One might think that these companies would respond with lower prices and more flexible TV options. Instead, the opposite is happening: They’re squeezing their remaining subscribers by cutting off promo deals and hiking prices. As a result, cord-cutting is starting to feel less like a choice and more like a necessity. Read the full column on TechHive.

Perhaps most notably, Epix Now includes Hollywood films in 4K. Other premium channels max out at 1080p, and Netflix and Amazon Prime only offer tiny selections of non-original movies and series in 4K. I haven’t been able to find a full list of 4K movies on Epix–and I don’t have an Apple TV 4K to test on–so I’d love to hear from anyone who’s checked it out so far.

Also worth noting, via this Reddit thread: If you’re a Spectrum internet customer–even without TV service–you can stream Epix for free. Just download the Epix app (which is separate from Epix Now, and is available on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and many other devices) and enter your Spectrum account credentials when prompted. I’ve tested this, and it works.

Philo and Fire TV make nice: Philo, a $16 per month bundle of non-sports channels, has a neat new integration with Amazon’s Fire TV devices. Now, live channels from Philo will appear in the “On Now” section of the Fire TV home screen. They’ll also show up in Amazon’s grid guide, which you can access by scrolling left from the On Now row and selecting “Guide.”

Here’s where gets really interesting: If you have Amazon’s Fire TV Recast DVR for over-the-air channels, those local channels will appear in the same guide. That means you can have a single guide that combines Philo’s streaming cable channels with the Recast’s local broadcast channels. You can even subscribe to premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime through Fire TV and view those channels’ live feeds within the guide as well. Not a bad way to replicate the cable experience on the cheap.

T-Mobile retools its TV plans: After buying pay TV startup Layer3 TV last year, T-Mobile talked a big game about launching a “disruptive new TV service” in 2018, one that would “take the fight to Big Cable and Satellite TV.” Those plans quickly went awry, as T-Mobile realized that taking on existing disruptors like YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV would be expensive and risky. Now, the carrier says it might not launch a live TV service at all, and will instead offer a marketplace for cheaper streaming services (such as Epix, for instance).

I say good luck. Amazon and Roku already offer similar subscription stores on their respective streaming platforms, and Apple is reportedly planning to do the same on Apple TV. To be remotely competitive, T-Mobile would have to build its own apps for those devices, then convince customers to download those apps just to access the same services they can already get directly from Roku, Amazon, or Apple. T-Mobile seems to think being a wireless carrier is an advantage–presumably because it can preload its apps on phones and aggressively upsell store customers–but those kinds of tactics can easily backfire. Just ask AT&T, whose grand plan of getting wireless customers hooked on DirecTV Now is imploding as we speak. T-Mobile still says it will launch some kind of video service in the second half of 2019; I won’t be shocked if it never launches at all.