Streaming is more convoluted than ever. Is cable the better option once again?

[Timbuktu]

I know Netflix has this reputation of being good, but I'm not really feeling anymore. The price has gone up again, and for the rest of the year there are only a few shows that I want to watch. I'm thinking of cancelling and maybe just having it a month or two a year, just to catch Stranger Things and The Last Kingdom at the end of the year perhaps. There is no conversation around their shows so it doesn't really matter if you watch it months later.

I'm still kind of tied to sport channels and Amazon Prime mainly for The Expanse and Prime delivery on kids' stuff.

 

[jstevenson]

Why is this?

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half of it because I use Twitter a lot while I watch sports, and the streaming services lag by a bit, and then the actual web-sites you can stream from (aka WatchESPN) are even FURTHER behind.

Cable/Satellite is behind the actual stadium, but usually by the time tweets from the stadium are published and in your feed, the action is occurring on the TV.

One of my greatest joys of sports and Twitter is the sports-bar atmosphere it provides and so any major delay in receiving a live event is detrimental.

 

[a Master Ninja]

Just subscribe to a streaming service for the month or two you need to watch the thing you actually care about (Game of Thrones, Handmaid's Tale, etc) and then cancel. Renew again a year later when it comes back. No service is pumping out enough good content to maintain a subscription year round.

 

[jstevenson]

Just subscribe to a streaming service for the month or two you need to watch the thing you actually care about (Game of Thrones, Handmaid's Tale, etc) and then cancel. Renew again a year later when it comes back. No service is pumping out enough good content to maintain a subscription year round.

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yeah my CBS All Access sub is getting cancelled here until Discovery comes back or another Trek show.

THAT said, HBO and Showtime both get pretty close to having year-round shows - Shameless leads right into Billions which leads into Homeland, etc.

 

[Stranger Things]

I'm very content with Netflix and Hulu, and Disney+ might be a great addition if you have kids.

Only reason I was ever interested in cable was for NBA/NFL and other sports based channels. The reality is that you can easily stream sports and movies and even shows like GOT for FREE ... if you know where to look lol.

 

[shintoki]

Only subscribe to one thing at a time. I.E. Do a few months of Netflix to catch up, cancel, Hulu, cancel, HBO, etc.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Share accounts, sis has hulu/HBO, I have Netflix with t-mobile, prime and ps vue

Still cheaper than cable.

 

[Sweeney Swift]

Yes, and it was always going to end up this way. Everyone was always going to want their own piece of the pie if success started showing. Even on the rare time what you want doesn't total what you previously paid, it's on enough different service start dates with enough monthly charges of enough prices to keep track of that it's a bigger headache than the simpler-to-follow one bill ever was

 

[nanskee]

Why is cable so expensive in the US? Didn't even know cable cost more than $30

 

[jfkgoblue]

It's not quite that. Many streaming services have live sports too along with broadcast channels.

So depending on the plan, you may not be missing much vs traditional cable/satellite.

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This is technically true, but good luck being a college sports fan without cable(or a cable replacement like YTTV)

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

I pretty much do: I pay for Hulu no ads, my friend pays for netflix. We share log-in info. With those two covered we have all the content we need.

 

[Acorn]

Yeah everyone wants to be "the" streaming service so are keep their own stuff on their own platforms. Something gotta give, i don't want to have like 10 streaming subs just to watch what I want.

Seems like everything will either work out to where there is 2 or 3 big services with most shit or someone will bundle all these services up and sell them like tv packages..

The more things change the more they stay the same I guess

 

[Acorn]

Why is cable so expensive in the US? Didn't even know cable cost more than $30

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Costs me near 100 quid a month here (UK) for cable and broadband.

 

[TaySan]

Why is cable so expensive in the US? Didn't even know cable cost more than $30

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Millions of unnecessary channels + Sports channels upping the cost of the packages. And they are usually bundled with internet

 

[Zoc]

I'll never go back to cable. It just feels weird now to be limited to whatever's on at a particular time.

I am getting fed up with Netflix's crappy selection, though. I watch TV so rarely these days that I might save money buying stuff on iTunes.

 

[TheBeardedOne]

It's getting to be crazy. There are going to be so many different streaming services, each with a limited share of the crop due to licensing, and so many different subscriptions to manage...I think it's all going to eventually collapse and become simple again. Maybe not cable or satellite, but just one or two streaming services.

I just got Netflix in October, thanks to a free 3 months. i like it, but still watch satellite a lot. I don't like missing new shows and that's how I can watch sports, which are more important.

I dropped our package down to basic though, to save $40 because the bill was hundreds of dollars. Almost three for everything.

 

[mrmoose]

There's a key distinction with streaming services when it comes to sports and other things.

There are streaming services like Hulu Plus, Vue, Youtube TV that simulate live tv that cable/satellite offers. These usually have sports packages that make it comparable to cable/satellite, but these are also the ones going up in price to equivalent or near equivalent to cable/satellite prices. Also, there are some channels that are exclusive to satellite/cable, mainly regional/area specific stuff. For instance, in LA you can't watch the Lakers unless you can get the Time Warner channel, and you can't watch the Dodgers unless you get Spectrum. There are also sports-specific packages, like you can watch most regular season games via NBA league pass, but then when it comes to the playoffs or local teams, you're out of luck.

There are streaming services that are basically on-demand type things and not live (Prime for the most part besides some licensed games, Netflix, Disney+, regular Hulu, Crunchyroll, etc.). These are generally cheaper in general but usually do not have live events like sports. If you don't care about sports, it's probably a no brainer to rotate among these for all the content you could ever hope to watch.

 

[PoppaBK]

I don't think a lot of people commenting here know how much cable costs if you stay in one place a long time. Our Comcast bill is over $250 a month - now that does include phone and internet but to get even close to that you would need every streaming option out there.

 

[Deleted member 16365]

YouTube TV might be your answer OP. Everyone in your family gets their own account, can watch on 3 screens at the same time and sports look great on it.

 

[theusedversion]

I can't believe I'm going to say this but if you're prepared to go all in on them Comcast/Xfinity aren't bad. Plus if you have Roku TVs you can forgoe having a settop box and use the Xfinity app on the tv so you don't have to pay the monthly fee for boxes. Never had any major issues with the internet except for the router needing an occasional restart. And if you have their internet you can get their mobile service which is inexpensive and uses Verizon plus another network(s)? $45/month for unlimited data. I believe it's rated as one of the best mobile services right now. Not saying they are right for you and I generally have a negative opinion of Comcast but they are the right fit for some people.

 

[Ogodei]

I still don't understand the economics of it. Comcast can give me my internet speed for $90 and then all these channels for an additional $15, basically, or I could do the $90 and be on my own to subscribe to stuff. That's basically the barrel they have me over right now. I'll pay more to cut the cord unless I cut my internet speed, and I have no other high speed providers in my building (and 5G wouldn't really be an option for a gamer even if it would work for other things).