I'm using sling for 20bucks to supplement my Firestick content through Kodi with some live tv options. I may consider the additional 15 bucks since it comes with some added sports content. Sling app works fine, so i hope this can compete.
OT: B1G Cord-Cutting News - YouTube offers new monthly Live TV service $35/month
- Thread starter PeteGiam07
- Start date
How are the cable companies supposed to fund massive infrastructure investment while cutting prices for their internet service and unbundling content?
OMG.. cablecos began by putting up antennas and stringing long wires to peoples homes to get better reception. They made sweetheart deals to prevent competition with local politicians.. escalated to state politicians and then federal politicians and the big boys swallowed up the little guys along the way.
And they did this all with FREE content until the content creators screamed about it.
Then they piggybacked onto the publicly BUILT internet backbone .
They bought politicians to help keep their systems closed and have you renting their dirt cheap boxes because you HAD to.
They are against net neutrality.
They can't fail soon enough for me.
We'd all be much better off if the internet backbone in this nation.. broadband to the home.. was built like the interstate highway system and local roads.
The USA is way behind in this regard... and cablecos are to blame. Check this link to PBS.org for a story on why Americans pay more for slower internet.
I just assumed he was being sarcastic... didnt want to even attempt an answer lol.
havent had cable since 1988
havent missed a thing
everything is on the internet
total savings..... $30,000
havent missed a thing
everything is on the internet
total savings..... $30,000
There are some pretty significant omissions from the list of available channels offered on the new YouTube service:
AMC
Comedy Central
History Channel
Discovery
TBS
TNT
PBS
Food Network
Turner Classic Movies
CNN
Cartoon Network
Nickelodeon
Spike
MTV
BBC America
VH1
Travel Channel
If YouTube would add the above 17 channels without raising the price, then perhaps they might have a product worth considering.
Plus, the only add on channels offered are Fox Soccer and Showtime... HBO is not an add on option, which is not good.
AMC
Comedy Central
History Channel
Discovery
TBS
TNT
PBS
Food Network
Turner Classic Movies
CNN
Cartoon Network
Nickelodeon
Spike
MTV
BBC America
VH1
Travel Channel
If YouTube would add the above 17 channels without raising the price, then perhaps they might have a product worth considering.
Plus, the only add on channels offered are Fox Soccer and Showtime... HBO is not an add on option, which is not good.
Plus - give Google access to more data about you so they can increase your dependence on them to profile you and your family.
Broadband users can buy HBO Now $15/mth (HBO Go is the service connected to your cable subscription.. Comcast is not an HBO Go affiliate, they make you go thru Xfinity.. booo)
"Showtime Anytime" broadband is still connected to specific services like cable companies, Apple TV and now this YouTubeTV.
Starz has an app... it is $9 a month after a free 7-day trial
Not sure what cinemax go is..
Bottom line.. if you are one of these heavy cable bill people with tons of channels, you could piece together a solution that includes most of the premium channels.
A huge bill is something like $200+ a month... you'll see cablecos offering everything for about that...
For these cord-cutters.. at least in NJ.. chances are your broadband is going to come from a cableco and you'll be paying $60 or more for 25/5 down/up. So that's your starting point for being able to stream TV.
Say $35 for this YouTube.. $12 for Netflix.. $15 for HBO.. $9 for Starz.. $12 for Showtime.. and you are around $150 and have a lot of options..
What I would be concerned about is the caps.. the caps cablecos are sneaking into their broadband systems to fight cordcutters. If watching TV means by the end of every month your internet speeds are going to drop.. making streaming unusable and downloads slow.. to save $20-$50 a month.. is it worth it? Now.. f you talk about watching less TV.. or no TV.. that's another story.
We need to separate broadband delivery from cable TV delivery.. break up these monopolies.. encourage competition. Heck.. Trump should do that... he can hurt his enemies at Concast/MSNBC doing that.
