Although the circumstances were not ideal, 2020 was a great year for the cable cut.
Streaming services like Netflix and Disney + have seen their subscribers skyrocket as people look for ways to spend time at home, and the temporary suspension of live sports has accelerated the decline of traditional pay TV packages. Although unrelated to coronavirus, this year introduced two major new streaming services on HBO Max and NBC’s Peacock, and we saw some bold attempts to rethink the streaming device with Google’s new Chromecast and TiVo Stream 4K.
I’ve been writing this weekly column (and newsletter) about cutting the thread at all, so, according to annual tradition, I’d like to end 2020 by recounting my favorite developments of the year. Here are TechHive’s fifth annual cable cutter awards:
Best new streaming hardware: Chromecast with Google TV
Jared Newman / IDGEarlier this year, I wrote that unified TV streaming guides would be one of the biggest cable cutting trends, and no streaming device offers that idea like Chromecast with Google TV.
Instead of making us look at the catalog of each streaming service one by one, the new Chromecast features a unified guide with content from Hulu, Disney +, Amazon Prime, HBO Max and more. And instead of diverting this guide to a separate menu, Google has made it the focal point of its entire interface. You can still launch individual apps on the new Chromecast, but doing so would miss the point.
Having a panoramic view of all of your streaming services is a revelation, leading to movies and programs you might have missed and helping you get more value from your subscriptions as a result. It should be the model to be followed by other streaming devices, even if the recently reduced level of integration with Netflix is a drag.
Finalist: TiVo Stream 4K, whose approach to aggregation is similar, even if its execution is a little less polished.
Latest device update: Amazon Fire TV Stick
Jared Newman / IDGAmazon likes to point out that the Fire TV Stick is its best-selling streaming device, which may explain why the company waited four years to give it more processing power. With the new $ 40 Fire TV Stick, users no longer have to suffer from excessively long load times and jerky menus. The Fire TV Stick 4K is still the best buy for $ 10 more, but the standard Stick is a good alternative for people who won’t buy a 4K TV anytime soon. (Just be sure to avoid the cheaper “Lite” version and its less functional remote.)
Best new TV streaming feature: AirPlay for Roku
Jared Newman / IDGIt’s rare for a single feature to drastically alter a streaming device’s value proposition, but that’s what happened when Roku added Apple AirPlay support for his 4K streaming players. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can use AirPlay to launch videos and music from your phone, connect your TV to an AirPlay audio setup in various environments, mirror your iPhone or Mac on the big screen, or ask Siri to control your TV . AirPlay even provided an alternative solution for watching HBO Max on Roku before the official app was made available.
Although several smart TV platforms also support AirPlay, Roku players are now the cheapest way to add AirPlay to an existing television, with prices starting at $ 40 for the Roku Premiere. This is better than spending $ 180 on an old Apple TV 4K.
Best new streaming service: Peacock
Jared Newman / IDGThat was a difficult decision, as HBO Max was also launched this year, but Peacock receives approval for being more in tune with the current state of cable cutting. Instead of trying to get traction with yet another expensive streaming service, NBCUniversal made 13,000 hours of movies and programs available for free. An optional $ 5 per month subscription adds more content, while a $ 10 per month level makes Peacock ad-free. Peacock also explores our analysis paralysis with a series of linear “channels”, offering stable flows of Saturday Night Live skits, Premier League highlights, NBC news and more.
HBO Max is not a bad service in comparison – HBO originals alone are arguably better than any of Peacock’s offerings – but it needs more and better content to become the Netflix rival it aspires to be. (Releases on the day and next year’s date may help.)
Dishonorable mention: Quibi, the short-form video service, richly funded and much vaunted, which exploded after just six months.
Most improved streaming service: Locast
Jared Newman / IDGWhile most streaming services improve with the addition of more content or new features, Locast has improved simply by making it available in more places. The nonprofit service broadcasts wireless channels for free (although a $ 5 per month donation is required for uninterrupted viewing), allowing cable cutters to access local broadcasts without an antenna or an expensive pay-TV package. This year, Locast was launched in more than a dozen new markets and now covers almost half the population of the United States.
It is not yet known whether Locast will survive being processed by TV networks, but the service is now a sustainable operation thanks to donations from viewers, showing how much demand exists for accessible access to local channels.
