Cord Cutters, who here has ditched cable/satellite for streaming services?

HBO MAX launched this past week.

Currently it is only available on Apple TVs and a select few Smart TVs. No Amazon Fire TV or Roku support.

A lot of people found it very odd that the top 2 streaming devices via market share were not supported at launch. It makes no sense. Now we know why. At least for Amazon.

It has to do with rights disputes. HBO wants everything to exist within HBO MAX as a stand alone application. They no longer want to support integrated solutions.

Amazon wants to keep their linear HBO Channels and On Demand content premium add on. HBO wants to pull it back.

Apple apparently caved and no longer offers HBO Channels on Apple TV (TV Channels purchased through Apple) that play live tv and on demand content through the Apple TV App.

Amazon is resisting.

This all comes down to data collection and control. HBO wants full control and access to all data on all their users.

They are not interested in the user experience of having everything in one place with one UI. They are interested in collecting data on the backend.
 

This article tells you how to get HBO MAX now on your Amazon Fire Stick. Because Amazon Fire TV is built on android, any android apps will run on it. So you can sideload the android app onto your Fire Stick in less than 5 minutes.

There are no signs that Amazon is going to cave with their demand or HBO meeting in the middle. HBO want's their user data, which they would not get if Amazon gets its way and distributes all HBO MAX content through Amazon Channels like the current HBO Channel.

Amazon want's a centralized all inclusive interface with content. This also allows Amazon to control the subscriber data and take a percentage of advertising revenue for ad supported channels.

HBO MAX wants their own ecosystem on a separate island all held in their app. That way they get full control over all subscriber data.

No progress has been reported in coming to an agreement that would bring HBO MAX officially to the Fire Stick. But as I mentioned, it can be sideloaded on now.

Roku is making progress with negotiations and is hopeful of being able to release the HBO MAX app soon.
 
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Yep, it's slowly rolling back into cable prices for me. I did the Hulu route to get all my networks and most of the sports i need. We also do Netflix and Prime. We hare our Netflix with our daughter and got HBO+ in the trade. And i think our other daughter (who uses our Prime) paid for the Disney + that we watch Mandolorian on, but dang... paying for three of them puts us over $70 a month
 
Sighs, I hate Comcast.

I thought I was all set as I signed up for an Unlimited Internet Plan last year.

The rep I was talking upsold me on a internet / streaming only tv double play plan that included Unlimited Internet.

He was like I know Comcast doesn't have data caps in your area currently, but you will be good to go should they roll them out.

I went with the upgrade, and my billing / account information for almost the last year showed I had Unlimited Internet.

Today I get a notification from Comcast that I'm approaching the data cap of 1.2 TB and outlined how overages are billed and has a link to upgrade to unlimited for $30 a month.

I was like hold on here, I already have unlimited, I shouldn't have to pay more for it.

So I called them up. Comcast confirmed that I did previously have an Unlimited Plan, and that Comcast did offer Unlimited Plans in my area. There was no data caps in my area before 1/1/20201.

I told them again that the plan I had was unlimited, and specifically listed that way in the plan details. And that the rep who sold it said I would be good to go and have no data caps should the roll them out in my area.

They got back to me again with as of 1/1/2021 Comcast has decided to impose a data cap of 1.2 TB on all plans in my area, including the plan I previously had that was Unlimited.

And that they would be happy to upgrade me to Unlimited for an additional $30 a month.

I questions then why the hell I was paying more for an unlimited plan before than a regular plan that had no data caps. What was I paying for. Then they said, we can give you a promo for free unlimited for 5 months. After 5 months, they will start billing me for $30 a month or I can downgrade back to my other plan.

Sighs, what a joke.
 
Hi - does anyone know why I can’t seem to sign up for AT&T’s streaming service through their website?

Background: I’ve been switching back and forth between YouTubeTV (better product overall) and AT&T (carries the YES Network) depending on whether MLB is in season. It’s (unfortunately) time to switch back to AT&T, but I can’t seem to make it happen via their website - every way I’ve tried to do it, I eventually run into some kind of error message that tries to make me call them on the phone.

I’ve tried many times over the last couple of days, and I’m becoming more and more convinced that the rebranding of AT&T Now to just straight AT&T TV is really about them behaving more like a traditional cable company and trying to force me onto the phone so they can upsell me on a multi-year contract or a multi-service bundle or whatever.

Has anyone else encountered this problem and/or know how I can avoid wasting my time on the phone?
 
Today HBO MAX and Discovery+ were merged into a single new app named MAX.

Along with this of course came pricing changes and a new tier, which means you are paying more for less now.

The new combined platform is now $15.99 for the ad-free tier. Formerly was $9.99 for HBO MAX. However, the ad-free tier no longer supports 4k, HDR or Dolby Atmos. It is limited to 1080p HD streams. Like Netflix, MAX has created a new, more expensive premium tier that includes 4k and HDR content. This tier is called "Ad-free Ultimate" and is $19.99 a month or $200 a year.

If you get HBO / HBO Max through your provider, whether it be Direct TV, Cable, or AT&T or Verizon, you will only get the Ad-Free tier. You will not get the Ultimate tier.

Existing customers are supposedly going to be grandfathered into 4k for 6 months before they will be required to upgrade their tier to continue getting 4k HDR content. New customers as of today will need to sign up with the Ultimate tier to get 4K content.

However, there are many questions around how and if those of us who have HBO through a third party provider will be able to upgrade tiers to continue getting 4k HDR content. Warner Bros Discovery has yet to provide any information or respond to any questions related to this.
 
Today Netflix quietly axed their cheapest Ad-Free plan in the US and UK.

The cheapest Ad-Free plan was $9.99 a month. This leaves people who were in this tier will near from choosing from the Ad-Supported tier at $6.99 a month or upgrading to the next tier up which is $15.49 a month.

What this says is Netflix makes more money per customer on the Ad-Supported tier than they did on the $9.99 a month ad-free tier. It's also an indication that the future might hold higher prices for ad-free tiers or elimination of additional ad-free tiers.
 
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