Last weekend the Seattle Times came out with a cord cutting story about the pros and cons of cord cutting. Yet, sadly, they got many things just plain wrong. It looks like the information from the post was at least a few years old.
So let’s break down the Seattle Times story and hopefully help the author on his cord cutting journey.
Roku, Fire TV, and Apple TV Are Devices Not Services
One of the main complaints Paul, the author of the story, had was that he was unable to get MSNBC with his streaming services. In his list of streaming services he included Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV.
These are devices not streaming services. If he had looked at streaming services he would have found that six different streaming services offer MSNBC streamed live, including Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, DIRECTV NOW, YouTube TV, and Hulu.
Even more strangely later on in the story he said he picked YouTube TV as his live TV streaming service. YouTube TV offers MSNBC…
YouTube TV
In the story Paul said he picked YouTube TV as his live TV streaming service. Yet he says that while Roku has a YouTube TV app you need to use Air Play to watch YouTube TV on your Apple TV. This is just not correct. Roku and the Apple TV both gained a dedicated YouTube TV app on the same day.
Yes the Apple TV supports YouTube TV casting (so do Roku players) but both players also offer a dedicated app. No need to cast a video from your phone.
Cord Cutting Costs More…
In a strange move Paul adds a bit at the end about cord cutting costing more. Yet earlier in the story he said “Overall, I’m happy. The cheaper bill and pluses of streaming outweigh its ‘bleeding-edge’ annoyances.”
Even more strangely Paul said that when he paid $120 for cable and internet he only received 45 channels; however, YouTube TV offers over 50 channels. So according to Paul he is paying less and getting more content.
At the end of the story Paul said, “Ultimately streaming may wind up costing the same as, or even more than, old-timey cable. Cord-cutters may end up wanting to solder that cable back together.”
This is an argument I hear many media make yet there is no evidence to support it. With cable TV prices rising year after year and sometimes new fees and price hikes happening multiple times a year there is nothing to suggest that suddenly cable TV will stop increasing in cost.
According to Credit.com, cable costs are up four times more than inflation. Yet many are pointing to a $1 Netflix price hike and a $5 YouTube TV price hike as some signs that cable TV will suddenly become cheaper than cord cutting.
Anything is possible (heck you may win the lottery tomorrow) but as far as I can tell there is no evidence that suddenly cable TV will stop increasing their price and cord cutting costs will skyrocket.
What I do know is cord cutting comes with no contracts and if they do decide to skyrocket the cost there are 10 other streaming services that would love to have you as a customer. Something that won’t happen with cable TV.
Conclusion
Paul Andrews seems to have used some dated information in his post. He also seems to be focused on the streaming player as the services instead of just a device to get the services you want. I would be happy to jump on the phone with Paul and help him become a cord cutter.
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