[Steveknj]

Not. OTT is generally "skinny" packages. On DirecTV Stream the top package is less channels then on my lowly Preferred Xtra. The comparable priced package is 105 channels vs. 220+ on sat. Also, nobody streams CW and some don't have some other channels like PBS.

I have DirecTV (obviously) [legal / paid, but on steep discounts through the loyalty program]. I also get several streaming OTT & VOD services for free through work [all legal -- except for Netflix which is a family password share lol which may go away next year].

So technically I could drop my DirecTV and pay nothing every month since it's covered by all the other free services.

Even without the nuisance of having to pay for "9 streaming services", I still favor DirecTV and keep it. Muscle memory on the channels & shows I watch + full unified interface under one roof + OTA, etc.

Also, not really worth it to keep any of the services with so called "exclusive content" year round. Last show I legit watched on Netflix was Man vs. Bee and I finished that in a day. Only used Amazon Prime recently to watch a movie. Haven't used it in years other wise. Nothing on there.

While I agree and technically you are correct, most people who subscribe to OTT packages do so as a replacement for cable/sat. So while they may not have all the channels they had previously, they have enough to satisfy their situation (i.e. they made the conscious choice that they could "do without" certain channels to save money). Heck not every Dish or cable system has ALL the channels either (DirecTV is famously missing some HBO channels, DISH is sorely lacking in RSNs for example).

Subbing to DirecTV is your personal decision, and since you get discounts and incentives (which not everyone can or will get) it's worth it to you. If those went away would it still be worth the cost? Only you can determine that. I had DirecTV Stream, and because of the need for CW in my house (my kids watch all the DC stuff), we went back to Satellite. But if the rumors around the CW come to fruition (i.e. they jettison all of their scripted stuff), then it's just not so important for me and I'll probably switch back and save some money (I'm under contract for a bit longer so I'm kind of stuck). We'll see how it goes and what is worth it at that point in time.

 

[b4pjoe]

Not. OTT is generally "skinny" packages. On DirecTV Stream the top package is less channels then on my lowly Preferred Xtra. The comparable priced package is 105 channels vs. 220+ on sat.

Do some research and tell us how many of the channels that are not on Stream but are on sat that you watch.

 

[SledgeHammer]

While I agree and technically you are correct, most people who subscribe to OTT packages do so as a replacement for cable/sat. So while they may not have all the channels they had previously, they have enough to satisfy their situation (i.e. they made the conscious choice that they could "do without" certain channels to save money). Heck not every Dish or cable system has ALL the channels either (DirecTV is famously missing some HBO channels, DISH is sorely lacking in RSNs for example).

Subbing to DirecTV is your personal decision, and since you get discounts and incentives (which not everyone can or will get) it's worth it to you. If those went away would it still be worth the cost? Only you can determine that. I had DirecTV Stream, and because of the need for CW in my house (my kids watch all the DC stuff), we went back to Satellite. But if the rumors around the CW come to fruition (i.e. they jettison all of their scripted stuff), then it's just not so important for me and I'll probably switch back and save some money (I'm under contract for a bit longer so I'm kind of stuck). We'll see how it goes and what is worth it at that point in time.

I couldn't possibly care less about sports lol. CW I only watch Penn & Teller and Whose Line, my life wouldn't be over if those went away.

If DirecTV stopped giving me promos, and I had to pay full price of like $140ish would I keep it? Hmm... well, depends... if I needed to pay an extra $50/mo to get rid of my Cox data cap to go full streaming, it would be a wash.

 

[CraigerM]

DTV Stream doesn't include the infomerical and shopping channels. Aren't those part of the 220 channels?

 

[SledgeHammer]

Do some research and tell us how many of the channels that are not on Stream but are on sat that you watch.

I thought I did lol. CW and the PBS I watch. A lot of the channels I do watch, I'd have to go to at LEAST Choice+ on Stream, and Oxygen is only on Ultimate for Stream and some of the OTA sub channels I watch aren't on anything but OTA.

Still, even if I could get away with Choice+, it's $89.99/mo + taxes (does that include the RSN fee?). I only pay $91.30/mo OUT THE DOOR on Preferred Xtra + AM21 on sat. So why would I switch? It would raise my bill by a buck or two. If I had to raise my data cap, I'd be in the hole for another $50/mo.

Like we always say, the math is person specific... saying everybody will save money on streaming just isn't true.

 

[SledgeHammer]

DTV Stream doesn't include the infomerical and shopping channels. Aren't those part of the 220 channels?

Yeah & some other junk channels too. Still, as I said in my previous post, even if I could get away with Choice+ on Stream, I'm still paying less then that on Preferred Xtra lol.

