Streaming TV billing games and high prices - what services are you using?

[SC Maintenance]

Sure are a lot of options now. When I cut the cord over a decade ago Netflix was just about the only game - a few also rans. Now I think I can probably try something new every couple months for years.

Makes you wonder how much really gets spent on content. That industry must be huge.

 

[andrew_j]

My wife and her 4 sisters split YouTubeTV the 4k version(unlimited streams) for $115 / 5. Get all the channels we want .

They also have something going with Netflix where we might pay $10/month which I think includes that fee you mention(extra member)

Did someone give away the login you have or you guys forget to log out of TV somewhere ?

 

[RAR]

When streaming live TV was first getting going, I signed up for PlayStation Vue and that was decent for a while. Then they bailed out and I tried SlingTV. That, at the time, was too limited in their channel lineup for me (it was about 20 channels; they were still pretty new so it was limited).

I moved over to Hulu Live TV, and have been there more or less for years. Yes, even through the price hikes.

My brother had me try his DirecTV streaming and I liked that too, but it costs more for the channels I get with Hulu. He dropped them himself later. I think he got a low price because he got it with his AT&T cell service in a package deal that ended.

I pay for YouTube Premium so I don’t see the millions of ads when watching videos. I’ll pay because I prefer it this way.

But I don’t buy any other streaming that isn’t rolled into something I already have (Disney + with Hulu and Paramount with my free Walmart+ service, for example).

 

[dbias]

I have DIRECTV Stream and share it with my daughter in Denver and my son in Vero Beach. I have the premier package with all possible channels, all regional sports networks, HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Showtime, MGM+, NBA League pass and of course Dog TV (the dogs actually watch it lol)
I’m a surfer and don’t really have a “favorite” tv show. 50% of what I watch is sports otherwise I just scroll through the guide until I see something that I like. A majority of what i watch is recorded to the cloud DVR so I can speed through the commercials. They are adding 4k and hopefully MLB extra innings soon. The Gemini stream box (it’s not required) is an aggregater so I also have hbomax (now called MAX since they merged with Discovery plus) and prime loaded on the box and can switch between the services with one remote using one input.

 

[Toy4x4]

Netflix and I signed up for Peacock for this month only to watch the TDF because the weasel beancounters decided to do a money grab. The Tour has always been televised through an already paid for TV channel (YT TV), but after eight stages...you gotta pay unless you wait until the next day, which I didn't know as it is broadcast at 2am...could have recorded it. Once the Tour is done, canceling. It's only $5, but it is the principle. Canceling YT TV has been tickling my brain, too. SO many channels I don't watch. Someone else mentioned Tubi TV. Decent for what it is.

 

[bovine1]

Prime and netflix here mostly for my wife. We've got Prime for other reasons. Our son paid for 1 month of ESPN+ during the college baseball postseason.

 

[alarmguy]

Netflex about $15 a month but TMobile pays $8 of it as they pay for Basic Netflex with our cell phone plan we do the optional mid priced plan. Netflex is our main streaming go to source.
Plus streaming and Redbox movie rentals at $5.99 or less a couple times a month. Redbox discs are less than $2.50

Hulu at $1.99 a month one year special which we have had for 2 years as my wife and I switch between each other when the one year is over we cancel then take the new promo in the other name. Usually Black Friday or around that

Our daughter shares her HBO with us and we share Netflex with her. We rarely watch HBO so if it’s ever ended doesn’t matter to us.
If she has to pay her own Netflex at sometime in the future do be it.

Then there is OTA for local network stations still have to set that up at the new house.
Old house had up to 30 channels through an attic TV antenna distributed to five access points in the home.

Odds and ends at any given time of Year Amazon Prime when they have free month around the holidays but we don’t pay for it and cancel once free period is over.

To the OP
I thought I remember being asked to add additional members of the family and we just ignored or canceled it.
There is no doubt in my mind, one of the biggest problems in this country, the way I see it as people do not realize how much money is being siphoned out of their paychecks every month by not staying on top of things.
Corporations know it and that’s why the massive amount of trial periods all linked to your credit card or bank account.
People wonder where the money goes all the time and they don’t realize the dream every month out of their income.

To another poster in here I don’t find this to be troublesome at all, I love keeping track of my expenses, love saving money as a hobby and making sure nobody gets my money, except for those I choose.
I mean why willingly give your income to shareholders of a corporation?
I do understand some people don’t care, but others are completely clueless why they have no money.

 

[benjy]

dish network is on pause for $5 monthly but will turn on for football or maybe back to direct tv. was thinkin classic cable on my local SECTV BUT you gotta get the internet as well until xtras over a c note. price gouging at its best as i only want pro + college football. lots of stations mean NOTHING as i watch very little TV

 

[72C10]

I don't have fast enough internet to stream here where I live. 3.5Mb DSL. I would consider it, but it's not an option yet.

