This week on TechHive: Hit shows get harder to buy
Back when the best shows were still on cable, a la carte purchases provided an alternative to signing up for a big TV bundle.
Instead of having to pay for cable, you could just buy individual seasons of the shows you cared about through services like iTunes, Amazon Video, Vudu, or Google Play. I fondly recall doing this with Breaking Bad after watching the first four seasons on Netflix, letting me watch the series’ conclusion alongside the cable-havers of the world.
But as more hit TV shows and movies become exclusive to streaming services, they’re becoming unavailable to purchase on their own. The only way to watch them is to sign up for yet another subscription—even if it’s only temporary.
This shift isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as you might end spend less on subscriptions if you’re careful about pruning them. But it also means you can’t easily keep as many favorite shows on your own terms without ongoing fees. Read the full column on TechHive.
Weekly rewind
NBC’s Olympic blues: Over the past week, we’ve seen a bunch of stories on the widespread frustration with NBC’s Tokyo Olympics coverage. A central complaint: It’s just too hard to figure out where to watch live events, with coverage strewn across NBC’s various cable channels and Peacock. There’s also the issue of inconsistent 4K support—it varies based on where you live, what streaming service you’re using, and which channel you’re watching—and the fact that NBC can’t stop spoiling its own coverage.
Some of this frustration simply comes down poor execution on NBC’s part, but it also ties into my column last week on the rising price of watching the Olympics. NBC wants to use the games as a growth vehicle for Peacock, but as Vulture’s Josef Adalian points out, NBC’s deals with cable providers likely preclude the company bringing all its coverage over the the streaming service.
The result is a messy situation in which viewers must juggle multiple TV services to get the full Olympics, and have no easy way to figure out where to watch any given event. It’s the perfect encapsulation of how convoluted sports streaming has become, and things are only going to get worse from here.
Hulu adds NFL channels: As announced back in April, Hulu has added the NFL Network to its $65 per month live TV service at no extra charge, and has created a new add-on package that includes NFL Redzone. The add-on costs $10 per month and also includes MAVTV, Motorsports Network, Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel, TVG, and TVG2.
With NFL Sunday Ticket staying exclusive to DirecTV for one more year, Redzone will remain the most cost-effective way to view live coverage from around the league, even if it doesn’t show the entirety of every game. YouTube TV, FuboTV, and Sling TV Blue all continue to offer Redzone as well, with each service charging $11 per month extra for sports add-ons on top of their base plans.
The weather wars escalate: Arguably the weirdest story in cord cutting right now is the race to create new streaming services entirely around the weather. The Weather Channel and Fox News have already been trash-talking one another over their respective services, both coming later this year, and now AccuWeather plans to join the fray this summer with a service of its own.
None of these companies have disclosed what they’ll charge for their weather coverage, nor have they explained why the weather is, in a Fox spokesperson’s words, an “incredibly underserved market.” In addition to the myriad apps that exist for checking the weather on your phone, you can already get free local weather info via Haystack News, free national weather info via WeatherNation, and The Weather Channel proper via Frndly TV, which starts at $6 per month and has 19 other channels to boot. Yet I can’t say I’m not just a little bit curious to see how this brewing streaming storm plays out.
More catch-up
- Dish Network gets HBO back, but Sling TV doesn’t.
- Hulu streams Lollapalooza this weekend at no extra charge.
- HBO shuts down its Apple TV Channel, forcing folks over to HBO Max.
- Locast brings cheap local channel streaming to Milwaukee.
Save more money
I neglected to mention this last week, but Google is selling a new Chromecast with Google TV bundle that includes three months of HBO Max for $65 total. HBO Max’s ad-free plan normally costs $15 per month, so this effectively brings the streaming device price down to $20. One major caveat, though: It’s only available to new HBO Max subscribers.
On the same product page, Google also continues to bundle its streaming device with six months of Netflix for $90. This effectively reduces the price of the Chromecast with Google TV to $6 if you’re an ongoing Netflix subscriber. Unlike the HBO Max bundle, this one’s also available to existing subscribers. (Here’s my Chromecast with Google TV review from last fall.)
Finally, some of the device deals I mentioned last week are still available, including the Roku Express 4K+ for $29, the Roku Streaming Stick+ for $39, and the Apple TV 4K for $169.
Thanks for reading!
One closing thought for the week: While reading this Reddit thread on people’s favorite streaming services, I was surprised to see how infrequently Netflix came up. Have you been feeling underwhelmed by Netflix lately or pleasantly surprised by its alternatives? Got other cord cutting questions you’d like me to answer? Just reply to this email with your thoughts!
Until next week,
Jared