Not really. I really don't care about ESPN, I may care about ABC, and the only thing I'd miss is probably Nat Geo. The cost just got dropped by $15/month or something, too. YouTubeTV subscribers got this notice a week ago, I think. Part of me thinks this is a ploy for Disney to gain some subscribers and they'll patch things up soon and the channels will reappear on YouTubeTV. Of course, this does make me wonder if the Disney+/Hulu Live TV bundle is a better deal for me than YouTubeTV since I might be able to drop Philo with that bundle. Decisions, decisions...
Not really shafted. Price dropped from $65 to $49 while those channels are not available. Most anything Disney...we just watch on Disney Plus. And as for ESPN....if there is really a game on that channel I want to watch I'll find it on sportsrp or sportsurge. I rarely watch that channel anymore anyways. Side note...I just realized I can watch ATTsportsnet on Fubotv, and recently it was integrated into Googletv (for shows / movie recomendations etc). We might make the switch, I like their lineup of channels more than youtubetv.
Disney wants/needs subscribers. They own Hulu, Disney+, etc. IMO - they need to broken up after this. They are trying to run a monopoly to get customers to buy their product. Like you I could care less about ESPN and Disney channels. I miss the NatGeo, FXs and ABC. I can get the ABC from the TV app but I probably won't because of the inconvenience. I love recording anything I remotely care about and watching it at my convenience and FF through commercials or parts I couldn't care less about. While I'm sure there are a lot of people dropping YouTube TV, I won't give up my YouTube TV because of that. I'll just watch something else. Something Disney doesn't own. In the end, I'm sure they will get the channels back but also in the end, it's going to end up screwing me and jacking the prices. Thanks Disney. You've moved right up there into my most hated corp along with Nike.
I don’t understand cord cutting then purchasing YouTube TV, Sling, Hulu TV, etc. I looked into it. My cable company would hike the price of my internet if I only purchased one service so internet plus one of these services would be as if not more expensive than bundling internet and cable. Second streaming live sports sucks ***. Call your cable company and ask for retention. You’ll get a reasonable price.
Non-cord-cutter here. Isn't there a separate package through DIsney that gives you ESPN anyways? And includes Hulu/Disney+ I still just pay for cable because of the internet and internet speed. I EVEN rent THEIR routers like a REAL naughty boy.
And just like that, I get an email that Disney and YouTubeTV have reached a deal and the channels are coming back.
This happens al the time with cable companies and networks. The main difference with streaming is they are month-to-month so you could just cancel and switch to a different service. With cable companies, you're just stuck until they work out their negotiations.
For me it was because I was with AT&T so long, no matter how much they discounted, they had jacked up prices so much year-by-year, they wouldn't come down anywhere near to where the "best" price was. But also, I no longer wanted to bundle with the same provider for the reason you stated -- if I dropped one service, the price on the other stuff would get jacked up. Also, AT&T's internet speeds where I am stink. Max of 50 megabits down for $45 or something. I ended up dropping their mobile service because they were too expensive for crap service and switching to TMobile. I switched Spectrum cable where instead of my 18 megabits down that I'd had for almost 2 decades, I get 400 megabits down for around $65, I think. I could've gotten 200 megabits down for $45, but wth, I splurged. As for the cable tv portion, I came to the realization that the 200+ and 300+ channels that cable companies offer are pretty much a farce since I probably only watch around 5-10 channels regularly. And of those, all of them are covered by YouTubeTV and Philo for $85/month. I could probably switch to the Disney +/Hulu Live bundle and get it all for under $75/month and drop Philo. So I went from paying over $230-$250/month for lousy internet and cable to paying around $150/month with far better speeds. And now if I want to switch internet providers or switch tv providers because I like something better, I can do so without having to worry about one or the other getting jacked up because they were bundled together. I don't have to call retention departments either, because... why should I have to? Also, not sure what you mean by "streaming live sports sucks ***". What sucks about it?
Yeah, I even mentioned above that they'd patch things up soon. I think the same thing happened with Paramount channels and YouTubeTV, as well, a while ago. One thing this did have me do was start comparing channel lineups again to see if there are better deals out there and one may be a Disney bundle. So if that was also in Disney's plans, it may have worked. lol.
Cord cutting is cool cause new TVs have these apps built in so you don’t need to hook up anything to your wall mounted OLED so it looks clean on your wall
I’ve noticed a lag watching sports online. It may not bother some but for me I want to watch plays as they happen (I understand unless you’re there in person there’s always a delay). I hate cable companies so it pains me to not have other high speed internet options.
Ok, dumb question, but how do you know there's a lag? I mean, are you talking about 5-second lag or 20 minute lag? I watch games on NBA League Pass on their app and I know people who watch bootleg streams over umm... questionable websites are usually behind me by like a minute or so. I don't know if I'm behind a local broadcast, though. But the only time I would think this would matter would be if I'm in a chat and I'm the dude cheering for a good play 1-2 minutes after the play happened. lol.
When I looked into it, there was also a much lower data use cap if I went to Internet only. It's taken less effort to just complain every 12 months for a better rate.
I do DirecTV during the baseball season. I don't watch enough Rockets so I can justify going to a local bar to catch the game when I want to watch. The lag last baseball season was weird on Directv. It was only a few seconds most nights, but when I was by myself, I spoiled quite a few moments by being online between pitches while watching. It doesn't take much lag to be annoying.
