Cord Cutters
- Thread starter Wolf
- Start date
Amazon Lays Off ‘Several Hundred’ Staffers at Prime Video and MGM
Amazon has laid off "several hundred" staffers at Prime Video and MGM Studios, Mike Hopkins informed employees on Wednesday.
www.indiewire.com
Replaced by AI?Amazon Lays Off ‘Several Hundred’ Staffers at Prime Video and MGM
Amazon has laid off "several hundred" staffers at Prime Video and MGM Studios, Mike Hopkins informed employees on Wednesday.
I just cancelled our DirecTV Stream service. I liked it just fine, but I'm just as happy w/Hulu Live TV for $35-ish less a month. I actually save more than that, because I don't have to shell out $$$ for the Disney bundle every month anymore ( it's included w/Hulu Live TV ).
The only problem is that at this point, I don't have a way to watch my Royals games. Amazon just bailed out Bally Sports & in theory will get the streaming rights to the Royals. If that happens, either they'll be included in Prime Video ( which I already have ) or as an additional product ( which is what I'm assuming will happen ). Even if I have to pay extra for that it should still be cheaper than what DirecTV Stream costs.
I had to make a decision because my DirecTV account would "un-pause" in a few days & I'd start being charged again ( I paused it 3 months ago to give Hulu a shot ). Worst case scenario, I can always resubscribe to them if there ends up being no other way to get my games.
The only problem is that at this point, I don't have a way to watch my Royals games. Amazon just bailed out Bally Sports & in theory will get the streaming rights to the Royals. If that happens, either they'll be included in Prime Video ( which I already have ) or as an additional product ( which is what I'm assuming will happen ). Even if I have to pay extra for that it should still be cheaper than what DirecTV Stream costs.
I had to make a decision because my DirecTV account would "un-pause" in a few days & I'd start being charged again ( I paused it 3 months ago to give Hulu a shot ). Worst case scenario, I can always resubscribe to them if there ends up being no other way to get my games.
The whole Royals/Amazon streaming deal hasn't been ironed out yet, so I ended up ponying up for the Bally Sports App Season Pass so I could watch games. $106 for the baseball regular season, which ends up being about 17 bucks a month. If you read the post directly above this one, you would see that it's still cheaper than paying for DirecTV Stream. The Bally Sports app catches a lotta grief - it's known as a pretty janky way to watch games. But so far I've had zero issues with it, so I dunno what I'm doing right. I only watch via the app on my Roku TV, & maybe other people are watching on their phones or something. Or maybe they just got their shit together after last season. ( shrugs ) Either way, so far so good.
It just occurred to me that this thread is named incorrectly. Although "cord-cutters" is what they call people who've gotten rid of subscription cable TV with a box, the only people who are truly cutting the cords are those using either satellite dishes (pretty rare now) or cell service as a Wi-Fi hotspot. The rest of us are still relying on cords to provide the internet service, so we can ditch the cable TV providers and use a streaming service.
With that said, I've just seen that our suburban, spread-out town of York has been wired with Fidium fiber optic cable. They just did our street. At present, those of us who don't use a dish or can't get a good cell signal, are still relying on Spectrum coax cable for internet, and then we're either streaming or using the Spectrum cable TV service. Soon, we'll be able to get fiber optic internet service, which I'd imagine would be pretty fast. I'm at about 370 Mbps now, but faster and cheaper (or at least some competition) would be good.
With that said, I've just seen that our suburban, spread-out town of York has been wired with Fidium fiber optic cable. They just did our street. At present, those of us who don't use a dish or can't get a good cell signal, are still relying on Spectrum coax cable for internet, and then we're either streaming or using the Spectrum cable TV service. Soon, we'll be able to get fiber optic internet service, which I'd imagine would be pretty fast. I'm at about 370 Mbps now, but faster and cheaper (or at least some competition) would be good.
I think we've had this since 2017 and it has changed our lives for the better.
According to their site, I'll be able to get 300 Mbps service for $75/month. Well, $65/month, plus $10/month for the Wi-Fi router (I guess you could just buy a router and save on the monthly charge). Or for $85/month, I get 1 Gbps, with the router included. That sounds like the way to go, as we're paying $85 now, including the router fee.
We have a new fiber optic provider in town but so far all they've done is tear up every one's back yard with their digging
Fidium installers stopped by our house yesterday. We're scheduled to get wired-up a week from today. They will run it to our pole and then through the underground conduit to the house. Installation is free, so we only pay for however many days we get service, in case we want to cancel in the first 30 days. It will be discounted to $65/mo. for the 1st year for 1 Gbps, then $85 after. We're paying $89/mo. now (it went up again) for 300 Mbps, so this should be a step in the right direction.
While I've rarely had issues with Spectrum service, they are generally hated in town. For one, they've had a monopoly on high-speed internet and cable TV for years. Their cable TV service is up to $300/mo. now (with internet). And in many parts of town, the service runs through old, unreliable wiring. Also, their customer service sucks, just like Comcast does.
I suspect that when this is all done, the only remaining Spectrum customers will be the ones who want it for cable TV (those who don't want to stream). You know, people like me - until recently.
My in-laws just over the state line from you have Breezline (formerly Metrocast). I got a text a few days ago from my MIL:
"What is the quickest/easiest way to change all of the Metrocast emails. The bill this month.... $316!!"
For years I've tried to get my FIL to just stream the same 50 movies he watches all day and night (the Fast & Furious ones, the Star Wars ones, the Harry Potter ones, and action films like John Wick/Mission Impossible/etc) instead of doing it how he always has: scan the cable guide for 10 minutes and settle on an action movie that's already 1/2 over (I've seen the end of so many action films, but not many beginnings). But that $316/mo price tag may finally be getting him to consider a different method than what he's been doing for 30 years.