This week on TechHive: Answering your cord-cutting questions

Jared Newman
|
Friday, 19 Mar 2021

In writing this newsletter and my weekly TechHive column, I tend to get a lot of questions from readers.

Most of the time, I respond in private, but this week I wanted to do something a bit different. I asked you all to ask me anything about cord-cutting, no matter how basic, and made plans to answer my favorites here in this column. (Longtime readers might recall a similar exercise from a couple of years ago.)

In response, I received dozens of questions, many of which might be of interest to other folks as well. For my best attempts to answer them, read the full column on TechHive.

Weekly rewind

Free streaming services galore: Over at Fast Company, I also updated my story rounding up the best streaming services you can watch for free. The newly-refreshed article lists 26 services in total, including a bunch that weren’t around when I first wrote the story in early 2019. Check it out if you’re looking to pad out your subscriptions with more movies, shows, and channels to watch.

YouTube TV’s new channels: YouTube TV has added the rest of the ViacomCBS-owned channels that it announced for the service way back in May of last year. Those include BET Her, Dabl, MTV2, MTV Classic, Nick Jr., Nick Toons, and Teen Nick. The first batch of channels—including Nickelodeon, BET, and Comedy Central, among others—arrived last July alongside a $15 per month price hike. For now, at least, Google hasn’t announced any further hikes to go along with the new channels.

We’re still waiting on Hulu to add these channels as well, after making a deal with ViacomCBS a couple months ago.

Tablo’s new DVR: Nuvyyo has just released a four-tuner version of its Tablo HDMI over-the-air DVR. Like the dual-tuner version that I reviewed last month, the Tablo Quad HDMI plugs directly into your TV for watching and recording shows from an antenna. The difference is that it can tune to four channels at a time instead of two, and costs $200 instead of $150. (You still have to supply your own antenna and external hard drive, and would most likely want a guide data subscription at $5 per month or $50 per year.)

Because of the direct TV input, the HDMI models get better video quality than Tablo’s network-only DVRs, and they can still stream video to Roku, Fire TV, or Android TV devices at native broadcast quality. On the downside, the HDMI models don’t stream to as many other device types (phones and web browsers are notable omissions), and you need a strong Wi-Fi connection to use the streaming features in the first place. Still, they’re compelling over-the-air DVR options if you care about having the sharpest and smoothest video or don’t want to futz around with the Wi-Fi component at all.

No free data for HBO Max: AT&T is ending a service in which it didn’t count HBO Max streaming against wireless customers’ data limits. The company is blaming a new net neutrality law in California that forbids internet providers from exempting services from data caps in exchange for payment.

It seems like bad news on the surface, but letting internet providers collect a toll from streaming services for preferential treatment is not a road worth traveling down. AT&T’s “Sponsored Data” service never really took off, but if it did, the money paid by services to avoid data caps would ultimately have to come from somewhere (meaning, you). Besides, the major wireless carriers have all switched to unlimited data plans anyway, rendering the promise of free data somewhat moot.

The NFL’s streaming deals: The NFL has announced a bunch of deals with TV networks governing the next decade of broadcast rights, and it presents a mixed picture for the unbundling of sports. Amazon will now carry all Thursday Night Football games on Prime, but the NFL Network will get a new batch of games on Saturdays. Peacock will stream “select” Sunday Night games on its service, but others will remain exclusive to NBC. ESPN has the right to simulcast Monday Night Football games on ESPN+, but this may not actually happen for years. The only clear case of unbundling comes from Paramount+, which will offer CBS games to subscribers just as CBS All Access has done in previous years. (This article requires a work email address to read, but is the most succinct summary I’ve read of the situation.)

The last remaining wild card is NFL Sunday Ticket, which remains with DirecTV through 2022. Rumors this week that ESPN is snatching up those rights are most likely unfounded. But either way, it looks like you’ll continue to need an antenna (or Locast) to get thorough NFL coverage for the foreseeable future.

More catch-up

Save more money

Here’s your friendly reminder that on March 26, the price of Disney+ is increasing to $8 per month or $80 per year, up from $7 per month or $70 per year currently. If you like the service enough to keep it year round, now’s the time to lock in that lower price.

Meanwhile, Amazon is running a promotion where you can get a month of Paramount+ through Prime Video Channels for free. While the price on this page says $0.99 for one month, that’s for the ad-free version of Paramount+. Just hit “Get Started” and select the ad-supported plan to pay nothing instead. (You may also still have luck using the code MOUNTAIN directly on the Paramount+ website, but I’ve heard mixed results from readers on that in recent days.)

If you ever try Googling the topic of antivirus software, you’ll probably come across lots of reputable websites insisting that you have to pay for it, and that the built-in protections of Windows and Mac are woefully insufficient.

Is that really true though? As someone who hasn’t paid for antivirus software in decades, I decided to dig into the matter for the latest issue of Advisorator, my other newsletter for tech advice. I also covered ways to stop wireless carriers from selling your personal data, a less-fatiguing Zoom alternative, and a way to make popular apps less obnoxious. Sign up for a free trial, and I’ll send the latest issue your way!

Calling Comcast customers!

Now, I have a question for you: Have you recently tried to activate your own cable modem only to have the representative try to sell you TV service instead? Have you run into any other sneaky sales tactics that cord cutters should know about? If so, please get in touch by replying to this email.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks to those of you who sent in questions last week (and in previous weeks, for that matter). I had fun answering as many as I could, but feel free to send more.

Lastly: After launching a newsletter redesign last week, I hear some of you had issues reading it in the Apple Mail app on MacOS. This should be fixed now, but please let me know if any other issues arise!

Until next week,

Jared