Hollywood’s streaming screw-ups, DirecTV blackouts
This week on TechHive: Paying for Hollywood’s mistakes
Well, for this week’s column, I decided to indulge in some good old-fashioned catharsis.
The impetus was a story in Vulture last month in which Hollywood bigwigs bemoaned the “broken” state of streaming, and basically pinned all their woes on Netflix. To paraphrase: It’s not our fault that we blew up the pay TV business model with persistent price hikes, inflexible channel packages, and fewer must-see shows. Netflix made us do it.
Sorry, but I don’t buy it. The truth is that media companies badly bungled the transition into the cord cutting age, and are now stuck with both unprofitable streaming services and record declines in pay TV bundle subscribers. Now, they want you to pay for their missteps by making everything worse.
Read the full column on TechHive →
Also on TechHive: I wrote a comprehensive piece on setting up the live guide on Amazon Fire TV devices. While the guide is a great feature, it can easily get overwhelming with hundreds of live channels from an assortment of apps. This how-to will help you pare things down to a more manageable, personalized lineup. Give it a read.
Weekly rewind
DirecTV blackouts: Over the weekend, DirecTV pulled more than 150 local stations across the country from its channel lineup, both on the streaming and satellite TV sides. Those stations are owned by Nexstar, which wants more money in retransmission fees and couldn’t strike a deal before its contract expired.
Blackouts like these have become more common as TV distributors lose subscribers to cord cutting and dig in against further price hikes. Nexstar, meanwhile, has grown larger through acquisitions and deals with smaller broadcasters, giving it more bargaining power. While these disputes usually get resolved (leading, of course, to higher broadcast fees on your bill), it’s unclear when this one will, especially amid a dearth of summer programming.
In the meantime, DirecTV customers who don’t bail can claim a one-time $10 credit for their troubles and consider other ways to access local network TV.
HBO on Netflix: The great re-licensing is upon us as media companies search for more money in streaming. The latest example: Netflix is getting some old HBO shows, including Insecure, Six Feet Under, Ballers, Band of Brothers, and The Pacific. Notably, those shows will remain available on Max as well.
You may recall that HBO used to offer some older shows on Amazon Prime, but that deal expired in 2020 as Warner looked to give HBO Max a boost. The company has since started shipping some content off to free streaming services, and it quietly licensed a handful of classic 90s sitcoms to Hulu and Paramount+ on a non-exclusive basis a few months ago. Expect other companies to follow; Disney’s CEO expressed interest in licensing content back to other streaming services earlier this year.
More catch-up
- Spielberg and Scorsese convince Warner not to decimate TCM.
- Netflix brings frame rate matching to Google TV and Android TV.
- Amazon may stop spending so much on unpopular originals.
Save more money
Although Amazon Prime Day isn’t until next Tuesday, you can already claim some deals on streaming devices and services.
Most notably, various Prime Video Channels add-ons are on sale, including AMC+ ($4.49 per month for two months), Starz ($1 per month for two months), and PBS Masterpiece ($1 per month for two months). See the full list here, and note that you’ll need to cancel through Amazon before your two months are up to avoid getting charged full price.
Other notable deals:
- Record-low prices for the Fire TV Stick 4K Max ($25) and Fire TV Cube ($110).
- Last chance to save $30 on a year of Peacock Premium with code N2TEWDZZ. (Ends July 8.)
- See more at the Big List of Streaming Deals on my website.
Thanks for reading!
If you try to cancel Paramount+, you may notice that the service will offer you an extra couple of months for free if you stick around. Sounds enticing, but here’s an interesting Reddit thread in which users claim that Paramount+ charged them anyway. Has this happened to you? Let me know.
Got other cord cutting questions for me? Just reply to this email to get in touch.
Until next time,
Jared