Black Friday - Hulu/Max/Disney+/Paramount/Peacock Streaming Deals

CaptainClueless said:
Let me guess... they involve watching on a computer and not a streaming device like a Shield TV?

The ads are a deal breaker for me at any price point as well.
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The one case where they’re not a deal breaker is Peacock. Those are all in the lead up to the movie/show and then the movie/show has no commercials. I don’t have Hulu/disney, but I’ve read they’re among the worse for ad supported services.
 
horrorshow said:
Correct
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So completely irrelevant, unless you want to watch your shows/movies in potato quality.

If I had to pick between suffering through ads, or ad-free but at 720p with no HDR... I'm taking the ads even if they cost extra (please don't tell the streaming companies that or Hulu is going to start costing more than cable TV).
 
I have been subbed to Paramount+ ad-free for over a year and paid probably 3 months so far. Every time you try to cancel they offer you 50% for a month or two, or a 1 or 2 months free.
My last payment was in August and I was offered 2 months free when I was going to cancel in September but had to call since I would get an error when trying to apply the discount on the website.
The Rep said he could do a month only on his end, and I asked if he could make a note about me calling the following month to get the second month added.
I called in October and didn't get anywhere with the first rep, told me there were notes about my call last month and was unable to add a month due to my account already getting free months.
He wouldn't offer a discounted price either. Wasted 45 minutes on that call.

Called the next day and thought that I was talking to the same guy since they had the exact same voice and accent. I was about to hang up and try again,lol.

I just told him that I was having an issue adding the free 2 months promo code to my account, getting an error on the website. He put me on hold for a few minutes.
Came back and said that he was able to add the 2 free months to my account and I was good to go.

I checked it and it showed next billing date was January 12th 2024.
ParamountPlus Jan-2024.png


I checked a week later to make sure it still said January 12th and it now shows February 12th.
ParamountPlus Feb-2024.png


My girlfriend is going to get the Hulu/Disney+ but she has to call since there is some weird issue with her account.
 
CaptainClueless said:
So completely irrelevant, unless you want to watch your shows/movies in potato quality.

If I had to pick between suffering through ads, or ad-free but at 720p with no HDR... I'm taking the ads even if they cost extra (please don't tell the streaming companies that or Hulu is going to start costing more than cable TV).
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uBlock Origin "works" with Hulu.... and it def doesn't look 720p to me *shrugs*

Either way, I have my TV connected to PC via a long HDMI cable. So, for my use-case, 99c was a Dealy-McDeal (y)
 
Does Max have anything good coming out anytime soon? Peacemaker was fantastic and the GofT was pretty good but I canceled it a while ago.
 
TMCM said:
Does Max have anything good coming out anytime soon? Peacemaker was fantastic and the GofT was pretty good but I canceled it a while ago.
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If you haven't seen Doom Patrol, that's a goodun (and the series finale just aired like 2 weeks ago)

Besides that, True Detective - especially S1, is Great....

As for new stuff coming out, I'm not really sure
 
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It's funny how ad supported TV on paid streaming services is suddenly poison to people... especially considering that the commercial breaks on streaming are shorter than the commercial breaks on cable/satellite, which we all spent decades paying (more) for - and they still exist unchanged.
 
I ditched cable because of the rising prices and constant commercials. I moved to streaming because it was also paid, but with no ads. Now they want you to pay and still have ads. lol, no thanks. Just canceled D+ for my son because they now want over $130/yr for it. When I signed up it was $60/yr.
 
I don't really mind the ads as long as they are relatively inconspicuous (i.e. no 3+ minute long ads) and aren't ever 5 minutes or so, but the big unknown is how many ads are you really going to get? I used to watch a lot of Roku movies at night and most of the ads were for HIV drugs and I'm laughing thinking "I know I live in San Francisco, but are this is a bit obnoxious"

That said $3/month for Disney+ for 12 months, kind of hard to argue with that. I mean if you look at Hulu it's 99 cents with adds or $17.99/month without, can't say that ads are worth $17/month to not see them.
 
Centauri said:
It's funny how ad supported TV on paid streaming services is suddenly poison to people... especially considering that the commercial breaks on streaming are shorter than the commercial breaks on cable/satellite, which we all spent decades paying (more) for - and they still exist unchanged.
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Uh, who said I consume ads on cable TV, or ever did?

