Ads on Google TV home screen

I saw something the other day that I didn't like. There was an ad on the home screen of a Google TV device.

I had launched a Chromecast device and there was an ad for Hardee's breakfast. I didn't like that.

Don't get me wrong, I do like Hardee's breakfast. I just didn't like seeing an ad for it on my Google TV device.

Yes, I know that Google is in the business of making money. And yes, I know that the stuff at the top of the Google TV screen are and have always been ads. The difference is that they are advertising Google TV content, not content for your belly.

Promotional ads suggesting content isn't the same thing as paid ads for things that have nothing to do with streaming content from the device you're using.

Now, I only saw it that one day. I didn't see it yesterday, nor early this morning. And this morning I checked three different Google TV devices: a Sony TV, a Chromecast, and an Onn Stick. All are Google TV devices, and none had ads.

There was an article on AFTVNews blog mentioning the inclusion of ads on Google TV.

Google has now crossed a new line of annoying by including full-length video ads for products and physical goods unrelated to streaming TV. As Reddit users thevincentasteroid and MMD3_ discovered, turning on a Google TV Chromecast device now blasts you with autoplaying video ads for fast food.

The saving grace for Google TV devices, which has never been possible on Fire TV devices, is that it is easy to install an alternate home screen launcher to avoid the ads entirely. While Amazon actively blocks methods to bypass its home screen on Fire TVs, Google does not, and changing the home screen is a relatively simple process. That said, as the Google TV home screen becomes more annoying and intrusive, I suspect it won’t be long before Google begins protecting its revenue stream by also blocking alternate home screen launchers.

The ads on my home screen did not automatically play. Maybe that is because I always have any autoplay settings "off" as I despise autoplay. I can't confirm there is a way to stop them from playing, but I saw the Hardees ad, but it didn't play, because I didn't click on it.

I've not bothered to look into installing an alternate home screen launcher, and have no plans to do that. Oh, I might look into how to do it, but I suspect it'll be "can I do that? I can? Huh. Okay, back to how it was then."

My Streaming Life has used Google TV almost exclusively for the past several months. I started just to see what it was like for a full month, then never went back to Roku. If they start autoplaying ads, I see returning to Roku. I'll stick with Google TV for now, just to see what happens.

More are dropping cable

A recent report shows how much the cable industry is losing customers. And, for Comcast, the news is even worse.

Cord Cutters News had a report recently that said Comcast lost over 2-million cable customers in 2023. But it didn't stop there. Nearly 40-thousand Internet customers were lost by the company last year as well.

In my family, my mother dropped Comcast cable, but kept Comcast as her Internet provider. Internet service by Comcast is pretty good, so it made sense for her. But the industry has changed and more options are now available, giving more people today. And that led to the recent bad news:

Comcast lost 2,036,000 cable TV customers in 2023. The company also lost 38,676 Internet subscribers in 2023. Comcast started the year by adding more than 32,000 new Internet subscribers but lost subscribers the remaining three quarters of 2023.

These numbers are like the over 2 million TV customers Comcast lost in 2022 and up from the 1.66 million Comcast lost in 2021.

This is double bad news for Comcast. For years many had predicted the decline of TV subscribers would also see the rise in Internet customers. Instead, we have now seen Internet subscribers drop for Comcast as 5G Home Internet, fiber, and other options start to hit Comcast.

My Streaming Life still includes Comcast Internet (Xfinity). It's good service, and I can't get that quality of service for a better price. I'm sticking with Comcast for Internet, but I am always looking for options. I don't know that I would change unless the price was a lot lower. I know it's cool to hate on Comcast, and I do have some issues with them, but their Internet service has been reliable for me.

Freestream adds DVR

Freestream, the free ad supported television (FAST) service from Sling TV is getting a feature that isn't common for FAST services. Freestream is adding DVR capability.

Sure, many services will include DVR, but those are pay services. Sling TV itself has DVR functionality, but the free channels didn't. Pluto TV doesn't offer DVR. Neither does Tubi. Or any of the big FAST services. But Freestream does.

Well, not for me, but for some others. The fine print explains why:

... Users now have access to 10 hours of free DVR storage, an industry first for FAST services. All new users who create a free account on Sling Freestream will receive DVR storage immediately. No credit card required, ever. The new feature will be fully rolled out to all existing Freestream users within the next several months.

Sling Freestream has grown to more than 500 channels since its launch in February 2023. It is an industry-leading service for free sports television, featuring customer favorites like ESPN On Demand, Comedy Central, LiveNOW, Architectural Digest, and more news and entertainment options. Users can now DVR top shows like The Walking Dead, Love After Lockup, South Park and more. In addition, Freestream also provides 110 international channels in more than 15 languages — making it the largest and only foreign language FAST service in the United States.

I'm in that "next several months" category. If you sign up for Freestream, you'll get it. If, like me, you already had Freestream, then you might have it, or you might not. I don't.

My Streaming Life doesn't include Freestream a lot, as there isn't much exclusive to Freestream. However, I was looking forward to trying out the DVR. Maybe in "the next several months."

