Amazon’s new Fire TV gear, Bally Sports without cable
This week on TechHive: Amazon’s new Fire TV gear
Amazon clearly did its homework before announcing a few new Fire TV devices this week.
Instead of inventing lots of wild new features, Amazon leaned heavily on the ideas of others. From the 4K upscaling on the new Fire TV Cube to the backlit keys of the new Voice Remote Pro, Amazon took plenty of inspiration from a slew of other streaming devices.
I don’t think that’s a bad thing, either. If anything, companies like Roku, Apple, and Google don’t copy each other’s streaming ideas enough. A bit of shameless pilfering is just what streaming hardware needs to move forward. Read the full column on TechHive.
Weekly rewind
Bally Sports+ goes nationwide: After arriving in a handful of areas earlier this year, Bally Sports+ has launched across all its other markets. For $20 per month or $190 per year, you can watch live sports coverage from the regional Bally Sports channel in your area without a pay TV package. Roku support is also finally available, joining Bally’s existing support for Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV devices.
While the tail end of baseball season isn’t available in the new markets, they do offer live NBA and NHL coverage. Plugging your zip code into Bally’s website lets you see which teams you can watch.
Until now, Bally Sports channels have required a $90 per month DirecTV Stream subscription to watch without traditional TV service. The standalone option isn’t cheap, but it’ll save you money if you’ve otherwise abandoned pay TV packages and still want to watch regional sports. Bally has more details over on its FAQ page.
Doom and gloom for cable: Here’s a remarkable statistic from analyst firm MoffettNathanson: Of the 1.94 million homes that cut the cord last quarter, only 26% of them picked up a live TV streaming service such as YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV. That’s down from 40% a year ago, and it means nearly three quarters of cord cutters are abandoning traditional cable channels outright, presumably fed up by their escalating costs and declining quality.
It’s going to get worse for those who stick around, as TV networks continue to bank on live sports, cable news, and the power of inertia to justify more price hikes and longer commercial breaks. As I’ve said before, they’re just daring you to give up that one channel or sporting event you love—and increasingly, many people are.
Epix’s dull new name: If you thought traditional media companies were uniquely terrible at naming their streaming services, Amazon announced that it’s renaming Epix to MGM+. The tech giant acquired MGM earlier this year for $8.5 billion as a way to bring in well-known franchises such as Robocop and Rocky.
What’s especially strange about the “Plus” framing is that it also applies to Epix’s full array of cable channels: Epix 2, Epix Hits, and Epix Drive-In will be renamed to MGM+ Hits, MGM+ Marquee, and MGM+ Drive-In, respectively. I’d suggest just dropping the superfluous “Plus” outright, but I guess that’s why they don’t pay me the big bucks.
More catch-up
- Netflix’s password sharing crackdown causes more outrage outside the U.S.
- Now you can subscribe to YouTube TV’s channel add-ons without YouTube TV.
- Fans of cable companies can now stream Spectrum’s TV service through Comcast’s smart TVs.
Save more money
If you’re intrigued by Amazon’s new Fire TV Cube, you can knock $40 off the pre-order price with the promo code 4KCUBE at checkout. That brings the price to $100 for Amazon’s fastest streaming box, with hands-free Alexa control and a full-sized USB accessory port. The new Cube starts shipping on October 25.
Also, if you’re reading this on Friday, September 30, today’s your last chance to snag a year of Peacock Premium for $20 or 12 months for $2 per month, down from the usual price of $50 per year or $5 per month. Just sign up on Peacock’s website and select the “Annual Plans” option.
For more ways to save, check out my big list of streaming deals.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks so much to everyone who took my Cord Cutter Weekly reader survey. While the gift card drawing is over (congrats, Peter S.!), you can still fill out the survey if you like. This feedback has been super valuable, and I especially enjoyed reading the little comments at the end.
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Until next week,
Jared