Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, and this is Cord Cutter Weekly, my newsletter on how to save money on TV and make the most of streaming. Sign up here if someone shared this newsletter with you.
Cord Cutter Weekly will be off next week. I’m planning to send out a newsletter the week after (Jan. 2), but it’ll probably be on the short side. Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and thanks for having me in your inbox this year!
Cable TV wants cord cutters back. Should you listen?
Jared Newman | 
Comcast and Spectrum are trying new tactics to win back cord cutters and keep their existing TV customers from jumping ship.
Last week, Comcast retooled its TV plans and made them easier to understand. Instead of having to provide a service address and scrutinize the fine print for hidden fees, now you can just go to an Xfinity web page to compare the actual prices up front. Spectrum, meanwhile, has focused on bundling streaming services with its main cable TV packages. (It also stopped doing sneaky fees last year.)
The upshot is that it’s now a lot easier to decide whether cable TV is still worth it, or to determine whether your current cable TV plan is overpriced. Let’s walk through Comcast’s and Spectrum’s offerings to help you figure it out.
Weekly rewind
Pay TV subs up: For the first time since 2017, pay TV package subscriptions grew last quarter according to MoffettNathanson. Cable and satellite TV still lost subscribers, albeit at a slower rate than prior quarters. The growth came entirely from live TV streaming services such as YouTube TV and Fubo.
Some of this certainly has to do with football season, but better pay TV offerings may be helping as well. Charter’s Spectum losses have slowed significantly since it started bundling streaming services, Fubo has reported early traction for its skinnier sports package, and Sling got a subscriber boost last quarter from its innovative Day Passes. Turns out that when you give people better options instead of the same bloated bundles, it’s good for business.
(By the way, Charter says that only half of eligible Spectrum TV subscribers have activated their free streaming services, which include HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, and more. If you have Spectrum TV service, make sure to redeem these services and stop paying for them separately. These are permanent freebies with are no strings attached, and you can upgrade to ad-free tiers by paying the difference in price.)
Amazon’s AI recap embarrassment: After making a big deal about offering AI-generated video summaries for shows on Prime Video, Amazon appears to be pulling them. Viewers first noticed that the recap for Fallout included false information, and Engadget subsequently noticed that Amazon’s website isn’t showing AI recaps for any of its shows anymore.
Amazon previously stopped offering AI overdubs for anime shows because of how laughably bad they were.
Google’s Movies Anywhere reversal: Google is once again supporting Disney’s Movies Anywhere initiative, which lets you access the movies you bought from various digital storefronts in one place. You’ll have to re-link your Google account to Movies Anywhere to restore any purchases from YouTube or the Google Play Store. Then you can use the Movies Anywhere app or the Prime Video app (if you link an Amazon account) to access your movies regardless of where you bought them.
More catch-up
- Warner board to Paramount: We’re sticking with Netflix. (Read my column on Netflix acquiring Warner from last week.)
- Amazon’s crackdown on Fire TV piracy apps continues. (Read my previous coverage.)
- HBO Max adds round-the-clock streaming channels for Friends, Big Bang Theory, and more.
- Apple TV’s Android app now supports casting videos to Chromecast, Android TV, and Google TV devices.
- Instagram gets a Reels app on Fire TV devices.
Save more money
This section of the newsletter has some affiliate links, which earn me a commission if you wind up buying or subscribing to something.
Paramount+ is currently offering a deal for select returning subscribers only: Sign up again with the promo code RM2KN3 to get two months of Paramount+ Premium for $1 per month.
Again, this deal does not work for new accounts and may not apply for every former subscriber. I tested the code on four different accounts, and it worked on three of them. If you want to get back into Paramount+, you might as well give it a try.
Other notable deals:
- DirecTV’s MyNews genre pack gets its first discount to $35 per month for two months. (In some markets, this is the cheapest way to stream the four major local channels without an antenna.)
- DirecTV is also taking $40 off the first month of its standard Entertainment package, then $10 off months two and three, no Gemini box needed. (Regular price is $90 per month.)
- Last chance to get a TiVo Stream 4K dongle for $35 with a free year of Disney+. (New and former Disney+ subscribers only.)
- Hallmark+ is still half-off for a year with promo code SAVE50NOW.
- Roku deals are back: Streaming Stick HD for $16, Streaming Stick Plus for $19, Streaming Stick 4K for $25, Ultra for $75.
Want more streaming deals? I maintain a huge list of them here.
Tech tricks you might’ve missed
This week for Advisorator members, I cleared out all the neat tech tricks I’ve been meaning to write about, some new, others not as new, including:
- A quick way to see if a text message is a scam
- Turning iPhone reminders into alarms so you don’t miss them
- One-handed smartwatch controls
- Live translation through earbuds
- A free way to look better on Zoom calls
In case you missed it last week, I also put together a big guide to stopping spam. You can read that, along with this week’s tech advice column, by becoming an Advisorator member. Get started for as little as $5 →
Thanks for reading!
Have a great rest of 2025, and thanks so much for following the latest streaming developments with me!
Until 2026,
Jared