Triple Crown on Peacock

It's a little early for this, as the Kentucky Derby isn't for a couple of weeks. Still, if you're a fan of thoroughbred racing, or just someone who watches certain races, it may be time to start planning how you're going to watch.

NBC has the Triple Crown races again, as is normal, and will broadcast the races. If you have an antenna, you can watch your local NBC affiliate and see the races.

This year, though, those three races are also being carried by Peacock. Subscribers to the Premium plan will be able to stream the races.

And, of course, this is an opportunity for me to show my favorite horse racing video. I watched it live when it happened in 1973.

It's not likely that we'll see anything like that this year, but you never know. Secretariat's Triple Crown races were all record time wins, and the record still holds.

If you want to watch this year's races streaming, Peacock has you covered. You can have the Triple Crown racing in your Streaming Life.

CNN+ we hardly knew ye

Yesterday, I wrote about CNN+ and how it wasn't really necessary to me. I didn't find out until later Thursday that CNN had announced that the platform was shutting down.

I'm not really surprised to learn that. Rumors began almost as soon as it launched that the platform was a bust. I wanted to wait and see how things really shook out, and it turns out that the rumors were right.

As you would expect, CNN is putting a bit of a spin on it. They're not admitting a failure, but rather taking the approach that the new management want's everything under a single brand.

The prior management team's vision for CNN+ runs counter to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's plan to house all of the company's brands under one streaming service. Some CNN+ programming may eventually live on through that service. Other programming will shift to CNN's main television network.

And while there will be layoffs, the severance package isn't too bad.

Hundreds of CNN+ staffers may lose their jobs. Licht said in an internal memo that "all CNN+ employees will continue to be paid and receive benefits for the next 90 days to explore opportunities at CNN, CNN Digital and elsewhere in the Warner Bros. Discovery family."

Staffers who aren't absorbed elsewhere in the company will receive a minimum of six months of severance, he added.

So, now what? What do you do if you want to watch TV news?

Well, like I said yesterday, there are a shipload of options, free options, available. If you want to watch news on your streaming device, just look at the menu. Or, in case of a Roku, go to the Roku Channel or the Channel Store. It's easy to have news as a part of your Streaming Life. And the shutdown of CNN+ won't make much of dent.

Streaming the news

I posted recently about CNN+ finally launching, and then arriving on Roku three weeks later. If I came across as not really excited about it, there's a reason. I'm not really excited about it. TV news channels were one of the last things holding me back from cutting cable back in 2011. And after a week of not watching TV news, I came to like not watching TV news. Oh, I still stay up on things, but I don't need the commentary from the talking heads telling me what to think. I can find the facts online. I subscribe to Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, and will rotate around dropping those and picking up New York Times, and so on. That's just the subscription, to get the entire Website content for those. But I also read other news Websites and stay informed from a variety of sources.

But, if I do want to watch TV news, I have options. In addition to CNN+, which is a subscription service, I also have access to a lot of other news sources. Clicking on my Fire TV device just now, I see news apps and streams from ABC News, CBS News, Fox Live Now, Newsmax TV, USA Today, Bloomberg TV, Reuters Now, Cheddar News, Newsy, i24 News, and more.

Switching to Roku, most of those are easy to find, as well as NBC News Now, Sky News, Haystack News, Stirr, Local Now, Real America's Voice, CNBC, OAN, and a bunch of local TV news apps.

I won't go on and on, because what I've listed so far are some news apps and services that I found without even doing any heavy searching. These are the easy to find ones. There are more.

In addition to this, if you have or put up an antenna, you may be able to get local TV news from your local stations. It's really easy to add TV news to your Streaming Life.

IMDB TV no more

Have you ever made a silly decision? A stupid decision? A really bad decision?

Have you ever wanted to take it back?

Have you ever thought of something so clever that you came up with and then told everybody and they just looked at you like you had lobsters crawling out of your ears? (Bonus points if  you get the reference.)

Well, that's what Amazon is going through. Or should be going through. They may be still in the phase where they don't realize what a silly thing they've done.

Amazon has rebranded IMDB TV as Freevee.

IMDb TV will rebrand to Amazon Freevee, beginning April 27, in addition to growing its content lineup to include Original movies and expanding internationally into Germany later this year.

The ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) service has grown immensely in the last two years—tripling monthly active users—driven by rapid distribution across living room devices and mobile, an increasing slate of Originals, an always updating library of highly sought movies and TV shows, and over 60 FAST channels.

Yes, I checked the date on the news release. It was April 13th, not April Fools Day. This is for real.

That's a really silly name. They could have gone with Prime Video Free. Or Prime Video with Special Offers -- to copy the name they gave ad-supported Kindle devices. Or just about anything. Heck, IMDB TV was actually a good name. They bought MGM so MGM TV would have been good.

Freevee is just kinda silly.

I'm not really getting all worked up over it. I'm just pointing and laughing. It's silly. I don't know if it's to the point of taking the app off my devices because the name is just too silly, but that's a possibility. I refused to upgrade my TiVo to the Bolt because of how stupid the device looked. So, yeah, removing the app is something I'd do.

I want to enjoy my Streaming Life, not cringe when I open an app.

Plex Web shows and podcasts bite the dust

I enjoy using my Plex server for watching local content, and am still slowly checking out the new Discover feature, a content aggregator that works with a whole slew of apps and services.

In all of that, I totally missed that Plex did away with Web shows and podcasts.

As part of our ongoing effort to make sure we’re spending our time and energy in ways that best serve our awesome user community, we’ve made the decision to end support for Podcasts and Web Shows within Plex. We recognize this decision will impact several of you greatly, and we apologize for the inconvenience it will cause. You can continue to access these features within Plex until Friday, April 15th, 2022, at which point they will no longer be available.

Honestly, I didn't notice. I never used them. And that's the problem. Most users were like me. Whether or not they removed them from the menu, I don't know. I always did when I set up an app on a device, so they didn't junk up my interface.

They didn't disappear from my interface, because I had removed them already. And if it wasn't for my reading an article on The Streaming Advisor the other day, it would have been quite some time before I noticed.

If you lost a couple of features from Plex that you liked, then I'm to blame for the disruption in your Streaming Life. Well, one of those to blame. There are a lot of us to blame. And while I understand the decision by Plex to drop a seldom used feature, I know what it's like to lose a feature you enjoy. I'm sure there are alternatives, and perhaps even some that Plex will be able to integrate into the Discover feature. We can keep our fingers crossed.

Tablo delays ATSC 3.0 devices

I'm a fan of Tablo TV. Since I cut the cord in 2011, I've used several antenna DVR setups, and I like Tablo the best.

I actually had a DVR before I cut the cord. I got my first TiVo device in 2006, and really liked it. I used it to record cable TV shows, and over the air antenna after cutting the cord. At the time, TiVo devices could do both cable and OTA. Today, TiVo DVRs can't do both. There's a cable model, and an antenna model. When I cut the cord, mine did both.

I used TiVo DVR, Air TV, Fire TV Recast, and Tablo. I like Tablo best, although all of them do very good jobs. For me, it comes down to the interface, and Tablo is my preference. However, all have very good, though different, interfaces.

In January, Tablo announced new ATSC 3.0 DVRs for what's been dubbed "Next Gen TV." However, there is a problem. Well, two actually. The first was known up front.

First, due to technical limitations, including lack of Dolby AC-4 audio support on most streaming devices and Smart TVs, this is the first Tablo OTA DVR which can not stream content inside or outside the home. Viewing is limited to a single connected television.

The ATSC 3.0 DVRs are single-TV devices, not network devices. I prefer the network devices, so I can watch on any TV on my network. That's a deal breaker for me. I have no intention of buying a Tablo device that can't work over my network. Still, for many, it's not a big deal.

I said there were two problem. The new one appeared this past week. I didn't receive the email, but those that have pre-ordered the new ATSC 3.0 DVRs got one, according to Cord Cutters News, announcing a delay.

... broadcast station ownership groups have indicated their intent to encrypt ATSC 3.0 signals using Digital Rights Management (DRM) beginning as early as this summer. 

...

DRM decryption keys MUST be installed on the Tablo during manufacturing and cannot be added via later firmware updates. 

Because of this, we anticipate a manufacturing delay of several months while we confirm the certification requirements, add DRM capabilities to the product, and obtain certification from the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA).

As I said, I'm not impacted, but those that are looking to purchase the new set-connected DVRs are.

