a few options: One is simply do without. I could go that route. I don't watch a lot of local (Savannah is the closest market) TV. Well, not live. I watch some broadcast TV content via Hulu. That's next day viewing, which is fine most of the time. Heck, all of the time. Un...

Does this sound familiar? Having dropped cable, you start streaming everything. Then you hear about a local news story that someone says is covered by the local TV station. The question: how do you watch it? Well, honestly, the answer is that you might not be able to. You see, there's no guarantee you'll be able to watch local news streaming. Oh, you'll be able to watch some, but it may be that only some local news is available. And that some is not. I don't live in a big city. I live a little away from Savannah, and have always watched the Savannah stations as the "local" stations. And many of my family members today have Savannah stations as their local. However, some family has Jacksonville as their local stations. So, extending things out, I have two "local" markets from which to choose, though for me, Savannah is the primary. I read an article on Cord Cutters News recently about streaming local news for free. And, in some places, people will be ...

How do you help your parents cut the cord? Well, in all honesty, maybe they shouldn't. There is no one size fits all solution when it comes to streaming television. But that's part of the beauty of it. TV your way. What you want to watch, when you want to watch it. No scheduling your life around that big picture box in the living room. Of course, for me, that was a benefit. The reason I cut the cord in 2011 was to save money. I did, and continue to, despite the price increases. But, let's suppose your parents know about your saving money and want a little bit of that saving money action. How do you make that happen? Well, from personal experience, it's not easy. My mother loved her Roku device and used it all the time during the last years of her life. But she never did drop cable entirely. It was her security blanket. She didn't watch it, but it was there if she needed it. This is coming up because I read an article by one of the staff at Cord Cutters News, R...

It seems more people are dropping live streaming services. In fact, a couple of news reports this week were on the topic of how all the live streaming services, except for YouTube TV, are losing customers. Oh, and not just live streaming services. All of the major pay TV services -- cable, satellite, and streaming -- lost subscribers, except for YouTube TV. According to a report by Leichtman Research Group, around 1,730,000 subscribers left the various services in the second quarter of the year. That's up from 1,725,000 in the same quarter the year before. The report showed that streaming overall is losing subscribers, as the other major live streaming services lost over half again as many as YouTube TV gained : Internet-Delivered (vMVPD) Subscribers at end of 2Q 2023 Net Adds in 2Q 2023 YouTube TV 5,900,000 200,000 Hulu + Live TV 4,300,000 (100,000) Sling TV ...

There are two really cheap live streaming services: Philo and Frndly TV. Well, there were two. Comcast has launched one called Now TV. Frndly TV is one of my favorites. It's $7/month (though I opt for the $9/month plan) and has a lot of family friendly content. Philo is a great service if you don't care about sports and major news services, and is $25/month. Now TV is the new kid on the block, and I haven't tried it. Nor will I. While it's only $20/month, it isn't supported on three of the four major streaming platforms. Only Fire TV has an app, while Apple TV, Android/Google TV, and Roku (!) are all without apps for Now TV. Yes, I have a Fire TV device, but I'm not inclined to subscribe to anything that isn't also available on Roku. Until they're on Roku, they're not worth my dealing with. But, if you are interested in finding out about how the services stack up, Cord Cutters News recently did a review of the three services : All are budge...

The trend over the last 2-3 years of price increases continues to hit streamers. Recently, YouTube TV, Hulu+Live TV, Fubo, and DirecTV Stream (now just DirecTV) have gone up in price. The cheapest of these is $65/month, which a few years ago was the highest price. With these increases, there is the chance of people canceling subscriptions. I don't think that will be a wide-spread thing, though. You see, none of those services are really necessary. New streamers are used to cable TV, and are looking for streaming versions of cable TV. That's what these services are. Long-time streamers figured out a while back that these services aren't needed. There is plenty of content available for much cheaper, if you're willing to plan things out. Most people don't want that. They want the same thing they had. Some large company spoon-feeding them content, making it easy to consume the content, and paying large sums of money for that convenience. To me, saving money is convenien...

