So Garry wanted to get a show that’s a freebie if you sign up for a new installation of Starz. But we already have Starz, so while they might let you sign up, they won’t give you the teaser freebie because you’re on their list as a user.
The show is being shown on Hulu and if you have your Starz and Hulu linked, I think (but am not sure) that you can get the show. Maybe. Our two channels are not linked. I don’t think they can be, but this is a guess. I don’t know.
The thing is, I have no idea how this linking of streaming channels works.
For example, we got Hulu when it was an independent station, but since then, it was bought by Disney. It is partially owned (I think) by Google, too.
It seems that everything is owned by everyone. Co-owned or completely owned. We have a cheap version of Hulu, but you can’t get that version anymore. Along with the Disney buyout came a big rise in costs.
We have a cheap version of Starz too. It was a “special” thrown in when I got the Disney package. That’s why I think Disney did or does own at least a big piece of Starz. Also Google. Who knows who else has the other pieces? If you have the right version of all these streaming stations, you can link them together. So what ARE the right versions?
I don’t have the right versions because I bought them when they were independent station, but they aren’t anymore. I don’t care what they are offering on which station: we aren’t getting another streaming station. I don’t care what they are showing. No more TV stations. We barely have time to watch maybe 10% of what we already have and there are bookmarked movies and TV shows we will never watch.
Garry has bookmarked so many shows and movies, I look at his lists and just shake my head. Just looking at all that STUFF makes my head spin. I can’t find anything in my email. I can’t remember what posts I’ve written or who wrote them or where I stashed the pictures.
Since WordPress has a really awful database, I can find fewer than a quarter of my photos and posts. Nor did I imagine, having cut the cord with cable that I would find myself with more channels than I can count and access to almost everything ever made for the movies or television.
Garry firmly believes I understand this stuff, but I don’t. I don’t know anyone who fully understands it. There’s probably a very well-paid lawyer somewhere who understands it. All of this streaming stuff happened after I retired, so I didn’t learn it at work and haven’t even tried to keep up with the many changes, some of which are recent and I only find out about them by reading about it on Bloomberg. Next month, I’m going to start disconnecting from streaming services we never seem to watch. There are only so many hours in the day and we don’t spend most of it watching TV.
What does this mean? More to the point, what does it mean to us? How many people feel that have control over their televisions?
As all the stations buy pieces of each other, they should tell us what to do with the pieces we already own and bought before the recent mergers. Disney’s purchase of Hulu was a biggie. I’m not sure who owns Starz now. I thought it was Disney, but now I think part of it belongs to Google. HBO was always independent, but now I think Disney and Google own hunks of it.
Our television is considered “old” though it isn’t old and works perfectly — and the new version of it in the store looks exactly the same as this one and is the same price this was 7 years ago. But we keep being warned we have an old television.
Arrgh!!
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Categories: #Photography, Humor, Media, Movies, Television, You can't make this stuff up
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
When I was young we had 5 channels and could not imagine needing more until a UHF channel came along and we got some sports we never had before. Now I have a satellite and get more channels I can count. I don’t think I watch 10 percent of them during the year. There are 20 Spanish channels. John used to watch one or two. Aside from the networks, I watch ESPN, MLB, and NFL. We all know Disney owns one of them too.
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We have an old TV too, but then we’re old so it’s a good fit. WE don’t have any of those stations but for some reason we manage to get so really good movies and they are fairly recent (2018) and the movie I’m think of is called Bel Canto. The music was incredible and the story was moving.
Leslie
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When we had cable, we also had good TV. It’s just different when you cut the cable and you have to select from the MANY streaming stations. There are so many!
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I get told that b.s. about having an ‘old’ television too. I bought it, brand new, in 2015. Five years? Seriously? I still remember the big old console TV my parents bought, that they still had when we moved my mother from her tiny town to nearer her children. Built in ‘obsolescence’ = more garbage and pollution that doesn’t bio-degrade. I tell my loudest nay-sayer that if they’ll buy me a brand new TV that they consider ‘new’ enough, I’ll take it, but as long as mine works (which apparently it won’t with certain streaming options) I don’t care if it’s the newest or alleged ‘best’. They’ll only make an ‘upgrade’ version to the new one tomorrow…
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Ours is also five (maybe six?) years old and it’s just fine. We are NOT buying a new TV. There’s nothing wrong with the one we have. We kept our last one for 14 years.
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We just have basic cable so not a lot. We do have Netflix, though. Two different remote controls to turn on the darn TV and switch channels. I don’t even wanna know how to use them. Husband says it’s easy. Two remotes to watch the TV?? Heck, no!
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We have two — one for the TV and streaming channels and the other just for the sound because we bought a speaker for the television which has really bad sound. We have, however other remotes. For the stereo, the fan and the DVD player. But at least each of them looks very different than the others.
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It is the same here but on a smaller scale of course. I have Netflix and Prime but barely watch either. We have poor TV reception in Sisters Beach and our antenna was not connected when we came here. From what I can gather a lot of locals use some kinds of satellite system called VAST. I don’t think it is worth the bother of getting it for the amount of live TV I watch. I can stream the catch up channels of the Free to Air stations to see any programs I want. The only thing that I can’t get is live sport. If I want to watch the cricket I will stream Kayo which is a sort of Fox Sports lite channel for the few weeks it is on and then cancel. We can’t get YouTube TV yet but I watch a lot of normal YouTube where I can see music videos, live streamed news (I don’t) and sometimes old TV shows. When we had cable TV we were always bookmarking things to watch later. a lot of them we never did. I used to record cricket matches to watch later but who has time to sit down and watch cricket for six hours at a time? It’s good to have choices but sometimes I think there is too much choice and it does get confusing. I keep the channels mainly through fear of missing out but I could live without them.
Once when I was working as a housekeeper in a hotel an American guest described to me how at home he could go to the supermarket and there would be a whole aisle just of milk or cereal, way more choices than we had he told me. I wondered how he ever managed to finish his shopping if he had to look at all those products. When I used to shop in person I read labels. I’d have been there all day.
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The answer is that none of us really look at all the stuff on the shelves. You have a favorite brand, or you look for inexpensive “on sale” stuff. The only things I used to really read the ingredients was for dog food. Now I buy it online, so i can compare in advance. It’s also convenient to have heavy boxes of canned dog food delivered. With only one dog, we don’t need great big bags of food these days, but I still check to make sure what ISN”T in the food.
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That’s probably true for me. I do have some favourite brands that I won’t accept substitutes for but some things I’d buy on price and others for ethical reasons . I don’t care for tuna but David liked it and I would spend ages looking for the “dolphin friendly, made in Australia” canned tuna. It is easier online and I do check to see where things have come from a lot. For example most of the big supermarket house brand jams come from Europe. Why? We grow fruit here. So I look for the Aussie brands. They are dearer but I try to have some local content in my cart every shop.
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I haven’t had TV for years. What was the program Garry wanted to watch? I have Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV..That’s it. I would feel just like you do if I had all those options.
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We have YouTubeTV which has more watchable stuff on it than we had on Cable – and it costs about the same too, but at least we can cancel it if we want. We got it because it includes baseball and Garry was getting crazy without baseball. I don’t watch a lot of TV. I don’t have enough time to just write, take pictures, and read a few blogs — and also sleep a few hours. Really, all I want to do is play scrabble.
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