Disney owns Hulu and is merging the apps next year after they buy out the remaining part from Comcast.
I can foresee a world where the only live TV is news and sports. Everything else is "made available" at a certain time...3am local time, 8pm local time, etc. The Disney Bundle with no live TV package, Netflix, Max, Paramount+ yearly subscription and Peacock yearly subscription. If you don't care about niche sports, that's a great starting point.
That's part of why the NFL, MLB, etc. are trying to get exclusive games everywhere. They want to make sure they're visible no matter what people choose as a "TV" provider. Disney is experimenting with the timed release idea now with the new Loki season having each new episode release at 9pm ET on Thursday. They did something similar on Hulu with the first two seasons of Only Murders in the Building being a 9pm ET release on Tuesday. I wouldn't be surprised if others do that with their new content to keep their servers from being overloaded. Apple releases all their shows on either Wednesday or Friday, but they're all at the same time on those days. In November they're going to have 3 shows releasing each Friday. It would make sense if one of them was available at 6am, another at noon, and the last one at 6pm, or something along those lines. For folks who don't want sports at all, they've now got Philo and Frndly TV as really cheap options.
Peacock had the idea to launch The Tonight Show at 8(?)pm and Late Night an hour later for their Premium Plus subscribers. That would have been a hell of a benefit for the additional $5/mo for viewers of those shows... and then COVID happened and that was the excuse and then those early launches never happened. I wouldn't be surprised if the affiliates complained about fewer eyeballs on their channels (aka commercials). There's another ultra-affordable option called FreeCast. It's only $10-15/mo at most. No sports, IIRC, but their DVR is kind of crappy as one would expect. IIRC, you can't watch if the show is still recording.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/2/23943859/max-4k-hbo-max-ad-free-subscribers Well...people who have Max comped as part of a different plan are about to lose 4k.
https://help.max.com/US-en/Answer/Detail/000002560#provider So the way I'm reading that link... everything will be simulcast on Max as well as on TBS, TNT or TruTV. If you get those three TV channels, there's no reason to subscribe to B/R Sports. It's Max's corporate parent allowing DTC. The 4K upgrade will apparently be...just $4/mo. Huh? https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/03/hbo-max-4k-legacy-plan-change/
With Max about to remove 4K, I'm wondering what would be better quality for a movie: Blu-Ray played onto a 4K TV. Max's HD stream.
Depending on the upscaling capability of the player, it's probably the Blu-ray. I've got both a Sony UBP-X700 and Panasonic DP-UB820EB, and playing Blu-ray discs, and even some DVDs, looks better than most HD streams on my TV.
I'll take your word for it...at the same time, my player is so old it needs a physical (wired) connection to the internet. I only did so for the first time after 2020, it updated software which removed an outdated Hulu logo from one of the pre-installed apps and I don't think it can update after that, since it's most likely no longer supported. But, ya know what? The BD-HM51 still works for the 3-4 times per year I need it. I compared it side by side with 4K Max and just about the only differences I could really see were some minor coloring differences (shadows, etc) in backgrounds.
For streaming the real issues are your actual download speed and the bitrate that the content is being sent at. I've got 1GB fiber that's connected via ethernet to my TV and there have been a few times that 4k content on Apple TV+ has been nearly as good as a true 4k disc. They're really the only ones streaming in that kind of quality.
I'm also at 1G fiber and struggle to download anything near that. I'd probably be ok with 100 and only went to 1G due to free upgrades. I could *probably* even make do with 75Mbps. 50 would be tight, but the upload speed might be a bear to go back to that. And yeah, true... there's native and up-scaled...most is upscaled. It reminds me of when HD was new. Very little was true HD. HDNet made a point that they were the only ones with HD production trucks, HD cameras, uplinks, etc. It was always a treat to see that truck.
Welcome to Black Friday sales! Max has a heck of a deal on their ad-supported tier. https://deadline.com/2023/11/max-slashes-ad-tier-price-70-percent-streaming-offer-1235617390/
https://deadline.com/2024/01/max-br...ayed-launch-warner-bros-discovery-1235696080/ The Sports Tier on Max has been delayed.
http://www.awfulannouncing.com/tnt-sports/trutv-sports-makeover-alternate-broadcasts-simulcasts.html The article doesn't specifically mention soccer, but TruTV is getting a sports-centric makeover and will be showing lots of alternative broadcasts. The regular broadcasts will continue to be on TBS, TNT and Max.
https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/max-discounted-yearly-plan-deals-march-madness-1235941931/ Max With Ads is $69.99 for the first year (regularly $99.99/year) Max Ad-Free is $104.99 (regularly $149.99/year) Max Ultimate Ad-Free, which offers select content in 4K Ultra HD, is $139.99 (regularly $199.99/year)
Is this a conspiracy theory, maybe? When this WBD/Fox/Disney thing launches...let's see what happens to the sports tier in Max. I'd think there'd be more incentive to the company to push sports fans *from* Max to the new app. Will the Max app still even have sports? I wouldn't be surprised if Max stays as it currently is with a separate 4K tier. This may be worth watching.
Three Announced! Sat 9/7 USMNT vs Canada 7pm on TBS/MAX Children's Mercy Park KC Tues 9/10 USMNT vs New Zealand 7pm on TNT/TruTV/MAX TQL Stadium Cincinnati Sat 10/12 USMNT vs Panama 9pm on TNT/MAX Q2 Stadium Austin I think we're all happy they did away with that "select games on linear TV" ridiculousness. Playing the long ball, it'll be interesting to see what happens with those three channels, especially TruTV.
Late in the NBA and NHL seasons they turned TruTV into an "alternate broadcast" option for games, especially in the playoffs. It may survive simply on being that kind of channel where it's essentially their version of the Manning Cast or "all 11" type of showing that football gets from ESPN. WBD is also rumored to be picking up some Big East basketball games along with the other pieces of sports broadcasting they're getting, so maybe it turns into an FS2 type of channel for their lower tier stuff that they don't want to exclusively stream.
Tuesday's USWNT game will be on TNT and TruTV. Roger Bennett will be commentating an "AltCast" on TruTV.
The USWNT just announced two games. 10/24 vs Iceland (in Austin) 7:30pm TBS, Max, Universo and Peacock 10/27 vs Iceland (in Nashville) 5:30pm TNT, TruTV, Max, Universo and Peacock Let's see if they do another AltCast.