Yeah I'm reticent to admit what I pay for Cable TV. In fact I just got off the phone with the "Retention Dept" to restore the $30 "loyalty credit" I'd been getting after complaining about the last price hike. HOWEVER, the quality and usability of the broadcast TV model is still significantly superior to streaming, and some content is only available via TV so I'm still paying both sides. When their obvious goal is to move everyone over the streaming, I just so wish that each provider, and the industry as a whole, would focus on recreating an experience on streaming which is as quick, easy, universal and reliable as the TV+DVR experience. BUT SADLY they really don't seem to be. p.s. Do you really only subscribe to 3 streaming services??? No Hulu, no Netflix, no Amazon, no Apple, no Disney, no HBO, etc, etc? If you did you'd be north of $50/mo already. And those $5/mo per service deals are quickly going the way of the dodo. Don't be surprised to see them doubled to $10/mo in the next few years. (Netflix is already at $15)
The only reason ESPN costs $5.83 a month on your cable bill is because there are literally tens of millions of people who pay for ESPN and never watch it, if only people who watched ESPN regularly paid for it, the price would be astronomically more than $5.83. People do not realize their chosen hobby of watching sports on tv is subsidized by the vast majority that do not care one bit about said sports.
The channel count per package is roughly the same as it was a few years ago. Yeah, I lost NBCSN, but I seemed to have picked up a channel that shows short movies. In addition, the rights for various leagues and talent (news, sports, etc) goes up. Pick any TV announcer from any channel and you can almost guarantee they're not being paid the same as they were 5-7 years ago. Having EPL, Bundesliga, Champions League and other high-profile stuff on basic TV channels like NBC, ABC and CBS also doesn't help the bill any.
Bingo. I've used Hulu, PlayStation TV or whatever it was, Sling, Fubo probably a few others. I don't like the way how I'm constantly scrolling via menus. One thing I love about traditional providers is that each channel is assigned a number. I can go right to a channel I watch just once a week just by pressing the numbers on the remote. Switching inputs isn't fun, but oh well. Hulu will be interesting to observe long-term. It seems a lot of the NBC stuff is off to Peacock. In other countries, there's a Disney+ tab called "Star" for mature shows like 24, American Dad, Futurama, King of the Hill and other Disney stuff that doesn't quite fit the mold of Disney+. It seems very likely that Comcast will get out of Hulu over the next few years. When that happens....hmmm... In fact, I believe the Chicago shows on NBC are disappearing from Hulu rather shortly. I think some ESPN+ stuff can be seen via the main Hulu menu, but IDK about Disney+. It'd be nice to have all that stuff totally consolidated. The trick with keeping costs down is to see what you can get included with other bills. If you live in Comcast areas, Peacock Premium is included. If you have any number of AT&T/DirecTV services, HBO Max is included, at least until they figure out what to do about Discovery+. Verizon includes the Disney Bundle and various other apps.
Shhhhiiiiitteee...I wish ESPN was $5 and change on my bill. Last I heard, ESPN was close to $11...and that doesn't include ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN News, SEC, LHN or ACC. There's a reason why Fox Soccer Plus is $15 by itself. HBO/Cinemax is something like $25 by itself. You could end up paying close to $90 for maybe 6-7 channels. People would rather pay that much and get a bundle. There's various shows on channels I'd never pay $10 for, but if it's $2-3 because it's subsidized, I'd watch. The problem is...and the streamers are about to figure out, if they haven't already... Companies like Comcast and Disney own a crapton of channels. If you want the main channels like Disney or ESPN, there's always a slew of minor channels. True ala carte will never happen, unless the companies start to kill off a lot of those "little brother channels" like DisneyXD or MTVU in favor of their apps. I suppose one future is that everyone who subscribes to a particular TV channel would get access to the app, but that wouldn't really help keep bills low. (How much would people really save if ESPN killed off ACC Network, Longhorn Network and SEC Network and put all that on ESPN+?) Now...why haven't the streaming providers figured out tiers like DirecTV Stream has? If Hulu adds Hulu Gold, then they could easily get the RSNs back...I'd think.
Just to be clear I was talking about ESPN+ which is $5.83 per month a-la-carte. Oh no, I have way more than 3! I was just listing 3 examples. Yes, I am north of $50/month on streaming apps but only barely. That is still a small fraction of what I pay for cable (which I watch less of than all streaming apps combined). There is also some overlap between what I get through cable (Fios) and the streaming apps I pay for. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Apple was basically made for people that don't have cable or satellite because there is a lot of overlap in terms of content. Then there's another type of overlap: like CL on Paramount + in English versus TUDN CL on cable in Spanish. These overlaps are another factor that makes having cable less appealing IMO.