Reports continue to show the growth of streaming, and the decline of traditional TV viewing, such as cable or satellite. A report from the Wall Street Journal (there may be a paywall, so I'll quote some key points) indicates that streaming is the top way people are watching TV. The report broke out TV viewing into four categories: Cable TV (which I'm assuming includes satellite) Broadcast TV (which indicates over the air antenna) Streaming (that explains itself) Other (DVDs, games, etc.) The report shows streaming with the largest share of the viewing. What does this mean? Well, streaming is growing. We knew that. Cable TV is dropping. We knew that. So did we learn anything? Well, yes. We learned that the trend continues. This appears to be a long term thing. The report also says that the cable companies have noticed : The milestone is the latest sign of the rapid erosion of the cable-TV bundle, which has lost about a quarter of its subscribers over the...

Right up front, I want to say that I don't share passwords. I don't give my streaming service logins to others, and I don't accept logins from others. I don't do it, I don't advocate it, and I don't give tips on how to accomplish it. Most streaming service Terms of Service (ToS) prohibit the activity, and I'm not going to agree to someone's terms then turn around and violate them. If I don't like their terms, I'm not going to use the service. However, I have friends and family members who have no qualms about sharing passwords. Whether it's because they don't know it's a ToS violation, or if they don't care, I don't know. I'm not the Internet Police, so I'm not going to be nagging them about stuff. They're grown and can make their own decisions. I need to get to the point of all this don't I? Well, here goes. Some family members have been talking about subscribing to YouTube TV in order to get ESPN and loc...

Fubo advertises itself as the top service for sports. It's hard to argue with that. However, there are some areas where Fubo falls short of other services. TBS and TNT carry some NBA games and some NHL games, and Fubo does not carry those channels. Still, it does carry a lot of sports. It also costs a lot of money. And it is going to cost some people even more. Fubo's lowest English language service is $75/month. The most expensive is now $100/month. And that's the price increase. Fubo removed the $95/month Premiere plan and replaced it with the $100/month Ultimate plan. It does add NFL Red Zone, which the Premiere plan didn't have, so there's that. Still, $100/month is a lot of money. My Streaming Life doesn't include Fubo TV. I've tried it, and found it to be a reliable service with a lot of channels, and a lot of sports. However, it's not for me. I'm not getting $100 worth of entertainment from it. You might, but I don't.

Tubi, owned by Fox, is one of the top free ad-supported television (FAST) service. It has grown and changed over the years. Pluto TV has been the big daddy of the FAST services for years, being older and setting the standard for FAST services. Tubi has become some people's favorite FAST service. While I still go to Pluto TV before I go to Tubi, some family members prefer Tubi. And that makes sense. Cord Cutters News had a recent article on Tubi, and give some numbers about the increase in viewership and content: Tubi hitting almost 60,000 on-demand movies and TV shows streaming free with ads makes Tubi one of the largest free streaming services for cord cutters. This news comes as Tubi has been reaching multiple deals recently to add more content. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery announced deals with Tubi to bring their content to the free streaming service. This deal will bring a huge catalog of content to both services. My Streaming Life has included Tubi si...

We posted recently about the latest Hulu and Disney price increases. However, we didn't get too deep into the other news about the services. It turns out that Hulu lost a lot of subscribers last quarter. A report this week said that Hulu lost 100,000 subscribers to its live streaming service. Not the $7/month service I use, but the expensive Hulu+Live TV service that is going up from $70/month to $77/month. Maybe they figure they need to increase the price 10% to offset a 2-3% drop in subscribers. Let's do the math real quick. They had 4.4 million subscribers, and lost 100,000, meaning they lost $7-million in subscriptions. If they go up $7 and keep 4.3 million, that's an increase of over 30-million. That's a net gain of over $23-million. They could afford to lose another 300,000 subscribers at the higher price and not lose income. It's all about the money, isn't it? Of course it is. It's always about money. They have to find a way to keep the money coming i...

