My favorite live streaming service

If I had to pick one live streaming service, what would I pick?

That's a trick question. Because I don't have a live streaming service. That means my favorite is none.

Well, sometimes it's none. Other times it's not. So why is that?

I don't watch TV the same way year-round. And you probably don't either. I mean, think about it. Do you watch TV in December the same way you watch TV in May? Or July?

In December, I'm more likely to be in a situation where the TV is on and Hallmark Christmas movies are playing. But not so much in July. Plus, I watch college football, so my TV viewing during the fall and winter months isn't the same as in spring and summer.

The point is that I don't watch TV the same year-round. And, as a result, I don't need the same TV setup year-round.

With me, the only live streaming I really care about is college football. With you, it may be something else. But with me, from early September until early January, I subscribe to a live streaming service that gets me college football. Then I cancel, because I don't need it the rest of the year. I don't need it, so I don't pay for it.

Maybe you could save some money by not subscribing to a service you don't need. Do you need Netflix year-round? Could you get by subscribing for a month, canceling for a month, subscribing for a month, canceling for a month, and so on? If so, you just cut your Netflix bill in half. Let that sink in.

The point is that I don't watch TV the same year-round, so no one way works for me year-round. I certainly don't have a live streaming service year-round. So, to answer the original question of which is my favorite live streaming service? The answer is none. Because I don't need nor do I want a year-round live streaming service in my Streaming Life.

Netflix losing subscriptions

So with Netflix lost customers, huh? That made big news for some reason. Maybe because everybody thinks Netflix is a cash cow that goes on forever.

Actually, it might be. But losing 200,000 subscribers was unexpected. So, what's it mean?

Well, maybe it means that people are tired of rising prices and having to subscribe to so many streaming services that they're paying as much as when they had cable.

Maybe they feel that Netflix isn't worth the money. I don't subscribe, so whatever is causing people to leave, it's probably not the same reason I stopped subscribing several years back. Or maybe it is.

Unlike the early days of streaming, merely existing as an alternative to cable TV is no longer good enough in and of itself. Just ask shareholders of Netflix, who watched the stock plunge 35% on Wednesday after the company lost (net) 200,000 paying customers during the first quarter of the year, here and abroad. Not even Netflix's award-winning content library was enough of a draw to keep them on board. While most U.S. households utilize a combination of between six and 10 paid-streaming services, according to TiVo's report, there's far more than that out there, and there's only so much time anyone can spend watching television.

My philosophy on subscription services is to not subscribe to multiple ones, at least, not at the same time. If there's something on Netflix I want to see, I'll subscribe, but only for a month. I'll binge what I want to see, and then cancel at the end of the month. The next month, I'll subscribe to another service, watch it for a month, cancel, then the next month, pick another service and repeat the process.

In a year, Ive watched what I wanted to watch and subscribed to only one service a month. It's cheaper doing it that way, at least for me.

If Netflix is a part of your Streaming Life, and you're happy with it, then that's great. If you canceled recently, I'd be curious why. But to whichever services you subscribe, if you're happy with the product and the price, you're in good shape, because that's the goal.

Ads are good. And bad.

I have no issue with the concept of advertisements. In fact, unless you're running an ad blocker or some similar utility on your browser -- or network -- you may not even be aware that there are ads on this Website. Of course, if you are not running an ad blocker, then you are very much aware of the ads.

Honestly, I don't like them. Well, I don't like how many there are. So, why do I have so many ads on this Website? I'm lazy. I turned the ad placement entirely over to Google, and they pick what ads show and where they show. And how many.

I don't normally notice them, because I block the ads on this Website. Let me explain why.

When it comes to monetizing a Website, visits matter, so I make sure as much as I can that I only visit from a browser that's I've registered as mine, so my page views don't get counted. I'm not looking to artificially inflate Website traffic numbers in any way.

The number of displays an ad gets can also be artificially inflated. I cannot confirm that the registration of the browser for traffic count also includes ad displays. They're both from Google, and it seems they should be able to tie them together. However, I cannot find anything that says they do. Meaning they may count ad displays to me. And they shouldn't.

To ensure that I don't artificially inflate any stats, I have an ad blocker, off by default, on for this Website. The upside is that I know that I'm doing all I can to ensure that I'm not gaming the system, even unintentionally. The downside is that I don't experience what you experience when you come to the Website. If it's a bad experience because of the ads, I don't know it.

Well, once a month, I will go to the Website on a registered browser and turn off the ad blocker. Then I see the ads in all their glory.

