Spock prepares to do battle on Vulcan, on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
I pay $13.00 a month to watch tv. That includes 70 over-the-air channels (using my Mohu Bookshelf antenna, the white square below my tv), free movie channels like Tubi, 190 streaming channels courtesy of Pluto & LG TV, and premium streaming services HBO Max, Paramount Plus, Hulu & Peacock Premium.
I even have 24 hour news again as ABC, NBC & CBS all have (free) streaming news channels now.
I’m sorry but this blows my mind. A year ago, I was paying $150 a month for ‘Expanded Basic’ cable and Netflix. And it seemed like I could never find anything I wanted to watch.
Have you cut the (cable) cord yet? If you’re unable to get your local stations with an antenna like I do, and you don’t want to give up cable, you should look into YouTube TV. $65.00 a month gets you local stations, 85 cable channels & unlimited “cloud service DVR”.
(As for myself, I will never pay more than $20.00 a month again.)
I think what my cable company (Xfinity) did was pretty smart. When I canceled my cable/internet/phone bundle, they offered me Peacock Premium for free if I kept my internet—and sent me a Flex box & voice remote for free, no monthly fee, no strings attached.
(It’s like a Roku, but with the Xfinity brand to keep a leash on you.)
I tossed it in my closet, but as time went on I learned how useful it could be. Sometimes these premium services like Paramount Plus would freeze on my tv, and the only way to unfreeze them was to restart everything, internet included.
I discovered if I stream shows from HBO Max & Paramount thru the Flex box, it buffers what I watch perfectly. No spinning wheels, zero glitches.
I never trusted this Flex completely though, until recently. Every once in awhile, using the voice remote, I’d say “The World According to Garp.”
(It’s an old favorite of mine, from 1982.) Flex would come back with “Available to rent from Xfinity for $3.99.”
That meant it wasn’t available for streaming anywhere else.
Then in late May, I learned the movie was coming to HBO Max June 1. (Flex knows what services you subscribe to, so you don’t have to re-enter passwords.) On June 1, when I said Garp into the remote, it said “Available to watch now on HBO Max.” It didn’t even give me the option to rent it from Xfinity. I was impressed.
But good things seldom last forever, and I’ll need to make some decisions soon:
1) I currently pay $7.50 a month for ad-free HBO Max, thanks to a 1 year promotion I got last September. It runs out in 2 months. Do I want to pay $15.00 a month to keep this? Or $10.00 a month for the version with ads? Or drop it altogether?
I just learned if I pay another year in advance, I’ll get a 16% discount. Still…
2) I currently pay 99 cents a month for Hulu. (This was another year-long deal I got last November, on Black Friday.) This November, my monthly price will increase to $6.99. Do I want to pay this?
Yes, I do. Because Hulu is such a great mix of movies and tv shows, this is the only service I really want or need for enjoying tv.
3) I pay $4.00 a month for Paramount Plus (it’s $4.99, but discounted if you pay a year in advance) pretty much for 3 shows only: Star Trek Discovery, Star Trek Picard & Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Do I want to continue this? I’m not sure.
But it’s only 4 bucks, I’m paid up thru next spring, and I love Star Trek. Plus it’s nice having all the CBS shows available at my convenience.
The funny thing is, with everything there is to watch, I was curious to check out Apple TV+. The app is on my Flex, with an offer for a 7 day free trial. (After that, it’s $4.99 a month.) But it stopped me from signing up; you’re required to have an itunes account or apple device and idon’t. Their loss!
Just as well, I suppose. I’d almost forgotten about the free streaming service from Xfinity, Peacock Premium. Now if I just had one of these cool George Jetson chairs…
I am a Trekkie also and have watched all those shows and am enjoying them, even if I do have to pay for it, more than you do anyway. I still haven't cut the cord.
ReplyDeleteDJan, you must have the ad-free Paramount if you're paying more than me. I envy you that. Anyway, I knew you were a Trekkie but didn't know you were watching these shows, cool. 🙂👍
DeleteDavid would know how to respond to this post, as he loves TV. Currently, we pay $86 per month for TV, Internet, and Landline. We are happy and satisfied. Gigi Hawaii
ReplyDeleteI'd be satisfied with that too Gigi! I pay $74 a month just for internet.
DeleteI love how on top of everything you are! I love Trek but haven't gotten my butt in gear to figure out how to watch it. If John cuts the cable, perhaps he will help me do so. It feels overwhelming to me at the moment!
ReplyDeleteThanks Margaret! Oh this was boring, I should post an apology! Well I know you have a busy life (and it's going to get even busier soon) but I really hope you can check out those new Trek shows on Paramount some day. I think you'd like 2 of them very much. :^)
DeleteOne of the drawbacks of living in rural America is that we have pretty limited on air channels. In fact, the last time I tried, I could only pull in one local channel, the one that is basically a joke to watch. To compound things, our county is considered a media "black hole" so there are no agreements with anybody but our local cable company to provide local channels where as they are provided free of charge to 99.9% of the country. I found this out the hard way when I switched to one of those dish services and had to petition to get access to the channels which took 3 months to grant and then three months later they went off again and I was told I had to petition again. I switched back to our one and only cable provider.
ReplyDeleteI am tempted to try YouTube television because while I don't have a local channel, I get an instate "local" channel that is my preferred one to watch anyway. I just haven't made the switch yet.
Ed, I just now got off the phone with the former coworker who moved to her grandmother's house in a very rural setting. She just signed up for YouTube TV over the weekend and she loves it. It's half the price of her cable.
DeleteI'm impressed with how little you pay. I can't get any over the air channels here and cable is not available so I subscribe to Directv which has about 80 channels I will never watch but I can get the baseball games through them which makes my summer.
