Quick programming note: Cord Cutter Weekly will be off next week as I’ll be visiting family for Rosh Hashanah. The newsletter will return on Friday, October 11.

We’re less than couple of weeks from the start of hockey season, and the streaming situation looks just as complicated as baseball was over the summer.

As pay TV subscriptions decline and the regional sports business model collapses, NHL teams are moving in different directions. Some are spinning up new regional sports streaming services, while others are partnering with broadcasters to distribute local games for free over the air. Others are still clinging to the regional sports model, requiring bloated pay TV packages with no cheaper standalone alternatives.

It’s a mess, and it doesn’t help that the information you need can be scattered all over the place. Just like during baseball season, I’ve put it all back together again.

Read the full column on TechHive →

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Weekly rewind

Disney’s password sharing prohibitions: Disney says it’s now enforcing rules against Disney+ account sharing, roughly a year after announcing plans to do so. The service will now establish a “Household” location based on factors such as IP address, and it will restrict access to the account from elsewhere on connected TV devices. (No such restrictions apply on mobile devices and laptops.)

What about vacation? You’ll be able to authorize out-of-home use with a verification code sent to your email address. You can also update your Household location if you’re staying for a while, though Disney says it may put limits on location-switching. There’s also an option to add a single out-of-home account at a cost of $7 per month with ads or $10 per month without.

Disney previously announced similar plans for Hulu and ESPN+ but hasn’t flipped those particular switches yet.

Will the crackdown work? It did for Netflix, but that service has a unique gravitational pull in the streaming world. Meanwhile, a recent Forbes survey found that Disney+ subscribers had the highest likelihood of cancelling in response to new password sharing rules or price hikes, which Disney is also doing.

New Roku Ultra: Roku has released a new version of its $100 streaming box, with faster performance, Wi-Fi 6, and support for Quick Media Switching, a feature on some high-end TVs that can toggle between refresh rates without flickering the screen on and off.

The new Ultra also includes Roku’s second-gen Voice Remote Pro, which has backlit keys, a handy shortcut button, a remote finder function, and an internal battery with USB-C charging. (The same remote is a $30 upgrade for other Roku models, and I reviewed it here.) I’ve got the new Ultra in-house for testing and will be reviewing it in the near-ish future.

Fubo’s expanded multiview: Fubo is bringing split-screen channel views to Roku devices in a public beta. The new Roku Ultra supports four views at once, while the Roku Express 4K, Express 4K+, Streaming Stick 4K, and Streaming Stick 4K+ will be limited to two channels at a time. Support for four-way multiview is coming to more devices in the future.

Fubo has long supported multiview on Apple TV boxes, and unlike YouTube TV’s take on that feature, it works with any two channels instead of just specific pairings. I’ve updated my article on streaming multiview options accordingly.

More catch-up

• Roku’s next software update adds a kids section, thumbs up/down buttons for recommendations, and new voice commands for various system settings.
• Google’s new $100 streaming box doesn’t include an HDMI cable.
• LG stuffs screensaver ads onto its smart TVs—even the super-expensive OLEDs—but you can turn them off.
• Google TV devices will integrate more sports content on the home screen.
• Apple TV may soon separate watchlist items from shows-in-progress.

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Save more money

Today’s the last day to get three months of Disney+ for $2 per month. Maybe now’s the time to jump aboard if you’re about to get burned by the aforementioned password sharing crackdown, though we’ve historically seen Disney+ deals reemerge around Black Friday as well.

Other notable deals:

• Also ending today: Two free months of Apple TV+ for new and returning subscribers.
• Ending September 30: Three months of Discovery+ for $1 per month.
• The sale on annual Paramount+ subscriptions is over, but you can still get a free month on the ad-free plan via this link. Or, use the code OGGMPZR3YBW to get three months free with ads. (New and returning subscribers only.)
• See my master list of deals—including Peacock, Britbox, YouTube TV, and more—on the Cord Cutter Weekly website, updated every Friday.

Thanks for reading!

As mentioned earlier, I’ll be taking next week off from Cord Cutter Weekly and will return on October 11. Got cord cutting questions in the meantime? Just reply to this email to get in touch.

Until next week,
Jared