And, to be honest, I don't like how Google does it. It's too many, and they are borderline intrusive. Oh, not nearly as bad as some Websites, so I take some comfort in that. But more than I generally like.

Now, I did mention that I have an ad blocker. I don't normally use it. I understand why Websites have ads, because this Website has ads. They do it to live. I do it to buy a burger every so often. or to upgrade to medium fries.

So I'll view the ads on the Websites I visit. But every now and then, I'll come across a Website that has a horrible experience because of the ads. I'll turn on the ad blocker, finish my business there, and put them on my list of "no-go" Websites.

I believe that if it's an ad-supported Website, and I don't agree to see the ads, I should probably find a different Website. And that's what I do. But I will turn off the ads -- by turning on the ad blocker -- to finish my visit. My last visit. Ever.

I certainly hope the ads here don't make visiting this Website a bad experience for you. I'd put up with the ads here, but it's on the upper limit of what I'll tolerate.

It's the same way with some streaming apps and services. Many are supported by ads. I have found some that are just too much for me, but I can't remember which ones they are. I'll remove the app from my streaming devices if I get to that point. But most ad-supported services don't have an amount that bother me. Like I said, I'm okay with ads. They support some really good quality streaming services and apps, and make my Streaming Life more enjoyable.

Fire Cube now supports hearing aids

This week, Amazon announced that the Fire TV Cube 2nd Generation devices -- that's the ones they've been selling since 2019 -- now support hearing aids.

I don't have a Fire TV Cube to check it -- I may add that to my streaming arsenal -- and it isn't functionality of the Fire TV Stick devices.

A post on the Fire TV Blog does not mention an update that contains the new functionality, so I'm not sure when it rolled out. But, as the post uses present tense, I think it pushed Thursday or before. And, since it doesn't mention anything about an update at all, it could be that rollout is complete.

This makes Fire TV the first-ever streaming media player to support ASHA and allow customers to directly connect compatible Bluetooth hearing aids. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders reports that Fifteen percent (37.5 million) of Americans over the age of 18 report some hearing loss and nearly 29 million US adults could benefit from using hearing aids. Through research, we’ve learned that improving TV sound quality was one of the most requested features among hearing aid users.

With this feature, your hearing aids connect with Fire TV at the system level, so you can not only enjoy audio from your favorite apps but also Alexa, music, navigational sounds, and more.

I'm glad to see this. I don't have need of hearing aids, so it's not for me. But I do understand and appreciate the difficulty those with hearing loss to the point of needing mechanical assistance have.

Amazon's Fire TV Cube is the first device to actually have this feature. And the other features for those with hearing or visual impairments speaks well of their devices. If you have need of these features, choosing Amazon as a platform to run your Streaming Life seems like a good decision.

A new streaming platform from Comcast & Spectrum

From reports I'm seeing online, two cable giants, Comcast/Xfinity and Charter/Spectrum are teaming up to become a fifth major streaming platform.

A story in the New York Times from this week said the two cable giants are calling themselves equal partners in the venture, which will feature Comcast content and Charter money.

Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal and operates the Xfinity cable brand, has made strides in the field over the last decade, developing X1, a set-top box system that allows customers to stream video, and the XClass TV, a connected TV sold by Walmart with an operating system developed by the cable giant. Comcast also operates Xumo, an ad-supported streaming app available on connected TVs that allows customers to watch some live TV in addition to on-demand shows.

The partnership between Comcast and Charter, which owns the Spectrum cable brand, is structured as a 50-50 joint venture, in which Charter will distribute streaming devices based on Comcast’s technology, the companies said. Charter will contribute $900 million over several years to the venture, which doesn’t yet have a name.

From the way I'm reading it, it's essentially a way of promoting Comcast's Xfinity Flex. And if that's the case, this won't be a good thing.

Don't get me wrong, I think Xfinity Flex is okay. If you're a Comcast cable customer, and you cut the cord, Xfinity Flex is a good starter platform. That's because it's oh so close to Xfinity X1 in how it operates. And it includes a decent lineup of apps. That they select.

Under Xfinity Flex, you don't have an app store. You have the apps they say you get. They control what's available. And that's what it's all about: control.

It looks to me like they realize their customers are going to continue to move to streaming, and this is a way to keep a lot of the control they have.

Now do I want to rant on about cable companies and how they control their customers? Yes, I do. But not right now. I want to sit and ponder this for a while. I don't think I like where I think this is going. In fact, I'm sure I don't like where I think this is going. Because it will be about someone else controlling your Streaming Life. I want control of mine, and I want you to have control of yours.