Discovery+: Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!

Recently, I mentioned that I had cut back even more on my subscriptions, after checking to see what I actually used. I ended up keeping Amazon Prime, but not for the video streaming; rather, for the other benefits.

Oh, and since then, I did subscribe to a live streaming service for the purpose of watching football. That's expired, but I'll start another when this weekend's games kick off.

All the rest? I never watched them, so I dropped them. No use spending money for something I won't watch.

But then, I saw where Discovery+ is running a special. A year of service is $36. That works out to $3/month. For the content they offer, that is one heckuva deal. And I'm tempted. Really tempted.

My willpower is strong. I can resist anything. Well, anything except temptation. And I'm really thinking about that Discovery+ pricing. I may start watching that service just to say I got such a deal.

Seriously, I am thinking about it.

You should too. It's a great price, and Discovery+ content is pretty good content. I'm thinking seriously about returning it to my Streaming Life. You should too.

Another look at Xfinity Flex

It's been a while since I got my Xfinity Flex device that I don't ever use. As I said a few months back, it's a good way for someone new to cord cutting to get their feet wet, but for an experienced cord cutter -- and I think I'm an experienced cord cutter -- it's not really useful. Except for the fact that it's free.

There's no app store, so you can't add apps. You get what they give you. If you go back far enough, you'll know that's how Apple TV used to work. With the 2nd generation Apple TV, they gave you a set of apps. You could hide them if you didn't want to see them, and you could rearrange them, but you couldn't add new ones or truly remove any. You got what you got.

Xfinity Flex is operating much like Apple TV did back in 2010. Actually, not even quite that well, since you could at least rearrange apps and hide what you didn't want to see. For example, I don't subscribe to Xfinity TV, so the Xfinity Stream app serves no purpose. Well, no purpose to me; for Xfinity, it's there to try to get me to subscribe to it. Which I won't.

But how well does it work? It works okay. I said that earlier, and I still think that. Xfinity has added a few apps to the device, including Hulu+Live TV, since I last talked about the device. They still don't have YouTube TV, though. They haven't pulled the app, they just never had it. So, the disagreement between NBCUniversal and Google has nothing to do with Google's service not being on the NBCUniversal (Comcast/Xfinity) device. It's never been there.

So, for live streaming services, you can get Sling TV and Hulu+Live TV. You can't get Philo, Vidgo, YouTube TV, Fubo, or DirecTV Stream. Since Sling TV is my go-to live streaming service for football -- most of the time -- it doesn't create an issue for me. But, if you want one of the other services, you're simply out of luck when it comes to the Xfinity Flex device.

Of course, if you're new to cord cutting, moving away from Comcast/Xfinity TV, you don't know much about those other streaming services,  so it doesn't really matter. If you are already familiar with streaming and have your own devices -- Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Google/Android TV -- then you don't need and Xfinity Flex device anyway. Unless you want to get Peacock TV Premium for free. But that's another story for another day.

For now, just as before, Xfinity Flex remains in my Streaming Life, but only as a device in a box on a shelf.

Google vs NBCUniversal II

Things are heating up. Shots fired. Shots returned. Google vs NBCUniversal is getting interesting.

News came out recently that Google, who owns YouTube TV, and NBCUniversal, who owns a bunch of TV networks, are approaching end of contract, and they can't come to terms, at least just yet.

If NBCUniversal gets its way, Google will pay more for content on YouTube TV. If Google gets its way, things will remain pretty much the way it is. If neither gets their way, the channels will drop from YouTube TV. But now there's a twist.

Google announced on their YouTube TV blog that if NBCUniversal channels leave the platform, they'll drop the price $10:

... if we are unable to reach a deal by Thursday, the NBCU lineup of channels will no longer be available on YouTube TV and we will decrease our monthly price by $10, from $64.99 to $54.99 (while this content remains off our platform). You can sign up for NBC’s own direct-to-consumer streaming service, Peacock, which they offer for $4.99/month to continue watching NBCU content, such as Sunday Night Football.

So, it looks like Google isn't giving in. It also looks like people like me bay be the winner. You see, I'm a Comcast/Xfinity Internet customer. I get Peacock TV included with my Internet service. So, if I decide to subscribe to YouTube TV -- I'm looking at a live streaming service for sports for the next month -- the new lower price of YouTube TV, if that happens, will mean I'll have to consider it.

Except for the Pac-12 Network, YouTube TV carries everything that would let me watch anything airing nationally. Only Fubo Elite, at $80/month, when added to ESPN+, gets me that. If YouTube TV drops to $55/month, that makes the choices threefold:

• $87 for Fubo Elite and ESPN+, giving me all national channels that carry games.
• $72 for Sling Orange+Blue with Sports Extra, along with ESPN+, giving me all the channels except CBS Sports Network.
• $62 for YouTube TV and ESPN+, giving me all the channels except Pac-12 Network.

So it comes down to getting everything, or getting everything but one channel, with two options for which one channel is missing.

Pac-12 Network has three games this weekend, none involving ranked teams. CBS Sports Network has give games, two involving ranked team. So, if I were to choose to miss a network, this weekend, I'd pass on Pac-12 Network, which means the cheapest of the three under consideration. And that's YouTube TV.

But what about later weekends? I don't know. Week 6 has five CBS Sports Network games, but the Pac-12 games for that weekend haven't been determined. Even so, I haven't wanted to watch a game that was carried on Pac-12 this season so far. That could change, of course. I have wanted to watch a game that was on CBS Sports Network, but something in real life interfered and I wasn't able to anyway.

The safe play is Fubo Elite. But that's $80! That's $25 more than a discounted YouTube TV!

