Will free streaming pass subscription streaming this year?

I'm not a big fan of subscription TV. That is to say, I believe it serves a purpose, but I don't think it's worth subscribing to a service year-round. I'll talk more about that in a little bit. For now, I want to talk about a report from Tubi, the streaming service.

According to its yearly report -- this year's called "The Stream: 2022 Audience Insights for Brands" -- Tubi says that free streaming will surpass subscription streaming in 2022. Here a a few definitions to cover first:

AVOD - This is ad supported video on demand. Things like Pluto TV, Tubi, Xumo, and the like.

SVOD - This is subscription video on demand. Think Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, and the like.

TVOD - This is transactional video on demand. You buy a movie, order a pay-per-view event. Things like that.

When you see AVOD, think free ad-supported content. When you see SVOD, think subscriptions like Netflix. When you see TVOD, think purchases or rentals. Okay? Good.

Back to the Tubi report, the company says AVOD (free streaming) is becoming more popular:

Tubi’s new research highlights the explosive growth of ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) services, set to surpass SVOD this year in audience size, and the changing demographics of a free streaming universe that remains young and multicultural while becoming more reflective of national audience averages in education and affluence.

I'm not surprised by this. I never really thought about it, but I know that I prefer cheaper ad supported content over subscription content.

Frequenting the Roku support forums, I used to see a shipload of people complaining about ads, saying they would pay to remove ads. Many of the long-time users -- Roku calls us "Experts" now (ha!) -- thought otherwise, but privately figured we were not the norm. Well, we soon will be. Or we were trailblazers. One or the other. I'll let you decide.

Anyway, I came to realize years ago that you don't need to pay a boatload of money each month to watch TV. So, once again, I'm offering my suggestion that you may have read before here a time or twelve.

If you subscribe to a service, don't subscribe year-round. Only subscribe when something you really want to watch is available. This mainly applies to live TV content, such as sporting events.

If you have multiple subscription services such as Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, Hulu, Discovery+, and the like, subscribe to one at a time. For example, subscribe to Disney+ for a month, then cancel. Then subscribe to Netflix for a month, then cancel. Then subscribe to HBO Max for a month, then cancel. Do this with all your services. They all have enough content to fill up a month, plus you have plenty of free options (AVOD, remember?).

Right now, I have Hulu. It's $7/month. The subscription will pause (not cancel) in a week. Then, I'll subscribe to something else. Maybe Disney+. Maybe HBO Max. Maybe Discovery+. Maybe Apple TV+. I don't know, something. But then, only for a month. Then I'll move to something else for a month. During the year, I get the content I want, but I don't pay nearly as much.

Also, during college football season, I'll subscribe to a service, probably Sling TV. Any kind of catch up for some content -- Rick & Morty, for example -- I'll do with the on-demand features of that service.

Tubi says free TV is expanding, and more and more people are flocking to it. That's a good thing. That means less money spent for subscriptions, and if the advertising works, more for goods and services that are advertised. That's a win for everybody. Perhaps your Streaming Life will breathe some life back into this economy.

Signing up for Roku with no credit card

Roku is the most popular, and one of the easiest to use, streaming platforms. There are a lot of good things about it. I'm a fan of Roku. But there is one aspect that I don't like: Roku Pay.

Now, Roku Pay has its purpose, but I will only use it on rare occasions, and generally recommend that people not use it. For the most part.

Here's what Roku Pay is. It's Roku's system of paying for stuff through your Roku account. You can purchase apps, you can subscribe to services, you can buy things through your Roku. It's really nothing more than having your credit card stored and using it to pay for stuff. That's all it really is, when you get down to it.

Roku really likes it, because they make money by making it easy for you to buy or subscribe using Roku, and they get a cut. And they make it really easy to set up Roku pay. When you create a Roku account, it automatically goes to a page where you can fill out credit card or PayPal information to be stored and used if you want to purchase or subscribe to something.

Some people get all bent out of shape over this. I personally don't. Roku has never had a financial data breach. Some have made claims there have been, but when the facts came out, it wasn't a Roku breach. I'm fine with having a credit card stored there. But I get it. Some people don't want that. And, since it comes up automatically when signing up for a Roku account, there's no easy way to get past this. Or so people think. But really, it's easy.

