How will most people stack streaming services?

[vcr1980]

Why did cable get so expensive? Was it the content creators asking for more money? If so, will this trend continue with streaming?

In other words, how will most people eventually consume and stack services?

Will people buy an average of 2-3 services for instance and keep them year round (every month). If content creators keep wanting more money, how will they eventually try to squeeze us again? Yearly contracts, bundle and save, tiered streaming services?

Are we all going to niche off and only have one service?

What do you think the future of streaming will be in terms of price, how we bundle it, and what will eventually drive the cost up (to be just as much as cable was)?

 

[KAB]

Why did cable get so expensive? Was it the content creators asking for more money? If so, will this trend continue with streaming?

Yes and Yes.

 

[Zookster]

I'm stacking because of too-good-to-pass-up deals for some of the new services. But after the deals expire, I see myself rotating services just to catch up on favorite must-watch shows, like I normally do. I'm currently on a year of Peacock ($25/year for ad-supported +$5/mo for ad-free), Peacock+ ($50/year for ad-free), HBO Max ($12/mo for 1 year), and AppleTV+ (3 months free). I set calendar reminders so these annual deals don't auto-renew before I can cancel.

 

[primestar31]

One word: Greed.

 

[mwdxer1]

Why did cable get so expensive? Was it the content creators asking for more money? If so, will this trend continue with streaming?

In other words, how will most people eventually consume and stack services?

Will people buy an average of 2-3 services for instance and keep them year round (every month). If content creators keep wanting more money, how will they eventually try to squeeze us again? Yearly contracts, bundle and save, tiered streaming services?

Are we all going to niche off and only have one service?

What do you think the future of streaming will be in terms of price, how we bundle it, and what will eventually drive the cost up (to be just as much as cable was)?

The great thing about streaming, there are so many choices. Many great free ones you don't get with cable/satellite. I was going after the free cable type services via streaming and there are now a lot of them.Pluto, Xumo, Plex, STIRR, Tubj, IMBD, to name a few. The deals with streaming are very good and they happen often. I picked up Paramount+ for $50 for the year. I got Disney+ for $140 for 3 years. You cannot get that with cable/satellite. I sub to three services now, Prime (which I main use for shipping), Disney+ and Paramount+. I still have Dish as I get a lot of channels not available elsewhere plus I do have the On Demand service for no extra cost. I use that more than I used to. But streaming is the future. If a service goes up too high, then there are other services that offer similar channels for a lot less. There is a lot on competition with streaming. I remember a day when there was OTA and that was it. Then came along cable that offered a few channels. Now there is about everything. What will it be in another 10 years?

 

[ncted]

Why did cable get so expensive?

At least a few reasons:

Because of the belief on Wall Street that somehow mature companies in mature markets that have pretty much already gotten all the customers they are ever going to get will be able to maintain huge profit margins while growing revenue.

Also, the channel owners kept inventing new channels with marginal programming which were required to be in the base package if the cable companies wanted to be able to carry ESPN, CNN, Fox News, or what have you. The additional channels cost almost nothing to run, but brought in a lot of revenue on volume.

TV sports contracts.

Local channels going from being free to being very expensive.

Probably some other reasons.

 

[Jhon69]

The great thing about streaming, there are so many choices. Many great free ones you don't get with cable/satellite. I was going after the free cable type services via streaming and there are now a lot of them.Pluto, Xumo, Plex, STIRR, Tubj, IMBD, to name a few. The deals with streaming are very good and they happen often. I picked up Paramount+ for $50 for the year. I got Disney+ for $140 for 3 years. You cannot get that with cable/satellite. I sub to three services now, Prime (which I main use for shipping), Disney+ and Paramount+. I still have Dish as I get a lot of channels not available elsewhere plus I do have the On Demand service for no extra cost. I use that more than I used to. But streaming is the future. If a service goes up too high, then there are other services that offer similar channels for a lot less. There is a lot on competition with streaming. I remember a day when there was OTA and that was it. Then came along cable that offered a few channels. Now there is about everything. What will it be in another 10 years?

Sling is also offering a Free service to compete with Pluto TV ect.

Sling Freestream: Watch Free Live TV Shows, Movies, & News Online

Stream live TV, shows, news, and movies for free with Sling Freestream. Access thousands of movies + live news, entertainment, weather and more. Watch now.

www.sling.com

 

[Juan]

At least a few reasons:

Because of the belief on Wall Street that somehow mature companies in mature markets that have pretty much already gotten all the customers they are ever going to get will be able to maintain huge profit margins while growing revenue.

