Streaming Services
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Hello fellow KU fans, I have Comcast Xfinity for cable TV, however, price keeps going up and I am thinking about switching to streaming services.
I am looking for feedback on which service is best value for money to stream sports, news channels etc.
Thanks
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YouTube TV has all the sports channels I want (except MLB Network) but it is on the expensive side unfortunately. The unlimited DVR is a nice touch though.
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Just like you, I reevaluated my Comcast service years ago. After a ton of comparison research, I switched to YouTube TV.
My main goal was to lower the bill.
At that point, I figured I saved about $150 or so per month.
But, as Farmer mentioned, YTTV seems to be raising pricing consistently. I’m still way below the Comcast bill, but I fear within years that savings will be less.
$72.99 per month for the base plan. I think I started out at $54 a month???
During NFL season I “add on” the $10.99 per month Sports Plus package — RedZone, baby! Also includes beIN sports, Fox Soccer Plus, etc.
And they just added NFL sunday ticket for $299 per season if you want it.
You can of course add movie channels as well, which are not in the base plan. They start about $10 per month.
So, my peak YTTV bill is about $100 a month.
If you wanna watch KU basketball games, you’ll need ESPN+, but not thru YTTV.
Of course you can’t ditch Comcast entirely — you’ll need internet service. So, up your total bill to $180ish (depending on where you live). I highly recommend calling Comcast late at night when switching. Less emphasis on sales, asking, begging you to stay with cable.
Per the service…
— unlimited DVR rocks.
— I’ve run into a few issues streaming thru the YTTV app on my Sony 4K TV. Some were fixable, but not with obvious ways to fix. I also tried streaming thru both Google Chromecast and Apple TV. Both worked without issues, but the picture was not nearly as good.
— customer service is good, helpful.
— there are some rare kinks when DVRing non regular stuff. I try to DVR all US soccer games, but sometimes the coding or descriptions they use for the program are effed up, and the DVR doesn’t see it,
— I get a ton of channels, and don’t think I miss any important ones.
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I cut cable a decade ago and really don’t watch any live tv except sports anymore.
Disney bundle for the kids Disney+ ESPN+ and Hulu.
Go to blu-ray.com and buy digital movie codes for the movies I want to see at $2-8 each.
Netflix for the QB show. Wow that was cool.
Sling TV in season to get the games I can’t watch over the air.
Amazon Prime too.
Around $40 per month until you add sling.
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Ditto for everything rckchljhwk said about Youtube TV. We watch a lot of stuff on Amazon Prime (where we added PBS/Masterpiece to wallow in Britsh police shows), and Netflix. Also have MAX (HBO) but they have reduced their selection so much we will probably cancel that one.
Used to have Fubo, but they don’t carry any Turner related stations, so we had to add Sling for March Madness. Then discovered it didn’t have TCM. Youtube TV has all those (plus Hallmark & HGTV channels for the distaff half of our household).
Might be a lot but we don’t go out a lot (no movies since 2019!), and the evenings here on what has been called Hell’s Front Porch are too hot for about 5 months a year (buggy for 12) to sit out much. We enjoy relaxing and just being old people!
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I find the best way to cut tv expenses is to work way too many hours.
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@rockchalkjayhawk Thanks for this information.
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For internet I am thinking about switching to T-Mobile 5G home internet service.
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@AsadZ Make sure you test the speeds you actually get in your home before signing up. Maps lie!
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@mayjay said in Streaming Services:
Ditto for everything rckchljhwk said about Youtube TV. We watch a lot of stuff on Amazon Prime (where we added PBS/Masterpiece to wallow in Britsh police shows), and Netflix. Also have MAX (HBO) but they have reduced their selection so much we will probably cancel that one.
Used to have Fubo, but they don’t carry any Turner related stations, so we had to add Sling for March Madness. Then discovered it didn’t have TCM. Youtube TV has all those (plus Hallmark & HGTV channels for the distaff half of our household).
Might be a lot but we don’t go out a lot (no movies since 2019!), and the evenings here on what has been called Hell’s Front Porch are too hot for about 5 months a year (buggy for 12) to sit out much. We enjoy relaxing and just being old people!
The MAX app is just crap. Half the stuff i try to watch is just scrambled and unwatchable. I’m cancelling until they can sort that out. unfortunate!
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I have Hulu live with Disney+ and ESPN+. I had had Sling, but then it had a disagreement with ESPN and I was not going to miss the Jayhawks, so I jumped over to Hulu live with never having to worry about having ESPN available. It has FS1 and all the games that KU plays. I think Hulu live and youtubetv are similar in a lot of ways, but they don’t carry the same channels entirely. I picked Hulu because the ESPN+ was included, but I don’t watch a lot of pro sports, so I don’t know about how much of those are included.
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@mayjay I was thinking about the same as I don’t believe Comcast is providing speed that they had advertised
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@AsadZ T-Mobile has been good for me - just signed up a few months ago. I was skeptical because their cell service is patchy. This works well though.
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@dylans Thats good to know, I was curious.
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@AsadZ One thing to be aware of is that T-M counts all your home wifi use toward any usage of your cell data plan. They give unlimited usage, but they reserve the right once you gave reached some level of combined usage (say, 100 GB when we looked) to slow down your speeds to give priority to other users. Their plan seems pretty popular so maybe those provisions have changed.
You should also consider the infrastructure used in your area. Years ago we were in a hurricane in Virginia. All cell towers went down but we had cable internet (underground connected to our neighborhood) and were able to stay connected.
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I use Hulu live, and the Disney package that includes espn+. Wife has other things that come and go. I dropped cable completely when my city put in fiber to the home as a utility, it has been amazing.
Watch out for the cell phone 5g setups because many have a data cap and after you hit it the speed drops below streaming needs.
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Disney+ is great but announced they are raising the subscription 20-30%. My point is not to dissuade you because I switched xfinity cable for YouTubeTV a year or so ago and it has been great. I probably saved a bit of $$ in the first few months. But as was mentioned, Google increased the price of YTTV and Netflix increased and now Disney+. So there may not be much water to squeeze out of this rock soon.
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@bskeet said in Streaming Services:
Disney+ is great but announced they are raising the subscription 20-30%. My point is not to dissuade you because I switched xfinity cable for YouTubeTV a year or so ago and it has been great. I probably saved a bit of $$ in the first few months. But as was mentioned, Google increased the price of YTTV and Netflix increased and now Disney+. So there may not be much water to squeeze out of this rock soon.
Mother effers!
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Lol Disney they really know how to put off customers! Lost nearly 1 billion on their last 8 flicks too