I think Tablo is doing the right thing, of course. Had the announcement of encryption been delayed, Tablo may have shipped devices and then been forced to do a recall, which would have been a very bad thing for them and their customers.

And don't get me started on the whole DRM encryption of broadcast signals. Over the air pay TV has all kind of implications that I don't want to think about this early in the morning.

For now, if Tablo ATSC 3.0 devices are in your future Streaming Life, you have a delay. And nobody knows for how ling.

Bashing baseball

It's been, gosh, days since I bashed Major League Baseball. So here goes again.

If you have been following along at home, I have posted three times in the last few weeks about what I don't like about baseball and their streaming setup. Last month, I whined about how Major League Baseball doesn't want my money, because they blackout the Braves, since I'm in one of the five states in the Braves market. I'd subscribe to MLB.TV if they'd let me watch the Braves live. But they don't, so I don't.

I then posted about how Amazon was providing some live in-market games to one team (not my team, though). I also talked about how there are some options for streamers, but not a full season's worth.

What am I complaining about today? Well, more of the same. I saw an example of where another Website was complaining about Major League Baseball's blackout policy.

Phillip Swann, The TV Answer Man (a daily read for me; see the link in the sidebar), was trying to answer a question about a U.S. location being blacked out despite being 5,798 miles from the teams. Yes, that's correct. Nearly 6,000 miles away, there's a place where residents there can't watch two certain teams that are seven time zones away.

MLB.TV, the online package of out-of-market regular-season games, does not allow subscribers in Guam to watch the San Francisco Giants or Oakland Athletics games. They are blacked out there.

That may sound impossible. After all, Guam is 5,798 miles away from the San Francisco/Oakland area. And as you note, NBC Sports Bay Area, which has the local rights to most Giants games, and NBC Sports California, which has the A’s games, are not available in Guam. So there’s no way for a MLB TV subscriber in Guam to watch the two teams without MLB TV. Except MLB TV doesn’t allow it!

“All live San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics games will be blacked out in the U.S. territory of Guam,” states the MLB.TV site.

Now, if that sounds crazy, that's because it is. The article goes on to say that MLB hasn't responded to repeated requests about that situation. Mr. Swann makes his best guess about why that is, and it's a reasonable one, insofar as trying to understand the mindset of Major League Baseball. Mr. Swann doesn't defend MLB's decision, just tries to figure out what is going on in their heads.

That's just one example of how messed up the blackout rules are. Sure, they're in place to protect certain parties, and I get that. I really don't like it, and think they're making a bad business decision, but they're the ones sitting in a big office and I'm typing away on my laptop, eating Cheezy-Poofs.

Still, I'd really like to have more baseball in my Streaming Life. But that won't happen while blackouts are in place.

Streaming USFL games

The USFL opens play this weekend. I must admit, nostalgia has hold because I had attended some USFL games in Jacksonville in the 1980s. Now, this is not the same league, but this new league owns the names and logos from the old league. And though nearly 40 years separate them, just hearing the names of the teams playing brings back memories of that old league.

A lot of players started their US professional football careers in the USFL, including some Hall of Fame players. I don't know if the new league will have the same quality players, but we'll find out starting tonight. The USFL kicks of its 2022 season this evening. And you can watch the games with your favorite streaming device.

Fox and NBC are carrying tonight's game between the New Jersey Generals and the Birmingham Stallions. Tomorrow's game between the Houston Gamblers and Michigan Panthers will be on NBC and Peacock (Premium), Philadelphia Stars vs New Orleans Breakers is on USA, and Tampa Bay Bandits vs Pittsburgh Maulers is on FS1.

Games in future weeks will be on those networks, as well. That means that if you are able to watch all of the games this weekend, you'll be able to watch all of the games all season long, since every network carrying the league has at least one game this weekend.

Fox

• Antenna (free)
• Vidgo TV ($55/month)
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Fubo TV ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month)
• DirecTV Stream ($70/month)

NBC

• Antenna (free)
• Vidgo TV ($55/month)
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Fubo TV ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month)
• DirecTV Stream ($70/month)

FS1

• Sling TV (Blue) ($35/month)
• Vidgo TV ($55/month)
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Fubo TV ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month)
• DirecTV Stream ($70/month)

USA

• Sling TV (Blue) ($35/month)
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Fubo TV ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month)
• DirecTV Stream ($70/month)

Peacock

• Peacock (Premium) ($5/month) (Free to Xfinity Internet customers)

If spring football is what you want in your Streaming Life, you get your wish starting tonight.

