r/cordcutters

use code Audacity

Discount is for one year only on new/upgraded Annual Premium subscriptions. Standard price automatically applies on the second billing cycle. Plan auto-renews unless canceled. Offer is valid only until May 25, 2026. Subscription must be obtained on www.AMCplus.com in the U.S. Cannot be combined with other offers or free trial. No refund or extension of discount is permitted if the subscription is terminated for any reason before the end of the first year, unless required by law. Terms apply.

I usually take a break from AMC+ and rotate to another streaming service in between seasons of my preferred shows but this was too good of a deal for me to pass up. Lestat is set for June 7th so I was going to resubscribe anyway.

Disney+ pricing has shifted enough times that knowing the current best deal requires actually checking rather than assuming. The annual plan has traditionally been the obvious savings over monthly but bundles, promotions, and third-party cashback options can change the math. In 2026 the streaming market is competitive enough that there should be ways to do better than sticker price.

What's the actual cheapest way to subscribe right now, factoring in bundles, gift card discounts, and any active promotions?

I am ready to cut the cable cord, it costs way too much, and we hardly watch any of the channels. I WFH a few days a week so I do need good internet, no complaints there. Here is what I DO need: ESPN, ESPN2, the major networks (only for sports mainly college football), we do not watch mainstream news anymore. We also currently have Netflix, ESPN+ and HBO Max. I know Hulu live is an option. Suggestions/advice?

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We used to get all the locals with our antenna and then randomly two weeks ago we lost all but 6. We no longer get channels like CBS, FOX, ABC, etc anymore.

Has anyone come across this or maybe have an idea of what happened?
We've checked the connection and it looks fine. We have done multiple rescans for the channels and it's only the same obscure 6 that it picks up.

Thanks in advance for any help.

EDIT: So it appears that a lot of the channel signal strengths that used be strong have all of a sudden gotten really bad. What might be the reason for this?

Okay this might be obvious to people who pay closer attention than I do but I just spent a weekend going through Netflix's 10-K and 8-K filings and I'm a little stuck on what I found.
The 2007 Netflix pitch was basically "everything cable isn't." No ads, no live TV, no bundles, no contracts, one flat price. That was the whole sales pitch and Reed Hastings repeated it for a decade. There are interview clips of him saying "we will not be in the advertising business" all over YouTube.
Look at what's actually on Netflix's books in 2026:
They have an ad tier now. Per their own corporate update in November 2025, the ad-supported tier hit 190M monthly active viewers globally. Comscore reported in August that 45% of US Netflix households watch on it. So that's the "no ads" promise.
They paid $5.2 billion for WWE Monday Night Raw. TKO Group's 8-K filing has the deal terms. 10 years, $500M per year, exclusive global rights. Raw aired on USA Network for 31 years before this. It moved to Netflix in January 2025. Live, weekly, same time same day. That's the "no live TV" promise.
NFL Christmas Day games. Two of them in 2024, averaged 26.5M US viewers per game (Variety reported the deal at $150M for three years). They did it again in 2025. They'll do it again in 2026. So that's "no live TV" again.
The Standard plan was $7.99 in 2011. It's $19.99 in March 2026. That's three price hikes in the last four years alone. CNBC's been tracking it. Premium went from $11.99 to $26.99. Not the "one flat price" anymore.
And then the part that actually got me, they stopped reporting subscriber numbers. Per their April 2024 shareholder letter, starting Q1 2025 they stopped breaking out subs and ARPU. The official line is engagement is a better metric. The last number they reported was 301M after a record 18.9M Q4 net adds. Then they went dark.
This is the exact thing Comcast and Charter did about a decade ago when their cable subscriber numbers got embarrassing. They lumped video into "media revenue" and "connected home" and stopped breaking it out. It's a known cable playbook move. Netflix is now running it.
So I think the case is pretty clear, Netflix isn't slowly drifting toward cable, they're aggressively rebuilding the cable model with better tech. Same revenue mechanics. Same content categories. Same metric games. Just over fiber instead of coax.
The thing I keep coming back to though is which specific cable company they're actually becoming. My read after looking at the numbers is HBO circa 1995. Premium price (most expensive subscription tier on the market). Original prestige content. Live boxing/wrestling. Major events. A subscription that sat on top of the cable bundle because the brand was strong enough that people paid extra for it. That's the playbook.
I'm sure people will push back on parts of this. The ad tier is more flexible than cable's ad load, you can pay to remove ads, cable couldn't. The on-demand library is still genuinely on-demand. There's no two-year contract. Those are real differences.
But the core revenue mechanics, tiered pricing, ad inventory, live sports rights, weekly appointment programming, hidden subscriber metrics, that's not "premium content business." That's specifically cable.
Which is making me wonder: did we cordcutters actually escape cable, or did we just change which company we pay it to?

Genuinely curious what people here think. The whole point of leaving cable was rejecting this model. Are we okay with it now because it's delivered over wifi?

I live in a rural area with local stations about 60-70 miles away. I’m looking for antennae options? I live in a barndo with a red iron frame completely wrapped in metal. Not sure if that makes a difference or not.

This is the only and most major drawback as to why I still won't switch to YouTube TV, as why would they only just do packages for a specific genre or a package that has basically everything, but not any packages that include every variety but cuts out the less popular channels like on satellite TV? This is just one of the last major complaints I have with YouTube TV, otherwise I would've switched years ago, as that's the last thing that they lack, true skinny packages.

I had DirecTV with internet for 8 years. I recently moved and got internet from a new company. My bill from DirecTV kept increasing to like $285/mo. I’ve got to cancel or figure something out in the next week. I’m currently using the DirecTV app to stream because I’m paid up for the month. Is it worth it to just pay for their streaming service, so I can watch the local news and Braves baseball? Or is there a better option?

So I have finally cut the cord, since Verizon Fios kept increasing my bill. I have gone internet only which reduced my bills by almost 50% The only thing I am missing is watching EPL and Champions League games on TV, so does anyone know a free streaming app to watch soccer, especially the Euro League games.

The keyword here being a FREE app not those ones claiming to be free but would require you to enter your credit card details.

Thanks 🙏

Hi all! For mother's day I want to get my MIL a streaming device and I'm looking for recommendations for the most simple to use ones.

She isn't super tech savvy, but she can change an input on a tv.

Personally I am leaning towards a roku mostly because it is the one I have so I can troubleshoot easier but I was wondering if any of you had recommendations.

I'm curious about Dish Anywhere streaming. It's my understanding that the Hopper 3 and a satellite dish are still required on at least one TV, but then you can use Dish Anywhere streaming for all the other TVs.

How does the streaming quality of Dish Anywhere compare to the streaming quality of Hulu Live and YouTube TV, which seem to be the two favorites for streaming? I guess I could throw DirecTV streaming in there as well, and I don't think they require a receiver/satellite.