My Apple TV box stopped showing YouTube a few months ago, probably because it is an early model and they couldn't be bothered upgrading the software. Instead of buying another one, I got a cheap Chromebook instead.
Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark
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Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark
#12After 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.
Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark
#13The 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…
I cut my cable TV (and cable landline) cord last year because I wasn't using either much. But I went into it knowing that it would mean giving up live TV because if I were going to subscribe to something like YouTube TV, the difference in cost wouldn't be much at the end of the day.
(My cell, even with WiFi assist, and other calling mechanisms also aren't quite as good as my landline but, again, not worth the money as essentially a backup.)
Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark
#14Interesting -- 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 a pretty great deal if you like this kind of content.
Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark
#15After 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 singularly."
To me it just reads like Roku has grown it's subscriber base to the point where they can negotiate with content providers in the same way that cable companies used to. Which isn't great for end users, but it is what it is. Both HBOMax and Peacock ended up on Roku, so some deal was reached in both cases.
Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark
#16Does 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…
That was pretty much my thinking too. Cutting my cable bill by $100/month opens up a lot of "budget" for a la carte content. I still lose out on live TV but honestly that was a rare thing for me given I watch very little sports.
Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark
#17Does 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…
It does, because it's essentially the same thing as old school cable TV. You're getting access to ABC, CBS, PBS, NBC, Fox, FX, CNN, TNT, EPSN, BBC America, Food Network, HGTV, and so on. There's not really any service that offers (all of) that content without commercials. You can use their cloud DVR to "record" something, and after that happens, you can fast forward through the commercials. Which is similar to what y…
There is DVR software that will strip out the commericals for you. Post processing DVR feature, and its awesome.
Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark
#18The 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…
> 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.
That removal of the cable/satellite middlemen and ease of buying and canceling is pretty big I think. Now we just need to wait for the sports organizations contracts with networks to lose sufficient value that it makes sense to cut out the old networks and blackouts or whatever completely.
However, I think the value proposition for traditional bulk purchase TV entertainment where you don’t watch 99% of it is gone. I can buy all of the stuff I watch whenever I want and it would cost less than a monthly subscription to one of these channel services, and I wouldn’t have to sit through ads. Sports is the only missing factor, but the sports organizations are worth nowhere near what they charge right now to me.
Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark
#19Interesting -- 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…
They should let us pair up and split bundles. All I want is a package that’s all available global news, and zero sports.
Looking at the individual channel costs for cable, sports is the culprit. Over half my cable costs were subsidizing live sports, costing my provider $8 - $12 per channel, with home/garden, food, and news type channels coming in under a buck each.
It’s aggressive for streaming video packages to price near cable when not offering sports. For those who watch sports, that’s a terrible deal. For those who don’t want sports, streaming is starting to cross into charging more than cable would charge for the same not-sports channels (if they have a not-sports package). That said, if the streaming price is also “ad free” and fully time shiftable, that’s huge value. (They seem to be messing this up too, a higher percentage of shows on Hulu’s no ads keep having ads every year, now not just pre-roll, now interleaved and unskippable — TiVo can skip. Had donated TiVO Series 2 w/ 2 TB expansion to Good Will but might have to get another if this trend continues.)
After two decades of no ads (TiVo then Hulu ad free), traveling and being stuck with home or hotel cable is excruciating.
Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark
#20Just connect a PC to your TV and pirate everything
You don't have to hook up a PC to your TV for that. Plex and other programs will let you stream your archives to your roku/chromecast/etc.