Want to know why Disney channels are still blacked out on DirecTV a full week into football season? Just Google the phrase “offset by higher contractual rates.”

In one earnings report after another, this type of business jargon explains how Disney and other TV programmers have tried to blunt the impact of cord cutting. While subscriber numbers are tanking, programmers prop up revenues by raising carriage fees for their channels—the aforementioned “higher contractual rates.” Instead of making TV bundles more attractive through choice and flexibility, the industry has chosen to fleece whoever hasn’t reached their personal breaking point through routine price hikes.

This strategy has never been sustainable, and now the bill has come due. The dispute between DirecTV and Disney is a sign that TV providers are reaching their own breaking points, and are no longer willing to sit on their hands while their businesses evaporate—even if it means their customers miss out on football.

The sad thing is that it didn’t have to be this way.

Read the full column on TechHive →

---

Weekly rewind

DirecTV price hikes: The ongoing Disney channel blackout isn’t keeping DirecTV from its regularly-scheduled price hikes, both for its satellite and DirecTV Stream services. The new rates take effect from October 6 onward, and will bring DirecTV Stream‘s base price to $87 per month, or $115 per month with regional sports.

On the upside, DirecTV now says it‘s offering $30 bill credits to compensate for Disney‘s missing channels, up from the $20 it was offering last week.

Tablo fumbles: Tablo over-the-air DVR users had a tough time tuning into football on Sunday, as a server outage resulted in cryptic error messages. The issue, which Tablo resolved later in the day, left users wondering why basic live TV playback from an antenna would require an internet connection to begin with.

A spokesperson for Tablo owner Scripps told Matthew Keys that it’s now working on a software update that will enable offline playback for live channels, and will immediately communicate outages in the future. Still, the incident is another example of the kind of reliability issues that arose in my testing last year.

More football info: In response to last week’s column on sports streaming guides, Bruce J. wished that I‘d mentioned 506Sports, and I’m mad at myself for not doing so. The long-running website‘s NFL coverage maps show you exactly which games are airing where, along with an extensive channel list for college football. Thanks for the call-out, Bruce!

More catch-up

• Roku brings digital artwork to more of its smart TVs.
• Hallmark Movies Now rebrands as Hallmark+, with higher prices and assorted rewards perks.
• Panasonic will sell the first Fire TV televisions with ATSC 3.0 tuners.
• Channels DVR lets you create your own menus now. (I’ve got a Channels primer here.)
• DirecTV adds support for multiple user profiles.
• A digital ad company wants to build its own smart TV OS.
• This report on the “cable-pocalypse” complements my TechHive column nicely.

---

Save more money

Disney+ is having a rare sale on its ad-supported service, bringing the price to $2 per month for up to three months. The offer runs through September 27, and the price will jump to $10 per month when the three-month promo rate expires. (A limited-use card can prevent that from happening without your permission.)

Disney Movie Insiders can also redeem three months of the full Disney bundle—Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ with ads—for free. Unfortunately the Insider program is winding down at the end of this year and will no longer take new sign-ups, so it’s only available to folks who joined the program earlier.

Other notable savings:

• Discovery+: Get three months for $1 per month with ads, or $2 per month without. Also available through Amazon Prime Video.
• Criterion Channel: Get a year for $80, a 20% discount. New subscribers only.
• See a full list of up-to-date deals—including Paramount+, NFL+, and more—on the Cord Cutter Weekly website.

Thanks for reading!

Got cord cutting questions for me? Reply to this email to get in touch.

Until next week,
Jared