Hulu TV

[Haertig]

Last year Hulu had a promo, $1.99 per month for 12 months. I didn't think we'd ever watch it, but that was pretty cheap to give it a shot. So I signed up. What the heck, only a couple of dollars total.

I just now came up to my 12 months, having only watched a couple of NHL hockey games on Hulu. Who would have thought that Hulu would carry live NHL hockey games, but they do. And no other channels, including the big names in sports, were carrying those hockey games. Weird. Anyway, to renew it was $6.99 per month. Not worth that to me, so I started the cancellation process on their website. They weren't happy, and started to beg. "How about we pause your membership rather than cancel it?" No. Cancel. "Are you sure?" Yes. "OK, how about $2.99 per month then?" So I said OK, to cover the rest of this years hockey season.

So it pays to not renew right away - even the computer algorithms start begging and lowering the price, you don't even have to talk to a human to get that now.

 

[backlash]

I used to do the same thing with Serious radio. I would always get them down from $24.99 a month to $24.99 for 6 months then go through the same process in 6 months.
I finally just cancelled them completely and listen to music in my truck on Bluetooth or a thumb drive.

 

[Neb]

Last year Hulu had a promo, $1.99 per month for 12 months. I didn't think we'd ever watch it, but that was pretty cheap to give it a shot. So I signed up. What the heck, only a couple of dollars total.

I just now came up to my 12 months, having only watched a couple of NHL hockey games on Hulu. Who would have thought that Hulu would carry live NHL hockey games, but they do. And no other channels, including the big names in sports, were carrying those hockey games. Weird. Anyway, to renew it was $6.99 per month. Not worth that to me, so I started the cancellation process on their website. They weren't happy, and started to beg. "How about we pause your membership rather than cancel it?" No. Cancel. "Are you sure?" Yes. "OK, how about $2.99 per month then?" So I said OK, to cover the rest of this years hockey season.

So it pays to not renew right away - even the computer algorithms start begging and lowering the price, you don't even have to talk to a human to get that now.

Regular season hockey is the only (?) thing I miss after going to only basic cable. I may follow your example if things go well toward the the end of the season.

Ben

 

[Weedygarden]

I signed up for Hulu last year for $1.99 a month, perhaps at your suggestion @Haertig. I have more than gotten my money's worth out of it. I have watched many shows on it. When it came time to renew recently, I just let it happen. I was happy with the original price.

 

[zoomzoom]

Regular season hockey is the only (?) thing I miss after going to only basic cable. I may follow your example if things go well toward the the end of the season.

Ben

I "think" (Mrs. Zoom takes care of it) we got a package where you get Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ for one money.

 

[Jay]

I canceled both hulu and netflix. Started with free programing through youtube, and TUBI

 

[Morgan101]

My basic cable service has a channel that carries regular NHL games. That is a sport I used to love, and even played some. Last time they went on strike it drove a stake through my heart. I have had no interest ever since. I had to watch the Blues in 2019 when they won the cup. It was such a Cinderella story, but even that was hard.

 

[ladycat]

So many free options! I don't know why people pay. And some of the streaming services have the same channels as basic cable/satellite- for FREE. Some even have live sports events, although I'm not interested in those, but many people are.

Pluto TV: On-Demand and Live
*
Shout! Factory TV: On-Demand and Live
*
Haystack TV: On-Demand and Live
*
PBS: On-Demand and Live
*
Kidoodle.TV: On-Demand
*
PBS Kids: On-Demand and Live
*
CW TV and CW Seed: Mostly On-Demand - some Live.
*
IMDB TV: On-Demand
*
Crackle: On-Demand
*
Vudu: On-Demand
*
Popcorn Flix: On-Demand
*
Snag Films: On-Demand
*
Tubi TV: On-Demand and Live

 

[zoomzoom]

So many free options! I don't know why people pay.

Myself, I hate commercials. Would rather pay a few bucks a month to not have to watch them. I don't like Hulu myself as it's a pay service and still has commercials. Grrrr.

 

[backlash]

Don't forget over the air TV. I hooked up a small $12 antenna and got 55 channels. After I deleted all the religious, shopping, and Spanish channels I was left with about 12 to watch.

 

[ladycat]

Don't forget over the air TV. I hooked up a small $12 antenna and got 55 channels. After I deleted all the religious, shopping, and Spanish channels I was left with about 12 to watch.

I would love to have an antenna, but I can't get up on the house, so I can't get anything at all over the air.

 

[TeeJ]

I would love to have an antenna, but I can't get up on the house, so I can't get anything at all over the air.

