And now for something more cerebral than “Watching Blacked out NFL Games with Internet Streaming” lets look at how a cord cutter might deal with a very popular show from PBS: Downton Abbey. If you listen to NPR you know they’ve been publicizing the hell out of upcoming season 3 with live interviews of the upstairs downstairs actors. And I got to hand it to them, this show (which I’ve yet to watch) sounds pretty interesting. What sounds intriguing was the concept that this was a time (early 20th century) when people were just content to be the best at whatever station they were born into, be it master, servant, butler etc.

But I digress. Say you are a cord cutter anxious to tune in to this show, both past and present seasons. What are your choices? Our quick min-survey finds:

1. Put up an Antenna

Yep, PBS was actually one of the first networks to start broadcasting in HD. And they have stations in most major cities. So if you want to see season 3, traditional over the air is the easiest way. I did a quick search using my own local KPBS station and see all the upcoming season 3 listings.  Unfortunately no reruns of past seasons show up. I give PBS some credit for providing very clean easy to read  search results:

• Masterpiece Classic
• • Downton Abbey, Season 3 – Part 3
    • Sunday, January 20, 09:00 pm on KPBSHD - READ MORE
    • Tuesday, January 22, 02:30 am on KPBSHD - READ MORE
    • Sunday, January 27, 08:00 pm on KPBSHD - READ MORE
    • Tuesday, January 29, 01:30 am on KPBSHD - READ MORE
  • Downton Abbey, Season 3 – Part 4
    • Sunday, January 27, 09:00 pm on KPBSHD - READ MORE
    • Tuesday, January 29, 02:30 am on KPBSHD - READ MORE
  • Downton Abbey, Series II – Part Seven
    • Sunday, January 6, 06:00 pm on KPBSHD - READ MORE

2. Get Netflix

Here I have some luck with reruns. It appears Season 1 is available. And someone living here has already put in my queue.

Results for Downton Abbey

 

Downton Abbey2010TV-PG1 SeriesExposing the snobbery and machinations of a disappearing class system, this series chronicles the elite Crawley family and their assorted servants.

Cast:

Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Elizabeth McGovern

Genre:

TV Shows, British TV Shows, TV Dramas, British TV Dramas

This show is:

Cerebral, Understated

Rate 5 starsRate 4 starsRate 3 starsRate 2 starsRate 1 star

In Instant Queue 

But Where is Downton Abbey season 2?

OK so I have season 1 and 3 taken care of. What about season 2 ? A quick google search shows PBS will be airing just a couple of them before  switching over to season 3. I check out HULU free which tricks me. It lists all of the season 2 shows but when I click on one I get
“This Video is only available with Hulu Plus”

OK so here is something the much maligned Hulu Plus can offer. But Hulu Plus is $8/month and I’m not paying that just to watch Downton Abbey.

3. Amazon Instant Video vs iTunes

Amazon offers Downton Abbey Season 2 either at $1.99 per episode or $2.99 for HD. Or I can buy a DVD of the entire season for $22.93

iTunes is comparable but a little better deal on the entire season at $19.99 and offers only the HD episodes at the same $2.99.

 

4. Other Methods

Unlike live sports this content is available from multiple and legal OTT providers. Yes I know all about torrents and would not consider them when relatively low cost pay per view is available.

Just for fun I took a look at eBay and see quite a bit of activity but mostly the final price ends up, at best, a buck or two off the regular retail.

The British site ITV.com offers these as rentals for 1.29 Euro ($1.70).  A little savings.  I’m not sure if you’d run into a proxy requirement (the free episodes won’t play to the US). More interesting I learned from this review in Slate, is that the US is behind the UK in broadcast.

Other ideas?  Let us know in the comments below.

Looking to kill two or three of your New Year’s Resolutions with one shot? We’re here to help. Let’s go over a few of the most popular resolutions and see how they fit into becoming a cord cutter next year.

1. Pay off debt.

Well becoming a cord cutter probably won’t free you completely from debt but it is an excellent start. Take whatever you are paying for cable today (the 2011 average was $78)  and put it straight toward your credit cards, student loans, etc.

2. Lose weight.

Cord cutters do not have as much to channel surf. Except for OTA channels much more of our viewing is on demand of pre-recorded content. So take 30 minutes away each day from your old TV schedule for a brisk one mile walk.

 3. Save more money.

Instead of paying off your credit cards have that $78+  per month you were paying the Cable company sent straight to your Roth IRA or investment of your choice. That’s nearly $1000 per year you were throwing away for the privilege  of  watching infomercials and getting dozens of other channels you never watch.

Keeping your Commitment – take the pledge!

It is often said that the way to keep your goals on track is to put them in writing and commit to them publicly. The Cord Cutter Guide is here to help you do just that. In the comments below please tell us why you’ll be cutting the cord on cable in 2013.

We take this time to wish all of our readers and contributors a happy and healthy holiday with friends and family.

Dec 25, 2012

More stories are starting to emerge about Apple’s “next big thing”, a product called iTV. And when considering Apple’s brilliance in recent years with the iPhone and iPad, the talk of any new iSomething gets deserved attention. So what exactly is an iTV and what can it do? According to this recent article at  BGR  there are two possibilities:

1. A more advanced Apple TV set top box.

2. An actual HDTV set with new features.

An updated Apple TV set top can hardly be “the next big thing” and if we believe this story from the LA Times actual televisions are now in the prototype phase.

