My old bill with DirecTV when you factored in the taxes, surcharges, fees, extra receivers, etc was around $220 a month (HD, DVR, 2x TV, Choice package I think)TXAGBQ76 said:
The old saying "be careful what you ask for, because you might get it" may be coming true. Many people (myself included) have been moaning about having to pay for crap they never watch. Now, with many of the major providers like Disney/Hulu, ATT, Viacom, Apple, Sony etc. pulling all of their content back in house their streaming services, it could get very interesting. You might need to have multiple streaming services at ever increasing prices to get everything you actually do watch. Like cable and satellite, they all gave great introductory prices and then began to creep them up.
Also, there is a lot of talk in the industry about new players getting into the sports business. Companies like YouTube, Apple, Amazon, etc. have all said they are looking at bidding on some of the conferences packages, as well as the major pro sports. IF that happens, now you will have to subscribe to multiple streaming services to get all of the sports you like.
My belief is that at the end of the day, at some point your ala carte package of the things you like could reach cable/ sat tv pricing. They know many, many people are already willing to pay those prices, so why will they leave money on the table long term.
I had Internet as well, paying that regardless. That's $76/month. So, I was around $296/month.
My Internet is the same, $76/month.
I pay (now) $53/month for DirecTV Now (grandfathered plan with HBO)
I pay $12.95 for Hulu (limited commercials)
I don't pay for Netflix, but have it free of charge through T-Mobile
I don't pay for MLB all access, also free of charge through T-Mobile
I pay $6.48/month for the CBS streaming account.
I pay $119/year for Amazon Prime
So, I pay around $82.50 per month for service equivalent to what I had with DirecTV.
So, I've got another $137.50 or so until I hit the same price barrier.
Now, I did do upfront work do get a few things.
1) I have a Plex system onto which I've ripped all of my DVDs, BluRays and CDs and such. Had that before, so I don't count that, but if you did a good off the shelf QNAP or Synology will run about $500-800.
I added a Plex Pass (on sale, lifetime pass for $89) and an HDHomeRun Dual (was $85; new version is $70) and an interior antenna for OTA ($15).
Now, my Plex system can record and cut the commercials directly out of OTA recordings, which get stored on my NAS which is running my Plex system. They're fully integrated and work just as any other media on Plex. Seasons and shows can be setup to record new only, new and reruns, limited to certain channels, etc.
2) I bought a software called PlayOn TV which allowed me to record live streams and OnDemand shows and movies from Netflix, Hulu, DirecTV Now, Amazon Prime, Vudu, CBS, Fox, etc. Basically, it uses a desktop computer, streams the show just as if you were sitting there, but records the video and audio. Saves it into a standard format and filename, which I have dumped into Plex as well. It has the ability to record shows and seasons, similar to how a conventional DVR works. This and the PlexPass+Live TV/DVR above made up for the horrible joke that is DirecTV Now's DVR. This software was also $69 during a sale and is a lifetime updated software)
So, around another $260 in upgrades to my existing Plex system allowed it to do a LOT more.
In addition, if I see a show or movie I like on the various streaming services, I record it and don't have to worry about it leaving the service again. That's been wonderful for a few shows I liked, but never really caught on, and aren't available on streaming, purchase or anything that I can find anywhere anymore.
One thing I do like about the streaming service availability is even if you did have ALL of the services, you don't have any contracts, so when you've seen what you want out of a service, cancel it with no further costs and do something else. Binge the site-specific show, then cancel. HBO's about to feel that one...
Edit: Hardware for the TVs. I have two main TVs that I care about. Same as with DTV. When I signed up with DTVN I did the "three months of service up front and we send you an AppleTV", so that $105 then was less than the price of the AppleTV normally, and we had the service paid for. I had a Roku on the second TV at the time (Roku 3, and then a beta test device from Roku). When they did the same thing for the AppleTV 4K, we did that under a second account and closed out the account immediately. So, for three months we "double payed" DirecTV Now, but in reality we bought an AppleTV 4K for about $105.