What world do you live in? It's already too late for that. Your information is everywhere.
Having these channels is what you need. You want the all inclusive cable package you already have.
For cord cutters, this is the first option that offers this kind of live sports package. This is the start of offering streaming live sports options without having cable TV.
Hang on, you made the claim that the cable companies can't keep up with the increased demand for bandwidth, but you want them to drop prices while funding massive investment in new equipment and circuits from the head-end all the way to the customer premise. Do you want more competition in the access space? Or do you want the cable companies to be dropped from their own service providers on the backend and fund a duplicate network build-out they own solely? See those wires outside your house? You want 5 times as many? Who is going to pay to string those cables to central routers who interconnect with the inter-exchange carriers, and run all that operation? Or do you want those wires to be all public? What tax money is going to pay back the carriers for all that equipment? And then who will operate it and pay for those operations?
Content providers don't want it, but some like CBS have their own video streaming subscription service (CBS All Access) just in case & to offset lost revenues & prepare for the future, but I don't think true a la carte is coming as soon as people want & when it comes, it likely won't be as cheap as people want once you add up all the different costs. SNY hasn't been available streaming anywhere, but just announced last month that Mets games (& pre & post game shows) will finally be available to stream on sny.tv & the NBC Sports app using a TV Anywhere login from your cable provider.
How much do you save a year & is it worth the hassle & inconvenience of constantly switching inputs on your TV, not having an on screen channel guide, not having a DVR or being able to pause, rewind, FFWD live TV, & having to sign up & drop BTN?
I think you are misinformed about the costs (billions) to build out fiber networks. There's a reason Google Fiber isn't everywhere, has slowed down deployments & is exploring & using alternatives to digging trenches in cities. Plus the costs to manage & maintain these fiber & content delivery networks.
Also, based on your example of cobbled together services, there doesn't appear to be much of a cost saving. Is it worth the hassle & inconvenience of constantly switching inputs on your TV, not having an on screen channel guide, not having a DVR or being able to pause, rewind, FFWD live TV, & managing a ton of other standalone apps?
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I literally just told you how much money I pay a year, so yea...
I have a smart TV and xbox one. Currently, I only have 2 inputs. 1 is live TV and 1 is Xbox One. I can put everything in through my Xbox one if I wanted to put OTA live TV it is a special adapter away from being added but it is no trouble using my normal TV remote and switching 1 input for now. My smart TV has the ability to use APPS built in and so does my Xbox. I also have a chromecast hooked up in case I want to stream something from my mobile in nice 4K, but that is just a nice extra I included. My Xbox can already cast screens and chromecast isn't necessary for my set up.
OTA has a on screen channel guide for both of my smart Samsung TV's... get with the times man! New TV's have new technology! If it didn't, my Xbox has one if I made the connection with the special adapter too.
I don't need a DVR, I am not an avid TV watcher. There are options out there, like TABLO, that allow you to pause, rewind,FF, and DVR OTA channels. The new YouTube service says there is cloud DVR.
Are you serious with the signing up and dropping off something like BTN for the new YouTube service? It will be online and take 5 minutes twice a year, there are no contracts for services like Vue, Sling, and YouTube. I'm not a lazy person, clicking a mouse a few times doesn't bother me and neither does a 10 minute phone call.
If you have genuine questions just ask, don't have to be jerk about it just because you aren't up to date with technology options. This thread isn't a Cable vs OTA argument. Everyone has their preference in what they want and what they like.
A jerk? OK, asshole. I asked legitimate questions. And learn to read as I asked how much you saved not how much you paid a year.
Bars don't have to "find a way" to write off their cable packages, such costs are a 100% legitimate deductible business expense. I would say that its a necessary one as well. However, a commercial establishment pays much higher rates for cable or direct TV packages than a residential consumer does. I would think You Tube will be the same - higher fee for someone using it in their business.
But you make an excellent point about having some technical support to keep the system working. No NFL package on You Tube.
