Another price increase: Fubo

Fubo advertises itself as the top service for sports. It's hard to argue with that. However, there are some areas where Fubo falls short of other services. TBS and TNT carry some NBA games and some NHL games, and Fubo does not carry those channels. Still, it does carry a lot of sports.

It also costs a lot of money. And it is going to cost some people even more.

Fubo's lowest English language service is $75/month. The most expensive is now $100/month. And that's the price increase.

Fubo removed the $95/month Premiere plan and replaced it with the $100/month Ultimate plan. It does add NFL Red Zone, which the Premiere plan didn't have, so there's that. Still, $100/month is a lot of money.

My Streaming Life doesn't include Fubo TV. I've tried it, and found it to be a reliable service with a lot of channels, and a lot of sports. However, it's not for me. I'm not getting $100 worth of entertainment from it. You might, but I don't.

Tubi free streaming service

Tubi, owned by Fox, is one of the top free ad-supported television (FAST) service. It has grown and changed over the years.

Pluto TV has been the big daddy of the FAST services for years, being older and setting the standard for FAST services.

Tubi has become some people's favorite FAST service. While I still go to Pluto TV before I go to Tubi, some family members prefer Tubi. And that makes sense.

Cord Cutters News had a recent article on Tubi, and give some numbers about the increase in viewership and content:

Tubi hitting almost 60,000 on-demand movies and TV shows streaming free with ads makes Tubi one of the largest free streaming services for cord cutters.

This news comes as Tubi has been reaching multiple deals recently to add more content. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery announced deals with Tubi to bring their content to the free streaming service. This deal will bring a huge catalog of content to both services.

My Streaming Life has included Tubi since the service launched. I'm happy to see it continuing to grow and improve, and agree that it's one of the best, if not the best, FAST service.

Hulu price increase and lost subscribers

We posted recently about the latest Hulu and Disney price increases. However, we didn't get too deep into the other news about the services. It turns out that Hulu lost a lot of subscribers last quarter.

A report this week said that Hulu lost 100,000 subscribers to its live streaming service. Not the $7/month service I use, but the expensive Hulu+Live TV service that is going up from $70/month to $77/month.

Maybe they figure they need to increase the price 10% to offset a 2-3% drop in subscribers. Let's do the math real quick.

They had 4.4 million subscribers, and lost 100,000, meaning they lost $7-million in subscriptions. If they go up $7 and keep 4.3 million, that's an increase of over 30-million. That's a net gain of over $23-million. They could afford to lose another 300,000 subscribers at the higher price and not lose income.

It's all about the money, isn't it? Of course it is. It's always about money. They have to find a way to keep the money coming in as subscribers continue to leave:

The media giant said on Wednesday that Hulu lost 100,000 live TV subscribers to a total of 4.3 million. The total number of streaming video on demand customers rose by 300,000 to 44 million.

It’s the second quarter in a row in which Hulu lost that amount of subscribers.

My Streaming Life doesn't include Hulu+Live TV, or any live streaming service. I use standard Hulu, about 3-5 months out of the year. I can get by just fine without paying an outrageous amount of money for a service I wouldn't watch.

Hulu price increases (and Disney+) (and ESPN+)

The trend of the last 2-3 years continues. Now it's the Disney services that are going up. This means Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu (in various forms).

Now, Hulu both is and is not going up in price. The basic Hulu service, which is my service of choice, is staying at the current $8/month price. That means I won't be impacted by this price increase. Hurray for being a cheapskate, amirite?

Effective October 12, 2023, the price for Hulu (No Ads) -- that's the name of the Hulu service without ads -- is going up from $15/month to $18/month.

Hulu+Live TV jumps from $70/month to $77/month. The no-ads version goes up from $83/month to $90/month.

Similar price changes will impact the Disney+ and ESPN+ services as well.

Hulu is my service. Basic Hulu. I don't mind the ads, and I'll save a few bucks by sitting through them.

The thing is, football season is coming up. There will be some games I want to watch on ESPN+. So, come September 2, there are games that I might want to watch on ESPN+. So, how much is that?

By itself, ESPN+ is $10/month. That's going up to $11/month.