All you have to do is click the Roku logo at the top. That's it. Your account has already been created. Roku is simply trying to gather more information. If you don't want to give it, don't. Just click the Roku logo. It's as simple as that. You'll be taken to the Roku home page, and if you look in the top right, you'll see that you're logged in.

Some people will tell you that you can replace part of the URL with something else, and that' true. When the credit card page comes up, you're on https://my.roku.com/signup/payment

Some say change it to https://my.roku.com/signup/nocc and press Enter. You can do that, sure. But, you can also just click the Roku logo. That's easier, to me.

Skipping the credit card entry is really simple. If you look at the Roku support forum, you'll see people thinking it's the worst thing since Stalin. But it's not. It's just a request for data, and you can easily skip it by clicking the Roku logo. Nothing to get all worked up about.

After you click the logo, click the little person avatar in the top right, and go to the My Account page. Be sure to set up a PIN preference. You have three options:

Always require a PIN to make purchases and add items from the Channel Store.

Always require a PIN to make purchases.

A PIN is not required to make any purchase or add any items from the Channel Store.

I suggest the first or second option. The first one keeps anyone from adding apps to your Roku without the PIN. The first and second keep anyone from making a purchase/subscription without the PIN. I never suggest the third. If you use the first or second, you'll get the PIN when something is trying to happen that will cost you money.

Of course, with the first, you can't add a free app unless you enter the PIN, so if you choose the first option, don't get all worked up about the PIN. If you don't care if a user adds apps, then pick the second option.

That's actually more confusing than skipping the credit card sign up. That's really easy. Again, just click the Roku logo when it asks you to enter your credit card information on account creation.

Using a Roku is really easy. Don't overthink it. Just enjoy it, and enjoy your Streaming Life. 

Raspberry Pi streamer Update 1

I didn't expect to post so soon about my project to build a Raspberry Pi streamer, but here we are.

After I posted, I realized I had everything I needed to begin the project except a remote. I already had a Raspberry Pi device that worked, although a very basic one. It was connected to a keyboard, mouse, and video monitor via a KVM switch.

I already had that up and running, so I knew the hardware was good. I had another microSD card and reader, and was able to set up the software on it. I didn't want to reuse the working OS for the Raspberry Pi, but rather have the streamer OS and software on a separate card. That way, I could just place the card I wanted in it, boot it up, and it would function as I wanted. That's how most will use project devices. I had everything except a remote. So, I looked for a remote to use with it, and found one that claimed to work with it. That arrived Tuesday.

Last night, I decided to see just how complicated it would be to do this. And, yes, it was rather complicated. Well, let's put it this way: I found several different instructions on how to set it up, and ran into issues each time. There was always something a little different about the instructions and reality.

What I mean by that is the instructions would say "You'll find the {thingy} setting under the {whatsit} section of Settings." However, {thingy} wasn't there. Or {whatsit} wasn't, but {whosit} was. Or when that was figured out, some installation would simply fail. I was starting to get frustrated. Then I found The Video.

[Link to YouTube]

This was fantastic! It covered everything, and was easy to do. Hats off to Triple M for his video.

Back to the project. I followed the instructions in the video, using the versions of the software he suggested, and the thing worked! I had a working Android TV streamer. Now, I was using the keyboard and mouse to do the setup of the software. If you follow the video, you'll see that you install a basic OS, then add software features to it via an interface on the device itself. You can do it all on a Windows or Mac device. You prep it there, but put it together on the Raspberry Pi itself.

So, using the keyboard and mouse, it worked great. But I was to the point of using it on my TV. That meant using the remote. Well, the remote didn't work all that well. Regardless, I moved the working Raspberry Pi streamer to the TV, connected it, changed the input on the TV to the HDMI port I was using, then powered it up.

Everything worked except the remote. I was quite disappointed with that. It may be that I did something silly and wrong, but it was late, and I called it a night.