The trend of the last 2-3 years continues. Now it's the Disney services that are going up. This means Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu (in various forms). Now, Hulu both is and is not going up in price. The basic Hulu service, which is my service of choice, is staying at the current $8/month price. That means I won't be impacted by this price increase. Hurray for being a cheapskate, amirite? Effective October 12, 2023, the price for Hulu (No Ads) -- that's the name of the Hulu service without ads -- is going up from $15/month to $18/month. Hulu+Live TV jumps from $70/month to $77/month. The no-ads version goes up from $83/month to $90/month. Similar price changes will impact the Disney+ and ESPN+ services as well. Hulu is my service. Basic Hulu. I don't mind the ads, and I'll save a few bucks by sitting through them. The thing is, football season is coming up. There will be some games I want to watch on ESPN+. So, come September 2, there are games that I might want t...

I started streaming some content in 2010. Maybe even earlier. I had a TiVo device that allowed me to watch some online content. Thinking back, most of it was downloaded to the TiVo then played. However, it seems there was some content that was actually streamed. In late 2010, I bought my first Roku device, as well as a 2nd generation Apple TV device. Those allowed me to actually stream content. In early 2011, right after the BCS championship game, I cut cable. Perhaps that Tuesday. It's hard to remember, since that was over 12 years ago. So, why? Why did I cut the cord and go to streaming? The answer is simple: money. It's always about money. I spent a year keeping up with everything I watched on TV, mostly by using the TiVo recording settings. Then I looked up how to watch that content without cable. Some meant buying the TV episodes, and some meant watching streaming. There was also TV antenna possible, but I didn't figure that into it. I assumed no antenna, and want...

A report from Hub Research indicates that many streamers will put up with ads to a point. I've not seen all the details of the report -- I don't subscribe -- but a review of the report indicates that five ads in a half-hour segment is acceptable for most streamers . For every 30 minutes of streaming video, five ads or fewer seemed to be the key number, according to a study conducted by Hub Entertainment Research. Its survey, which asked more than 3,000 US customers between 4 and 74 years old, found that half of the respondents found it reasonable to see 5 or fewer ads. That figure dropped to 38% when the number was upped to six to 10 ads. That would be fine with me. I don't mind ads, as long as it's not too many ads. If the ads are too much, I'll consider paying for an ad-free service, if it's available, but more likely I'll go elsewhere. My Streaming Life doesn't cost much, and I'll keep costs down by using ad-supported services. As long as the ads...

Cord Cutters News has a good rundown on what it calls the top ten free apps for Roku. [ YouTube ] This is a good list. What would I suggest that is different? Let's look at Luke's list: Roku Channel Freevee Tubi Crunchyroll Kanopy Filmrise Pluto TV Xumo Play Local Now Plex The only one I would omit is Crunchyroll, but that's because I don't watch Anime. Also, I may omit Kanopy, as it is only recently available to me, and I haven't used it as much as I have the others. However, everyone that has it says good things about it. The others? Sure. Those are eight good choices. To round it out, I'd put Sling/Freestream (Freestream is the service, through the Sling TV app) on the list. I'd also put Peacock TV on the list. While it is a paid service, there is a free tier that has around half of the total library. The order is pretty good, though I'd put Plex higher. Oh, and Pluto TV would be higher. Other than that, it's a good list. My Streaming Life incl...

There was an article recently about what it called the "best streaming services." I'm not really going to take exception to it, apart from saying that "best" is subjective. What one thinks is best might not be what another thinks is best. Having said that, I'll tell you what I think about the choices of Tom's Guide . Best overall: Max This is a good choice. But so is just about anything else, if the service has what you want. It's something I'll subscribe to one month out of the year. Maybe. Best for TV: Hulu Okay, I actually agree with this. For years, Hulu has been my "cable" service. It gets me current TV shows from NBC, ABC, and Fox on a delayed basis. Kinda like a DVR. And it's still pretty cheap. Tom's Guide says a drawback is "frequent commercials." That's not really true, since Hulu uses the existing ad breaks that you'd get if you watched the shows on cable. And fewer commercials during the ad ...