I would consider having both Hulu (standard) and ESPN+ bundled. However, the pricing isn't that great. In fact, it's the same as subscribing separately. There is no Hulu/ESPN+ bundle. So, for the two services, it's currently $17/month, going up to $18/month.

The Disney Bundle of all three services -- Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+ -- is currently $13/month. That means I can get the two I want for $17, but the price goes down $4 if I get all three. Under the new pricing, it will be $15/month, a $3 savings over the price for the two. So, I'll go from Hulu to the Disney Bundle when it's football season.

Of course, in the meantime, I'll subscribe to Hulu for $7/month, pausing the subscription for up to 12 weeks at a time. I've got a pause happening soon, and will decide during September whether to resume and do the Disney Bundle, or simply leave it paused and subscribe to ESPN+ for $10/month (soon to be $11/month).

My Streaming Life gets a little complicated in football season. I'll deal with the rest of ESPN separately. I don't think I'll do the Hulu+Live TV, particularly at the prices they are, and certainly not will be. I'll look at Sling TV then. For now, it's Hulu on pause, and something to be determined by kickoff.

Why I cut the cord

I started streaming some content in 2010. Maybe even earlier. I had a TiVo device that allowed me to watch some online content. Thinking back, most of it was downloaded to the TiVo then played. However, it seems there was some content that was actually streamed.

In late 2010, I bought my first Roku device, as well as a 2nd generation Apple TV device. Those allowed me to actually stream content.

In early 2011, right after the BCS championship game, I cut cable. Perhaps that Tuesday. It's hard to remember, since that was over 12 years ago.

So, why? Why did I cut the cord and go to streaming? The answer is simple: money. It's always about money.

I spent a year keeping up with everything I watched on TV, mostly by using the TiVo recording settings. Then I looked up how to watch that content without cable. Some meant buying the TV episodes, and some meant watching streaming. There was also TV antenna possible, but I didn't figure that into it. I assumed no antenna, and wanted to see how to watch everything online.

My numbers showed it was cheaper to subscribe to cable. Of course, that was in 2009. I did the same thing for 2010, and before the end of the year, I knew that it was now cheaper to drop cable and stream and buy content. So, that's what I did.

My Streaming Life became a reality because of money. I'm sure others have reasons, but that was THE reason I cut the cord. I've been saving money ever since.

How many ads can you stand?

A report from Hub Research indicates that many streamers will put up with ads to a point.

I've not seen all the details of the report -- I don't subscribe -- but a review of the report indicates that five ads in a half-hour segment is acceptable for most streamers.

For every 30 minutes of streaming video, five ads or fewer seemed to be the key number, according to a study conducted by Hub Entertainment Research. Its survey, which asked more than 3,000 US customers between 4 and 74 years old, found that half of the respondents found it reasonable to see 5 or fewer ads. That figure dropped to 38% when the number was upped to six to 10 ads.

That would be fine with me. I don't mind ads, as long as it's not too many ads.

If the ads are too much, I'll consider paying for an ad-free service, if it's available, but more likely I'll go elsewhere. My Streaming Life doesn't cost much, and I'll keep costs down by using ad-supported services. As long as the ads aren't too much.

Top free apps for Roku

Cord Cutters News has a good rundown on what it calls the top ten free apps for Roku.

[YouTube]

This is a good list. What would I suggest that is different? Let's look at Luke's list:

1. Roku Channel
2. Freevee
3. Tubi
4. Crunchyroll
5. Kanopy
6. Filmrise
7. Pluto TV
8. Xumo Play
9. Local Now
10. Plex

The only one I would omit is Crunchyroll, but that's because I don't watch Anime. Also, I may omit Kanopy, as it is only recently available to me, and I haven't used it as much as I have the others. However, everyone that has it says good things about it.

The others? Sure. Those are eight good choices. To round it out, I'd put Sling/Freestream (Freestream is the service, through the Sling TV app) on the list. I'd also put Peacock TV on the list. While it is a paid service, there is a free tier that has around half of the total library.

The order is pretty good, though I'd put Plex higher. Oh, and Pluto TV would be higher. Other than that, it's a good list. My Streaming Life includes the eight I said, with Kanopy recently added, along with the two suggestions I made. There are plenty of free options. Save some money and check them out.