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.

Sharing streaming passwords? Read this first.

Jared Newman   |   February 27, 2026

A lot’s changed since I first wrote about sharing your streaming passwords more than a decade ago.

While Netflix once lauded password sharing as a growth mechanism, lately it’s been pushing more password sharers to pay up as it focuses on growing revenue. Disney and HBO Max followed Netflix’s lead over the past few years, gradually introducing more roadblocks for account sharers.

But that doesn’t mean password sharing is dead. Technically, it’s still possible for all but a handful of streaming services, even if some terms of service technically forbid it. And even with services like Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max, the level of enforcement can vary, leaving some leeway to bend the rules.

Just so you know what you’re getting into, though, I’ve put together a guide to how each streaming service is handling password sharing in 2026.

Read the full column →

Weekly rewind

Netflix and HBO no more: Netflix isn’t acquiring Warner Bros. after all. Less than three months after Netflix emailed all its customers to portray the deal as done, Warner got a better offer from Paramount, and Netflix backed out.

Now we wait to see if regulators approve of this deal, but I have a hard time seeing how it benefits viewers. It didn’t take long for Warner to break all the consumer-friendly promises of its last merger, and this time consumer benefit isn’t even part of the discussion. It’s all about which company will pay the most money to get bigger.

YouTube Premium Lite improvements: YouTube is adding offline download support and background video playback on mobile devices to its $8 per month Premium Lite service. Like the standard version of YouTube Premium, the Lite version offers ad-free viewing for most YouTube videos, but it doesn’t include YouTube Music for streaming songs without video.

The regular Premium subscription, which costs $14 per month, still includes a few extra non-music features, such as video queuing and a way to jump past commonly-skipped parts of videos, but Lite is what most folks should get now if they just want ad-free YouTube.

The younguns discover DVDs: I loved reading this piece by Cerys Davies at the Los Angeles Times about Gen Z’s recent fascination with movies on disc. While physical media sales still fell by 9% last year, that’s a lower rate of decline than previous years, and indie L.A. rental shops such as Vidiots and Cinefile say business is booming. Criterion Collection also says it’s seeing “significant year-over-year increases” in sales.

Streaming is still going to be king. But I could certainly see the rise of another vinyl situation, where younger folks who love movies come to appreciate both the satisfaction of content ownership and the deliberate act of sitting down with physical media. Now all we have to do is teach these kids about the joys of running a media server.

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.

Roku is currently offering the best prices I’ve seen on its streaming devices for select users. The deals include Roku’s Streaming Stick HD for $10, Streaming Stick Plus for $15, Streaming Stick 4K for $30, Ultra for $50, and Streambar SE for $50.

To see if you’re eligible, head to this page on Roku’s website and sign into your account. You’re limited to one discount per account, so choose wisely.

Other notable deals:

  • Not eligible for the above? Amazon has the Roku Streaming Stick for $16.
  • DirecTV’s MyKids package (with Disney+ and a bunch of kid-centric channels) is down to $15 per month for two months.
  • Still available: Two months of Paramount+ Premium  for $1 per month with promo code BG2L7M. Select returning subscribers only, will not work for new subscribers.
  • Also still available: One year of Britbox for $82 for new subscribers. Also available via Amazon Prime, where former subscribers may be eligible.

More tech advice from me

This week in my Advisorator newsletter, I wrote why the cost of consumer electronics is shooting up and what you can do about it. Plus: New Chrome tricks, a secure way to store important documents online, and a $40 portable monitor.

Thanks for reading!

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