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.
Netflix turns to AI to fix its algorithm’s messes
Jared Newman | 
“Our vision is, you won’t see a grid and you won’t see a sea of titles,” Neil Hunt, Netflix’s former Chief Product Officer, said in 2014. Founder and former CEO Reed Hastings reiterated that idea a few years later, saying that you should “turn on Netflix and there’s a row, there’s like four choices, and you want to watch them all.”
As anyone who’s spent an evening scrolling through the catalog can attest, that vision has not panned out, and so now Netflix is turning to AI for an assist. An experimental new “AI Discover” feature will ask users what kind of programming they want—with options like “Family Movie Night,” “Scare Me,” or “Quick Watches”—and will then show a cluster of videos to choose from. The feature is rolling out to small groups of U.S. users, appearing as an option in the top navigation bar.
Perhaps AI will finally bring Netflix’s vision to fruition. The more likely outcome, though, is that it’ll just represent another way among many to sift through Netflix’s sprawling catalog. As the company tries to stop engagement from slowing down, the algorithm alone isn’t cutting it.
Weekly rewind
Fox acquires Roku: Fox has completed its $22 billion acquisition of Roku, which the two companies announced back in June. This just happened as I was about to click send on the newsletter.
A lot of questions remain unanswered, like what becomes of Howdy, Frndly TV, and Roku’s half-hearted foray into smart home devices. And while Fox has said that it’s not planning to combine Tubi and the Roku Channel, I have a hard time believing that won’t happen eventually. Read more about the ramifications in this column from back in June.
Roku’s aquarium goes extinct: Aquatic Life is by far the best screensaver on Roku devices, but it’s going away on December 1. As Cord Cutters News reports, the screensaver’s developer has decided to stop licensing it to Roku, apparently in protest of the aforementioned Fox acquisition.
Those who currently use Aquatic Life will automatically switch over to Roku City, which largely serves as another surface for advertising. You can pick something else under Settings > Theme > Screensavers.
Those who currently use Aquatic Life will automatically switch over to Roku City, which largely serves as another surface for advertising. You can pick something else under Settings > Theme > Screensavers.
Apple TV’s new movies: Apple continues to experiment with adding classic movies to its streaming service. The latest batch of 20 films include Interstellar, Pulp Fiction, and Forrest Gump. Apple previously offered 19 classic movies in August, and had a couple months of movies in early 2024. In all cases, the films have left the service after a limited time.
It’s a weird strategy, since you can’t ever count on licensed movies as part of the Apple TV catalog. A curated selection of films would fit nicely with the service’s focus on prestige programming, so Apple should find a way to make it permanent.
More catch-up
- Philo adds Bravo to its sports-free streaming channel lineup.
- More than 1.3 million Android TV boxes from MECOOL were secretly acting as botnets. (This company once asked me to review its products; glad I didn’t.)
- MS Now’s standalone subscription service now works on TV devices.
- Tablo brings its app to Fire TV devices running the new Vega OS.
- Now you can use the Find My app in iOS 27.2 to track down a missing Apple TV remote.
Save more money
Paramount+ has revived promo code SAVEANNUAL50, taking half-off for one year. The offer is for new and select returning subscribers, and applies to either the Essential or Premium plan. Get started here.
- Some Peacock users report deep discounts on annual plans when they attempt to cancel. Think about doing this!
- Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick 4K is on sale for $20 with code FTV4K for select customers, or $25 for everyone else.
- Halloween’s over, but streaming service Shudder is still $30 for a year.
As always, I keep a full list of active streaming deals on this page.
No-paywall November
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(To make things even easier, use this one-click sign-up link. You’ll start getting the weekly Advisorator newsletter at same email address you’re using for this one.)
Thanks for reading!
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Until next week,
Jared