Also, a TIVO allows you to skip ads on cable TV, whereas you usually can't skip ads in online services (with exceptions as mentioned).
 
CaptainClueless said:
Let me guess... they involve watching on a computer and not a streaming device like a Shield TV?

The ads are a deal breaker for me at any price point as well.
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That is also "get around-able" if you are okay with paying for a service that I would argue you should be using anyway: a VPN. Simply use the VPN at the router level and all incoming traffic to your home goes through it, and their ad-blocking servers. Which would give the benefit to all of your non-PC devices.
 
TMCM said:
Does Max have anything good coming out anytime soon? Peacemaker was fantastic and the GofT was pretty good but I canceled it a while ago.
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House of the Dragon, True Detective Season 4 is coming out in early 2024 (starring Jodie Foster), Tokyo Vice is pretty good (created by Michael Mann)
 
I should try cancelling paramount+ again. I had two months free then paid for a month and there is little to watch anymore.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
That is also "get around-able" if you are okay with paying for a service that I would argue you should be using anyway: a VPN. Simply use the VPN at the router level and all incoming traffic to your home goes through it, and their ad-blocking servers. Which would give the benefit to all of your non-PC devices.
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So now I have to pay for a VPN, and suffer house-wide latency and bandwidth limitations due to the VPN as well? Just to block ads?

Wow, what a deal!!!
 
CaptainClueless said:
So now I have to pay for a VPN, and suffer house-wide latency and bandwidth limitations due to the VPN as well? Just to block ads?

Wow, what a deal!!!
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Considering the cost of using ad based streaming services vs not and the cost of a VPN service over 2 years, getting a VPN means you come out ahead from a cost perspective.
As an example, Hulu's deal is for $.99 a month for ad-supported (the sale price obviously) vs $17.99 a month for ad free is pretty considerable. Whereas NordVPN is $2.99 a month. That's a savings of $14 a month vs buying Hulu's ad-free tier. If you were to add even more "ad-supported" streaming services, the cost delta would only widen (eg: you also want Max or Disney+). You could be saving $50+ per month using a VPN + ad-supporter streaming services vs paying for ad-free via these deals.

Regarding speed: it also depends on how paranoid you are and how much you care about privacy. While it's impossible to prevent all snooping, I use VPN's because I care about the privacy aspect of the internet. One that in a lot of ways is mostly lost. For me, ad blocking is a bonus, but not the primary reason to be using the service. I don't dispute the hit to either latency or top speed. But again, when considering cost and the alternative of being free data for every harvester, I think it's a pretty fair tradeoff. You make your own choices though.
 
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UnknownSouljer said:
Considering the cost of using ad based streaming services vs not and the cost of a VPN service over 2 years, getting a VPN means you come out ahead from a cost perspective.
As an example, Hulu's deal is for $.99 a month for ad-supported (the sale price obviously) vs $17.99 a month for ad free is pretty considerable. Whereas NordVPN is $2.99 a month. That's a savings of $14 a month vs buying Hulu's ad-free tier. If you were to add even more "ad-supported" streaming services, the cost delta would only widen (eg: you also want Max or Disney+). You could be saving $50+ per month using a VPN + ad-supporter streaming services vs paying for ad-free via these deals.

Regarding speed: it also depends on how paranoid you are and how much you care about privacy. While it's impossible to prevent all snooping, I use VPN's because I care about the privacy aspect of the internet. One that in a lot of ways is mostly lost. For me, ad blocking is a bonus, but not the primary reason to be using the service. I don't dispute the hit to either latency or top speed. But again, when considering cost and the alternative of being free data for every harvester, I think it's a pretty fair tradeoff. You make your own choices though.
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I just got NordVPN so that I could get YouTube premium for a discount and NordVPN has very fast throughput. Maxes out my internet connection.
NordVPN-Speed.png
 
I blocked Hulu Ad server on my router, and I use a credit card with small balance forgiveness so that the 99c charge is forgiven each month
 
Centauri said:
It's funny how ad supported TV on paid streaming services is suddenly poison to people... especially considering that the commercial breaks on streaming are shorter than the commercial breaks on cable/satellite, which we all spent decades paying (more) for - and they still exist unchanged.
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You assume that it's a binary choice: streaming or traditional TV. I wouldn't watch cable TV with ads even if streaming didn't exist, and there is no universe where I'd pay for it. Fuck ads with a rusty traffic bollard.
 
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