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I know you talked a lot of about YouTubeTV’s battle with Disney and you expected their stations to go dark on the Google platform. You were right. Now, how long do you think it will stay off?
That, I don’t have answer to but I don’t think it will end quickly, for a few reasons. While YouTube TV reaches 10 million homes, Disney owns Hulu Live, plus they just merged with Fubo. They now have six million subscribers to YouTubeTV’s 10M. They have a viable platform to get people unhappy with YTTV to switch, which I did on Friday. I should add that I was not alone because when I canceled and requested a refund, the YTTV page stated that they were experiencing high contact values and longer than normal wait times. That indicates to me that a lot of people were canceling. I knew there would be no deal between the parties when I saw that Hulu Live was offering an introductory rate at $64.99 for three months before it then goes to $89.99. That told me that they were going to do the very smart thing and offer disgruntled YouTube subscribers a great alternative. It worked for me. Plus, I get Disney Plus, ESPN’s app and the Hulu library as part of my monthly fee. That’s a great deal. And, if choose to buy ESPN Unlimited it doesn’t cost all that much more since it’s all in house. Right now YouTubeTV is $82.99 a month but I don’t see any way that they don’t jump in price if they come to terms with Disney. I would think they would then cost more than Hulu, and deliver less. To a business person like myself, this is a fascinating story to follow.
And how is this different from their battles with FOX and NBC?
This is very different. For one thing, ESPN and ABC are massive channels, especially to sports fans. ESPN carries so much daily content that it’s different than what NBC and FOX offer. But the bigger thing here is who needs who more. FOX has its fledgling streaming platform but it couldn’t replicate the rest of what YoutubeTV offers. The same goes for NBC and Peacock. But in Disney’s case, they have Hulu Live, as mentioned above, for the standard channel service that YTTV offers. Disney didn’t need to cave in and in a lot of ways it was in their potential best interests not to.
I know you are a big YouTube TV fan. Once Google and Disney settle their dispute, are you going back to YouTube TV?
To clarify, I wasn’t necessarily a big YouTube TV fan, I was a big fan of streaming rather than paying for cable. I prefer to pay less money for the same product and actually, streaming is a better product because I can take it with me when I am out, plus it works in both of my homes for one price instead of paying for cable in two places. It was definitely easier to adapt to YTTV’s interface as opposed to Hulu’s but it didn’t take long for me to get the hang of it. Now, I have three months at the great price of $64.99 a month and when I start paying full price, I will be getting more value for my dollar, as mentioned about. Also with the ESPN app I get access to all of the NHL and MLB games. I don’t see me switching back.
It is so expensive to watch WWE now. Is there a cheap way to do it?
I am assuming you mean in the US so here is the cheapest way that I know. Purchase a Netflix subscription. That gives you access to Raw. Then get a VPN service. I tool Steph McMahon’s advice and tried SurfShark. It has worked great and even has an Apple TV app so you can watch on a TV as opposed to a device. Then you can go outside the US (I prefer Glasgow) and you will then get access to Smackdown and the PLEs, all for about $20 a month. Richard Trionfo told me that you can watch NXT there as well (though I watch that on Hulu Live). That would leave Saturday Night’s Main Event. You could either just watch the videos that WWE releases or buy Peacock for a month. Now, if Netflix ever changes the ability to use FTP then things will change but until then that’s the best way to go.
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