I'm going to do a bit more research into it, and may end up with a different remote, but either way, the project isn't done. Well, unless I want to control it with a keyboard and mouse, which I don't.

I'm happy so far with the Raspberry Pi as a streaming project. I'll find out once I get the remote control issue worked out if it's really a good streaming device. So, for now, it's still a project in my Streaming Life.

---

Update 2

Is Fubo FUBAR?

The news hit this weekend about Fubo's new pricing structure. If you're new to Fubo TV, you can sign up, but the monthly plan is no longer available. The shortest plan is a quarterly plan. And, the pricing is all jacked up, too. That's the really big story, I think.

Let me clarify: by "jacked up" I mean a couple of things.

One thing I mean is a price increase. Fubo seems to have hidden a price increase into all of this. They've upped their prices by a huge amount, then turned around and discounted it to the current price.

The other thing I mean is that whoever at Fubo knows math was left out of the whole thing. The math is wrong. But, as I'll show, even if you take the best way of looking at it, the prices are really high. And Fubo is now the most expensive live streaming service, taking the crown from DirecTV Stream and Hulu+Live TV.

First, let's look at the pricing schedule for new users.

I don't see a monthly plan. And neither do you.

Now, if you've subscribed before, and log in with your old credentials, you'll be presented with the option to renew at whatever old rate you had, for one month at a time. I haven't resubscribed, so I don't know if the renewals are monthly, or if they change to quarterly. I suspect monthly, but I don't know that for certain, and haven't seen anyone who has resubscribed after this change hit.

The other thing I don't know is for new subscribers, is if the renewal is at quarterly intervals, or if it reverts to monthly after the first quarter. I suspect the term is quarterly going forward, but I don't know that.

That leads to the really big story. Fubo TV went up in price. Notice the $65/month price listed. That's what Fubo has been for some time. So, where's the price increase? Look next to the price. See the "29% savings" thing? What that is saying is that the most recent price of $65/month is now a discounted price of 29% off.

Now, I'm pretty good at math, but I am going to round to the nearest dollar to keep the numbers simple. This will give you a good idea of what to expect, okay?

If $65/month is a 29% savings, that mean the regular price is $92/month (actually $91.53). A savings percentage reflects off the full price. Take 92 and subtract 29% (or multiply by .71, same thing). You get about 65. That means that to get a 29% savings at the $65/month price, the full price is nearly $92/month. That's a huge price increase. In fact, it's an over 40% price increase. Take 65 and multiply by 1.4 (that's adding 40%) and you get 91.

Now, if you actually click through the signup as a new person, you see a different price, however. Fubo says the regular monthly price is $80.97. That's a nearly 25% price increase.

Anyway you look at it, Fubo's math is wrong, and that's probably just a mistake, not a an outright lie. Somebody screwed up, and is giving out bad numbers, and probably not on purpose. But even then, that works out to Fubo TV increasing their prices by over 24%. And that's the best-case scenario.

Of course, it bears repeating that this pricing is for new subscribers. Current, and apparently previous, subscribers get the monthly option still, at the monthly rate we're used to seeing, which is the monthly average of the new quarterly plans.

But does any of this matter? Yes. Yes it does matter. But let's look at both sides of the argument.

If you think Fubo TV's $65/month plan is a good thing, and you plan to subscribe for at least three months anyway, there's no big deal. You'll still get the same good service at the same price. So, if you look at it like this, it doesn't matter.

But to me it does matter. Here's what I don't like. One of the biggest attractions about streaming plans is the fact you can subscribe for one month at a time. And you still can for Sling TV, Philo, Frndly.TV, Vidgo, YouTube TV, Hulu+Live TV, DirecTV Stream, and others. But not Fubo. Not Fubo.

Nothing about the service itself has changed, just the term of service. It's now three months. And I don't like that. I didn't like being locked in to long term plans for cable, and I don't like a streaming service trying to lock me in for a longer time.

I'm worried that if this succeeds, the dams will break. And if that happens, the "damns" will break as well

[Link to video]

Fubo TV is still a streaming service that offers a good selection at a reasonable price on average. But I don't expect them to be in my Streaming Live going forward.