 

[dogememe]

I just pay a few bucks a month for Usenet access and use Sonarr and Radarr on a spare PC running Plex. I only turn it on when I want to watch. I can stream Plex from anywhere. Very convenient. And whatever content I want I just “acquire” on Sonarr and Radarr and watch it when it’s done downloading (a few minutes tops)

 

[SC Maintenance]

price gouging at its best as i only want pro + college football.

For decades much of everyone's cable bill was sports, and there was no package without them - by ESPN, et al contract - you wanted sports you had to sell it to everyone. Talk about gouging. Its what pushed the first group (like me) off cable. Now Disney wants to dump ESPN because its a looser, when given a choice many fewer will pay.

 

[Bill7]

Sling TV at $40 a month has all the channels I care about.
It's a low cost alternative to fubo tv or youtube tv.

 

[benjy]

TV STINKS IMO + except for pro football + a few special programs i could do without!! dumped Dish + got basic cable for too much $$ can pause cable like dish + direct, a big plus. not too savy on programs but will be shopping around. had XM i loved for the 50's music WHEN it worked, so it got dumped. music is the main reason i leave my cable service on, for now

 

[SC Maintenance]

Thread revival. I love it.

I ended up dumping netflix, the full version of Hulu and Amazon Prime. I don't miss there streaming but ordering from Amazon without Prime is a PIB, so I order from walmart.com way more often. There loss I guess.

I signed up on a trial for Paramount Plus but didn't love it, cancelled.

So did a trial for Max, which we liked enough to switch to add free.

Tried Youtube add free for a while. It was nice but not worth it IMHO.

Also currently have a deal on Hula and Disney Plus for $1.99 a month with adds we got as black friday deals. We watch occasionally, but I wouldn't pay any more than that.

I presume something else I like will come along and will try.

 

[Rmay635703]

I don't have fast enough internet to stream here where I live. 3.5Mb DSL. I would consider it, but it's not an option yet.

What’s sad is that speed used to be plenty fast enough to stream, nobody not even YouTube handle slower internet gracefully anymore. Used to be mobile options for cell that didn’t even need that and you could cast to a tv enjoying very low bandwidth video.

It’s unfortunate the streamers don’t offer a low cost SD plan tuned to your bandwidth for folks in your situation

 

[racer12306]

Our internet is $68.50. Has been for years, we dropped cable right before the pandemic IIRC.

Netflix: Subscriber since it was DVD only.
Disney: Perk of Verizon Wireless
Hulu: Perk of Verizon Wireless
Prime: Mainly for the shipping, but there are a few things we watch there.
Apple TV: I have the full subscription and it comes with it. Mainly have it for the 2TB storage but the Arcade is nice for the kids and I've been really liking Fitness.
Max: Normal Paid
Paramount: Normal Paid
Peacock: Black Friday $20 for the year is hard to beat.
NHRA.tv: Gotta get my drag racing

We're still up on what our cable subscription was. Looks like if we signed up for cable now, it would be about $210/month and we would probably still have a couple of these streams.

 

[Pew]

What’s sad is that speed used to be plenty fast enough to stream, nobody not even YouTube handle slower internet gracefully anymore. Used to be mobile options for cell that didn’t even need that and you could cast to a tv enjoying very low bandwidth video.

It’s unfortunate the streamers don’t offer a low cost SD plan tuned to your bandwidth for folks in your situation

YT still has playback quality options, starting at 360p and going up to 4K, depending on the video.

 

[SumGuy]

I've been using a Kodi Add-On called TVOne, for a few years, it's pretty good, I'm surprised it still works, a lot of other add-ons don't.

 

[DriveHard]

I only pay for Prime, and that is for shipping and music, and a couple shows.

I would love to pay for a movie streaming service that provided REAL HD quality programming and SOUND. None can touch even a Blueray from my experience, especially the 4K Ultra HD BlueRay movies. NOT EVEN CLOSE on clarity, motion blur, and most importantly multi-channel sound.

If you know of a service that can truly compete with a 4K Ultra HD Blueray, I would pay out the nose for it.

 

[Rmay635703]

YT still has playback quality options, starting at 360p and going up to 4K, depending on the video.

It does even in some cases 240p but it doesn’t automatically handle low bandwidth correctly.

Even at 5mbs (not on Mobile) I have to manually select the lowest setting because it jitters and buffers randomly even at 480, it didn’t use to behave this way (connection is exactly the same) On 5mbs I could safely run 720p, not any more, only the potato resolution works.

I’m not really sure what has changed but YouTube and even Netflix weren’t completely painful to run even set to auto historically, everything just worked, now it freezes, changes resolution buffers plays jumps resolution up, freezes, changes resolution, buffers and is in a perpetual loop every 5-10 seconds.