Also, the channel owners kept inventing new channels with marginal programming which were required to be in the base package if the cable companies wanted to be able to carry ESPN, CNN, Fox News, or what have you. The additional channels cost almost nothing to run, but brought in a lot of revenue on volume.

TV sports contracts.

Local channels going from being free to being very expensive.

Probably some other reasons.

Can anyone say locast?

 

[mwdxer1]

Sling is also offering a Free service to compete with Pluto TV ect.

Sling Freestream: Watch Free Live TV Shows, Movies, & News Online

Stream live TV, shows, news, and movies for free with Sling Freestream. Access thousands of movies + live news, entertainment, weather and more. Watch now.

www.sling.com

I was going through the tons of free "cable" type apps on the Roku/Fire sticks. Pluto, Xumo, Tubi, IMBD, STIRR, Airy TV, Sling, Roku channel, and others. There is a lot of free material. Much of it is like the commercial cable fare. Some variations, but a lot of it is similar.
I have always liked to watch the news from other areas and now with streaming, that is possible. The way cable/satellite is, you get the news from your market. But with streaming most bigger TV stations stream, NY, LA, Chicago, Philly, SF, etc. Add in Euronews, and other others. A lot of what you pay for on satellite/cable is free streaming. If you want HBO, Showtime, etc they are there too. Many with specials. That you do not generally get with cable/satellite.

 

[Popps]

I was going through the tons of free "cable" type apps on the Roku/Fire sticks . . . I have always liked to watch the news from other areas . . . NY, LA, Chicago, Philly, SF, etc. . . . . . . .

Since you mention some out-of-market programming, I'm wondering about something. Do streaming services base local/regional programming on your current location or home address or billing/credit card address?

So if live in Chicago, but travel to Texas, could I still stream Chicago locals and sports channels? I'm going to finally dump DISH but the DishAnywhere app allows me to see the same channels no matter where I am.

 

[TheKrell]

Since you mention some out-of-market programming, I'm wondering about something. Do streaming services base local/regional programming on your current location or home address or billing/credit card address?

So if live in Chicago, but travel to Texas, could I still stream Chicago locals and sports channels? I'm going to finally dump DISH but the DishAnywhere app allows me to see the same channels no matter where I am.

It depends on the streaming service. Some streaming services can be spoofed. Yes, you can see your Chicago locals anywhere via DishAnywhere. But as soon as you dump Dish, you won't see anything on DishAnywhere.

 

[Popps]

It depends on the streaming service. Some streaming services can be spoofed. Yes, you can see your Chicago locals anywhere via DishAnywhere. But as soon as you dump Dish, you won't see anything on DishAnywhere.

 

[Popps]

Yes, the DishAnywhere will go away when I cancel DISH. That's why I'm wondering amongst the different streaming services if anyone has had experiences with remotely streaming their local programming outside their local market.

 

[ncted]

My experience with YTTV is I could stream my local channels while traveling, at least for a few days last week on my Amazon FireHD 8 tablet and my iPhone while in Orlando.

 

[NYDutch]

I use a VPN app on my Firesticks to view select locals from Locast wherever I am. On my phone, I use the "FakeGPS" app to view locals from any Locast city.

 

[mwdxer1]

Sling is also offering a Free service to compete with Pluto TV ect.

Sling Freestream: Watch Free Live TV Shows, Movies, & News Online

Stream live TV, shows, news, and movies for free with Sling Freestream. Access thousands of movies + live news, entertainment, weather and more. Watch now.

www.sling.com

I added that to the guide with the Fire TV Cube along with other free services. Streaming rocks!

 

[mwdxer1]

I use a VPN app on my Firesticks to view select locals from Locast wherever I am. On my phone, I use the "FakeGPS" app to view locals from any Locast city.

I have read that if Locast wins their case against the Networks, they may be forced to block VPN's. So you can only get your locals, if available. Fortunately Locast has added Portland. I do get most of the main Portland stations via translators, but there can be reception issues with them and Locast has more channels. We are at 27 OTA and I think Locast has 47.

 

[NYDutch]

I have read that if Locast wins their case against the Networks, they may be forced to block VPN's. So you can only get your locals, if available. Fortunately Locast has added Portland. I do get most of the main Portland stations via translators, but there can be reception issues with them and Locast has more channels. We are at 27 OTA and I think Locast has 47.

Locast is already using industry standard geo-locking software. I doubt that the relatively small number of VPN users would be an issue, but it'll be interesting to see how the court cases go.