MLB TV now even more NOT worth it

I have a love-hate relationship with MLB TV. I so want to love it, but MLB blacks out my team -- the one that plays in a stadium over four hours away from my house -- and has for years. And continues to.

But now, they are doing something that makes that aggravation even greater. They have raised the price of a subscription.

Oh, they've thrown a new wrinkle in as well. In the past, when you auto renewed, you got the previous year's pricing. Not anymore. According to TV Answer Man Phillip Swann, MLB is hitting everyone with the price increase:

But MLB TV announced yesterday that it will raise the price of the 2023 plan by $10 to $149.99; the 2022 regular season price was $139.99. In addition, there are no pre-season discounts, which have been available in past years.

Which brings us to the issue of the auto-renewal.

Earlier today, we noted in this article that MLB TV has had a policy of auto-renewing subscribers every March 1 at the previous year's price. That would be $139.99 for 2022. The league even has a web page that says this:

"Your subscription will automatically renew annually approximately March 1 each year at the previous year's regular full yearly price."

However, it appears that MLB TV this year has updated the policy to state that you will be auto-renewed at the current year's price, not last year's rate.

Once again, I so want to subscribe to MLB TV, but the blackouts mean it's meaningless for me. And this on top of that makes it less desirable. However, if it works for you and your Streaming Life, that's great. I just wish it worked for me.

Washington's Birthday (2023 Edition)

Today is Washington's Birthday.

Okay, it's not the actual anniversary of the day George Washington was born. That's coming up on Wednesday. But today is a federal holiday, and that holiday is called Washington's Birthday.

Now, before you argue about what today is, keep reading. And if you were going to argue, if you do keep reading, you may learn something.

Here is the listing of this year's holidays from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management:

You can't see it in that image, but at the bottom, it says:

**This holiday is designated as "Washington's Birthday" in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law.

Some of you, maybe most of you, are thinking that today is Presidents Day. It's not. There is no such thing. And some of you may want to argue about it. "The combined Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday together and call it Presidents Day."

No they didn't. There never was a federal holiday for Lincoln. Ever. Look it up. There may have been state holidays, there may have even been local holidays that closed schools, but there never was a federal holiday for Lincoln. Ever. I'm not saying there shouldn't have been, I'm just saying there wasn't. And that's the truth.

What some -- or most -- may not realize is that the holiday wasn't to celebrate George Washington as president. Yes, he was president. He was the first under the current Constitution, but that's not why there's a holiday for him.

George Washington was one of the most important figures in the creation of the United States as an independent country. He was reviled and respected -- maybe even more respected than reviled -- by the United Kingdom when the War of Independence was fought. He was loved by many in this young country.

His actions in the founding of this country happened in the 1770s and 1780s, with the War of Independence being fought from 1775 (the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence was well after the start of the war; look it up) to 1784 (Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in 1781, the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, but Congress didn't ratify it until early 1784; look it up).

Washington became president in 1789, the first one under the Constitution that was ratified in 1788. However, this was at the end of his service to the nation he helped found. He achieved his high status well before he became president. Had he never become president, his birthday would still have been celebrated, and we'd probably not have any of this silly myth about a "Presidents Day."

We would also have not had the presidency of George Washington. Maybe that would have been a good thing, maybe it would have been a bad thing. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and others, including ones that never served as president, may have been our first president. Perhaps they would have handled some of the major events of those eight years differently. Maybe even some of those events may not have happened at all.

What I do know is that George Washington's birthday wasn't first celebrated because of his presidency. It was because of his actions that led to the creation of this nation, and its establishment as a republic. Without him, there may not have ever been a United States. He didn't do it single-handedly, of course, but without him, there may very well have never been this country.

George Washington was a flawed man. He was an adulterer and a slave owner. He was not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination. However, we are all human, and we all have faults, some worse than others. Washington was one of the most important men to lead this young country, well before he became president. That is why his birthday is celebrated.

