Cancellation tactics, Prime Video ads
This week on TechHive: Max’s sports plans change everything
Black Friday less than two months away, so this is the best time of the year to start canceling some of your streaming services.
Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, and other streaming services often provide deep discounts during the holiday shopping season, with a catch: They’re only available to new and returning subscribers. Hulu even requires subscribers to be inactive for a least a month before they’re eligible for a comeback deal.
That means if you’re still subscribed to those services a month from now, you’ll have a tougher time taking advantage of seasonal sales. Auditing your streaming subscriptions is always worthwhile anyway, so you might as well do it now.
Read the full column on TechHive →
Weekly rewind
Ads in Amazon Prime Video: Amazon says it will start showing ads in Prime Video next year, but not as a way of making the service cheaper. Instead, you’ll have to pay $3 per month extra to get Prime Video’s ad-free version. (The company clearly isn’t proud of it; its announcement blog post is simply titled “An update on Prime Video.”)
Of course, Amazon says it’s doing this to help pay for new content, so my advice is to only pick up the ad-free tier for a month or two at a time when there’s actually something worth watching. I’m also curious to see if Amazon’s digital rewards credit for no-rush shipping will apply to the ad-free tier, as that’d be a great way to defray the cost. We’ll find out in early 2024.
LG abandons ATSC 3.0 for now: Patent trolls have dealt a big blow to ATSC 3.0, the next-gen antenna TV standard that enables better video and sound quality, among other things. As NextTV reports, LG lost a patent lawsuit to Constellation Designs earlier this year and was ordered to pay $1.68 million in damages, plus royalties of $3 to $6.75 for each ATSC 3.0 TV it sells. Now, LG says it won’t include ATSC 3.0 tuners in its 2024 TV lineup, at least in the United States.
Antenna enthusiasts had already soured on ATSC 3.0 for its use of overly restrictive DRM, which has kneecapped external tuner boxes and over-the-air DVRs, but the standard’s ticket to broader adoption has always been through sales of new TVs with the requisite tuners built in. If TV makers become scared off by runaway patent licensing fees, it’s hard to see how ATSC 3.0 recovers.
CNN Max arrives: Warner Bros. Discovery has launched a streaming version of CNN on Max after announcing it last month. The channel is included with all Max plans, including the $10-per-month ad-supported tier.
It’s not exactly the same as the cable channel, though. While there’s some overlap in coverage, the lineup is different and it also carries some exclusive programming. This is Warner’s way of trying to prop up pay TV packages, while still offering something to those who’ve abandoned the bundle.
More catch-up
- Level News, which offered C-SPAN without cable, shuts down.
- Disney+ politely asks Canadian users not to share passwords.
- Bally Sports’ owner clings to its basketball streaming rights.
- Comcast and Charter are putting their smart TV software on Pioneer TVs.
- The writers strike is over.
Save more money
Amazon has started selling an exclusive Roku variant, dubbed the Roku Express 4K with Voice Remote Pro. Compared to the existing Roku Express 4K+, it has better Wi-Fi (802.11ac, instead of dual-band 802.11n), and it comes with Roku’s best remote, which has programmable buttons, hands-free voice control, and a headphone jack.
I mention it in this section because it’s up for pre-order at $50, which is $17 off the list price. It’s only a slight downgrade from the Roku Streaming Stick 4K+, which normally sells for $70, so not a bad deal overall.
Also, I mentioned this in my column but here’s a sneaky way for new Starz subscribers to get four months for $6 total:
- Sign up at the current $3 per month promo rate.
- Cancel immediately.
- Ignore the initial offer ($2 per month for three months) and hit “Continue Cancellation.”
- You’ll now get a second offer of $1 per month for three month, kicking in after the first month (for which you paid $3).
Finally, it’s your last chance to get two free months of Apple TV+ via Apple’s website (new and returning subscribers only, ends 9/30), or three months of YouTube TV for $55 per month (new subscribers only, ends 10/2).
As always, check out my big list of streaming deals for even more ways to save.
Thanks for reading!
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Until next week,
Jared