{"id":12142,"date":"2023-10-28T20:27:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T00:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/?p=12142"},"modified":"2023-10-28T20:27:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T00:27:37","slug":"technology-auditing-my-video-streaming-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2023\/10\/28\/technology-auditing-my-video-streaming-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology: Auditing my video streaming costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:542,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/youtube.com\\\/feed\\\/subscriptions&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/youtube.com\\\/feed\\\/subscriptions&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>I read a lot of internet posts about the rising cost of streaming but there are ways to mitigate these costs and maybe I\u2019m just not paying close enough attention to my credit card statement. The one thing I see people say is just sign up for one service at a time, watch the thing you want to watch then cancel before it renews in a month. This churning is quite popular on the secondary services like Paramount, Peacock, Max and Hulu. I don\u2019t do this not because I\u2019m made of money but because IP owners move titles around between services based on who\u2019s paying them the most per x amount of plays. Almost every service has a \u201cleaving soon\u201d category. This really wasn\u2019t a thing except in theaters because Blockbuster and my own shelf of DVDs have movies forever but we no longer live in that world. Honestly, I have titles that were purchased on iTunes\u2019 Video Store since 2005 (Office Season 1 comes to mind) that I can still watch on AppleTV many years later. I\u2019m thrilled that most of these have all be unconverted to 1080P or 4K instead of their original 320&#215;240 resolution (which is what the iPod Video was speced for 18 years ago). Also, services like Movies Anywhere bridge the gap allowing you to have a library that transcends any single service. This is a good idea and I\u2019m glad the service has lasted so long.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I digress though, we\u2019re getting off topic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Streaming costs. I subscribe to the following services all in their ad-free flavors except two which I have no choice but to view ads:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Netflix &#8211; $22.99<\/li>\n<li>AppleTV+ &#8211; $9.99<\/li>\n<li>Max &#8211; $16.66 (billed at $200 annually)<\/li>\n<li>Peacock &#8211; $11.99<\/li>\n<li>Paramount+ &#8211; $5.99<\/li>\n<li>NFL &#8211; $6.99<\/li>\n<li>Legacy Disney Bundle (ESPN, Hulu, Disney+) &#8211; $18.99<\/li>\n<li>Sling Orange + Blue &#8211; $55<\/li>\n<li>YouTube Premium &#8211; $14<\/li>\n<li>Prime &#8211; $11.58 (billed at $139 annually)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019ve listed today\u2019s published costs of what these services cost if you were to sign up for each one individually.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If I were paying for these streaming services every single month, the total cost is $175.49 or $2100 a year. This is more than any cable package I\u2019ve ever had.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In truth, I\u2019m spending $104 a month. Still not great and that price will go down soon. Once football is over, I\u2019ll be cancelling Sling at $55 a month. I only signed up to watch MLB + NFL + NCAA sports for Fall. Additionally, HBO Max annual subscribers were grandfathered into an extra year at $149 after the transition to Max but after 6 months, they drop those subscribers from 4K to 1080P retaining the ad-free features. I\u2019ve disabled auto-renew because I refuse to watch 1080P content and I don\u2019t see Max as worth $199 a year ($17 a month). NFL will also go away.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here are the services I\u2019m not paying for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Netflix<\/strong> ($22.99 &#8211; Included with Verizon for the rest of 2023)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Peacock<\/strong> ($11.99 &#8211; Using my Amex Platinum streaming credit to get this for free)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Paramount+<\/strong> ($5.99 &#8211; Included with Walmart+ as a perk from Amex)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Disney Bundle<\/strong> ($18.99 &#8211; Verizon includes this for free and I pay $5 a month on Hulu to make that service ad-free which Amex reimburses)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prime<\/strong> ($11.58 &#8211; I should include this but here\u2019s the thing, I don\u2019t use Prime\u2019s video service at all. I never open the app or watch anything there. I find their interface frustrating because you see a film worth watching and it\u2019s not included and instead you have to rent or buy it. I use Amazon Prime for free shipping, a service I debate cancelling every single year despite being Prime since 2005 when it was $49)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Come January, we\u2019ll be dropping Netflix, Sling, NFL and Max won\u2019t renew in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Left over will be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>AppleTV+<\/li>\n<li>Peacock<\/li>\n<li>Paramount+<\/li>\n<li>Legacy Disney Bundle<\/li>\n<li>YouTube Premium<\/li>\n<li>Prime<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is completely sufficient for non-sports content and out of pocket monthly will be more like $33.66.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>AppleTV+ is another hard one because I subscribe to AppleOne and I do so for other benefits like Apple Music and Arcade. TV+ feels like a bonus. And then there\u2019s YouTube Premium. I subscribe because I don\u2019t want to see ads and have been subscribed for 5 years or more but back then it was $9.99. My YouTube usage has decreased significantly. These days I visit <a href=\"http:\/\/youtube.com\/feed\/subscriptions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/youtube.com\/feed\/subscriptions<\/a> directly and I watch the 10 videos per week that channels I subscribe to upload. I\u2019ve also deeply unsubscribed to channels who have ads as a part of their video. When there is a message about a product placement or a break in the video to sponsor a mobile video game, I immediately stop watching the video and unsubscribe from the channel and never go back. This means that essentially my YouTube Premium $14.99 saves me roughly 40 minutes per month of advertisements that run during YouTube videos of the small handful of channels I still subscribe. But I don\u2019t search\/browse\/explore YouTube anymore. \u00a0I find the content irrelevant and too much click-bait and low-quality inflammatory for my liking. I have been thinking more and more about cancelling premium and using a router-level DNS ad-blocker on my Synology in Docker to block ads.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ah, one thing I forgot to mention, I only watch streaming content on my 4K TV with AppleTV. None of these streaming providers\u2019 apps are installed on my devices other than AppleTV. Watching video on a 4-11\u201d screen seems ridiculous. I\u2019m an adult who owns a television which is why YouTube content being low quality or any streaming services degrading their resolution to 1080P means they\u2019re on my list for cancellation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>I want to look at this list every year but as for the free stuff I\u2019m not having to pay for, I do enjoy Peacock, Paramount, Hulu, Disney, ESPN but the I may hop into these only occasionally. As for just renting movies I want to see than spending hours hunting for something on of of these streaming services? That\u2019s an option that I\u2019ve considered but my wife and I consume content differently. She\u2019s a daily auto-play \/ binge person who just likes having something playing on TV while she\u2019s working or around the house. I don\u2019t consume content that way. The TV is off until I\u2019m ready to watch a movie.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I will say that you should look at your premium credit cards and look for streaming credits and also check your wireless telephone provider\u2019s perks because you might have something free you didn\u2019t know about.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I read a lot of internet posts about the rising cost of streaming but there are ways to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-technology","7":"cs-entry","8":"cs-video-wrap"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-39Q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5051,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/09\/18\/technology-ive-cancelled-my-apple-music-subscription-living-in-the-future-is-rough\/","url_meta":{"origin":12142,"position":0},"title":"Technology: I&#8217;ve cancelled my Apple Music Subscription + Living in the future is rough","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Apple\u2019s 3 Month Music subscription will end soon and I\u2019ve decided to cancel. 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