With Hulu + Live TV raising prices from $55 per month to $65 today, I wanted to revisit FuboTV as a potentially cheaper alternative. The service offers a similar mix of cable channels, including local news, national sports, and a broad range of entertainment channels, but it has a starting price of $60 per month. That undercuts both Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV by $5 per month.

Fubo doesn’t make the extra savings easy to get, though. The $60-per-month option is buried behind multiple menu layers, and if you’re already a subscriber, there’s no clear way to switch without calling customer service. It’s almost as if Fubo doesn’t want you to sign up for its cheapest plan, which makes you wonder why the company bothers to offer it. Read the full column on TechHive.

The situation’s a bit more complicated for those who’ve subscribed to HBO via The Roku Channel, rather than through HBO’s app. To get HBO Max, you’ll have to cancel your subscription through this page, then download the HBO Max app and sign up as a new subscriber. You won’t be able to sign up through The Roku Channel again, as Roku has stopped selling HBO subscriptions directly.

A notable bit of backstory: According to the Wall Street Journal, WarnerMedia won’t be providing any content for The Roku Channel as part of the deal. Roku’s goal of building up The Roku Channel—where it can make more money from advertising and subscription revenue—has been a sticking point with content providers and a reason that Roku is less of a neutral party than it used to be. But with HBO Max debuting Wonder Woman 1984 next week, and bringing all of its 2021 films to the service on the same day as their theatrical releases, it sounds like Roku relented.

Apple TV on Google TV: In other app availability news, Apple will be bringing its Apple TV app to the Chromecast with Google TV early next year, with other Android TV devices to follow. That means you’ll be able to watch Apple TV+ originals and previous iTunes video purchases on those devices without any clunky Chromecast mirroring workarounds.

Because Google’s TV situation is a branding minefield, a clarification: The Chromecast with Google TV is not to be confused with older Chromecasts, which don’t include a remote control or TV-based menu system and aren’t getting Apple TV support from what we’ve heard so far. The new Chromecast with Google TV runs on a different platform called Android TV, which is also used by other devices such as Sony smart TVs and the Nvidia Shield TV streaming box. Apple TV already works on the former, and I’m hoping it’ll come to the latter as a Shield TV user myself.

And of course, the Apple TV app is not to be confused with the Apple TV streaming box, which is not to be confused with the Apple TV+ streaming service or Apple TV Channels subscriptions, but that’s a whole other story.

Cable streaming apps come and go: In even more app availability news, Comcast has released its Xfinity Stream app on Amazon’s Fire TV devices. If you’re still getting TV service from the cable giant, that means you can use a Fire TV streaming player or Fire TV Edition smart TV in lieu of renting cable boxes, for which Comcast will charge $7.50 per month in 2021. You can remotely install the app to your Fire TV through this app store link.

We’ve also got some bad news for Spectrum TV subscribers: Roku has pulled the Spectrum app from its own store over some sort of contractual disagreement. You can still use the app if you have it already, but until the companies make nice, you won’t be able to install it on new devices or re-install the app after deleting it. While I’d like to assume a speedy resolution here, Roku and AT&T had a similar fight over the AT&T TV app earlier this year, and that dragged on for nearly six months.

Cable’s rising costs: This isn’t exactly news, but I enjoyed reading this story by Henry Casey at Tom’s Guide over the weekend. Right up front, Casey admits that he was going to write the same tired take we see time and again about how cord cutting is no longer worthwhile. With recent price hikes for Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV, he figured that the cost savings over cable has pretty much evaporated.

But then, Casey did the exact thing so many naysaying pundits fail to do, and looked at his cable bill. Adding up all the taxes and fees, Spectrum is charging him $127 per month for TV alone, which is nearly twice the price of Hulu + Live and YouTube TV. Now he’s resolved to cut the cord himself.

I’ve been saying for years that proclamations about the worthiness of cord-cutting are too often based on gut feelings instead of evidence. While the price of live TV streaming prices is rising, so is the cost of cable as TV networks demand more money for their channels; companies like Spectrum and Comcast are just better at hiding the price hikes through broadcast TV fees, regional sports fees, and equipment rental fees, none of which are advertised in the sticker price. It’s heartening to see a writer figure this out for themselves instead of spreading more bogus claims.

Speaking of Android TV, the Nvidia Shield TV Pro and Shield TV tube are both still $20 off, bringing the price to $180 for the former and $130 for the latter. Both devices are super fast and offer slick 4K upscaling for HD content, and you can turn the Pro model into a Plex or Channels DVR server.

One more deal worth noting: Best Buy has the Roku Streambar on sale for $110, which is $10 more than the Black Friday price but still a decent deal at $20 off. It’s a Roku streaming box that also doubles as a soundbar, so you can add streaming video and better audio to your TV all at once.