A little more than 10 years ago, I wrote my first weekly cord-cutting column over at TechHive.

It started with a declaration: We were on the cusp of a golden age for streaming and over-the-air TV, one that would lead to significant savings for consumers, new hardships for the TV industry, and lots of naysaying by clueless pundits who swore you’d be better off with cable. A lot of those predictions turned out to be right, and I hope some folks have saved money as a result.

But instead of just spiking the football after a decade of cord-cutting coverage, I thought it’d be more fun to review the tape on where I went wrong. TV’s evolution has been messy, and there were plenty of times that I missed an emerging trend or failed to recognize some new idea as a dead end.

Read the full column on TechHive →

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Weekly rewind

Max password sharing warning: Warner Bros. Discovery is reminding everyone that it still plans to crack down on password sharing among Max subscribers. The company says it will start with some “very soft messaging” over the next few months before pushing the issue more aggressively in 2025 and into 2026.

In other words, it’ll likely be a fishing expedition for a while, similar to what we saw with Netflix. I suspect those who are committed enough to password sharing will be able to work around Max’s nagging, but there’s probably money to be made from folks who don’t want to be bothered.

Tennis Channel unbundles: Starting November 12, you’ll no longer need a bloated pay TV package to watch the Tennis Channel. Sinclair is launching a new Tennis Channel streaming service on that date, with a live stream of the cable channel along with all the additional live coverage and match replays previously included in its Tennis Channel+ offering. The price will be the same as what Tennis Channel+ costs today, at $10 per month or $110 per year, effectively replacing that service.

If you do get Tennis Channel as part of a pay TV package, you’ll be able to access the new service at no extra charge—including everything that previously required a Tennis Channel+ subscription. Seems like a win-win.

Prime Video’s AI recaps: Okay, this seems like a clever use of generative AI: While watching Prime Video, a new “X-Ray Recaps” feature will offer to summarize everything you missed right up to the current point of playback. You can recap just the current episode, the current season, or previous seasons. The feature is available in beta now on Fire TV devices and will expand to other devices by year-end.

More catch-up

• Amazon finds yet another place for ads on Fire TVs.
• Netflix is pulling most of its interactive TV shows.
• Brace yourself for more TV industry mega-mergers.

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Save more money

YouTube has slashed NFL Sunday Ticket prices for the remaining season, down to $264 by itself or $209 in a bundle with YouTube TV (which itself costs $73 per month). For active military and vets, the price is just $89.

Other notable deals:

• The latest Paramount+ code is still B3PY17. Learn how to get it for free.
• The Roku Streaming Stick drops to $33.
• You can still get three months of Hulu + Live TV for $60 per month.
• See more up-to-date deals on the Cord Cutter Weekly website, updated every Friday.

Thanks for reading!

Whether you’ve been reading my TechHive column for a decade or are just discovering it now, thanks so much for following along! For questions and comments, just reply to this email to get in touch.

Until next week,
Jared

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