Today doesn't celebrate the men who held the office of president. There is no celebration of Joe Biden. There is no celebration of Donald Trump. There is no celebration of any president at all, except for Washington, but his being president has nothing to do with the celebration. There is no holiday celebrating anyone for being president. And there probably never should be.

So, what does all this have to do with streaming? Nothing. Unless you bought a new streaming device or TV in some store's poorly-named sale. Now go watch some educational video with your streamer, and learn the facts about something. Like the actual holiday that is today: Washington's Birthday

Good news for Fox

A couple of reports this week showed that Fox is making huge strides in streaming and digital content.

One report, as cited by The Streaming Advisor, says that Tubi, the free ad-supported television (FAST) service from Fox, grew at an impressive rate last year:

Tubi's Total Viewing Time (TVT) is up 44% year-over-year (2022 calendar year vs 2021), with more than 5 billion hours streamed in 2022, and the platform audience has grown surpassing 64 million monthly active users. Tubi's audience continues to be young and increasingly diverse, African American and LGBT audiences grew over 50% in 2022, and audience growth exceeded 25% in each major level of household income and the Hispanic demo – according to MRI. Additionally, Tubi's core younger demographic remains strong – more than 1 in 3 (36%) Tubi streamers are between the ages of 18 and 34. Tubi is proud to offer consumers free access to more than 50,000 titles from 455 content partners as well as a growing curated FAST offering watched by 1 in 5 AVOD streamers in the past 12 months.

The news about this growth came out around the same time as new data showing that Fox News continues to dominate the ratings for streaming and digital content:

The news option has spent 23 straight months as the number one news brand with multiplatform minutes. Multiplatform minutes reflect views on mobile, smart TV’s and any other way people may access the service online.

FOX News Digital closed out January reaching over 3 billion total multiplatform minutes, 1.8 billion total multiplatform views and 109 million multiplatform unique visitors.

I won't even mention the rating that show Fox News host Greg Gutfeld dominating the late night ratings. Well, I did mention it, but won't go further into that. Needless to say, Fox is having a good year. Again. It seems many people are including Fox entertainment and Fox News in their Streaming Life.

Whole house DVR? Yes!

When I put up an antenna, I tried out three different DVR systems. All worked well. My favorite of them is Tablo, but Air TV (from Sling TV) was good. I wasn't all that thrilled with Amazon's offering, but it did okay.

Recently, Tablo posted an answer to a question about setting up a whole home DVR. And the answer is that you can. And with a network connected DVR -- meaning network connected Tablo, as well as Air TV systems -- you get that as part of the setup:

Let's say your TV antenna is connected to your Tablo in an upstairs bedroom. The room next door is your office where your Wi-Fi router is located. Downstairs you have a Roku-enabled Smart TV.

Your Tablo will connect to your router via Wi-Fi and so will your Roku-enabled Smart TV. Using the Roku Smart TV's remote, you download the Tablo app to the television. The app on the Smart TV connects to your Tablo over Wi-Fi so you can stream live and recorded programs and control the DVR using the Roku remote. Have another TV in the basement with a Fire TV stick? The same process applies.

This is why I really like my Tablo setup. But to be fair, this applies to Air TV as well. If you want a whole home DVR as part of your Streaming Life, it's easy.

A new YouTube TV scam?

One of the pitfalls of doing something new is needing help, and getting bad search results when you seek that help.

This seems to have happened recently to people looking for help with YouTube TV. It seems some scammers were gaming the Google search results and getting their fake Website, voutube.com, listed high in the results.

It's kind of funny, in a shake your head way, in that Google owns YouTube TV and YouTube, yet were listing fake results at or near the top of the search results.

According to Cord Cutters News, this has been happening recently:

Recently some of our readers noticed sponsored Google search results when you look for help with YouTube TV that doesn’t point you to TV.YouTube.com but instead point to voutube.com. A simple switch of the Y with a V can easily be missed if you are not looking closely for it. (Also, we highly recommend you do not go to that other website.)

