Another home for Doctor Who

Quick! Tell me where you can watch Doctor Who.

Okay, that's unfair. Mostly because there are so many different places where you can watch the iconic British TV show.

Of course, part of the answer depends on which incarnation of the show you are talking about. The classic shows air on different networks, but the revival series (sometimes called NuWho) has aired live on BBC America for some time, while the rest of the NuWho episodes are on HBO Max.

Starting in November 2023, Disney Plus is the new home of new episodes of Doctor Who.

Ncuti Gatwa, who will star as the 15th Doctor following Tennant's second run, announced that the beloved sci-fi series would be moving to Disney+ during an appearance this morning on Live with Kelly and Ryan. Russell T Davies, who acted as showrunner for the series from 2005 to 2009, will return along with Tennant.

"I love this show, and this is the best of both worlds—with the vision and joy of the BBC and Disney+ together we can launch the TARDIS all around the planet, reaching a new generation of fans while keeping our traditional home firmly on the BBC in the UK," Davies said.

New episodes of Doctor Who will be streaming on Disney+ starting in late November 2023, while BBC will continue to host the series in the UK and Ireland.

I've seen some in the UK upset about this, but it doesn't really impact them. They may not realize that. A lot of people will react without getting all of the facts. People are awful, amiright?

Anyway, it's not known of the previous seasons of NuWho will follow to Disney Plus, if they'll remain on HBO Max, or if another service will become home to the shows.

And classic Doctor Who will remain on BritBox for the time being, as well as part of linear streaming channels on Pluto TV, Xumo, Plex, and other services. It's pretty easy to have classic Doctor Who as a part of your Streaming Life, but NuWho will be a little more complicated in a little over a year.

Watching the World Series

The World Series starts tomorrow. Of course, with the expanded playoffs in Major League Baseball, only three games of what is called the October Classic will actually take place in October. The World Series will end in November.

I won't spend a lot of time complaining about that, but I will spend a little. While I like the fact that more fans now have the opportunity to win a championship -- 12 of 30 teams were in the playoffs between the two leagues -- I do not like the World Series dragging on into November. I'm of the mindset that the World Series should be played in October. The entire World Series, not just some of the games.

With that out of the way, streamers can watch the October/November Classic starting tomorrow. All four, five, six, or seven games will be carried on Fox.

Fox

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

That's pretty simple and straightforward. And I like it that way. It's pretty easy to have the World Series as part of your Streaming Life.

My suggested Hallowe'en movie

Many times you'll find movie lists of the "best [insert holiday here] movies of all time." Usually, these are yearly lists and vary from year to year.

This year, for some reason, I haven't seen many of these lists. Heck, I haven't seen any at all for Hallowe'en. (Yes, I use the traditional spelling for Hallowe'en.)

I finally did a search for such a list, and the IMDB Top 100 Halloween Movies of All Time showed up. And I was disappointed with the results.

Some of what was on the list made me go "seriously?" Some of what was not on the list made me go "Seriously??!!??"

You see, I consider Nosferatu a great movie for Hallowe'en, or for any time you want to watch a well done creepy movie. That's not bad for a movie that's 100 years old.

The film was released in its native Germany in March of 1922, so it's actually now closer to its 101st anniversary than its 100th. But this is the centennial of the film, and I think it's a great time to watch it.

Link: YouTube

Link: Amazon Prime

It's a great film. Yes, it's old. Yes, it's a silent film. But oh my goodness, some of the scenes are visuals are fantastic.

 

 

 

 

Great visuals. Great film. And quite creepy. To me, it's a great Hallowe'en film, and I enjoy having it as part of my Streaming Life.

More price increases: Apple TV+

More price increases make the news. This time, it's Apple's service, Apple TV+, which is going up.

While it's not a large amount that it's going up, it is a large percentage that it is going up.

Previously, Apple TV+ was $5/month. It's now $7/month. You might think that a $2/month increase isn't that much, and it's not. $2/month is not really all that much. But, considering the total monthly cost was only $5, that makes it a 40% increase! That's quite the price hike, when you look at it like that.

And, for Apple subscribers, it's more than Apple TV+ that's going up. Nearly all major subscriptions are increasing, according to 9to5 Mac:

This translates to increases of $1 to $2 per service, with Apple One tiers going up about $3 at the same time. Here’s the full pricing breakdown for the United States:

Apple Music

• Individual: $10.99 per month (from $9.99)
• Family: $16.99 per month (from $14.99)
• Individual Annual: $109 per year (from $99)

Apple TV+

• Monthly: $6.99 per month (from $4.99)
• Annual: $69 per year (from $49.99)

Apple One

• Individual: $16.95 per month (from $14.95)
• Family: $22.95 per month (from $19.95)
• Premier: $32.95 per month (from $29.95)

If you are in an International market, you should also expect to see proportionally similar price increases go into effect beginning today. Current subscribers will receive notifications of the planned price increases 30 days prior to the service renewing at the higher price.

What will be the next price increase to impact your Streaming Life? I'm worried it won't be all that long before we find out.

Dish raising prices

With the focus here on streaming, it may seem out of place that I'm commenting on an increase in prices for a satellite service.

No, I'm not going to turn that news into another reason to go with streaming rather than satellite or cable. I think there are plenty of reasons to stream over usage of those older, traditional services.

And, yes, those older pay TV services do go up in price from time to time, but so do streaming services. So, a price increase in a satellite service isn't exactly a new reason to switch.

Rather, I think it's a sign of things to come with streaming. The reason is that this price increase that was announced last week is for Dish Network. And that impacts streaming because Dish owns Sling TV.