 

[b4pjoe]

DTV Stream doesn't include the infomerical and shopping channels. Aren't those part of the 220 channels?

Yes and the Music channels.

 

[b4pjoe]

I thought I did lol. CW and the PBS I watch. A lot of the channels I do watch, I'd have to go to at LEAST Choice+ on Stream, and Oxygen is only on Ultimate for Stream and some of the OTA sub channels I watch aren't on anything but OTA.

Still, even if I could get away with Choice+, it's $89.99/mo + taxes (does that include the RSN fee?). I only pay $91.30/mo OUT THE DOOR on Preferred Xtra + AM21 on sat. So why would I switch? It would raise my bill by a buck or two. If I had to raise my data cap, I'd be in the hole for another $50/mo.

Like we always say, the math is person specific... saying everybody will save money on streaming just isn't true.

CW you don't get but you do get CW OnDemand I believe. PBS is listed as a channel for my zip code too. And hey I am not trying to get you to switch. Just the channel differences you always bring up is that 99% of them are junk channels.

 

[Steveknj]

I couldn't possibly care less about sports lol. CW I only watch Penn & Teller and Whose Line, my life wouldn't be over if those went away.

If DirecTV stopped giving me promos, and I had to pay full price of like $140ish would I keep it? Hmm... well, depends... if I needed to pay an extra $50/mo to get rid of my Cox data cap to go full streaming, it would be a wash.

But again, that's YOUR situation, everyone is different. So either way OTT services the "traditional cable" purpose for most people not named SledgeHammer. Stream was the only OTT that had both RSNs I watch (and sports IS important to me). As for CW, when we had stream, we also had Locast, so we were able to watch the CW that way. When Locast bit the dust, we tried cable (which sucked) and an antenna in our attic (which was iffy bringing in signals), so we went back. Now it's costing us a LOT of money for TV, so as soon as this contract is over, I'm back in the market and will consider streaming again (we have a LOT of TVs that need a DirecTV box, perhaps this new streaming app that's on ATV that will stream most stations could be a solution for TVs we don't use that much, we'll see).

 

[harsh]

You still will have to pay for the content you want.

But as DIRECTV is currently being brutally educated, there is a point where people will relent on what they want.

 

[SledgeHammer]

CW you don't get but you do get CW OnDemand I believe. PBS is listed as a channel for my zip code too. And hey I am not trying to get you to switch. Just the channel differences you always bring up is that 99% of them are junk channels.

Yeah, but my point is that I'd pay MORE for not having the junk channels and losing CW lol. So again, not everybody saves money by switching to streaming, its very case specific. The only blanket statement you can make is that if you have a lot of TVs, you'll save money. Low TV count is more like "it depends".

 

[SledgeHammer]

But again, that's YOUR situation, everyone is different. So either way OTT services the "traditional cable" purpose for most people not named SledgeHammer. Stream was the only OTT that had both RSNs I watch (and sports IS important to me). As for CW, when we had stream, we also had Locast, so we were able to watch the CW that way. When Locast bit the dust, we tried cable (which sucked) and an antenna in our attic (which was iffy bringing in signals), so we went back. Now it's costing us a LOT of money for TV, so as soon as this contract is over, I'm back in the market and will consider streaming again (we have a LOT of TVs that need a DirecTV box, perhaps this new streaming app that's on ATV that will stream most stations could be a solution for TVs we don't use that much, we'll see).

Didn't you try streaming and didn't like it? If you have a lot of TVs then a per outlet service probably isn't for you.

How many TVs do you have? And do you watch all of them at once? If you don't watch all of them at once and are just one of those people who wants a TV in the bathroom, kitchen, garage, etc. then your other option is to "get creative" with your wiring so you can share boxes among TVs.

 

[b4pjoe]

Yeah, but my point is that I'd pay MORE for not having the junk channels and losing CW lol. So again, not everybody saves money by switching to streaming, its very case specific. The only blanket statement you can make is that if you have a lot of TVs, you'll save money. Low TV count is more like "it depends".

I never said that YOU would save money by switching. I never said that YOU should switch to streaming. Just that your reasons have flaws in them for many people. As long as you get your discounts you should keep DirecTV satellite. If your discounts go away you could save money on a TV package but no you won't find any with the exact same channels you get now. But you would probably lose that money either with paying for unlimited data or paying the extra charge if you go over your limit. In your case with the channels you want and the discounts you get and your limited internet and the fact you only have 1 TV you should stick with what you have. That isn't the case for everyone though.