If you are interested in privacy, and want to stop Google from spying on you via your phone, can you just remove Google from your Android phone? No. Not and keep the same operating system. Rob Braxman tells why. [ YouTube ] I have used Apple phones, standard Android phones, and other Android OS phones. That last group are the most private, then Apple (surprise!), then standard Android (the least private). My Streaming Life doesn't normally involve using a mobile device. But I am interested in privacy, and so should you.

A report out of India indicates that Disney may be beginning the process of cracking down on password sharing. Okay, that's India. That's not the US. Why is this a concern here? Think back for a minute. Netflix cracked down on password sharing. They started small, in other countries. Then expanded, finally cracking down on the US. Disney's plan comes just as streaming rival Netflix in May started telling subscribers in more than 100 countries they will need to pay more to share the service with people outside their household. In India, a premium account of Disney+ Hotstar streaming service still allows logins on as many as 10 devices, even though its website currently says "number of devices that can be logged in" is four. Disney+ Hotstar has internally tested enforcement of the policy and has plans to start implementing it later this year to limit logins at four for such accounts, said the first person. "Some people will be incentivised to b...

Luke Bouma at Cord Cutters News tried to answer a difficult question recently. The question was along the line of "how long does a Roku or Roku TV last?" That's not easy to answer. One reason is that the quality of the devices vary. On overage, the cheapest Roku devices won't last as long as the most expensive ones. However, there are exceptions. Luke said, in general, that he's not had a problem using one over five years, except for one he thinks he damaged. In our experience, Roku Players and Roku TVs have good lifespans. Of the over 30 streaming players I have had, only one stopped working, and that was the Roku Stick I used to travel with. As best I can tell, I damaged the power cord one day when I took it out of a TV. That power cord had the WiFi antenna attached to it, and one day the WiFi stopped working. All my other Roku devices have continued to work as the should without issues. For Roku TVs, we have had 6 of them without issues. Our main TV i...

The Shudder streaming service is raising its prices. In the past two plus years, a lot of streaming services have increased prices, some more than once. Shudder was $5/month ($4/month if paid annually) when it launched, and went up a couple of years ago to $6/month. The new price is $7/month, starting August 28. Shudder isn't my cup of tea (or hemlock), so I've not used the service. However, it is a popular service, for its content. I haven't seen a lot of blow back to the upcoming price increase, so fans may tolerate it. People have fussed about other increases, and then went along with it. Shudder, being more of a niche streaming service, may have an even more loyal following. My Streaming Life won't be impacted, as I subscribe to very few services, and nothing in the horror genre. However, I do feel for those being impacted. I'm glad they are able to find the content they want, just not glad about them having to pay more.

A new report shows how a couple of cable companies are losing subscribers. Cord Cutters News reports that Comcast and Spectrum have lost nearly three-quarter of a million TV subscribers in the second quarter. According to Comcast, it lost 543,000 video customers during the second quarter of 2023. That works out to almost 6,000 Subscribers Every Day. The company lost 19,000 broadband customers for the quarter. Comcast now has 32 million total broadband customers. Revenue from domestic broadband was up 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. That's on the heels of a an announcement by Spectrum of cable subscriber losses: Last week we learned that Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum, has once again lost 200,000 TV customers in the 2nd quarter of 2023. Spectrum also reported that they lost over 221,000 voice customers as many Americans turned away from traditional phone lines and TV services. Spectrum did add 77,000 internet customers during that time for both residentia...

I wonder sometimes if I'm the type of person that will never be satisfied. I have two ex-wives that would probably agree with that assessment. About streaming, though. I've been a fan of Roku for years. I bought a Roku device in 2010, and have been streaming ever since. Roku wasn't my first streaming device though. I had actually purchased an Apple TV device the same month as the Roku, but the Apple TV was for my wife (see first paragraph). It was for her to play her music she purchased from iTunes. The TV had a really good sound system, and the Apple TV was the best way to play through the system. When Fire TV devices were released a few years later, I bought one and didn't really like it. However, I wanted to get something that was a little more than what I had. It wasn't, and Roku remained the streamer of choice. I bought new Apple TV devices when the redesign gave it access to the App Store. I used the new Apple TV for a bit, but went back to Roku. When Go...