Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

deadline.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 86 posts

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#21

Post by Terretta »

solosoyokaze wrote: post #14
tcskeptic wrote: post #7

Interesting -- this weekend I finally gave up on YoutubeTV and ordered Spectrum cable again. Between the rising costs (now 69.95 a month) and the loss of both regional sports networks (I haven't been able to watch Texas Rangers baseball or Mavericks basketball in almost a year since they dropped the Fox Sports RSNs) and the Tennis channel the package is worth much less to me. The only real reason I want cable is for…

I don't watch sports but do enjoy cooking, travel and home shows (don't judge me!). I also did not like paying a huge monthly fee for mostly channels I don't watch. I've actually found Discovery+ to be a really great deal as it has Discovery, Food, Travel and HGTV content all bundled and on-demand for $5 a month. It's all of the content I wanted and was paying > $60 /month for, with no commercials and on-demand. It's…

Exactly! Discovery plus a global news package would be ideal.

Only streamer with decent selection of global news in a skinny-ish package seems to be Sling, but what you describe would be ideal.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#23

Post by xnx »

gwbas1c wrote: post #4

Does Youtube TV still have commercials for on-demand content? Back at the beginning, I signed up for a trial. The first thing I did was try some on-demand, and it made me sit through A LOT of commercials before the content started. Considering that Youtube TV was 4-5x the cost of Netflix and Amazon Prime, and both are commercial-free, I canceled immediately. I watch so little TV that it's cheaper to just buy the show…

Youtube TV isn't direct competitor to Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. but it's a great alternative for people who want cable TV channels. I found it was much cheaper, had more viewing flexibility, and better contract terms than any cable provider in my area. That said, there's no cable TV content that makes it worth being exposed to the aggressive obnoxiousness of commercials.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#24

Post by lotsofpulp »

solosoyokaze wrote: post #14
tcskeptic wrote: post #7

Interesting -- this weekend I finally gave up on YoutubeTV and ordered Spectrum cable again. Between the rising costs (now 69.95 a month) and the loss of both regional sports networks (I haven't been able to watch Texas Rangers baseball or Mavericks basketball in almost a year since they dropped the Fox Sports RSNs) and the Tennis channel the package is worth much less to me. The only real reason I want cable is for…

I don't watch sports but do enjoy cooking, travel and home shows (don't judge me!). I also did not like paying a huge monthly fee for mostly channels I don't watch. I've actually found Discovery+ to be a really great deal as it has Discovery, Food, Travel and HGTV content all bundled and on-demand for $5 a month. It's all of the content I wanted and was paying > $60 /month for, with no commercials and on-demand. It's…

I had a family member that was in a Discovery show recently, so I decided to sign up to Discovery+ watch just to see my family member.

Lo and behold, discovery+ does not stream the episodes they put on tv channels until the year after or something stupid. Luckily, I had a free trial so I just canceled at no cost, but they lost any chance of getting me in the future by gate keeping their content like that.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#25

Post by josefresco »

I have 5 TV's with Roku hardware attached. I've also been a YouTubeTV customer for several years (when it was $35/month). I'll drop YTTV long before I'll swap my Roku hardware.

Roku hardware and UI is superior to anything on the market. YouTubeTV is decent, but the competition is robust.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#26

Post by soupfordummies »

tcskeptic wrote: post #8
helipad wrote: post #5

The streaming landscape is frustrating as an end user. I have a Roku TV and have used YouTube TV, Hulu and Sling for live TV. YouTube TV and Hulu seem to keep increasing their prices to the point where there's not much difference from traditional cable, other than it's easier to cancel. But then there are so many caveats. Bally Sports doesn't appear to be available in my local market to stream our MLB team. I also ne…

The Bally Sports thing is a long standing YoutubeTV contract dispute carried over from the Fox Sports RSNs. Its ridiculous

Not the person you're replying to but I'm in the same boat. I was at least able to watch my team last year but now that I can't even do that, there's no reason for me to keep paying $65/mo, it's ludicrous.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#27

Post by josefresco »

gwbas1c wrote: post #4

Does Youtube TV still have commercials for on-demand content? Back at the beginning, I signed up for a trial. The first thing I did was try some on-demand, and it made me sit through A LOT of commercials before the content started. Considering that Youtube TV was 4-5x the cost of Netflix and Amazon Prime, and both are commercial-free, I canceled immediately. I watch so little TV that it's cheaper to just buy the show…

> Does Youtube TV still have commercials for on-demand content?

Doesn't every single TV content provider do this? On Demand content has unskippable commercials on every platform I've used - Netflix and Amazon Prime are not equivalents as they don't offer network On Demand content.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#28

Post by rashkov »

tcskeptic wrote: post #7

Interesting -- this weekend I finally gave up on YoutubeTV and ordered Spectrum cable again. Between the rising costs (now 69.95 a month) and the loss of both regional sports networks (I haven't been able to watch Texas Rangers baseball or Mavericks basketball in almost a year since they dropped the Fox Sports RSNs) and the Tennis channel the package is worth much less to me. The only real reason I want cable is for…

Have a look at fubo. I was researching this to help a family member cut the cord, and fubo's elite package seems to be the only one that provides great coverage for sports. AT&T TV NOW seemed to be promising as well, but my impression was that their app may be a little janky and their channel coverage not quite as good, for about the same price.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#29

Post by bsharitt »

kschwab wrote: post #15
bsharitt wrote: post #12

After the whole HBOMax debacle, I'm not sure if I trust Roku's side of the story and am wondering if the real issue isn't "Youtube TV won't give us a slice of their pie". I used to be a huge fan of Roku when they were the neutral streaming box that was open to all services, but the HBOMax nonsense last year soured me on them.

Some detail here: https://popculture.com/streaming/news/roku-founder-reveals-w... "Roku's standard terms for partner channels include 20% of subscription fees and 30% of ad inventory, which has driven away Peacock, as it is currently airing fewer than five minutes of ads per hour. Meanwhile, WarnerMedia has been looking to retire the HBO service now sold through Roku to promote HBO Max, which Roku has turned down sin…

This is exactly where died for me, when I went from being a buyer of their hardware to a potential source of monthly revenue and made it more difficult to get content I want as a result. They established a customer base and good will and once that was in place, the rent seeking started. At this point once a company that make a product I like goes public, it seems like a good tome to start looking for alternatives.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#30

Post by kschwab »

josefresco wrote: post #27
gwbas1c wrote: post #4

Does Youtube TV still have commercials for on-demand content? Back at the beginning, I signed up for a trial. The first thing I did was try some on-demand, and it made me sit through A LOT of commercials before the content started. Considering that Youtube TV was 4-5x the cost of Netflix and Amazon Prime, and both are commercial-free, I canceled immediately. I watch so little TV that it's cheaper to just buy the show…

> Does Youtube TV still have commercials for on-demand content? Doesn't every single TV content provider do this? On Demand content has unskippable commercials on every platform I've used - Netflix and Amazon Prime are not equivalents as they don't offer network On Demand content.

You can get some of what's offered on YouTube TV without commercials in other places, but it's a piecemeal adventure. If you shut down YouTube TV in favor of Amazon Prime, for example, you could pay for a subscription to AMC+ on Prime and watch "The Walking Dead", "Discovery of Witches", etc, without commercials. Or, older stuff, like "Law and Order" that has commercials on YouTube TV, but comes with Prime, no commercials.
Post reply on HN