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.

What Netflix buying Warner is really about

Jared Newman   |   December 12, 2025

If you want to know how Netflix’s plan to acquire Warner Bros. will affect you, I suggest not getting your answers from Netflix.

Last weekend, the streaming giant emailed customers implying the deal was done (subject line: “Welcoming Warner Bros. to Netflix”) even though that’s far from being settled. Its press release and help page are only marginally more informative, provided you can sift through all the boilerplate proclamations and canned executive quotes.

Ultimately this deal is about power. For Netflix, it’s a way to fulfill its goal of being a singular source for streaming, which in turn will help it raise prices, freeze out rivals, and tilt the distribution of movies and shows in its favor. Expect a lot of fighting between Netflix, rivals, and regulators before that’s allowed to happen.

Read the full column →

Weekly rewind

YouTube TVs package plans: After securing Disney’s blessing for more flexible genre-based packages, YouTube now says it will offer more than 10 of them next year. It’s not revealing any specifics, except that one package will be a “YouTube TV Sports Plan” with the major broadcast networks, ESPN, FS1, NBC Sports, and other sports channels. No word in pricing.

DirecTV led the way with genre packs earlier this year, including a $70 per month sports and news package, a $40 per month bundle of local channels and cable news, and a $35 per month entertainment bundle that includes Disney+, Hulu, and Max. Fubo followed with its own $56 per month Sports bundle. Hopefully YouTube’s version will break the bundle open even further.

Comcast’s TV plan makeover: After years of obscuring the true cost of its TV packages, Comcast is embracing transparency. If you want to see what Comcast charges for TV these days, you can now just go its website and look at the list of plans, without having to enter an address or read the fine print for hidden fees. It’s also upping DVR storage to 300 hours and giving everyone an X1 cable box at no extra charge.

There is one point of confusion, though: The big dollar price on Comcast’s site assumes a bundle with home internet, but it also says “$10 discount with internet” underneath. You might interpret that as being an additional discount, but no, the advertised price is for internet customers, and not having internet would increase the price by $10. (Comcast’s standard “TV Plus” package, for instance, is $95 per month for internet customers, and $105 per month for TV-only.)

This graphic I got from Comcast PR makes it clearer:

Astute readers will also notice that Comcast’s “Sports & News TV” package is now $10 pricier than it was when it launched in January. Some things never change.

Peacock’s promo price weirdness: Here’s a funny Reddit thread about the wide range of comeback deals Peacock has extended to folks who’ve cancelled their subscriptions. Some were offered $30 for a year, some $60 for a year, and others nothing at all. One poster claims to have spotted a note in the fine print saying the price was “set by an algorithm using your personal data.”

Peacock notably sat out of this year’s Black Friday deal extravaganza. Now it might be profiling users in hopes of weeding out perpetual discount hunters (yo) and figuring out who’s willing to pay full price year-round. (The service didn’t offer me anything, so now I’m not subscribed at all.)

More catch-up

Save more money

This section of the newsletter has some affiliate links, which earn me a commission if you wind up buying or subscribing to something.

Philo had the clever idea to wait until after the Black Friday rush to launch its own holiday discount. For new subscribers, it’s currently offering the first month for $25 instead of the usual $33.

Philo does not include any local, news, or sports channels, but it does offer a mix of entertainment channels, plus access to HBO Max, AMC+, and Discovery+ (all with ads). The sale runs through the end of the year but could stick around longer.

Other notable deals:

As always, I keep a full list of streaming deals updated here.

Everything I know about stopping spam

This week, I’ve got a hefty new guide for Advisorator’s paying members, and it’s all about dealing with spam calls, spam texts, and spam emails.

Spam is a topic I get asked about often, and while I’ve scattered bits of advice for dealing without it throughout the newsletter, one thing I haven’t done is put all of that information in one place.

So here’s a big guide that makes stopping spam as simple as possible. Follow these steps, and you’ll significantly cut down on unwanted calls, texts, or emails from illegitimate senders.

Here’s my ultimate guide to stopping spam →

An Advisorator membership gets you access to all the guides and tutorials I’ve ever written, plus a bunch of other resources for sharpening your tech skills. You can even sign up for a month and read everything. I’d really appreciate your support!

Thanks for reading!

Got questions? Let me know!

Until next week,
Jared

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