Runner-up: CBS All Access, which added more content, improved its apps and added new features, such as child profile support before next year’s brand change to Paramount +.
Best new use of an over-the-air antenna: HDHomeRun Connect 4K
SiliconDust2020 was a sleepy year for antenna-related products, perhaps because the industry is waiting to see what the next generation ATSC 3.0 transmission standard will bring, but SiliconDust has not bothered to wait. In September, he started shipping HDHomeRun Connect 4K, becoming the first company to offer an ATSC 3.0 tuner box for the mass market. Theoretically, it can receive 4K HDR streams and play over-the-air content on demand.
I say “theoretically” because ATSC 3.0 is still in the experimental phase, and the current ATSC 1.0 standard is not going away anytime soon. But for $ 200, Connect 4K costs just $ 50 more than the ATSC 1.0 version, which will eventually become obsolete if the new standard is widely adopted. That’s not much to ask for peace of mind if you’re trying to build a future-proof wireless DVR setup.
Best streaming service that didn’t raise prices: Amazon Prime
AmazonGiven the number of people who have relied on Amazon Prime to deliver staple foods this year, Amazon probably would have gotten away with raising the price of its service. (Or, if you believe an antitrust settlement is coming, you may not.)
In any case, $ 120 a year remains a perfectly reasonable price for Prime’s two-day shipping and other varied advantages, one of which becomes an increasingly competent video streaming service. Even if you only used the video component to watch The boys, you are probably still worth your money.
The most amazing hug from the cable cut: T-Mobile
Mobile teeWhen it launched in November, T-Mobile’s TVision service seemed like a refreshing new approach to streaming live TV. Instead of selling a huge package, T-Mobile offered two options: a $ 10 a month package called “Vibe” focused on entertainment, while a $ 40 or more package called “Live” offered local channels, news and sports .
The real surprise, however, was the way T-Mobile apparently created these packages. Shortly after the launch, TV networks began to complain that T-Mobile deceived them and led them to split their channels through contract tricks. They are now trying to convince T-Mobile to put it all back together.
So far, the operator has partially agreed, adding Vibe channels to its most expensive Live package and eating the cost (for now). But even if T-Mobile’s attempt to separate the TV package doesn’t last, it deserves credit for trying – and for exposing who is really to blame for the bloated packages.
In memoriam: PlayStation Vue
SonyJanuary 2020 already seems like an eternity, but that’s when we lost PlayStation Vue, a live TV streaming service that was ahead of its time. Vue was one of the first to adopt 60 frames per second voice and video control, offered a wide range of sports channels that its competitors lacked and was the first to support split-screen channels on Apple TV (a feature that only Fubo TV now offers). It has also obtained excellent consumer satisfaction scores and industry praise for its reliability.
So why did it fail? The PlayStation brand probably didn’t help a service that was in fact widely available on major streaming platforms, but Vue was also constantly hampered by competitors with money to burn, and live TV has always been a bad choice for Sony, which ended up abandoning it to improve its focus on games. Its end was a serious reminder that quality alone does not always win.
Cable cut MVP: DVR channels
FancyBitsIn a recent column, I wrote about the Channels DVR service and how the goal of developer Fancy Bits is to build a DVR for everything. The concept is one that I must have discarded several years ago, when I assumed that DVRs would become obsolete in the era of streaming on demand.
Since then, I’ve heard from countless readers who are looking for exactly what Fancy Bits aspires to create. They don’t want a mix of different apps, each with their own interfaces and different rules about how long you can watch your content. They just want a simple DVR-style menu for all their favorite movies and shows, with everything permanently available to watch anytime, online or offline.
Creating that kind of experience is hard work, and Channels DVR is not there yet – on the one hand, you need some technology knowledge just to set it up – but the service has taken big steps in the right direction with features like Locast support, Integration of TV Everywhere channels and the ability to import video files from external sources.
In a way, he’s trying to achieve the same goal of aggregating Chromecast with Google TV, but in a totally different direction, and it’s exciting to watch.
Thanks for joining me in another year of cable cutting development! To stay on top of everything in 2021, check out my Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter, which includes a link to this column and more every Friday morning.