Those deals rarely save as much as it may appear at first glance. For e.g. I have Fios so I get Disney+ for free. But that's the cheapo Disney+ package where you get Hulu with commercials. That makes it a bit unwatchable IMO. And there's nothing on Disney that appeals to me. So basically it reduces to getting ESPN+. But doesn't this deal only last for 1 year? Either way its not a big savings (3-5% off the total cable bill) The dilemma with cable/satellite is that the cheapo packages are practically useless. I mean basic cable just gives you those mainstream channels that are filled with 25 minutes of commercial per hour (with the other 35 minutes usually being crap). I learned a long time ago that with cable you either go in all the way (i.e. Spanish-language package, HBO, Showtime, etc.) or not at all. But the former is damn expensive. Still worth it back when cable had 100% of the content that I watched on TV, but now with streaming apps having a lot of the stuff I'm interested in watching cable is not so worth it anymore IMO.
Bingo back at ya. Your example of having to scroll menus & switch inputs is the kind of thing I've been alluding to when I say that streaming has a long long way to go to be as quick, easy & functional as the old TV+DVR model. And you didn't even mention other aspects of this same issue, e.g. switching back and forth between one show/game on one provider to another game on another provider... which is onerously slow and complex in the streaming world, whereas on a TV remote it's a single button click ("last" or "prev") and at most a 1-2 second delay. Nor did you mention how streams tend to be "behind real-time" by 10, 20, 30, sometimes 60 seconds. Which can really suck when you're watching live sports and using social media or Internet sites at the same time. I could go on, but let me resist!
Yeah I got Disney+ last month to watch Get Back, and then I looked around to see if there was anything else I really wanted to watch there and there was literally one documentary movie, that's it. So, like you, I'm back to ESPN+ alone, which is one of the good deals in Streaming. But how long will they keep it that way?!!!
OK I know the Olympics is still going on for another few hours, but NBC's production today could've been better IMHO. They had Arlo/Lee/Graham in the Sky studio before the 3pm game (on USA) but then after all those 3pm games ended the went totally dark, before the 5:30 game on NBC. Before the 3pm game they had Arlo/Lee/Graham doing some pregame from Sky studios but couldn't they have figured out a way to do some highlights+preview in between the two matches? Couldn't they have spared Rebecca her last day of Olympics and let her anchor something in Stamford with one or two of the other analysts? Or maybe there was literally no spare studio space there?
I haven't looked at the Verizon Hulu deal in a while, but I believe it's for as long as it's subscribed to. Ha. My U-Verse receivers get zero premium channels, unless you count TCM-type classic movie channels as premium ones (which I don't.) The only Spanish-language channels I get are national feeds of Univision, CNN, an HD feed of Galavision and one or two others.
I totally agree with all of that. When it comes to "flipping the channel just to see the score" a non-streaming provider even has the ability to keep on one channel while using the guide to flip to see if the other is on commercial. Example: I can be watching NBC and then check if Bally Sports is at commercial without leaving NBC. The delay is already annoying as midnight approaches on New Year's Eve. I can't imagine it being a regular thing.
Logged into Peacock with my Premium account and am watching the replay of LIV-LEE game. It's forcing me to watch 30 or 60 second ads: up front, twice during HT, and after FT. I don't remember having to watch ads like this before... am I forgetting? And if so, isn't that what paying for "premium" gets you... no ads?
With Peacock, there's "Premium" which is about $5/mo and has ads (included with many Comcast internet bills) and then there's "Premium Plus" for about $10 ($5 for Comcast subscribers) with no ads. When Peacock first launched, they had a promo for "Year of Peacock Premium for $5/mo." It was fun, but IDK if it's worth $10 for me.
NBC wheeling out their bare bones EPL production this week. Chalk it up to Peacock-only, post-Olympics, no Rebecca? Fair play to the 2 Robbies holding down the fort, without much apparent support staff or "tools" around them. Mustoe should probably not give up his day job however.