You may already know that Dish owns Sling, but not everyone knows that. Yes, traditional pay TV services are in the streaming business as well. Comcast, one of the largest cable TV services, owns Peacock TV, the streaming service. And of course satellite TV service DirecTV owns DirecTV Stream.

But back to Dish. The company announced last week that prices will be going up in November:

At DISH, we continue to invest in your service and technology to make improvements and provide you with the best TV viewing experience at the best value. However, the price that we pay for programming continues to rise. In fact, the fastest growing cost we and all other TV providers have is driven by the cost we pay the programmers. We will continue to work hard for fair deals with these programmers to keep channel costs and the price you pay as low as possible. Unfortunately, you may have observed some channel interruptions because of this.

Due to these rising costs, we will be increasing the cost of our package offerings beginning 11/17/22.

This is bad news for streamers. That bit about "channel interruptions?" One of those happened recently, and impacted Dish ... and Sling TV.

So, with Dish raising its prices, I'm expecting Dish to do the same, as the settling of that outage led to the price increase for the satellite TV service, and the same company owns Sling, who was impacted as well.

Could Sling go without a price increase? Sure. But I expect Sling TV will up prices soon. And people will get mad at Sling TV, when they should get mad at Disney instead. After all, if there is a price hike in your Streaming Life soon, House of Mouse would be to blame.

Privacy phone, part 8: Testing impacted

A while back, I decided to test three different privacy phone setups. I later added a fourth to the mix, but have ruled that fourth one out. I left it out initially for a reason, then rethought things. After a bit, I came to realize that I was right to omit to initially.

So, I'm down to three, right?

No, I ruled out the first one I tried pretty quickly. The Pine 64 phone running Linux is a no-go. It's just not user friendly. Whether or not it's the hardware or the software, the net result is an experience similar to that of the BlackBerry 10. If you don't remember that, you are a fortunate soul indeed. It was awful. And the Linux phone experience has been awful. So this one is a no-go.

I tried a Teracube 2e running /e/OS. I liked it.

I tried a Google Pixel 4a running Lineage OS. I liked it.

In fact, I've been using the Google Pixel running Lineage as my primary phone for a while. So much so that if I stopped carrying it, I'd feel wrong. Which means I've not had the opportunity to go back to the Teracube 2e.

If I could simply pop out the SIM card from the Pixel phone and put it in the Teracube, I would. But there are issues with the Teracube running that SIM. Not sure if it's the carrier (I think it might be) or the phone (I also think it might be).

The net result is that the Teracube isn't getting any use right now. I'd really like to use it. The interface is good, I like the phone, but I don't like the issues with using certain carriers. The Google Pixel has no carrier issues. So, Pixel will probably win.

The only reason I'm not declaring Pixel running Lineage OS as the winner is because I really want to use the Teracube /e/OS device some more. And I'll get around to that. Some time.

For now, I think my phone going forward will be the Pixel running Lineage OS. I'm almost certain of it.

Watching college football games this weekend: Week 8

College football season continues, with this week featuring a single game between ranked unbeaten teams. The ACC has the lone battle of the unbeatens this week.

There are five games featuring matchups of ranked teams, all games between conference opponents. The Big 12 has two such matchups, while the ACC (the unbeatens), SEC, and Pac 12 each have conference games between two ranked teams.

If you want to watch all of the games this season, you need access to most of the networks, which can get expensive. Of course, you might not want to be able to watch all the games.

This weekend, only one game will not be on these networks. Here are the networks carrying games:

• ABC
• ACC Network
• Big Ten
• Big 12 Network (No games this week)
• CBS
• CBS Sports Network
• ESPN
• ESPN 2
• ESPN 3
• ESPN U
• SEC Network
• ESPN+
• Fox
• Fox Sports 1
• Longhorn Network (No games this week)
• NBC
• NFL Network
• Pac 12 Network
• Peacock

Here is how to watch these networks:

ABC

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ACC Network

• Sling Orange, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Choice, $90/month.

Big Ten Network

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Choice, $90/month.

Big 12 Network

Big 12 Network games are available through ESPN+.

CBS

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Paramount+ Premium, $10/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

CBS Sports Network

• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Ultimate, $105/month.

ESPN

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN2

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN U

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.
• Fubo TV Elite, $80/month.

ESPN3

ESPN3 is usually included with a service that carries standard ESPN/ESPN2.

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN+

ESPN+ is a standalone sports programming service. It is not the same thing as regular ESPN that you get with cable or one of the live streaming services. Some content from ESPN, ESPN2, or other ESPN networks may be available on ESPN+, but often, it's content that is only available on ESPN+.

• ESPN+, $7/month.
• Disney Bundle, $14/month.

Fox

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

Fox Sports 1

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

Longhorn Network

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.

NBC

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

NFL Network

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.

Pac 12 Network

• Sling Blue, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• Fubo TV Pro, with Fubo Extra, $78/month.
• Fubo TV Elite, $80/month.

Peacock TV

Peacock is a standalone streaming service that carries NBCUniversal programming, including much sports from NBC as well as exclusive sports programming. Peacock Premium is $5/month, but is included with Xfinity Internet plans.

SEC Network

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Choice, $90/month.
• Fubo TV Ultimate, $100/month.

This list of networks covers all the games airing today. It also covers games next week through Friday, as the early games next week are all on one of these networks.

NOTE: Longhorn Network and Big 12 Network are not needed this weekend.

To watch all the games, having an antenna won't really matter, as in order to get all the networks carrying games, the services also carry the OTA stations. So, how much to watch them all?

The services necessary will cost $85. That's $78 for Fubo TV Pro +Fubo Extra, along with $7 for ESPN+.

If you want college football in your Streaming Life, you have options, though it can get expensive depending just how many games you want to watch.