Ask Asa: How to cut streaming TV costs
Millions of Americans have already "cut the cord" on their cable or satellite TV subscriptions. But with the increasing costs of streaming platforms, is anyone saving any money? Consumer reporter Asa Aarons Smith explains.
Millions of Americans have already "cut the cord" on their cable or satellite TV subscriptions. But with the increasing costs of streaming platforms, is anyone saving any money? Consumer reporter Asa Aarons Smith explains.
Millions of Americans have already "cut the cord" on their cable or satellite TV subscriptions. But with the increasing costs of streaming platforms, is anyone saving any money? Consumer reporter Asa Aarons Smith explains.
Imagine getting paid to worry about what's on TV.
Kourtnee Jackson is a professional TV watcher, although she has a different name for it. She's the senior streaming editor at CNET.
"I'm an expert in cord-cutting. I've been a cord cutter for over ten years. I haven't had a cable subscription in that long," she said.
Jackson tracks popular streaming services and offers advice on which ones deliver the content we want at the price we want to pay.
"Netflix pioneered the whole streaming movement. When they first started, they were an on-demand service. You could watch anything without ads. But it's been over a decade. Now, almost every major studio has a streaming service. You can get content with or without ads, and one of the newest things we're seeing is that some of these rivals are starting to bundle themselves together," she said.
And those bundled services may help you save money.
"One of the most recent announcements came from Comcast. They just announced their stream saver bundle, which includes Netflix, Peacock and Apple TV Plus. When you do the math, that saves you about $10 a month. But that's only if you want to watch the content on all three services."
A better option may be only to buy what you use.
"Decide which services are must-haves for the month or the entire year. Pick one or two defaults, and then rotate the other streaming services. That's going to save you lots of money," she said.
You can also access free programming from sites like Tubi and Pluto TV. These sites offer a selection of live and on-demand content.
Tubi offers something else that's especially useful — local news from stations, including WJCL.
When I was a kid, my dad used to tell me, "When you grow up, I hope you can find someone willing to pay you to worry about what's on that TV because that's about all I see you do." So I took his advice and did just that.
