Cord Cutter Weekly
This week on TechHive: Cord cutting gets complicated for sports fans
If you’re trying to watch local NBA or NHL games on regional Fox Sports channels without cable TV, your options have steadily dwindled over the past couple of years.

In mid-2019, Sling TV cut Sinclair-owned Fox Sports regionals out of its lineup, eliminating what was by far the cheapest way to stream those channels. FuboTV followed suit in January 2020, and PlayStation Vue shut down that same month. Last October, both YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV dropped Fox Sports regionals as well. That left AT&T as the last live TV streaming provider standing for those channels.

This week, the news got even worse for cord-cutters. AT&T has now discontinued its AT&T TV Now service for new subscribers, and is instead pushing customers toward AT&T TV, which is similar (and similarly named), but more expensive than the service it’s replacing. With professional basketball and hockey now back underway, watching local games without cable has become pricier than ever. Read the full column on TechHive.
Weekly rewind
AT&T TV Now no more: In case you don’t feel like clicking on this week’s column, here’s the gist of the changes AT&T is making to its streaming bundles:

  • As a replacement for AT&T TV Now, the telco is now offering a no-contract version of AT&T TV. It has more channels than AT&T TV Now did, but it’s also more expensive. Plans start at $70 per month without regional sports (versus $60 per month for AT&T TV Now), and $85 per month with regional sports (versus $80 per month for AT&T TV Now).
  • Those contract-free plans no longer include 500 hours of DVR storage, either. Instead, customers get 20 hours of storage, and can upgrade back to 500 hours for $10 per month.
  • Existing AT&T TV Now customers can keep the plans they have.
  • AT&T TV is still available with a two-year contract as well. This option includes a cable-like streaming box and 500 hours of DVR storage, but while the up-front price is cheaper at $60 per month, it jumps to $93 after one year. And for a plan without regional sports. With regionals, it’s $65 per month in year one and $110 in year two, plus a regional sports of around $8.50 per month. Yikes.

Of course, I’m glad there’s still at least one way to get regional sports without cable, but I don’t see how this is sustainable for Sinclair (which owns the Fox Sports regionals) or sports leagues in the long run. Even so, it sounds like those channels won’t be returning to other live TV streaming services anytime soon.

The ever-expanding streaming remote: I love this story by Protocol’s Janko Roettgers on how smart TV remotes have become increasingly bloated with branded shortcut buttons. Hisense, for instance, now has buttons for six different apps on its smart TV remotes, while LG has three separate voice control butons, including ones for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and its own AI assistant. These remotes, Roettgers writes, provide a window into the state of the streaming wars, with each company bartering for prime placement. I always thought streaming remotes were supposed to be simpler than the cable remotes they ‘re replacing, but it’s not hard to imagine a future where the number pads of old are replaced by an equal number of app shortcuts.

It’s worth noting, though, that this kind of remote bloat mostly applies to smart TVs rather than standalone streaming players. While Roku has always included four app shortcut buttons on its remotes, Amazon gets away with having none, and Google’s Chromecast with Google TV only has buttons for Netflix and YouTube. Let’s hope smart TV remotes aren’t a sign of what’s to come.
More catch-up
Save more money
The HBO Max prepay promotion that I mentioned last month must’ve gone pretty well (or pretty poorly), because now it’s been extended through March 1. If you’re a new or eligible returning subscriber, you can get six months of HBO Max for $70. That effectively brings the monthly price to $11.66, versus a regular price of $15 per month. Just hit the “Get the deal” button on HBO Max’s website to sign up.

Hulu, meanwhile, has just launched a discount for students, bringing the price of its ad-supported service from $6 per month to $2 per month. That deal is good for as long as your enrollment can be verified.
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Thanks for reading!
In any other year but this one, I’d have been running around Las Vegas for the CES trade show and coming back with cord-cutting news to report. This year’s show, however, was all virtual, and it was remarkably quiet on both the streaming and over-the-air TV fronts. I suspect that without the in-person element, a lot of companies felt little need to show off what they’re working on right now. Exhausting as it is, I missed being at the show, and hope conditions are hospitable enough to be back in Vegas next January.

Anyway, I spent a chunk of time getting through reader mail last week, so if you have any questions or comments, now’s a good time to send them over! Just reply to this email to get in touch.

Until next week,
Jared