This battle is killing me from a sports watching perspective. And frankly, my biggest issue with all of the subscription options these days is that sports fans feel like they get shafted the most. If you watch lots of different sports, like pour house does, we spend a ton to get access to them all (MLB, NFL, EPL to name just 3 we pay extra for).
I realize this is first world bitching but this current battle is literally two giants using the average consumer to eke out more profits than they are already getting, during a fucked up economic time.
I am frustrated with this fight. YouTube will lose. I upsets me that Iāve lost all these channels. And more importantly my daughter is mad she lost Disney and ABC. We also have the Disney, Hulu, ESPN bundle separate from YouTube TV. So I will probably switch to Hulu + Live tomorrow and cancel YT TV. They are basically the same price and just slightly different prices. In fact Iāll save money because Disney, Hulu and ESPN+ are included with Hulu + live package.
You also get no ads on the non-live streaming stuff if you go the full Hulu route. YoutubeTV drove me nuts because they replace shows you recorded with a stream (if they have one) and inject ads into them. Recorded ads can be fast forwarded but the streaming ads cannot on YoutubeTV.
If youāre only interested in live sports, Fubo has that option for about $55/mo
Made the switch today. Dropped YT TV and switched my Disney Bundle to Hulu Live (Which includes Disney and ESPN+). The nice thing is that it will save me about $30 per month. Negative is the UI for Hulu Live sucks. YT TV wasnāt good, but Hulu is incredibly bad. Iāll get used to it though.
Funny thing for anyone considering it. My disney bundle was through disney. To get Hulu live, I had to call Disney support. They then had to cancel my bundle. Set it to expire immediately (otherwise it remains until the next billing cycle), and then I could sign up for Hulu through Huluās site. The funny thing was the DIsney person could see everything I was doing on his end. Saw the account change and everything. The person was great though and sat through me setting everything up.
I pay for more streaming services than I can keep track of. Came home to turn on the Spartan Basketball season opener and itās in B1G+, one service I refuse to pay for. Turned over to MNF, no luck, I use YoutubeTV.
I have an affiliate but I access it through YouTubeTV and not over the air. Itās possible I could access it through some other service I have, but all I wanted to do was watch a game without having to go hunt for it.
That makes sense, but IMO that cost of convenience. Similar to spectrum and others opportunistically raising prices on current and long term customers, until they churn and become ānewā customers.
I like sling when it works, especially the options for single day and weekend signups. However the last lions MNF game, sling shit the bed, this a chargeback.
Thatās the problem .. ABC is Disney, therefore no streaming in on YTTV.
All of it is a racket. Eventually youāre paying $100/mo minimum no matter what service you use. You just hope your service isnāt out the channels you want for too long. The digital antennas are good in cities, but messy when wifi has enabled everyone to put their TVs wherever they want. No one wants to also be stringing a cable from the antenna.
If you get good over the air reception (I donāt, but used to) - you can get an HDHomerun box which converts it to a stream on your network. From there, your computer as a media center can record or stream it to your household.
Takes some setup but works. Except I think OTA broadcast is still 1080 and not 4k.
Thatās interesting. I have Sling and itās really stable. It does very rarely buffer, but that always clears quickly.
I donāt know how this stuff works. Is it a speed issue with your ISP? Is it a regional thing with Sling, since they allow you to chargeback for the missed service?
I have Sling and an intro offer with Amazon Prime to get me through the NFL season, then Iāll cancel that.
Iām still paying less than I was before I told Xfinity to fuck off.
Sling was down due to the AWS outage that many platforms suffered Oct 20. It worked fine for the earlier season Lions monday night game. 1st half buffered every few minutes, then in the 3rd quarter, just shat the bed, on all devices I tried. Slingās chat service was not even functioning. Iāve used sling many times in the past, for march madness. I appreciate with the new offering - weekend, single day, weekly options, no need to jump through multiple cancellation/retention attempt loops. Though I believe ESPN and possibly others are taking Sling to court over the less than monthly options, as it likely cannabilizes their $.
Last year I had NFL+ so I could at least watch those games on replay. But man their app is terrible. They broke it so you canāt watch in landscape mode on an iPad (seriously wtf). I donāt know if they ever fixed it, I gave up on them.
Thanks for taking the time for that thorough answer. Iām new to streaming after cutting the cable cord. I went OTA-only for a couple of years before jumping into streaming.
We cut the cable when we moved out here to the DMV. Originally had Hulu but their UI AND stability sucked. And with YouTubeTV we get tons of live sports, and now the NFL package. And iām loving their multiple viewing screens that you can do, including building your own.
Frankly, I think those that watch sports get the shaft when it comes to streaming. Especially if you are like me and watch a shit load. NFL, MLB, EPL, NCAAF, NCAA B-ball, Rugby (international and Union), Track & Field, Cycling, NWSL, MLS (if they didnāt put it behind yet another fucking paywall). Yes, we watch ALL of that, and more (sometimes Aussie Rules Football). Iām just getting tired of having to pay for yet another streaming service. Unfortunately I donāt see an end anytime soon.