Jared Newman   |   January 2, 2026

Happy New Year, folks! 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.

I didn’t write a feature column this week as I’m just getting back from vacation, so let’s just do a quick news roundup and call it a day.

Weekly rewind

Sketchy streaming boxes: Every few weeks or so, I’ll get an email from a reader asking about Superbox, likely in response to social media postings or word of mouth. These devices promise access to vast amounts of streaming content in exchange for just the hardware cost of around $300 or $400, with no monthly fees. In other words, they’re facilitating piracy.

My standard response as always been to refer back to this post I wrote in 2021 about streaming devices and services that sound too good to be true. A lot of times, the folks asking me about these options don’t realize they’re illegal, but they also come with other risks, such as clunky apps, reliability issues, and a possibility that the hardware stops working when the underlying piracy provider shuts down.

Now, Brian Krebs has uncovered another risk with Superbox in particular: Their streaming software can secretly relay traffic from unscrupulous sources. Behind the scenes, they could be using your bandwidth to scrape the web for AI models, commit ad fraud, or even help hackers take over other peoples’ accounts.

As the major streaming services keep raising prices and people seek cheaper alternatives, piracy has rebounded. No judgement for folks who use these services, but you should at least know what you’re getting into first.

ATSC 3.0 converter boxes: Pearl TV, a consortium of major broadcasters, is announcing a program to bring down the cost of over-the-air tuners with ATSC 3.0 support. The new broadcast standard, also known as NextGen TV, promises better video and audio quality along with some new features, but isn’t compatible with most TVs in use today. With the FCC proposing new rules that would let broadcasters leave the current ATSC 1.0 standard behind, Pearl wants to be ready with cheap converter boxes for existing TVs.

The details are pretty thin, though, with no word on target pricing, specific hardware makers, or how exactly the low costs will be achieved. I’ll be at the CES tech trade show in Las Vegas next week and will try to squeeze out some more info.

More catch-up

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.

In case you missed it, returning Paramount+ subscribers can still get two months of Premium for $1 per month with promo code RM2KN3. The deal does not apply to new accounts and may not work for all existing ones, and you have to choose the monthly Premium plan (with no ads).

Other notable deals:

As always, I maintain a full list of up-to-date deals on this page.

Thanks for reading!

Writing today’s newsletter was admittedly a slog after being off for the last week, but I’m glad to have done it. Tomorrow I’m off to Las Vegas for the CES tech trade show, and I’ll need to be back in the groove pretty much immediately upon arrival.

In the meantime, working through my unread emails is next on today’s agenda. If you reached out recently, bear with me! I can’t respond to everything but I do my best.

Until next week,
Jared

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