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This week on TechHive: Net neutrality’s demise is already hurting cord-cutters
With the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) poised to dismantle net neutrality rules this month, there’s been a lot of talk of an internet doomsday. If internet providers become powerful gatekeepers, deciding what you see and how much you’ll pay to see it, this would have dire implications for anyone looking to cancel cable TV in favor of cheaper streaming video services.

But while Comcast and other providers have denied that they’ll ruin the internet in such dramatic fashion, the reality is that they don’t have to. Under the current FCC, these companies have already been granted a more insidious form of gatekeeper power. With a practice called zero-rating, internet service providers can omit their own streaming video services from the data caps that are becoming commonplace in home broadband.

Existing net neutrality regulations provide some protection against these practices, but the FCC no longer has any interest in enforcing them. And once the FCC eliminates net neutrality rules entirely, it’ll remove the last defense mechanism consumers have against punitive data caps. Read the full column on TechHive.

Weekly Rewind

DRM danger in Next-Gen TV: Although I didn’t send out a newsletter over Thanksgiving, I did file a column on a new broadcast TV standard called ATSC 3.0. Nicknamed “Next-Gen TV,” the standard brings a lot of benefits to over-the-air television, including 4K video support, more surround sound audio channels, interactive features, and mobile device access. But it also allows stations to apply copy-protection to their broadcasts, theoretically jeopardizing over-the-air DVR products such as Tablo and Plex DVR.

The folks I spoke to seem to agree that keeping people from recording broadcast shows is possible–especially for 4K HDR content that TV studios want to protect. But it’s early days for the standard, which won’t begin U.S. trials until next year and will require a simulcast of the current standard for at least five years after that. Whether DRM becomes the norm for broadcast shows is still tough to say. Read the full column on TechHive.

Plex DVR adds an ad stripper: Speaking of over-the-air DVR, Plex recently added an optional feature that removes commercial breaks from its live TV recordings. The feature is available in the beta version of Plex, and will attempt to automatically recognize and mark ads for deletion.

That’s a bold approach compared to Channels DVR and TiVo, both of which also offer ad-skipping features, but don’t actually remove the commercials from their recordings. In Plex’s case, there’s a risk of either leaving too much advertising in place or inadvertently deleting part of the actual program. That may explain why Plex is testing the feature in beta for now. I’m eager to hear from any Plex users who end up giving this a shot.

More Catch-Up

Save more money
If you’re looking to buy an Apple TV 4K, the cheapest way to do so right now is to prepay for four months of DirecTV Now. AT&T’s streaming bundle starts at $35 per month, so you’ll save $39 off the steraming box’s $179 retail price and will get four months of TV to go with it. Just remember to cancel DirecTV Now after signing up if you’re not planning to keep service. You’ll still get the four months you paid for either way.

Thanks for reading!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I’m feeling recharged, and ready to tackle the handful of things that are still on my review backlog.

As always, you can contribute to this newsletter through my Patreon page (for recurring payments) and my Ko-Fi page (for one-time payments), and help inspire future story ideas by sending in your feedback. Just reply to this email or find me on Twitter.

Until next week,
Jared