So here's one of those clunky, dysfunctional, user-unfriendly things I love about streaming... I was watching EPL on USA today (very smoothly, and with their full studio production/team back thankfully) but the tail end of their coverage they shifted to Peacock, including the 12:30ET game and then Goal Zone which I'm 99% sure they advertised as being on Peacock also. I switched to Peacock, an after FT of that game (EVE-MCI) I had to pause it for a while, but I wanted to come back to hear the discussion about Chelsea/Abramovic/etc. But when I came back it just stopped abruptly at 2h56m into the broadcast, they were in mid-sentence. OK, I figured I'd just find the Goal Zone show airing live on Peacock. But no. such. luck. Goal Zone is nowhere to be found. Not under Live & Upcoming. Not under Premier League Hub. Not if I search for "Goal Zone". OK, so I figured it must be on the main NBCSports.com page. Not. What is the deal? And why do they make this so difficult???
I wonder if the PL made them not air the show since they were discussing Abramovich (one of the PL owners).
I doubt it. I'm pretty sure this is a recurring problem I've had this season. Most times the GZ show did not show up at all, not as a discrete show, like Rebecca shows on her broadcast timetable, but in some cases it would just be tacked on to the end of the prior match. Not today though, at least not for me.
I'm a confessed EPL junkie. And if NBC is trying to get me to kick that habit and watch a lot less EPL coverage then they're doing a really good job at that with their shift from NBCSN/TV to Peacock/streaming. There are oh so many examples I could give, but let me just cite one from today... Was watching ManUtd-Spurs live on Peacock (via Roku) and then got to portion where they seamlessly shift into their postmatch/Goalzone coverage. I paused that, wanting to come back to it in an hour or so. Even left my TV screen on. When I came back I was dumped out of the Peacock app. (Someday maybe they'll learn that when you pause something and leave the screen on, it means your not done and want to resume right from that spot. I don't care if it's Peacock or Roku doing this... they shouldn't) OK that's annoying but I figured I could find this match on replay. Yup no problem, EXCEPT that unlike the live stream there is no pregame or postgame studio analysis attached to the replay... it's just 1T+HT+2T. So I went hunting for the GoalZone show which would've followed today's match, like it generally does after the last match of any day. No luck. Not only is there no GZ from today, there are no GZ shows period... not a single one... neither on Peacock or NBC (apps or websites) WTF! Are they trying to make their streaming content significantly more incomplete and harder to access than it was on TV? If so, then they're doing quite a good job. During their broadcasts, when they show the upcoming schedule, and when I see a day which is heavily on Peacock instead of TV (USA now) I sigh, knowing that it's going to be a troublesome, subpar experience. Yes I know streaming is the future yada yada. And I'd probably be fine with that, IF ONLY they (in this case NBC) could make that future at least as good as the past was. But sadly, they are still far from achieving that. And I'm not even seeing signs of progress, which is disheartening. p.s. There are tons of other examples I could have (and previously have) given, but that would be even more tiresomely tome-like. <END OF RANT.... for now>
Yeah, so difficult. I find I now watch way less of their pre-, post- and between matches content since the move away from NBCSN and the general decrease in # of matches shown on TV. I never know where to go to find this content, so basically the only time I see Rebekah Lowe, the Robbies, Tim Howard, etc is at halftime. Which is a shame because I really like what they have to say.
Noticed Anna Whitely was the MBC studio host today. Hmm… are they grooming Lady Lowe’s replacement? I can’t recall ever seeing Whiteley before, but boy those are some pretty big shoes to fill IMHO
One of the upcoming USMNT WCQ matches is on Paramount+, Peacock and Universo. Naturally, my Paramount+ promo ends the week before. I'm sure by "Peacock" they mean Peacock premium, of which I don't have. I get Universo, but not in HD and I'm sure it'll be in Spanish. (It seems that some Universo programming is/could be in English, but I doubt this will be.) Each of those options has positives and negatives attached.
And today it's someone called Cara Banks. Haven't heard anything about Rebecca's future, but it sure does look like auditions week.
I just got an error message I've never seen before. I've got Peacock streaming on my TV/Roku (which is where I'm going to go to shortly to watch the match), but right now I'm watching Peacocktv.com on my laptop, and just because I was nervous about losing the TV/Roku stream, I fired up Peacock app on my phone and it said I had too many devices streaming at the same time. Wow, I didn't know of such a limit... what is it??
Tweet from March 9... Rebecca Lowe became an American citizen today, alongside her husband Paul. Welcome Becs, from one new American to another. I know the feeling. The joy. The pride. The immense sense of gratitude. America is all the better off for your citizenship 🇺🇸🦅 pic.twitter.com/ZUqUCu2xKu— roger bennett (@rogbennett) March 9, 2022 And this was streamed live yesterday (March 15).