Here's a summary of recent happenings of interest to all cordcutters, not just Roku users. The links will take you to more in-depth articles from a variety of Internet sources.
This week's big news for cordcutters was AT&T's launch of the much-hyped DirecTV NOW subscription internet-TV service. The service adds competition to Dish Network's Sling TV and Sony's Playstation Vue.
However, the debut did not go smoothly, with lots of user complaints on launch day. TVPredictions.com even called it "a total nightmare." DirecTV NOW is expected to be available on Roku in early 2017.
Pasadena, California, is the latest city to impose a tax on streaming services. Cities are looking to replace the revenue that they lose from taxes on cable service, and many other California cities are considering adding their own "Netflix tax." Chicago's tax on streaming services, expected to bring in $12 million annually, was met with a lawsuit.
Amazon announced the launch of HBO and Cinemax on Amazon Channels. Amazon Prime members can get an HBO Free Trial
A white paper commissioned by video optimization company Conviva reports that the average number of residential connected TVs increased 50 percent between the first quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. Smartphone use decreased by 20 percent and desktop/notebook use decreased by 10 percent over the same period. A Conviva officer commented that "the one thing that was consistent was that across all device types both plays and viewing time spiked during primetime, specifically between 8-10 PM. Primetime is still indeed the king."
For non-cordcutters: If you're an XFINITY TV subscriber looking forward to the Roku app announced in April, don't give up hope - it's still on the way. A November 28 posting on a DTVUSA Forum says that Comcast and Roku are "still in the development phases of the partnership, but hope to launch the XFINITY TV partner app... before the end of 2016."
If you think a smart TV is all you need to cut the cord, you may want to rethink that. Forbes contributor Seth Porges aruges that Even If You Have A Smart TV, You Still Need A Separate Streaming Device. Porges noted hardware limitations, stating that "most televisions contain rather weak processors that can struggle to keep up with the demands of streaming services... New products from the "Big Four" streaming device manufacturers (meaning Roku, Apple, Amazon, and Google) have beefy processors that are capable of speeding through this process." From a software perspective, "streaming services tend to devote most of their resources to developing the versions of their apps that run on the Big Four platforms. If they bother to even make an app for a native smart TV platform.. it's unlikely to be anywhere near as polished as the Roku or Apple version of the same app."
We continue to flee cable. FierceCable reports that satellite and telecommunications-based subscription video services lost 430,000 customers in the third quarter of 2016, according to data from research firm SNL KaganCable. The year-to-date loss sets a new record of 1.3 million subscribers.
Sales of TV antennas on the rise, growing at about 9 percent this year. HomeAdvisor, a company that connects contractors to homeowners, reports a 28 percent increase in TV antenna installation requests from last year to this year.
