TV Streaming

By Wayne Maruna

From time to time our Tabmail email distribution system sees a flurry of subscriber complaints about rate increases from cable and internet providers, whether from Suddenlink, CenturyLink or their affiliated DIRECTV service.  This grumbling is not unique to Taberna or New Bern or North Carolina.  And as mergers of cable providers increase, the pricing power of the large cable companies continues to work against, not for, the subscriber.  About the only real recourse available to the individual subscriber is to ‘cut the cord’, that is, drop the provider’s television service.  That pretty much means the individual subscriber is then left with three options – read lots of books, set up an antenna and learn to live with the limited list of over-the-air channels (you know, like when we were kids back before remote controls) or engage in what is known as streaming, which is to say getting one’s television content over the internet through any of several pay-for services.  Of course, to engage in streaming, one must have internet service, which in Taberna means a continuing relationship with one of the only two available providers, CenturyLink or Suddenlink.  Under streaming, you cancel your cable or satellite television feed and rely on your internet service, which may entail an upgrade in bandwidth (download speed).

Even if you elect to go with streaming, you are faced with the fact that streaming services do not provide access to real time local channel content, including PBS.  For some of us, that is a major drawback.  However, most local channels (including PBS) can be received as free over-the-air digital signals assuming you have the right antenna for your area.  Given that we live in an area subject to occasionally high tropical winds, the choice of a good attic based antenna should be considered. The cable from the antenna would then need to be fed down to your TV cable splitter block.

I recently took a gamble (a small $28 gamble) by ordering out an indoor TV antenna from Amazon.  The antenna is a one foot square of very thin material which feels like laminated chipboard.  It comes with an 18' cable to provide placement flexibility. I hooked it up to the TV in our upstairs guest room which has a window facing west.  This is probably the highest point in our house short of climbing onto the roof or into the attic.  I temporarily placed the antenna through the slats of our plantation shutters, against the window. This was obviously a test 'mount' as I was pretty pessimistic about what I would pull in, if anything.  Much to my surprise, I was able to receive 15 clear channels and another 4 pixelated or in & out channels.  I got several PBS stations and a couple of national networks on local stations.  This is good news, because we have a whole house generator, so we were not without power during Hurricane Florence, but because cable and internet were out, we could not watch storm information on TV.  Assuming local channels will be able to continue to broadcast, we should be set for the next major storm.  Here is a link to the antenna I bought:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FVLXHYV/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

With cord cutting becoming a hot topic, you don’t have to search far for online guidance material, including Consumer Reports.  The nationally syndicated radio host, Clark Howard, who is dedicated to teaching consumers to “save more, spend less, and avoid rip-offs”, put together a pretty nice webpage on the subject which you can access here:

https://clark.com/technology/tvsatellite-cable/streaming-tv-comparison-best-channel-lineup/ 

            That page includes a matrix of seven leading streaming services and their standard channel content for their lowest cost plans.  I downloaded Clark’s matrix and massaged it quite a bit, and then I went to each of the streaming sites to get the info on their available upgraded plans.  I put the resulting info, which includes as many as 217 channel offerings, into an Excel worksheet which I cannot fit into this allotted article space, but which I encourage you to access and download from my Google Drive page using the following link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15NSt_usIC9GqdIlpQ5m16DUL1d47Fjre  The same file is presented below:

            Depending on the selected streaming service(s), you can watch live broadcasts of most of the channels you watch today on your cable or satellite service, such as A&E, CNN, Fox News, HGTV, Food Network, and ESPN.

            To use a streaming service, you need a device that can access it.  You may already have the necessary apps built into a web enabled smart TV or DVD player.  But most people opt for one of three popular streaming devices:  Amazon Fire Stick (or similar device), Apple TV, or a Roku streaming player. Each plugs into an open HDMI port on your TV or receiver.  Each has advantages, but mostly they do the same or similar things.  The Apple TV device is easily the most expensive of the three, the Amazon Fire Stick the lowest cost, and the Roku close to the Amazon device. 

            I’m an Amazon Prime member, and as such, much (though not all) of the content available through the Fire Stick is free to view. That content includes movies, TV shows, and some original programming. All three devices give you access to Netflix, where for about $9 per month you have hours of binge worthy programming at your disposal. Not everything available on Netflix is available on Amazon Prime, and vice versa. If you don’t care about live TV streaming, Netflix or Amazon Prime might satisfy you.  But my wife would surely bust my chops if I took away her access to Say Yes to the Dress, Love it or List It, Next Food Network Star, or the comings and goings of the Dugger family progeny. So if I cut the cord, I would definitely have to have a streaming supplement.  And yeah, I’d need my NFL and MLB fix.

            As have many others, I received a bump in my Suddenlink bill a couple of months ago which prompted my research into cord cutting.  I went to their local office to inquire about what a bumped up Internet only plan would cost.  I was given a number to call and told they could offer better pricing.  The short version of that call is that with very little prodding on my part, I was told I had not been “rebundled” since 2014 and that I was paying too much.  On that point I agreed.  By the time the call ended, my monthly price had been reduced far beyond what I would have originally settled for.  And to prove that they had done their homework, when I computed what it would have cost me to just have internet service and then add in the likely streaming services I would use, the cost versus my “rebundled” price was about a wash, not worth the effort to switch.  Of course a year from now I will have to rejoin the price battle, but a year is a long time.

I just wish that someday, some company would come out with a true cafeteria selection option instead of a collection of bundles, most of which we don’t use.