 

[SledgeHammer]

I never said that YOU would save money by switching. I never said that YOU should switch to streaming. Just that your reasons have flaws in them for many people. As long as you get your discounts you should keep DirecTV satellite. If your discounts go away you could save money on a TV package but no you won't find any with the exact same channels you get now. But you would probably lose that money either with paying for unlimited data or paying the extra charge if you go over your limit. In your case with the channels you want and the discounts you get and your limited internet and the fact you only have 1 TV you should stick with what you have. That isn't the case for everyone though.

I've said about a billion times that higher TV counts should generally go to streaming if they want to save money. Now I've said it a billion and one. Generally for 1-2 TVs + promos, its a wash.

If I wanted to get all my existing channels that I actually watch, except for CW and OTA, I'd have to go Ultimate (just to get one extra lousy channel). In which case I could have 3 TVs on DirecTV and still break even. And technically, I'd STILL be on the losing end of the deal because I wouldn't have CW and OTA. OTA I could live with out, but if I had to get some CW VOD service, then I could have 4 TVs on my current DirecTV plan and break even.

With 4 full time TVs on streaming, I'd likely go over my data cap and have to pay an extra $50/mo, in which case, I'd be losing my shirt by going streaming and could have 7+ TVs on my current DirecTV plan before saving a penny. So as you can see, even a higher TV count like 3-4 to 7 isn't always a given.

 

[Steveknj]

Didn't you try streaming and didn't like it? If you have a lot of TVs then a per outlet service probably isn't for you.

How many TVs do you have? And do you watch all of them at once? If you don't watch all of them at once and are just one of those people who wants a TV in the bathroom, kitchen, garage, etc. then your other option is to "get creative" with your wiring so you can share boxes among TVs.

I did have Stream and laid out the reasons I went back (no CW for my kids being the primary driver). That's still the case BTW. I got a decent deal to come back to where it cost me about the same as stream, but now it's almost doubled and costing me a lot of money. I have a mini's in 6 rooms, family room, living room and all four bedrooms. My situation is a bit different now since one bedroom is now an office and I don't watch too much TV in there any longer and no longer watch much TV in the living room either, so those are technically two boxes I can return and will probably do that once the apps on Roku or Firestick allow for "streaming" with a SAT account. That'll save me about $14 a month. But once my contract is up, hopefully things will be different. We'll see how it goes.

My point being, everyone's situation and reasons for getting what they get are different. What works for me, doesn't work for you.

 

[b4pjoe]

My situation is a bit different now since one bedroom is now an office and I don't watch too much TV in there any longer and no longer watch much TV in the living room either, so those are technically two boxes I can return and will probably do that once the apps on Roku or Firestick allow for "streaming" with a SAT account.

The app on Roku is working for sat now.

 

[CraigerM]

I replaced a C61 I had in a bedroom with the Apple TV 4k I already have. Getting used to the different way of channel surfing. It's not that bad as I thought it might be.

 

[SledgeHammer]

My point being, everyone's situation and reasons for getting what they get are different. What works for me, doesn't work for you.

And vice versa. As I said above, I could have 7 TVs and still come out ahead/even with DirecTV. If I didn't have a data cap to worry about, the inflection point would be about 3-4 TVs. Sounds like you need to up your promo game .

The only advantage I have here is that I'm on Preferred Xtra which has pretty much every non premium channel out there, minus 1 or 2 sports channels AND no RSN fee, which saves me $12/mo in LA. On Stream and OTT, they just bury that fee instead of breaking it out.

And I'm also well aware that if I cancel my service to "try out" streaming, there ain't no going back as I couldn't get this package back, so you and Joe are gonna have to work a lot harder to get me to cancel lol.

P.S. umm.. we're both complaining about the same channel missing on streaming 🤷‍♂️

 

[Steveknj]

And vice versa. As I said above, I could have 7 TVs and still come out ahead/even with DirecTV. If I didn't have a data cap to worry about, the inflection point would be about 3-4 TVs. Sounds like you need to up your promo game .

The only advantage I have here is that I'm on Preferred Xtra which has pretty much every non premium channel out there, minus 1 or 2 sports channels AND no RSN fee, which saves me $12/mo in LA. On Stream and OTT, they just bury that fee instead of breaking it out.

And I'm also well aware that if I cancel my service to "try out" streaming, there ain't no going back as I couldn't get this package back, so you and Joe are gonna have to work a lot harder to get me to cancel lol.

P.S. umm.. we're both complaining about the same channel missing on streaming 🤷‍♂️

I do wonder, as someone who left and came back a bit more than a year ago, and, is on contract for at least a half a year more if I'd even be able to get the promo discounts at this point in time? What leverage do I have?

 

[b4pjoe]

you and Joe are gonna have to work a lot harder to get me to cancel lol.

Joe is not trying to get you to cancel.