grrrrr....... Premium TV Apps/Services!!!!!

[traveldawg]

Just gotta get this off my chest........

Today I went to watch the GA / Kent State game and it is only on SECN+ or ESPN+. I couldn't even find an SECN+ app but, fortunately, I have free access to ESPN+ via my Verizon account/package.

Thursday evening I went to watch the NFL game and - lo-and-behold - I have to have the Amazon Prime app to see that. Again, I have that and also share it with one of my sons, so no additional costs for me.

The other day I had to set a good friend up with Disney+ so she could watch Dancing With Stars. That's costing her $9.99/month. Really!! Thanks for that money grab Disney! What - you don't get enough money from you already exceedingly high prices, long lines, and extra charges for folks to see their favorite rides????

whoaaaa..... I'm outa control..... deep breaths..... counting....... calming down...... thinking of pink colors....... OK - better now....

All this switching from general cable stations to proprietary stations/app seems to be getting a bit out of hand. For now it is just bothersome since I have access to the few apps I would be interested in either through the plan Verizon provided or by sharing with family. But 'cutting the cable' for me is not an option - I live in a community that provides a lot of cable channels and 200M internet included with our dues; it's a goo deal - IF you don't have to also buy apps to see programs you are interested in.

I suppose for all the "full times" streaming and spending untold thousands of dollars on WiFi and Cellular plans and equipment this might be an OK thing. But, for me, while I see it as the future of things to come - it's annoying.

ok - returning you back to your regularly schedule programming.... oh wait - please deposit another $5.00 for the next 3 minutes.....

Thanks for listening.....

 

[DougW9876]

I also am not a fan of moving things to streaming services. My wife’s two favorite shows are Dancing With The Stars and Days of Our Lives, both of them require a paid subscription to a streaming service now. What really chaps my hide is that, even though I pay for the service, We still get advertisements.

I also have the problem of having a television that is about 6 years old so it does not do the Disney, Peacock, and some other apps nor does it do Apple Play so I cant send from the Ipad to to the TV. Looks like about $1800 for one that will do everything nicely.

 

[Gronk1]

Disney, Netflix, Prime Video, HBO, Stars etc., etc.
They should lump all these premium channels into a one price package...& call it something like CABLE

 

[traveldawg]

I also am not a fan of moving things to streaming services. My wife’s two favorite shows are Dancing With The Stars and Days of Our Lives, both of them require a paid subscription to a streaming service now. What really chaps my hide is that, even though I pay for the service, We still get advertisements.

I also have the problem of having a television that is about 6 years old so it does not do the Disney, Peacock, and some other apps nor does it do Apple Play so I cant send from the Ipad to to the TV. Looks like about $1800 for one that will do everything nicely.

Yeah..... I left that off..... what the heck is with that????? Pay for a service and then have to endure advertisements?!!

 

[Wicked ace]

Just gotta get this off my chest........

Today I went to watch the GA / Kent State game and it is only on SECN+ or ESPN+. I couldn't even find an SECN+ app but, fortunately, I have free access to ESPN+ via my Verizon account/package.

Thursday evening I went to watch the NFL game and - lo-and-behold - I have to have the Amazon Prime app to see that. Again, I have that and also share it with one of my sons, so no additional costs for me.

The other day I had to set a good friend up with Disney+ so she could watch Dancing With Stars. That's costing her $9.99/month. Really!! Thanks for that money grab Disney! What - you don't get enough money from you already exceedingly high prices, long lines, and extra charges for folks to see their favorite rides????

whoaaaa..... I'm outa control..... deep breaths..... counting....... calming down...... thinking of pink colors....... OK - better now....

All this switching from general cable stations to proprietary stations/app seems to be getting a bit out of hand. For now it is just bothersome since I have access to the few apps I would be interested in either through the plan Verizon provided or by sharing with family. But 'cutting the cable' for me is not an option - I live in a community that provides a lot of cable channels and 200M internet included with our dues; it's a goo deal - IF you don't have to also buy apps to see programs you are interested in.

I suppose for all the "full times" streaming and spending untold thousands of dollars on WiFi and Cellular plans and equipment this might be an OK thing. But, for me, while I see it as the future of things to come - it's annoying.

ok - returning you back to your regularly schedule programming.... oh wait - please deposit another $5.00 for the next 3 minutes.....

Thanks for listening.....