Cable lies

Now, to be clear up front, I'm not calling all cable TV companies liars. And the one I'm talking about today is one that I have never used. In fact, I'm not calling the company in question liars at all. But I think the person who is, is right.

Ryan Downey is host of The Streaming Advisor, it's a daily read for me. Enough to the point where The Streaming Advisor is one of the Websites I have listed as a resource in the sidebar here.

In a recent article, he took Spectrum to task for statements the company made in advertisements that attacked DirecTV Stream.

The claims were misleading at best and outright wrong at the worse, which should not come as a big surprise to those who have paid attention to cable advertising or their bills over the years.

The biggest false claim, being that consumers would not be able to see the “biggest game of the year” AKA the Super Bowl is not even a stretch of the truth, it’s a lie. While Spectrum could say that it never said the Super Bowl was not on DirecTV Stream we all know what the biggest game of the year is. The company just lets viewers make the erroneous connection. Sort of like threatening someone by saying “I would hate to see you get hurt somehow if you didn’t pay me”.

It's worth a read. If you wonder if a cable company would try to mislead you, this might help you make up your mind.

My TV watching life became a Streaming Life when I wanted more for my dollar. I don't miss paying big bucks for small return. And I certainly don't miss dealing with companies like that.

CNN+ on Roku

There has been some coverage this week about CNN+, the subscription service that launched last month. Some of the news is good, and some of the news is bad. Maybe "bad" isn't the correct word. Perhaps "horrible" is a better word.

First, the good news for CNN+. The app finally launched on Roku. For the first two weeks following the service launch, the app was not available for the largest streaming platform. But that has been remedied. The app launched this week, according to Roku Blog.

The CNN channel (available now in the Roku Channel Store) will offer access to both CNN+ and live TV experiences, with easy navigation between the two. Existing pay TV customers can also enjoy the live TV experience that they’ve known for years, including access to CNN, CNN International, and HLN.

The service is $6/month or $60/year.

So, why did it take so long to get an app on Roku? Roku doesn't say. And CNN doesn't say. But you must remember that the four major streaming platforms all have different operating systems. That means you can't just take an app from one and expect it to work on another. And some of the other platforms have an advantage.

For Apple TV, for instance, tvOS is based on iOS and is similar to iPadOS, meaning they may be able to code the same app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. And if not, the differences would be relatively minor.

With Fire TV, it's different. It's a different OS. But, as it's similar to Android, there isn't quite the learning curve necessary switching between coding for Android and Fire OS. They did manage to get an app out there for Fire OS, but interestingly enough, not for Android TV.

Roku is also different. It is totally different, and anything coded for Roku is pretty much limited to Roku. So, it may have taken the coding teams longer to complete.

And, of course, there are the agreements needed to have an app in the Channel Store. There is a process. And now that process is complete, and CNN+ is on Roku. That's the good news.

The bad news? Besides still not being available for Android TV? Well, it seems not many people are subscribing to the service, according to CNBC.

Fewer than 10,000 people are using CNN+ on a daily basis two weeks into its existence, according to people familiar with the matter.

The people spoke with CNBC on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss nonpublic data.

There were reports within days of launch about layoffs being planned. I didn't link those because I'm not certain how accurate those might be. The new head of CNN isn't even on the job yet, so I think talk like that is premature. That doesn't mean they won't happen after the new boss is in place, just that talk is premature.

I don't plan to subscribe to the service. I don't plan to even do a free trial. When I cut cable back in January 2011, TV news was one of the reasons I held out as long as I did. But after a few days, I found I didn't miss it. So any report of a news service being launched doesn't mean much to me. I can do without them. If I want to watch a bunch of noisy clowns on TV, I'll subscribe to the Circus Channel, not CNN+, Fox News, NBC-anything, or whatever. I'm so over TV news and the whole culture they exhibit.

I'm not saying I hope CNN+ fails. If someone wants it in their Streaming Life, they now have another option with the Roku app launch. But I won't be helping it survive.