Watching the NFL Playoffs: Conference Championships

The NFL playoffs continue today with the Conference Championships. Four teams remain, two in each conference, including the top seeds hosting the games.

The Games

Both games are today, with the winners advancing to the NFL championship, AKA the Super Bowl.

AFC Championship

• Kansas City (3rd seed, AFC West champions) at Baltimore (1st seed, AFC North champions). CBS

NFC Championship

• Detroit (3rd seed, NFC North champions) at San Francisco (1st seed, NFC West champions). Fox

How to watch

The various networks carrying the games are available to streamers in several different ways.

CBS

• Antenna (free)
• Paramount Plus (Premium) $12/month
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Entertainment) ($85/month)

Fox

• Antenna (free)
• Sling TV (18 markets only) ($45/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Entertainment) ($85/month)

My Streaming Life does not often involve professional football, particularly NFL games. But, there is no denying the popularity of the NFL. If you want to watch the games and are a streamer, or if you're thinking about becoming a streamer, maybe this will let you know just what you would need to do to watch the games.

A really big data breach

There was a report this week about a huge data breach. How huge? Well, there are 8-billion people in the world, and there were 26-billion records compromised.

No, not everyone was a victim three times over. Still, the vast number of compromised records indicates that people you trust with your data are not as careful as they should be or could be.

The breach is called the "mother of all breaches" by news outlets:

According to the team, while the leaked dataset contains mostly information from past data breaches, it almost certainly holds new data, that was not published before. For example, the Cybernews data leak checker, which relies on data from all major data leaks, contains information from over 2,500 data breaches with 15 billion records.

The MOAB contains 26 billion records over 3,800 folders, with each folder corresponding to a separate data breach. While this doesn’t mean that the difference between the two automatically translates to previously unpublished data, billions of new records point to a very high probability, the MOAB contains never seen before information.

Researchers believe that the owner of the MOAB has a vested interest in storing large amounts of data and, therefore, could be a malicious actor, data broker, or some service that works with large amounts of data.

So, what can you do? Well, having a secure password is one thing. Having different passwords for each account is another. And having disposable passwords may even be an option.

My data showed up in ten of the records. These are services and data brokers that didn't keep the data safe. I've changed the passwords on the services (see suggestion 1) and already had different passwords for each service (see suggestion 2). Oh, and I use disposable email address for most services.

My Streaming Life is impacted by this breach, as at least one of my streaming services was breached. Data breaches will happen. They are not okay, I'm just being realistic. The steps I take (listed earlier) will make it difficult for someone to do anything with the data.

Walmart drops the Onn Streaming Stick

Just when they finally get it right, Walmart drops the Onn Streaming Stick from their lineup.

Well, kinda. They never really announced it; rather, the device just showed up and was available for purchase in the store, but never online. At least, I never found it available for online purchase. It was listed as in store, just not for purchase unless you went into the store.

Anyway, it's gone. If you find one in the store, it's worth getting. Well, maybe. It's a good little device. But, it's no longer available. Cord Cutters News notice this earlier this week:

The streaming stick comes with 1.5GB of RAM and only streams in HD. It may not be the most powerful device out there, but for it being only HD that is likely more than enough. This is very similar to the Walmart $19.99 Onn Google TV, but that version was released earlier this year. The main difference is the earlier version is in 4K and this new cheaper model is just in HD.

Recently, Walmart raised the price of this stick by a few dollars but now has completely stopped selling the new device, marking it as out of stock, similar to other discontinued Onn products.

Walmart was unavailable for comment before the time of this posting.

My Streaming Life has used the Onn device and I like it. I hate to see it go away.

Netflix ending long-time plan

People who have subscribed to the Netflix Basic plan for $11.99/month will be having to make a choice sometime this year. That plan is being phased out, and subscribers will have to opt for a different plan.

Netflix stopped offering it to new subscribers last summer. For existing subscribers with that plan, anyone who switched to a different plan couldn't switch back to it. But those that had it and simply kept it were okay. That changes beginning later this year, according to a recent shareholder report from Netflix

In their most recent earnings report, the company said it will phase that plan out and force those subscribers to choose a different plan, either the ad-supported plan, or one of the higher priced ad-free plans.

Scaling our ads business represents an opportunity to tap into significant new revenue and profit pools over the medium to longer term. In Q4‘23, like the quarter before, our ads membership increased by nearly 70% quarter over quarter, supported by improvements in our offering (e.g., downloads) and the phasing out of our Basic plan for new and rejoining members in our ads markets. The ads plan now accounts for 40% of all Netflix sign-ups in our ads markets and we’re looking to retire our Basic plan in some of our ads countries, starting with Canada and the UK in Q2 and taking it from there. On the advertiser side, we continue to improve the targeting and measurement we offer our customers.

There is no firm date mentioned, apart from beginning second quarter in Canada and the UK, but it is happening.

My Streaming Life has only recently retuned Netflix to the service rotation, so I haven't had the $12/month Basic ad-free plan available for a while. It's unfortunate that others are losing it, but this is no surprise.