Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by N1H1L » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

kschwab wrote: post #10

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…

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…

Why not Sling? I find it much cheaper than YouTubeTV

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

#62

Post by wjamesg » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #54

kschwab wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"You can use their cloud DVR to "record" something, and after that happens, you can fast forward through the commercials." Has this changed? When I tried YouTubeTV a couple of years ago, you could record things to the DVR, and sometimes not only would they not let you fast forward through the commercials, they replaced them with their own completely un-fast-forwardable commercials. Sometimes it would let you fast for…

Even if you ‘record’ something to your YouTube TV DVR, if there is an on-demand (with ads) version available from the network, your DVR recorded version will be replaced and you will be forced to watch the on-demand (with unskippable ads) version

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

#63

Post by tzs » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 4:54 PM UTC

gregmac wrote: post #33

I'm a bit amazed these "live TV" style services even still exist and people use them. It kind of makes sense for specifically live content -- sports, mainly -- but these are basically 1980's style cable TV delivered "over the internet". The killer feature of services like Netflix is not really the "over the internet" part, it's the "watch any show on demand" and "massive library so you can start watching from S1E1, i…

One thing I liked about the older days was that when I watched something interesting many of my friends and coworkers were also watching, and we could have interesting discussions about it the next day.

Nowadays, especially with places like Netflix releasing a whole season of a show at once, it is often the case that all your friends and coworkers are all at different points in the series.

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

#64

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 4:57 PM UTC

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…

[deleted]

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

#65

Post by lftl » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 5:01 PM UTC

gregmac wrote: post #33

I'm a bit amazed these "live TV" style services even still exist and people use them. It kind of makes sense for specifically live content -- sports, mainly -- but these are basically 1980's style cable TV delivered "over the internet". The killer feature of services like Netflix is not really the "over the internet" part, it's the "watch any show on demand" and "massive library so you can start watching from S1E1, i…

The unique thing about YTTV was that it kind of combined the live content, and watch any show on demand. Their DVR option gives you unlimited storage, and keeps shows you record for 9 months. So you could basically just spend an hour when you signed up clicking record on anything you're interested in, and then in a few months you basically had access to everything that's been on the TV for the past few months whenever you want.

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

#66

Post by halfmatthalfcat » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 5:01 PM UTC

gregmac wrote: post #57

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s still a lot of Live TV: news, sports and serials. There’s an aspect to live that, while is going through a transformation, will always exist. You might not find any utility in it, but over 100M households in the US alone still have a pay TV subscription.

It's interesting to look at the age breakdown [1], though. Less than 50% of respondents under 50 have cable. How much of the older population does, just out of inertia and being used to it? There's a generation growing up now with a very different experience. I distinctly remember my kid experiencing cable for the first time around age 3 or 4 (rainy day while we were staying at a cottage): "this is in the middle, sta…

Yeah the pendulum is definitely swinging (or has swung) in the opposite direction (VOD) but live will always have a place (sports, news, serials, award shows, etc). Not saying there has been a massive paradigm shift in the past 5 years but the news of linear TV's death is greatly exaggerated imo.

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

#67

Post by neogodless » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

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…

Sometimes these services shoot themselves in the foot. I tried Starz on trial, and had so many commercials to sit through. No way I'm paying for Starz. (It's entirely possible and even likely you don't commercials with the paid service compared to the trial, but the trial was for me to experience the service. I'm not then risking paying for the service with the risk that it still has commercials.)

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

#68

Post by kschwab » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

N1H1L wrote: post #61

kschwab wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Why not Sling? I find it much cheaper than YouTubeTV

It's missing ABC and CBS. And the DVR is more limited. But, yes, it's very inexpensive in comparison to YouTubeTV.

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

#69

Post by rchaud » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

gregmac wrote: post #33

I'm a bit amazed these "live TV" style services even still exist and people use them. It kind of makes sense for specifically live content -- sports, mainly -- but these are basically 1980's style cable TV delivered "over the internet". The killer feature of services like Netflix is not really the "over the internet" part, it's the "watch any show on demand" and "massive library so you can start watching from S1E1, i…

Since moving out of my parents' house ~15 years ago, I have lived without cable TV of any kind, and I miss it.

Live TV offers a 'channel surfing' experience that does not exist on streaming. I want to be able to come home from work and plop down on my couch and just turn the TV on and have something be showing. If I don't like it, I switch channels. I have discovered numerous TV shows, movies and documentaries this way, even if I come across it halfway through an episode.

It is a completely different experience from streaming, where my home screen is basically a billboard, and I have to invest time in selecting something and then start it from Season 1, Episode 1, timestamp 00:00. That seems like a big commitment for something that's recreational, especially when TV shows start off slowly to introduce all the characters.

I come to this realization every time I am in a hotel room that has cable TV. If it's 1 in the morning, I'm fine with watching the Veronica Mars movie or Baby Driver even if it started an hour ago.

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

#70

Post by kschwab » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 5:44 PM UTC

wjamesg wrote: post #62

jerf wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You can use their cloud DVR to "record" something, and after that happens, you can fast forward through the commercials." Has this changed? When I tried YouTubeTV a couple of years ago, you could record things to the DVR, and sometimes not only would they not let you fast forward through the commercials, they replaced them with their own completely un-fast-forwardable commercials. Sometimes it would let you fast for…

Even if you ‘record’ something to your YouTube TV DVR, if there is an on-demand (with ads) version available from the network, your DVR recorded version will be replaced and you will be forced to watch the on-demand (with unskippable ads) version

I can't reproduce that. I wonder if it's on some specific channels.