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.

Digging into YouTube TV’s genre plans

Jared Newman   |   February 20, 2026

After months of build-up, YouTube TV’s new Sports and genre plans feel underwhelming.

YouTube started hyping up these plans in December, promising cheaper bundles with fewer channels you don’t care about. Sports fans, for instance, can get a package without news or entertainment channels, while sports haters can finally stop subsidizing expensive channels like ESPN.

But while the new plans could save you some money, they’re not much different from other skinny bundles that DirecTV and Fubo offer already. In some cases, they might even be worse.

Read the full column →

Weekly rewind

Fire TV redesign: Amazon has started rolling out the new Fire TV home screen it announced in early January. The new design moves menus like Movies, TV Shows, and Free to the very top of the screen, and it ditches the six pinned apps beneath the feature carousel. Instead, up to 20 installed apps appear a little further down the screen. In other words, it looks a lot like the Google TV home screen now.

Don’t be surprised if you still have the old home screen, though. For now the redesign is only available on the latest Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Stick 4K Select, and Fire TV Stick 4K Max, along with Fire TV Omni Mini-LED TVs, and the rollout could take a while even on those devices. I’m not seeing it on any of my devices yet but will do a deeper dive once it arrives.

MyVelo update: The MyVelo TV box was one of the most intriguing products I saw at CES in 2025, combining an Android TV streaming box with an ATSC 3.0 over-the-air tuner and DVR capabilities. But despite promises of a spring 2025 launch, it never wound up shipping.

Now, MyVelo is back with a revised product and a new ship date of May 2026. Supposedly it’ll be faster than the original version, with better HDR support, though it also has a higher price of $150. (For those who pre-ordered the original box for $100, MyVelo says it’ll honor that price.) I’m still looking forward to trying it out eventually. (Thanks to Mark J. for pointing this out in the Tech Buds forum.)

More catch-up

Save more money

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

With MLS and F1 getting underway, here’s a reminder that you can get a free month of Apple TV via this link. The offer is for new and “qualified” returning subscribers, and in my experience different members of an Apple Family Sharing group can redeem these trials in succession.

Other notable deals:

  • Rare Britbox deal brings the price to $82.50 for one year via Amazon Prime. (Discount appears at checkout when you pick the annual plan.)
  • Roku device deals return: Streaming Stick for $16, Streaming Stick Plus for $24, Ultra for $71.
  • Paramount+ is still $1 per month for two months of Premium with promo code BG2L7M. Select returning subscribers only, will not work for new subscribers.

As always, I keep a full list of active streaming deals on the Cord Cutter Weekly website.

More tech advice from me

This week in my Advisorator newsletter, I wrote about “surveillance” pricing and how to avoid it, home internet backup plans and who really needs them, and an audio enhancement that you must hear to believe:

Thanks for reading!

That’s all for now. Catch you next week.
– Jared

Spread the word: Share this newsletter or the sign-up page

Support me: Get my cord cutting guide, buy me a coffee, or become an Advisorator member.