How can I tell you how much I saved when I haven't had cable in over a year and don't know how much it costs anymore or even care? I said I pay $69 a month.
It was actually pretty hard to understand your very long run-on sentence from your post. It was barely written in English. I answered all of your questions anyway somehow.
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Can't? Where did I say they cannot keep up with demand? I said the USA is way behind and the supposed "free market" is failing us here because there is no real competition. And if there is no real competition then maybe the government should step in and create real competition or provide incentive rewards based on build-out that supports real competition as the end goal.
In New Jersey we actually have laws that prevent neighborhood and towns from launching their own broadband services.
Rural fiber may be a money losing proposition.. like rural electrification was back in the 1930s and even today this act from the 30s is being added to by the likes of Bush and Obama to bring internet to rural locations.
But this is why we compare cities.. and urban areas like New Jersey.. it is easy and profitable to wire these places with lots of potential clients... but lack of competition prevents this from happening because we are all a captured market for one or the other cableco... and where you may have a choice of a cableco or fios.. something akin to price fixing is going on.
We need to break them all up.
No content owner should own a cableco or vice-versa
No broadband provider should be a cableco also
No cellular company should provide cable or broadband.
And the customers need real choice in all these offerings.. no captured markets.
In this way each market will be served only by companies that whose primary vested interest is in making that service the best it can be.
You get one box for all or most of those services ... Roku, Apple TV, whatever. If you need more than one, switching inputs is a matter of hitting a button on your TV remote. DVR is entirely unnecessary in general, but most of these services are on-demand, anyway (Netflix, premium channel streaming, etc). Not sure your hassles actually exist.
You don't need a DVR. I've never had one in my life and have no desire to. You don't actually have to sit through commercials, either.
Maybe hassles is the wrong word. It isn't as quick & seamless for accessing channels that are available on cable/sat TV, because there's a time delay & extra steps when I switch from my TV to roku, PS3 or the Panasonic TV apps to access one of those various apps, & then select the app & scan/search the programming. PS Vue & Sling TV (& likely YouTube TV) make it somewhat better but you may have to use standalone apps for some channels depending on which service & package you get.
I prefer a DVR because my family watches a bunch of different TV shows & you can skip commercials & store it for quicker & easier access & a longer time, whereas using apps, OTA or VOD you can't.
how do you skip commercials?
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Under the current FCC chairman look for caps and don't expect a breakup. Most assumptions made on this thread are based on Net Neutrality, which is about to be taken out and will substantially increase access costs (data rates/speed/etc).
By getting up and doing something else, talking to the family, surfing the Web on my phone, etc. Just cause they're on doesn't mean I'm sitting watching them.
Or you watch archived game content and fast forward through. Do that a lot with CFB on WatchESPN and MLB TV. The latter lets you pick where you start, so you could just jump to the 9th inning if you want.
How do you do it with a DVR for a live game?
A side note: streaming live sports will actually make you miss cable commercials. Half the time there's just a blank screen and the other half they'll play the same three commercials every break.
But again, just do something else.
But again, just do something else.
Nah, I really don't believe in illegal downloads/streaming for anything but a last option. Very rarely do that stuff. Well, unless free porn counts.
For most TV shows, I DVR & skip commercials, so you cut ~15 mins every hour. For a live game/event/show that I want to watch live, I just deal with the commercials like you do, but I also like the ability to pause & rewind. When I record a game/event on the DVR, I FFWD through commercials.
I watch pretty much all my shows via streaming (Netflix, Amazon). There are no commercials and it's all on demand, so watch whenever, no recording necessary. For sports, instead of recording, you watch archived games - same deal and you can FFWD through commercials or dull spots. I'm pretty sure some games don't even include most or all commercial breaks, but maybe I'm misremembering. Guess the issue there is that not all networks offer on-demand game content - but ESPN is basically enough for 95 percent of CFB games and MLB TV is worth the buy for MLB fans.