ReplyDeletePatti, you're in the same situation as my sister. I am sorry about that, maybe I shouldn't be on here going on about it if what I have isn't available to everyone. Well, at least you're not crammed into some apartment in the city! 🙂
DeleteInteresting! I have Xfinity / Comcast for Internet only on my PC, for $50 a month. When I renewed, they gave me the box to hook up to my TV. My TV is zero cuz I only have a square antenna in my window with a cord to the back of the TV. I get all locals, PBS, and about 20 boring other stations. My Xfinity deal gave me a box to attach to the TV that was no extra charge. It sounds like your's. Maybe I should try it. I obviously have no clue. Come on over and set it up please. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteHaha--Linda you sound like the same setup as me! I wish I lived closer! Yes I would hook up that Flex device and see if it's of any use to you!
DeleteHi Doug, wow, you have a lot of choices for your tv watching! And the prices, incredible!
ReplyDeleteNo idea what a Flex or a Roku are.🤔 We are just DVD watchers here. Like Ed we live rurally so can not pick up any tv stations with an antenna. But I know what is released on DVD is limited now. We do have the first season of Picard and are hopeful the studio will release the rest on DVD. We watch probably an hour and a half of tv at night. Any more and we tend to fall asleep!😴
Enjoy the rest of your week Doug.❤️
Robin
Robin, first of all I want to apologize for this boring blog--please don't leave me, I learned my lesson. Second... you dont know what a Roku or Flex is! Wow! Listen, I almost envy you for that--and also, I have the first season of Picard too (I even blogged about it a year ago) as I didn't want to get involved in all this streaming hoopla. And finally--I watch far less tv than it sounds here. :^) Please say hi to Chuck for me, and thank you Robin.
DeleteIt wasn’t boring! I would never leave you!
DeleteChuck says Hi back.😆
Holy smokes!!! Is that a speaker tower standing to the right of your tv? That would sure take my YouTube videos on piano solos to a higher level. So many choices of streaming services available now. I'm a bit bedazzled by it all.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Florence, that is a simple air ionizer and column fan. My apartment's main AC is directly to the side of that fan from behind, so this moves the cool air around pretty well. As for all the streaming options, boy you got that right. To be honest I watch very very few of them. I watch a lot of YouTube videos too. 🙂👍
DeleteWell that puts an end to my 'speaker' envy. Sure got that wrong! (One time before I got eyeglasses, I mistook a mail box for a hitch-hiker.)
DeleteHahaha! Florence I sure am glad you got those eyeglasses! :^)
DeleteDoug when you cut the cord you did a great job of getting your TV stations at a super price! You really do get a lot for $13. As you know we cut the cord a few years ago and we would never go back either. The cost of our cable TV was outrageous and the service was even worse. We pay $35 a month for Sling Blue which has 41 channels and DVR service. We love it because it offers such variety plus a few favorites like History and HGTV. We do have over the air TV from an antenna and that gives us a large variety of local stations. Last January I got in on the 99 cent Hulu deal so we have that for now and our son gets us a years subscription to Netflix every Christmas. Oh and we also have Amazon Prime which comes with our Amazon account. So we actually have more channels now than we did with cable! However, I think you have about the best deal for the money that I have ever heard about - great job, you are a cord cutting pro!
ReplyDeleteBonnie, I was hoping you'd chime in here as you're the cord cutting Queen! My gosh, apparently you I'm an amateur. I have to admit I'm intrigued by Sling Blue, I just might have to give that a try for 1 to 2 months and see for myself. Thanks Bonnie! 🙂👍
DeleteI don't pay to watch, and don't have any of the streaming devices. My TV doesn't even get turned on until the evening news at 6pm, then if there's anything I want to see on the free-to-air channels I'll watch that or watch movies or TV series via usb or dvd. I've never liked the idea of having the TV on all the time.
ReplyDeleteRiver, I'm not surprised reading this but I am impressed. I need to stop using my own TV for background noise.
Delete"using my Mohu Bookshelf antenna, the white square below my tv" - don't know what this is, nor a "flex box" -but plan to check it out. We cut the cord on cable a while back, but do pay about $75 for wifi and another $75 for Hulu, maybe $6-7 for Acorn and Brit Box, then get Prime, Netflix, Disney, and Apple free through our son... plus other free streaming through Roku. It's getting a bit confusing to me, but I do prefer streaming to cable.
ReplyDeleteRian my dear friend, that Mohu Bookshelf is the same thing as the old-school rabbit ears antenna. It picks up ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, etc... (but in high-def and no static). But you certainly don't need one, you're more than covered--and I'm envious you have Brit Box, I want that too. :^)
DeleteHmmm.... I get Netflix through my son-in-law, but otherwise, we've been watching regular network TV. We go to bed early usually because we get up so early to do a morning walk, etc. Our daughter and family are here right now and I shall send your blog to him so he can see what is available.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kay... you'd be surprised how little I actually watch, I get to bed early too (and heading there now) :^) Anyway, you're not missing much!
DeleteWow, that's a lot of TV for a great price! We get Netflix (ha ha, unlike Kay, I'm not on my son's account; he's on mine!) and amazon, and yes, we still get basic cable, and just to prove that we're dinosaurs, we also still have a landline. How much do we pay? Too much.
ReplyDeleteTom I get nervous feelings sometimes about not having a landline, truth be told. Anyway, cable IS too pricey--you'd think they would bring those prices down if they want to stay in the game.
DeleteSounds like you've really figured it all out at a reasonable cost. I've had an old-fashioned roof antenna for 50 years and get all the TV I want, and then some, including 4 PBS stations carrying different programs from one another, all the major networks and lots more than I can view.
ReplyDelete