I'm sitting on offers for Peacock @ $1.99/mo or 19.95 if paid up for the year. Also an offer for Hulu / Disney+ / ESPN+ for $9.99/mo. for 4 months which gets through football season with a chance to binge all the Marvel / Star wars I want. Some favorite TV series on Peacock (NBC) are coming plus a good movie selection and I thing "Dancing" also I get the Philly Comcast sports like the Phlyers, Phillies & 76ers. The other package gives me all the Disney stuff + college sports, Hulu is just an added feature. I'm using a T-Mobile wireless home device @ $50 / mo. All in I'm still less than half the cost I was paying for cable + a TV channel package I cut loose from three years ago. When I get caught up on the subscription or there isn't anything worth watching I purge the subscriptions and wait for new offers to come in. With the smart TVs these days there always seems to be something. If you do a search you can find ways to get Paramount+ trial period for free...over & over & over.

 

[Gronk1]

I'm sitting on offers for Peacock @ $1.99/mo or 19.95 if paid up for the year. Also an offer for Hulu / Disney+ / ESPN+ for $9.99/mo. for 4 months which gets through football season with a chance to binge all the Marvel / Star wars I want. Some favorite TV series on Peacock (NBC) are coming plus a good movie selection and I thing "Dancing" also I get the Philly Comcast sports like the Phlyers, Phillies & 76ers. The other package gives me all the Disney stuff + college sports, Hulu is just an added feature. I'm using a T-Mobile wireless home device @ $50 / mo. All in I'm still less than half the cost I was paying for cable + a TV channel package I cut loose from three years ago. When I get caught up on the subscription or there isn't anything worth watching I purge the subscriptions and wait for new offers to come in. With the smart TVs these days there always seems to be something. If you do a search you can find ways to get Paramount+ trial period for free...over & over & over.

Yea, kinda like Serius Radio. I quit it in the Subaru when the free ran out, it's just a grocery getter. They keep offering me for $5 a month for a year-a limited time deal that is perpetual. Was paying $20 a month in the truck when I first got it. They offered me the same deal-no thanks. Don't like the business model "We'll give you this deal & maybe you won't notice when it expires"

 

[WhittleBurner]

If rabbit ears doesn't get it it isn't worth watching. I used to complain about so many sports shows going to cable, so I quit watching. You would be amazed at what other great things there are to do. I know my bank account likes it.

 

[triplethreat]

We "cut the cable" (in our case it was a dish) about six years ago. I put up an OTA outside antenna for the local stations and we subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, Paramont+ and bring it all in with a Roku. I got really tired of having over 200 channels with DirecTV and not being able to find anything that I wanted to watch

 

[Steven@147]

Oh Geeze I haven't watched NFL or NASCAR for probably a couple years now. But I get what you're saying.
We use the OTA antenna on our 5er for the local channels but end up watching MeTV, Antenna, Grit, ION type channels and end up watching old reruns of Perry Mason, Hogan's Hero's or Bewitched if watching TV at all.
For streaming, we bought a new ROKU a couple years ago and with it got HBO/Max free, the only ones we pay for are Amazon Prime and the Wife likes Frndly and Discovery+ and I think together those two are @ 12 a month. Or we can watch the free Tubi, Peacock, Crackle, FeeVee (IMT, SCFI, Westerns and the like. We rarely purchase a streaming video unless its like $2.99. Yeah if watching, sometimes we have to use the mute button to ignore the ads and commercials. All of the streaming comes across a V's'ble iPhone Personal HotSpot.

The Wife found out through a news article that a lot of the so called reality shows are made up crap, like the home remodeling shows she liked, even Dancing With The Stars has some made up crap in it, now she rarely watches them. But she does like to watch some of the game shows like America Says and People Puzzler.

We just don't watch enough TV anymore unless it's a bad weather day or later at night.

 

[yobigal]

Anybody streaming live tv content over starlink?
I'm trying Hulu but because starlink changes it's IP address it keeps telling me that i'm not at home and shuts down Live tv.

 

[Scousers]

Anybody streaming live tv content over starlink?
I'm trying Hulu but because starlink changes it's IP address it keeps telling me that i'm not at home and shuts down Live tv.

We stream live English football on YouTube TV, Peacock and Paramount using Starlink. Works fine.

 

[MJMCCAND]

We have a Firestick that we'd like to use at our local State Park campground, but it won't connect. Thing is we can access Prime Video via our Sony BlueRay player that has that application pre-loaded. Anyone know of a trick to get our Firestick to work?

 

[Ynot4me2]

It is getting crazy. Especially when your paying to see advertisements. We now have Netflix, Prime, Paramount + and was entertaining getting Disney + cause DW likes Dancing with the Stars. We decided that after we've done our Netflix play list we will cut it and only keep 2 streaming services at a time on a few months rotation. So binge our shows and cut it and off to the next.

