The 2022 cord cutter awards, Peacock’s NBC streams
This week on TechHive: The 2022 Cord Cutter Awards
The annual Cord Cutter Awards is something I’ve been doing for TechHive since 2015. I’ve always tried to have some fun with the format, throwing in a few weird and admittedly arbitrary superlatives alongside the requisite nods to the best streaming devices and services.
This was a bit of an odd year due to the relative paucity of transformative new products, but I still managed to find some streaming TV achievements worth celebrating. Read the full TechHive column for my picks.
(And yes, I know 2022 isn’t done yet, but TechHive wanted a story earlier than usual and I don’t foresee any major new launches coming before the year ends.)
Weekly rewind
Roku Ultra re-review: Alongside the Cord Cutter Awards, I also got around to refreshing my review of the Roku Ultra. While the streaming box itself is unchanged from two years ago, this year Roku repackaged it with a better remote for the same $100. The review also revisits Roku’s software, which is starting to make some strides in helping you figure out what to watch.
I still think the $50 Roku Streaming Stick 4K is the better overall value, and Roku faces tough competition on the high end from the Apple TV 4K and its refreshingly ad-free interface. Even so, the Roku Ultra offers enough bells and whistles to be worthy of consideration.
Peacock’s NBC live streams: Starting November 30, Peacock will add local NBC stations to its $10 per month Premium Plus tier, allowing you to watch local news, sports, and primetime shows live. This makes NBC the second major TV network to unbundle its live local channels from pay TV packages, the other being CBS on Paramount+ Premium. (PBS offers a free live stream in many markets as well.)
Of course, you can still get NBC for free with an antenna, or in a bundle with live TV streaming services such as YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV. Think of Peacock’s stream as the in-between option, catering to NBC viewers who don’t get good enough antenna reception but don’t want to pay for a big bundle of TV channels. Now to see if ABC and Fox follow suit.
C-SPAN unbundles: Until now, the only way to stream C-SPAN has been through DirecTV Stream as part of its $70 per month bundle. A new service called Level News is bringing that cost way down, offering C-SPAN and a handful of other news channels for $6 per month. It’s available on Roku, Android TV, and Fire TV, but not on Apple TV at present.
Most of Level’s other channels, such as Bloomberg Television and France24, are available for free elsewhere, but I can see some appeal here for avid C-SPAN watchers that don’t otherwise want a huge pay TV package.
More catch-up
- Roku has a new menu to help make sense of sports streaming.
- Report: Apple TV may stream up to 40% of MLS games for free.
- PCMag lists everything you can’t watch on Netflix’s ad-supported tier.
Save more money
The new Chromecast with Google TV HD has dropped to $18, down from its $30 list price and $2 less than last week. I suspect these kinds of discounts will be commonplace as Google tries to win market share from Roku and Amazon, but it’s still a great deal on a solid streaming player, with a better remote than other budget streamers.
Also notable: From November 25 through November 30, new Philo subscribers can get their first month for $5 (a $20 discount) with promo code thanks. If you’re looking for the cheapest way to watch Season 5 of Yellowstone on the Paramount cable channel (not to be confused with Paramount+) and don’t mind watching the first two episodes in catch-up mode, this deal will be it.
For more ways to save on streaming, check out my big list of streaming deals, which I continue to keep up to date every week.
Thanks for reading!
One last note about Hulu + Live TV’s upcoming price hikes, which I wrote about back in August. I know some of you have been getting emails from Hulu about it, so it’s top of mind again.
The thing to note is that you can still keep the price at $70 per month, but only with Disney+’s ad-supported tier. If you want to keep Disney+’s ad-free version as part of the bundle, that’ll cost $75 per month—an option that’s only available to current subscribers. As before, Hulu + Live TV also includes ESPN+ and Hulu’s on-demand catalog at no extra charge, both with ads.
One thing I’m still seeking clarification on is whether you’ll be able to downgrade to the $70 per month tier before the price hike takes effect on December 8. I’ll keep you posted!
In the meantime, send me your cord cutting questions by replying to this email.
Until next week,
Jared