Depending how far from the broadcasting city you are, you might be able to use an antenna indoors. We have one that set us back $55 and it just sits on top of the entertainment center the TV is in. We get a dozen or so channels from a city 45 miles away...

 

[Haertig]

We are quite mentally sick here. Well, my wife is the sick one. She subscribed to all this mess. First off, we rarely watch any TV. But we have Xfinity (Comcast) cable. We have DISH satellite. We have DirectTV satellite. And I have a huge yagi antenna that takes up half of the attic for over the air reception. We have a clear line of sight to the hilltop where all the Denver area TV stations have their antennas clustered together, about 15 miles away. And it just so happens that our attic "points" perfectly at those TV station antennas. This gives us ultimate OTA reception of everything in the area. Massive signal strength.

p.s. We also have Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, Movies Anywhere and Disney Plus (although all but Amazon Prime and Hulu are as secondary users on my son's account at those other places).

I am pushing to get rid of all but Xfinity and the attic antenna. We would lose out on DVR capability for the OTA antenna if we cancel DISH however. Our DISH box has two internal satellite tuners and one internal OTA tuner, so we can connect that attic antenna to the DISH box and have full DVR features (recording, pause, etc.) for OTA signals in case their satellite feed goes dead. I don't think the Xfinity or the DirectTV DVRs support OTA antennas, but I'm not sure about that. I should go check...

It's all a bit of overkill, I admit. Just a bit...

 

[Spikedriver]

Depending how far from the broadcasting city you are, you might be able to use an antenna indoors. We have one that set us back $55 and it just sits on top of the entertainment center the TV is in. We get a dozen or so channels from a city 45 miles away...

This is similar to my setup. I have a "60 mile" antenna indoors, it cost around 60 or 70 bucks. Beware of the distance rating. All the broadcast towers for central Iowa are just under 30 miles from me, as the crow flies. I can't pull in CBS to save my life, and Fox can be a bit shaky. But once i got the antenna adjusted right, I get 21 channels. I only watch a few, but it's still better than the old days of 3 stations + PBS. Back then you hated when the president came on TV, he took over all the channels and you were left with Lawrence Welk on PBS...

 

[ladycat]

Depending how far from the broadcasting city you are, you might be able to use an antenna indoors. We have one that set us back $55 and it just sits on top of the entertainment center the TV is in. We get a dozen or so channels from a city 45 miles away...

There would be almost nothing to pull in closer than 100+ miles from here.
I get more to watch than I can watch as it is, so the only real reason I wish I could get OTA signals is when the internet is down, which is usually when the electric is out (out here in the boonies, it goes out too often).
I have a generator, and it would be nice to get news if there's severe weather happening.

 

[phideaux]

So many free options! I don't know why people pay. And some of the streaming services have the same channels as basic cable/satellite- for FREE. Some even have live sports events, although I'm not interested in those, but many people are.

Pluto TV: On-Demand and Live
*
Shout! Factory TV: On-Demand and Live
*
Haystack TV: On-Demand and Live
*
PBS: On-Demand and Live
*
Kidoodle.TV: On-Demand
*
PBS Kids: On-Demand and Live
*
CW TV and CW Seed: Mostly On-Demand - some Live.
*
IMDB TV: On-Demand
*
Crackle: On-Demand
*
Vudu: On-Demand
*
Popcorn Flix: On-Demand
*
Snag Films: On-Demand
*
Tubi TV: On-Demand and Live

And my favorite..... You Tube....
for movies and TV.

Jim

 

[TeeJ]

There would be almost nothing to pull in closer than 100+ miles from here.
I get more to watch than I can watch as it is, so the only real reason I wish I could get OTA signals is when the internet is down, which is usually when the electric is out (out here in the boonies, it goes out too often).
I have a generator, and it would be nice to get news if there's severe weather happening.

For weather alerts and communication in an emergency, it's hard to beat an inexpensive radio. Don't go broadcasting if you don't have a license, but I figure in a SHTF scenario the FCC isn't going to worry about lil 'ol me... I've heard plenty of stories where one of these pulled someone's behind out the fire when their cell was out of range. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MAULSOK

 

[TeeJ]

If you're tech savvy, there's programs that will automatically download TV & movies to a personal server via torrenting or good 'ol USENET (I"ll date myself, one of my 1st jobs was with a pre-internet startup that transcribed magazines & newspapers to USENET feeds for universities & schools). Sonarr - Dive in and Radarr are my favorites. The nice thing is the files are stored locally on your equipment, so the latest Hulu/Netflix shuffle doesn't remove a show you are 1/2 way through, and I've got an old tablet stored in a faraday cage with enough media on it to keep us entertained until the zombies get us...