Not sure how it works with all the streaming bundles (Sling TV, PS Vue, etc), but Sling TV says it has at least some content on demand. So I guess if you're really rigid about having to watch specific shows, a DVR might work better. Otherwise, I'll take streaming every time. And I've never been short on things to watch. Netflix, and more recently Amazon, have been killing it with original series that are as good as anything on HBO or networks.
With two young kids, it's nearly impossible to carve out 2-3 hours for sporting events.
I have to DVR and watch when they're sleeping. Or DVR the first half and "catch-up" to live action in the 4th. That's why I need the DVR and FFWD function. There is A LOT of stoppage time in a football game...
Also, if I want to review a play, I can do so and in slow motion (Corey Sanders has been an absolute treat this year!).
I realize not everyone is like me, but I hardly think I'm alone in my viewing habits.
I have to DVR and watch when they're sleeping. Or DVR the first half and "catch-up" to live action in the 4th. That's why I need the DVR and FFWD function. There is A LOT of stoppage time in a football game...
Also, if I want to review a play, I can do so and in slow motion (Corey Sanders has been an absolute treat this year!).
I realize not everyone is like me, but I hardly think I'm alone in my viewing habits.
Thanks for your help with all of this information. My comcast bill is going to jump a few $$ now that I am going to enter year 2 of the contract. Thinking ahead to what is the best option. My household basically watches cable news and Bravo and some sports. I feel like a cheaper option is out there versus the triple play that we are part of. Any suggestions/thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Investigating all the options, for a sports fan who wants BTN, the full complement of ESPNs (ESPN, ESPN, ESPNews, ESPNU) for college football, SNY for Mets, YES for Yankees, Fox Sports 1 and CBS Sports Network, seems going with a cable company (in my case Cablevision/Optimum) for 2 years, dumping them and switching to FIOS, rinsing/repeating is the best option.
High speed internet alone is at least $65/month through Optimum or FIOS.
YouTube package is $35/month, bringing total to $100/month.
Triple Play on FIOS for 2 year deal with a sports package for $90/month.
Cablevision/Optimum is $100/month on a 2 year deal.
There does not seem to be a less expensive option than $90-100/month?
High speed internet alone is at least $65/month through Optimum or FIOS.
YouTube package is $35/month, bringing total to $100/month.
Triple Play on FIOS for 2 year deal with a sports package for $90/month.
Cablevision/Optimum is $100/month on a 2 year deal.
There does not seem to be a less expensive option than $90-100/month?
You got to get a hold of The Cable Guy, slip him a $20 or 2.
He'll hook you up good.
Baloney.. I said they DON'T do it. Where's the fiber? Comcast can go out and buy a whole network (NBC) but they cannot invest in fiber?
They can ignore spending on infrastructure because they have captured markets. You want broadband and you live in a neighborhood in New Jersey? If you are lucky you have 2 choices.. FIOS and a cableco.. but many people have no choice.. it is cableco or DSL (and DSL is over copper that verizon is selling off and not maintaining).
Yeah, sports fans of multiple leagues will have the toughest time saving money. Do they even have regional sports stations like YES or whatever the Mets one is on streaming?
Being out of market actually helps here. MLB.TV for $120, I think, per year. $80 or so to follow a single team, but the $120 lets you choose home/away broadcasts and gives virtually every game, every team (national games can't see live but can watch in archives after they end). Can't watch in-market stuff, though. MLB has led the way in streaming, but has the most arcane broadcast rights rules out there.
Just cut the cord myself. Bill dropped from $175 to $85 for Internet only. Also plan to look at cheaper Internet options. MLB doesn't count because I need it either way to see Yankees games. Will add one of those bundles for BTN/ESPN between Sep and January, so five months max. Will be saving some $$.
MLB TV would be worthless to a Mets or Yankees fan who only wanted to watch Mets or Yankees games if they lived in Central/Northern NJ, correct?
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