 

[dandyrandy]

not just the streaming services nickel and diming us. we have dishtv and today disney pulled the plug on ESPN, ACC network, SEC network, ABC and FX channels from us over a contract dispute with DISH

 

[FL-Guy]

I also am not a fan of moving things to streaming services. My wife’s two favorite shows are Dancing With The Stars and Days of Our Lives, both of them require a paid subscription to a streaming service now. What really chaps my hide is that, even though I pay for the service, We still get advertisements.

I also have the problem of having a television that is about 6 years old so it does not do the Disney, Peacock, and some other apps nor does it do Apple Play so I cant send from the Ipad to to the TV. Looks like about $1800 for one that will do everything nicely.

Get a streaming addon like Roku, Amazon Fire stick or Google Chromecast. They have all the app you need. Upgrade that 6yr old TV for about $30 Plus the cost of the streaming services, which I agree, are getting ridiculous :-(

 

[Hoppyz06]

not just the streaming services nickel and diming us. we have dishtv and today disney pulled the plug on ESPN, ACC network, SEC network, ABC and FX channels from us over a contract dispute with DISH

We have Dish as well and I find Disney to be one of the most greedy corporations in America. They are monopolizing everything which would make Walt turnover in his grave. Disney wants $1 billion dollars from Dish to renew the contract. Corporate greed is ruining America!

Wow, I need to go to Disneyland to calm my nerves!

 

[Stealth13777]

We have Dish as well and I find Disney to be one of the most greedy corporations in America. They are monopolizing everything which would make Walt turnover in his grave. Disney wants $1 billion dollars from Dish to renew the contract. Corporate greed is ruining America!

Wow, I need to go to Disneyland to calm my nerves!

*1billion more than their original contract. Have sling and literally only pay for orange+sports to watch college football, but f Disney for this crap. They already ruined the sports center I grew up with.

Anyway, agree with the OP, but take Disney out of the equation and it isn’t so bad. Want to watch your one team’s sports? You need cable to see espn. But then for homecoming we need sec network too. Then the cupcake games are on espn+ - of course that’s it’s own thing too paid separately. Everyone else you pay for their service you get it. Disney you pay for espn, you still have to pay twice over again to actually get everything. And you still don’t get Disney plus - that’ll be even more still.

 

[dazcon5]

Money Grab

If rabbit ears doesn't get it it isn't worth watching. I used to complain about so many sports shows going to cable, so I quit watching. You would be amazed at what other great things there are to do. I know my bank account likes it.

There are some awesome shows on PBS if you can get it over the air. I ditched all but one of my streaming services (Prime) due to the other benefits of having it. Haven't had cable in years I have no issue paying for content I want to watch but they want you to pay for access and then show ads? Sorry not playing that game anymore, I have signed up for most of them at one time or another due to a few shows I enjoy but soon realized that they didn't have much content beyond those couple of shows. There are shows out there that I would love to watch but it isn't worth anymore for the money they charge. My hope is that more and more streaming services come online and start forcing real competition and pull the price way down. They have a choice, either use ads to fund content creation and allow free open access or charge a fee to view the content but you can't have both.

 

[Second Chance]

There are some awesome shows on PBS if you can get it over the air. I ditched all but one of my streaming services (Prime) due to the other benefits of having it. Haven't had cable in years I have no issue paying for content I want to watch but they want you to pay for access and then show ads? Sorry not playing that game anymore, I have signed up for most of them at one time or another due to a few shows I enjoy but soon realized that they didn't have much content beyond those couple of shows. There are shows out there that I would love to watch but it isn't worth anymore for the money they charge. My hope is that more and more streaming services come online and start forcing real competition and pull the price way down. They have a choice, either use ads to fund content creation and allow free open access or charge a fee to view the content but you can't have both.

I'll second the PBS suggestion. We also have a Prime membership and discovered that there is a PBS Documentary channel on Prime for only $4.95/month. I've really enjoyed watching all the great PBS documentaries without having to sit through their endless fundraising breaks during first-run broadcasts. As you stated, it's a case of choosing to pay the nominal fee rather than endure the ads.

Rob

 

[Dadeo6472]

The Wife found out through a news article that a lot of the so called reality shows are made up crap

Yep!

Years ago, I sold a house to a young couple who worked on the first "Survivor" series. One was the head writer, the other was a financial manager who had the title of "producer". They joked that the only thing "real" about a reality show was the money it made the network. The reason there are so many of them is that they are so cheap to produce.