While taking breaks from buying Echo Dots with Baby Yoda stands and rounding up 4K TV deals on Prime Day, we covered news this week about Disney’s restructuring, cable dying more quickly than we realized, and AT&T potentially taking a huge hit in a sale of DirecTV.
Here’s what’s new in the world of cord cutting this week.
Breaking News
Here are some of the top streaming stories from the past week.
A Stormy Forecast for Cable
Analysts are reworking their forecasts for pay TV subscription numbers, now estimating that 25% of households will ditch cable this year.
See what they’re saying about live TV streaming services here.
The House of Mouse is a Streaming Household
Disney is reorganizing and putting more of a focus on its streaming business. With the success of Disney+ and setbacks in other areas of the company as a result of COVID, CEO Bob Chapek says the move will allow the company “to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it.”
Read more about Disney’s reorganization here.
Speaking of Disney…
Disney+ is adding short disclaimers to the beginning of some content, acknowledging that some of its older programming contains “negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures.”
See the messaging added to films like Peter Pan and Dumbo in this post.
If You Want to Binge, You’ve Gotta Pay
Netflix has removed its free trial. Now, if you want to binge watch Ratched, you’ll have to pay for a subscription, starting at $8.99 per month.
Get the details from Netflix here.
Can it Get Any More Ultra?
Philip has been testing out the new Roku Ultra and has a full review of the streaming device including speed tests, comparisons to other Roku devices, and a rundown of the improvements Roku made for the 2020 version.
Read the review here and check out the video on YouTube.
Deal Alert
Save some cash with these current and upcoming deals.
Helping Students Save Money
This week, we shared a roundup of some of the best cord cutting deals for students. Check out the list of discounts on TV, movie, and music service discounts. (Look for discounts for seniors and veterans coming soon.)
Industry Report
What’s the latest on the industry?
What’s Going on with DirecTV?
We’ve known for a while that AT&T is trying to offload DirecTV to bring down the company’s debt. This week, we learned about some “lowball offers” on the satellite service and found out that Dish is not participating in the auction despite plenty of merger talk in the past.