YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#91

Post by adregan » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 3:27 PM UTC

I'm so frustrated by the state of things as I only subscribed to YoutubeTV because I wanted to watch Mets baseball and media blackouts prevent me from streaming despite my MLB.tv subscription.

The price has only risen over the years and it's been a pretty bitter pill to swallow.

I already pay for Disney+ but am also paying for their content through YoutubeTV, which I rarely consume (never watch the disney channel; sometimes I have to watch baseball on ESPN because of media rights).

ABC, which is really only used to record the Bachelor/ette programs in this house, is free with an antenna (but lacking the DVR). Not to mention you can watch it a day later using the Hulu subscription we also pay for.

I love the DVR feature of YoutubeTV, but I really only record content that's free over the airwaves. Including This Old House, which is now owned by Roku and has it's own for pay streaming service.

I'm paying eight ways to Sunday for this content, and increasingly of the opinion that it's not worth it.

EDIT: Anyone know of a DVR + digital antenna solution I could implement?

EDIT2: Just pulled the digital antenna out of the drawer and, as expected, the features of the surrounding landscape block all the channels.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#92

Post by mastax » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 3:30 PM UTC

ende wrote: post #85

ipaddr wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Liberal means progressive which means giving up individual rights while controlling the market to protect individuals from bad choices.

Liberal does not mean progressive.

It does in the US, unfortunately.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#93

Post by ghaff » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 3:35 PM UTC

adregan wrote: post #91

I'm so frustrated by the state of things as I only subscribed to YoutubeTV because I wanted to watch Mets baseball and media blackouts prevent me from streaming despite my MLB.tv subscription. The price has only risen over the years and it's been a pretty bitter pill to swallow. I already pay for Disney+ but am also paying for their content through YoutubeTV, which I rarely consume (never watch the disney channel; so…

TiVo still exists I guess if you can receive over the air.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#94

Post by jejones3141 » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

tentacleuno wrote: post #39

foxhop wrote: post #32

If you just want TV on in the background and don't want to pay anything, checkout "Pluto TV" and "Tubi TV", both have apps and may cast to Chromecast or SmartTVs. https://pluto.tv/ https://tubitv.com/ Friends help friends cut cords.

Pluto TV is a godsend. So much stuff on there. I've been recommending it to people for a while now. You can also get it on Kodi[0]. [0]: https://kodi.tv/addons/matrix/plugin.video.plutotv

No kidding. My wife lamented that she couldn't see the original (modulo dubbing) Iron Chef... and poof, now there's a Pluto TV channel running nothing but that.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#95

Post by wyldfire » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

adregan wrote: post #91

I'm so frustrated by the state of things as I only subscribed to YoutubeTV because I wanted to watch Mets baseball and media blackouts prevent me from streaming despite my MLB.tv subscription. The price has only risen over the years and it's been a pretty bitter pill to swallow. I already pay for Disney+ but am also paying for their content through YoutubeTV, which I rarely consume (never watch the disney channel; so…

> EDIT: Anyone know of a DVR + digital antenna solution I could implement?

Not sure about the current generation of devices but I had a HomeRun device [1] in the past and it was great.

More recently I think I heard of a FireTV product that had an antenna and DVR support.

[1] https://www.silicondust.com/

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#96

Post by saxonww » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 3:46 PM UTC

adamcstephens wrote: post #40

BrazzVuvuzela wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> YouTube TV is basically cable TV delivered via the internet And the sooner that dies, the better. Cable TV is crap and I don't want to see that model of media succeed into the internet era.

Is it really much better to have five $15 services to get the same content?

I'd certainly like it if I could pay YouTube TV $15 to get just the sports channels. I only subscribe a few months a year, for college football season. I don't like to watch anything else. So I'm spending $65/mo to watch 3-4 games, which is a little embarrassing to post.

I do think I'd rather pay YouTube than ESPN directly, because the latter's video services have never worked well for me. Part of me wishes the various services would just tell Disney to get lost, and let them see how much they like providing that service on their own. Though, the conventional wisdom seems to be that live sports programming can't exist on it's own, and that 'regular TV' can't exist without live sports.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#97

Post by badwriter32 » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 3:47 PM UTC

foxhop wrote: post #32

If you just want TV on in the background and don't want to pay anything, checkout "Pluto TV" and "Tubi TV", both have apps and may cast to Chromecast or SmartTVs. https://pluto.tv/ https://tubitv.com/ Friends help friends cut cords.

I would recommend plex ( https://plex.tv) over both of these, since you can watch movies/tv you and your friends download in addition to free tv

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#98

Post by zikduruqe » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 3:48 PM UTC

foxhop wrote: post #32

If you just want TV on in the background and don't want to pay anything, checkout "Pluto TV" and "Tubi TV", both have apps and may cast to Chromecast or SmartTVs. https://pluto.tv/ https://tubitv.com/ Friends help friends cut cords.

Also https://www.xumo.tv.

And a lot of people forget, there is OTA TV too. In the days of streaming everything media, there are still OTA sources just in case. Especially during a power outage, where AM/FM and broadcast TV still work to receive info.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#99

Post by maxclark » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

technofiend wrote: post #3

Personally I'm delighted to trade ABC, ESPN, etc [1] for a $15 reduction in my YouTube TV bill. It just makes me wish Google would unbundle all their different providers so I could choose only the ones I want. [1] Your local ABC channel, ABC News Live, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 (by authentication to the ESPN app)…

And here's the problem with cable and the OTT providers as well.

The content networks force an all or nothing contract. ESPN must be licensed for all subscribers or no ESPN option for anyone.

The same thing that forced me off of cable has forced me off of OTT.

Re: YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels in fee dispute

#100

Post by ghaff » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

saxonww wrote: post #96

adamcstephens wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really much better to have five $15 services to get the same content?

I'd certainly like it if I could pay YouTube TV $15 to get just the sports channels. I only subscribe a few months a year, for college football season. I don't like to watch anything else. So I'm spending $65/mo to watch 3-4 games, which is a little embarrassing to post. I do think I'd rather pay YouTube than ESPN directly, because the latter's video services have never worked well for me. Part of me wishes the vario…

>Though, the conventional wisdom seems to be that live sports programming can't exist on it's own, and that 'regular TV' can't exist without live sports.

It feels that way. On the one hand, it seems like you have to be something of a super-fan to subscribe to one or more of the sport/league-specific sites/apps. On the other hand, local sports availability or even just sports as TV on in background seems like a pretty significant sweetener for a lot of people who might not pay for TV just for the occasional late night talk show, local news broadcast, or reality show.

Sports isn't enough for me to pay for cable any longer. But, if I did, watching a game now and then would probably be what would push me over the line to pay up.