This week on PCWorld: The high cost of a la carte ESPN
Jared Newman | 
Okay, I decided to write a little more about ESPN’s a la carte streaming service, which launches this fall.
At $30 per month, it’s three times what ESPN reportedly earns in per-subscriber carriage fees as part of a big pay TV bundle. If you’re having trouble figuring out who would pay for such a thing, the answer might be “hardly anyone.”
ESPN’s standalone service is supposed to unappealing enough that people don’t cancel cable to get it. More than anything, it’s a signal that you should probably get the channel some other way, be it through a pay TV package or through newer kinds of streaming bundles, which Disney and its cohorts are trying to assemble.
Weekly rewind
Walmart’s $30 streaming box: After appearing sporadically in stores and online without any kind of announcement, the Walmart Onn Google TV 4K Plus is here for good. The $30 box supports 4K video with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos—features that cost $20 more on Roku and Amazon streamers—and it comes with 16 GB of storage and 2 GB of RAM.
Walmart’s $50 Pro box is still a nicer option, with a backlit remote, a remote finder function, wired ethernet support, a USB accessory port, twice the storage (32 GB), and more RAM (3 GB). But if you’re into the Google TV software and don’t need the extra bells and whistles, you can spend a little less on this model instead. (Here’s a helpful image from Walmart comparing its various streaming players.)
Vizio and Sling embrace the antenna: Sling TV is partnering with Vizio on a neat integration with over-the-air antennas. If you plug an antenna into a 2016 or later Vizio TV, you can now use the Sling app to access local channels alongside Sling’s streaming offerings. It’s a great idea given that Sling lacks local channels in many markets (and is cheaper than most other live TV streaming services accordingly).
Sling’s no stranger to antenna integration though its AirTV devices, but the Vizio tie-in doesn’t require any extra hardware. Check Sling’s help page for setup instructions.
More catch-up
- You can now launch the Roku City screensaver through a standalone app. (But you should really be using the Aquatic Life screensaver instead.)
- Nice idea: A section for women’s sports in Fubo’s app.
- Another sports team ditches FanDuel Sports Network in favor of streaming and over-the-air. (It’s the Tampa Bay Lightning.)
- Sesame Street is coming to Netflix.
- Google still says its Gemini AI is coming to TVs this year, after demoing it in January.
Save more money
This section of the newsletter has some affiliate links, which earn me a commission if you wind up buying something.
DirecTV is currently taking $30 off the first month for some of its live TV streaming packages. Most notably, you can get a month of the Choice plan (which includes regional sports) for around $70, or maybe a bit more depending on regional sports fees in your area.
After the first month, you get a $10 discount for two more months, or for 23 months if you lease one of DirecTV’s Gemini streaming boxes (which itself adds $10 per month to the price). As usual, this is for new subscribers only.
Other notable deals:
- Peacock: You can still get a year of Premium (with ads) for $25 instead of $80. This deal ends on May 30.
- Paramount+: I just used this link for another free month with Showtime. That’s my third time with the same email, so I guess it’s still working for me. If you get an error, you may just need to try another email address.
- Apple TV 4K: The 128 GB model (with wired ethernet and Thread hub capabilities) is on sale for $130, only a buck more than the 64 GB version. (The 64 GB model is also on sale for $120.)
Remember that I keep a full list of up-to-date deals on the Cord Cutter Weekly website.
Thanks for reading!
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Until next week,
Jared