Increasingly scammers are trying to trick YouTube TV customers into thinking they are contacting customer service. Instead, they reach a 3rd party group that offers to help them for a fee or some other plan.

Tricks like this are not new, as Roku, for years, faced a vast number of groups that would try and trick you into paying to activate your Roku. Sometimes $100 or more they would want in order to activate your Roku for you. These groups bought up search terms about activating or setting up your Roku player and would try to charge you to do what should have been free.

I did a search for "help with YouTube TV" and did not get the fake results that were reported. Apparently, Google stepped in and did something about it. But this does show that scammers are able to succeed for at least a while, and are brazen enough to try to do it to Google services, and Google searches.

Stay vigilant when it comes to seeking help on the Internet. Don't treat Google searches as Gospel. Like everything else, be careful with your Streaming Life.

WBTV?

Word is that Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to launch a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service.

That would join the large number of existing services, including Pluto TV, Xumo, Tubi, Plex, Streamfree (Sling TV free), and others, that provide streamers with tons of free content. Of course, they have ads, but for the cost, that ain't bad.

Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent of Warner Bros. (naturally), Discovery (of course), HBO Max, TCM, TNT, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, and others. This would be their first foray into FAST services. Cord Cutters News has more information on that:

Warner Bros. Discovery has a vast back catalog of content from Discovery, Scripps, and Warner Bros. programs to build a service on. Now don't look for major hits like Friends being offered free but do look for Warner Bros. Discovery to follow Pluto TV's model by offering a collection of new and older content to help attract subscribers to HBO Max.

Pluto TV has been very successful not only at getting ad revenue but also in promoting Paramount+. Often older seasons of hit shows are offered free to get you hooked, only to make you pay to see the new seasons. Now Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly wants a similar model for themselves.

Here's the catch. They are planning on calling it WBTV. That makes sense, right?

Well, there is a TV station in Charlotte, NC with the call sign WBTV. And it's been WBTV since 1949, when it first signed on. So there's that.

Once they get all that worked out, I'm looking forward to the WBD offering. I think with their catalog of content, the FAST service, whatever name it takes, will be a good addition to my Streaming Life.

Fubo being Fubo

For the last few years, Fubo TV has been the leader in streaming sports programming. No, they don't have everything, but they have more sports overall than any other live streaming service.

Recently, they added Bally Regional Sports Networks -- just in time for Bally to be ready to declare bankruptcy -- filling a huge gap in their sports coverage. They also did something recently that isn't so great.

Right before the Super Bowl, Fubo TV stopped monthly subscriptions, and offered only quarterly subscription plans. Now, after the Super Bowl, they offer monthly subscriptions again.

Why?

Money. It's always money.

The TV Answer Man, Phillip Swann, explains.

It would appear FuboTV has some concerns about people signing up for one month and then canceling soon after the Super Bowl, although it still permits a 7-day free trial. (Fubo also sends reminder e-mails before the 7-day free trial ends.)

A FuboTV spokesperson noted last Friday that the quarterly-only packages were "temporary."

"We have temporarily made our channel packages available to new subscribers as quarterly plans. We're always experimenting with our channel package offerings to better understand what our subscribers like," a FuboTV spokesperson told the TV Answer Man.

They do have a valid concern regarding the 7-day trial being used only for the Super Bowl. Of course, the Super Bowl was offered free on other apps, so nobody had to use Fubo TV to watch the Super Bowl.

If someone did use the 7-day trial, and then forgot to cancel, they'd pay for three months. Another option would have been to have removed the 7-day trial. After all, not all services offer the 7-day trial. Some require you to subscribe for a month with no free trial.

I suppose no matter what Fubo TV did, they'd get complaints from people like me. Of course, they could have done nothing, and left things as they were. But where's the money in that.

To be clear, I don't have any problem with companies getting money for their goods and services. But I don't have a problem with people legally saving money, either. But this does go to show you that you have to keep a watch on things in your Streaming Life, just as you do in all aspects of life.