Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, and this is Cord Cutter Weekly, my newsletter on how to save money on TV and make the most of streaming. Sign up here if someone shared this newsletter with you.
YouTube to Hollywood: We’re going to eat you
Jared Newman | 
Hey folks, no regular column from me this week, but I’ll have a couple of them to share in next week’s newsletter.
In the meantime, here’s a story I wrote for Fast Company about how YouTube is gradually taking over how people create and consume video online. On televisions in particular, YouTube now accounts for 12.4% of daily watch time in the United States according to Nielsen, and passed Netflix (now far behind at 7.5%) more than two years ago. (That’s regular YouTube, not the cable replacement service YouTube TV.)
The story gets into how major TV programmers are embracing YouTube as a result, how smaller creators are becoming like miniature studios, and how YouTube is in position to unify a fragmented TV world—even if that’s not necessarily great for viewers and creators in the end. Read the story here →
Weekly rewind
Goodbye, click to cancel: A federal appeals court has blocked the Federal Trade Commission’s “click to cancel” rules, which it proposed under the Biden administration. The rules would have required subscription providers to offer easy online cancellations and notifications when free trials or promotions were about to end. While the Trump administration had already delayed enforcement, the court blocked the rules on procedural grounds.
Some sites have framed this as a boon to streaming services, but pretty much every major streaming service already allows for easily online cancellation. The real opponents of click to cancel rules were cable companies, which howled incessantly about how people might “misunderstand the consequences of cancelling” if they didn’t have to call customer service first.
Fubo privacy settlement: Fubo has settled a class action lawsuit that accused the service of giving personally-identifiable information to advertisers without permission, violating a law that protects the privacy of users’ viewing histories. Fubo denies any wrongdoing, but agreed to pay $3.4 million as part of the settlement.
If you’ve ever signed up for Fubo, you probably got an email about getting a share of the money, a process you can sign up for online. Just don’t expect a big payday. Fubo had nearly 1.7 million subscribers in North America as of February, and the settlement extends to former customers as well. Factor in attorney fees, and there’s not much to go around.
More catch-up
- Max has officially changed its name back to HBO Max again. I wrote about this when Warner announced it in May.
- Anime service Crunchyroll embarrasses itself with bad AI translations, which it blamed on a “third party vendor.”
- Amazon tests getting rid of the pinned app row on more devices. (Let me know if you’re seeing this.)
- CNN is taking its free streaming channel more seriously.
Save more money
This section of the newsletter has some affiliate links, which earn me a commission if you wind up buying something.
If you haven’t jumped on the Paramount+ deal that offers two months for $1 per month, now’s your last chance. The offer, which works for either the Essential or ad-free Premium tier, expires on July 13.
Both new and returning subscribers are eligible, and the deal may be as good as things get for a while, as Paramount+ doesn’t offer recurring free month promo codes like it used to. You can sign up here and add promo code SUMMERSUN if the discount doesn’t kick in automatically.
Other notable deals:
- I will continue to encourage getting three months of Peacock Premium for free with promo code PEA2LOPP7EXU95.
- Prime Day Roku deals: Streaming Stick HD for $20, Streaming Stick Plus for $30, Streaming Stick 4K for $35, and Ultra for $69. I made a flowchart to help you figure out the difference.
- A rare Walmart Onn 4K Pro deal brings the streaming box price to $45. Great product, which I reviewed last year.
- Amazon Fire TV Stick HD for $18, Fire TV Stick 4K for $25, Fire TV Stick 4K Max for $35.
- Tablo DVRs hit record-low prices: $60 for dual tuners, $100 for quad tuners.
- Various Prime Video add-ons are still on sale for $1 per month for two months, including Britbox, BET+, AcornTV, MGM+, and Hallmark+. The Streamable has a full list of deals.
As always, my big list of streaming deals is updated every Friday.
And if you’re interested in other tech deals as Prime Day comes to an end, I posted some highlights in my other newsletter.
Thanks for reading!
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Until next week,
Jared