I'll probably just do the Sling Orange thing, then add the Sports Extra when there's a game there I want to watch, and add Blue when there's a game there I want to watch. Come kickoff, I'll make a decision about the next five weekends of my Streaming Life.

Google vs NBCUniversal

The big streaming dispute recently has been Roku vs Google regarding the YouTube TV app. The contract for Roku to carry the YouTube TV app ran out and negotiations failed to resolve it, at least so far.

Now, there's another dispute making the news regarding YouTube TV, but not with a streaming platform. Instead, NBCUniversal is threatening to pull its content from YouTube TV. I've not received an email about it -- I'm not currently using YouTube TV -- but Variety (and other news outlets) reported yesterday that NBCUniversal was letting customers know about the possible loss of channels:

NBCU is directing viewers to a newly launched website, youneedchannels.com, which says that if the companies don’t reach an agreement YouTube TV subscribers might lose NBC, Bravo, CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, MSNBC, Oxygen, Syfy, Telemundo, the Olympic Channel, Universal Kids, Universo and USA Network.

Note that I was unable to access the Website in my Google Chrome browser on my computer, but was able to in other browsers. Hmmm...

Will this happen? I have no idea. I wouldn't be surprised. This kind of thing happened with satellite services all the time. Now that streaming has caught on with many people, this simply is happening with streaming platforms.

Who's in the right? I don't know. Probably both. Actually, probably neither.

It doesn't really impact me because as I've said, I'm not using YouTube TV. And it might not impact anybody, because it hasn't happened yet. It's NBCUniversal doing some posturing. Nothing may come of it.

But, if it does happen, will I be impacted? No. I don't normally use a live streaming service except during football season. And, so far this season, I've used Sling TV. And, if I decide to use another service that carries more sports than Sling TV, I'll probably use Fubo, as I mentioned yesterday.

In the future, it may impact me. Not because I'll subscribe to YouTube TV, but if NBCUniversal wins because of this, they'll demand more money from other services that carry their content. And the monthly rates for those services will go up. My go-to service, Sling TV, carries many of those NBCUniversal channels as part of the Blue package. There are 16 channels in Blue that aren't in Orange, and 6 of them are NBCUniversal channels. Others are part of add-on packages.

I subscribe to the Orange package, when I do subscribe, but if the price of Blue goes up, I expect the price of Orange to match it. They may not throw the entire cost of the higher NBCUniversal rates into Blue, but split it up so that the packages remain the same price.

Either way, if NBCUniversal gets more money from YouTube TV, they'll get more money from other other services as well, or the services will lose the channels.

Sling TV isn't impacted as much, because Sling TV doesn't carry local NBC channels. Well, only in a very few markets; generally, they don't carry local channels. The other major services, except Philo, do. Philo doesn't carry the NBCUniversal channels anyway.

So, no immediate impact no matter how this goes. But, if it goes the way NBCUniversal wants, it will impact most of us eventually.

Real life encroaches on my Streaming Life once again.

Sling TV or another service?

Now that college football Week 4, the 5th weekend of football -- don't ask -- is behind us, my subscription to Sling TV is done. Since I want to watch some more football next weekend, I'll need a live streaming service to get  ESPN and the other channels I want.

One of the teams I follow has at least one game on ESPN+, so that $7/month figures into the mix. Another team will play on ESPN, so I need that, which will be at least $35/month. There's the chance I'll want ACC Network, which means another $11/month on top of the $35. 

Some of the teams I follow will appear on CBS. The antenna takes care of that. Some will appear on ABC or Fox broadcasts as well. And, of course, the antenna handles that. So, I'm good with ESPN,  ESPN sports add-ons, and ESPN+ to cover what the antenna doesn't. And that's pretty much it. I can subscribe to Sling TV Orange with Sports Extra for $46, ESPN+ for $7, meaning $53 gets me what the antenna doesn't, and I'm good to go. Except...

I do like college football, and I do follow certain teams. But, I also like to watch other games. For instance, if a team I'm hoping to lose is playing, and I find out they're losing a game, I may switch to that game just to enjoy seeing a hated rival go down. In case you didn't know, college football is like that. You cheer for some teams and against some teams. So, if a team I'm not a fan of is losing, I may want to watch it. And there's the problem.

I may want more than just the regular channels that I'll get with an antenna and Sling TV Orange. If I want Fox Sports 1 to watch a rival lose, I'll have to add Sling Blue to the package (another $15, plus another $4 for the Sports Extra, bringing it to $72. 

If I want Big Ten Network or Pac 12 Network, the Sling Orange+Blue with Sports Extra will do the job as well. So I can subscribe to Sling Orange with Sports Extra, and if necessary, upgrade during the month to Orange+Blue, right? Yes. Except...

If a game I'm after is being carried on CBS Sports Network, I'm out of luck. Sling TV doesn't carry CBS Sports Network. That's not the local CBS affiliate carrying a sporting event. That's an actual sports network called CBS Sports Network. It's the one I never think about because it rarely carries something I want to watch. But, it does sometimes. And I can't get it with Sling TV.

The package that will carry everything I'm after is Fubo ($65/month) along with ESPN+ ($7). Unless I want Pac 12 Network, in which case I'd have to get a larger Fubo package, adding another $15 to the cost.

So, my decision boils down to this:

1. Subscribe to Sling TV Orange with Sports Extra ($46), along with ESPN+ ($7), for $53. If game of interest show up on other channels, simply add Sling Orange. The difference between the services is prorated, so it won't cost the full amount.
2. Subscribe to Fubo TV Elite ($80) and ESPN+ ($7) and I'm good no matter what.

I have until a game I care about kicks off.

My Streaming Life shouldn't be so complicated. Part of it is my fault. Part of it is somebody else's fault, I'm sure.