But what will it do?  Unlike the iPhone we can’t hope some Apple engineer will accidentally leave one behind in a bay area bar. We can only speculate and that is the fun part.

I can imagine a narrative in which iTV does take over the TV world and here’s how it goes:

Take all the best features of the cord cutter’s tool box and bundle them into one easy to use TV. Make it one beautiful to look at object, almost art. Maybe only two buttons, and one connector. No remote control of course, your iPhone or iPad will serve that function. Does NOT work with Cable or Satellite. Apple will be your paid content provider.

Capabilities

Receives both OTA and OTT content
DVR in the cloud
A la carte channel subscriptions
Easy to use

The Challenge

Cord cutters are well aware of the challenge and that is content. The industry is holding on for dear life to the channel bundle.  That is why I’m guessing (suggesting) one way for Apple to really be the next big thing is to disrupt this model. Maybe, just maybe, Apple will get enough interest in their new TV to force content providers to offer channels  A la carte.

Of course I really have no idea at all if any of this will happen. It’s just a dream.

photo: michperu on flickr

In what might be the biggest cord cutter news of 2012 Verizon has teamed up with Redbox to enter the video streaming market. And to make it more interesting the Redbox deal is a lot cheaper. Compare:

Netflix Instant: $7.99/mo
Neftflix DVD’s:   $7.99/mo
Netflix Total: $15.98/mo

Redbox Streaming: $6.00/mo
Redbox  Streaming + DVD’s(4): $8.00/mo
Redbox Total: $8.00/mo 

Very competitive! You’d save about $8/mo on the combined streaming + DVD package. But what could go wrong?

For one it’s not so easy to acquire thousands of movies overnight and start streaming them.  Even Netflix Instant contains but  a fraction of what the DVD library offers. Search for any relatively recent hit movie on Netflix and odds are it is only in the DVD plan. The cost of content and licensing has been one of Netflix’ biggest challenges.  Netflix recently bid $350 for exclusive rights to Disney movies, so don’t expect to see those from Redbox.

Another challenge for Redbox is distribution. Today Netflix is built into every game console, smart TV, and a variety of set tops. Redbox will likely have to launch without that many choices. And I wonder if the Netflix Roku relationship would be strained if Roku simply added a Redbox channel.

What about DVD distribution? The Redbox model  seems much less attractive. It involves driving to your local shopping mall to find the nearest kiosk. I like that concept for the occasional movie impulse rental. But as a subscription package it brings back old memories of Hollywood and Blockbuster stores. If Redbox charges late fees on this plan forget about it.

There is  a paradigm in marketing that being first is more important than being the best which I think will hold true in this case.  Because of its early start, Netflix has had the benefit of working out many of the problems of operating a  successful streaming business.  I do hope that the Redbox plan brings some competition to the market, but I’m not expecting it to take a huge piece.

If you like golf, and have cable, one of the nicest ways to chill out with stress free viewing is with  the Golf Channel. Many of you can’t relate I’m sure but I put FoodTV and  Golf Channel in the same category. These are great to watch at the end of the day when you just want to relax without being reminded of the world’s problems.

But what about cord cutters? The Golf Channel is a cable channel so forget about picking it up over the air.

First stop Roku. Unfortunately the Golf Channel is not on Roku. Roku does however  list a couple of golf related channels:

1. Sportskool Golf, which is a channel that offers golf tips. But $2.99/month? That’s a lot for a single channel don’t you think?

2. Super Stickman Golf, but this is a game not a channel of live golf. This is is also $1.99/month.

Next stop Hulu Plus. I would prefer to  watch on my TV, not my laptop, and since Hulu Plus  enables that via  Roku I check it first.  Going over to the Hulu Plus’ awful search content page  (no keyword search option) I browse over to the G’s and see no golf related content at all. Can that be right?  That’s OK. Hulu Plus would be another $8/month.

What about plain old Hulu?  This site is friendlier. I type “golf” in the search window and find  Golf Tips with Joe Beck, Inside Golf Magazine,  and Golf Digest Equipment Special. Most of these are short clips, not the long content I’m looking for. I note that the Joe Beck show is apparently also on Hulu Plus (“Subscribe to Hulu Plus to watch this show on your TV and mobile devices”), but the others are not. So apparently the Hulu site has more golf content than Hulu Plus. And probably  more content in general! See this interesting discussion about getting the free version of  Hulu  on a Roku.

Well what about good old Netflix? Nope. They offer a few golf related movies (which I dump into my queue) but no Golf Channel. Not surprising given Netflix’ limited streaming library.

OK then.  How about the Amazon video library? Again they have some interesting looking  golf movies, but no Golf Channel episodes.

One last hope. The Golf Channel itself. maybe they offer streaming of some of their shows. Yes! They offer many including this one from Big Break Atlantis. You know that show about attractive golfer girls competing in this reality style series. So back to the old standby of connecting my laptop to the TV.

Do you have a better idea for watching GolfChannel as a cord cutter? Let me know in the comments below.

Update 4-15-13:  I was intrigued by this comment by David Carr in this NYT article.

“But a funny thing happened on the way to the clubhouse at Augusta, Ga.: I took a detour. The Masters app, which let me omnisciently check the leader board, scan for my own highlights and toggle between specific groups or holes, sucked me in.”

Had I known the app was that good I would have downloaded it. Anyone else try it?

No post here today folks. Instead we are proud to be a guest on OtherWaysToWatch.TV

Behind Blackouts: Another Sports-Related Thorn In The Side of Cord Cutters