On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) look at the last-minute deal that brought ESPN back to Spectrum cable customers just in time for Monday Night Football. Is this deal a game-changer, or simply a delay of the inevitable diminishment of cable TV? Then the gang reviews You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, the latest production from Adam Sandler’s shingle featuring not only Adam but also two of his daughters. Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ for the bonus episode on Friday; we’re going deep on the ways in which digital piracy can be used as a preservation tool instead of simply a means of theft.
Many thanks to Jonathan Siri for producing this, and every other, episode of the show. If you enjoyed it, make sure to send it to a friend!
Thank you for the explanation and importance of a Bar and Baht Mitzvah. I went to a handful of these (parties) as a 13 year old but didn’t understand the significance.
Unless internet is free, cheap streaming doesn't exist.
During this latest game of screw the customer and I did do some shopping around and found that to be almost as tedious as the blackout. My situation might be a little different in that my internet provider choices are limited, Charter/Spectrum is the best choice and subsequent TV bundle package was best choice. Probably not so going forward. I like Sarah watch very few of the many channels that I get. Would it be too much to ask to choose to pay a small monthly fee for the
ability to pick your package? Or as Sonny proposed a smaller basic bundle with the ability to add channels. As always I enjoyed the show.
This is in fact the best show
In my podcast feed. Alyssa, Peter and Sonny inform and entertain me every episode. If you are at ll interested in the world of entertainment this podcast will never let you down. Even when the subject matter may have made me want to delete the episode without listening I found the time spent listening well worth the effort.
aw, thank you
I'm paying a lot of money for a few hundred cable channels I don't watch. I can't find anything in the channel guide. We have a Netflix account that we haven't used in years. I can't be bothered to figure out all the streaming services.
BUT -- Ask anyone (hi there!) who has the Xfinity streaming app how they enjoyed the first NFL games on Sunday. Go ahead, ask. Fortunately for us, we have some TVs that aren't compatible with the app, so we have to pay extra for cable boxes -- and we ACTUALLY HAD SERVICE on Sunday.
So I'm not sold on streaming any more than I am sold on cable. They're all terrible as far as I can tell.
(There was a massive Xfinity streaming outage for the early NFL game.)
It was this plus the combo of the Hulu deal parameters that have effectively killed the cheap streaming era going fwd.
Streaming DTC as your sole channel is wholly unnecessary and just not cost effective.
Did you notice that Disney announced a 100 disc Blu Ray collection of their entire animated film library the day before? The fact that they are now offering a physical media version of content that is already available to D+ subscribers shows just how little revenue they were generating by keeping all that content on D+.
That's a specific set for specific audience (who won't balk at the price). They won't sell that many. Most people are going to streaming and physical media will become an expensive niche market.
Wrong. Streaming doesn't pay the bills. Streaming subscribers were conned into a predatory loss leading model when there was no justification whatsoever for a discount for viewing broadcast tv/cable/theatrical productions via a 3rd party service.
TLDR: Streaming consumers were tricked into an unsustainable low price that is now bankrupting the content providers. Whether you get the cable bundle via a trad cable line box or a wireless box from your provider, cheap streaming a la carte is thankfully going away.