Hulu price hikes, Fire TV deals
This week on TechHive: Nothing!
Hey folks, due to a variety of circumstances this week, I don’t have a TechHive column to share with you as usual.
In its place, allow me to point out some recent additions to my Cord Cutter Weekly website:
- The beginner’s guide to cord cutting: Not sure where to start? I’ve come up with a process for cutting the cord and answers to common questions along the way.
- 26 free streaming services: All the ways you can pursue a $0 per month TV bill.
- The big list of streaming deals: An up-to-date list of ways to save money on streaming services and devices.
I’ll be back to writing the weekly TechHive column next week. Thanks for your patience in the meantime.
Weekly rewind
Dish-Disney drama: Over the weekend, Disney abruptly pulled all of its channels from Dish and Sling TV, including ABC, ESPN, and FX. This could’ve been a much bigger story, but the blackout only lasted until Monday morning, as both companies agreed to temporarily restore the channels while working out a long-term deal.
The big question now is whether a new deal would result in any fundamental changes to Sling TV in particular. Sling is unique among live TV services in that it offers one base package (Sling Orange) with Disney’s channels, and one (Sling Blue) without. While I have no inside knowledge of what Dish and Disney are haggling over, I’ve long wondered if that unusual packaging might eventually become a sticking point. We’ll see what happens as the two companies hash out a deal.
Hulu’s price hike: Just a friendly reminder that on October 10, Hulu is raising the price of its on-demand service from $7 to $8 per month with ads, or from $13 to $15 per month without ads. Until then, you can lock in the current rate of $70 per year for the ad-supported plan, but no such option exists for the ad-free version.
As announced previously, Disney is also raising the price of Hulu + Live TV, Disney+, and the Disney bundle (which includes Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+) on December 8. Check this previous newsletter for a rundown.
The great rebundling that wasn’t: One of the most tiresome predictions in cord cutting holds that we’ll eventually see streaming services rebundle themselves into one big cable-like package. I’ve never understood why anyone thinks this would happen. Companies like Netflix and Disney don’t want to tie their fates to other, less successful streamers, and customers clearly don’t want to be forced back into paying for more bloated bundles.
I bring this up because CNBC’s Alex Sherman recently wrote a great story on this topic. In addition to the above concerns, he also noted that streamers don’t want to share customer data with one another, and they all want to be fully in control of the software and user experience. He even reports that NBCUniversal executives have floated the idea of a bigger bundle to other streamers, such as HBO Max and Starz, and has been roundly rejected by all of them.
We might still see media companies combine some of their own disparate services—Paramount, for instance, seems increasingly likely to merge Paramount+ and Showtime—but different companies teaming up to recreate cable seems as unlikely as ever.
More catch-up
- Philo launches an app on Samsung smart TVs.
- Disney+ revamps its PlayStation 5 app with 4K HDR support.
- FuboTV adds Altitude regional sports in Colorado.
- Amazon expands its free Fire TV channel lineup.
- Ugh: Google considers putting 4K YouTube videos behind a paywall.
Save more money
Amazon is bringing back Black Friday prices on its latest Fire TV devices as part of a broader hardware sale. A quick rundown:
- Fire TV Stick for $20.
- Fire TV Stick 4K for $25. (Similar performance to above, but with 4K and Dolby Atmos support.)
- Fire TV Stick 4K Max for $35. (Faster than above, and with Wi-Fi 6 support.)
- Refurbished Fire TV Cube with hands-free Alexa control for $60, or $50 refurbished. (Not to be confused with the new version coming soon.)
See my big list of streaming deals for more ways to save.
Thanks for reading!
I appreciate you bearing with me on this somewhat unusual week. Got questions about cord cutting or streaming TV? Just reply to this email to get in touch.
Until next week,
Jared