Frugal Rules LIve Stream 9-6-24: DirecTV Disney Carriage Dispute, streaming deals and more

hello everyone happy Friday yes hi everyone apologies we're a little late had a few technical um glitches issues but we're here so thank you for joining us um hope that the weather is as nice in your neck of the woods as as it is for us we've been having like 72 and sunny so they're going to start have having to call us um La Midwest or something like that yeah San Diego San Diego Central yeah yeah uh wondering if any of you all caught the game last night and what uh your thoughts were on the officiating and mistakes that gave the game to uh the Chiefs uh but we have a lot this week that we're going to discuss so I'm going to get right into it uh first I'm going to mention a couple of deals here in happy Friday as well uh some deals are out there uh a couple new ones couple ones that are still ongoing so peacock uh which the game tonight is on exclusively um is offering a deal for $4.99 a month for your first four months so about 30% off that deal ends uh at the end of the day today um so that is a decent deal uh fubo was still offering $30 off a month um and Direct TV stream which we're going to talk a lot about today um they tweak their deal a little bit it's $15 off for the first two months of entertainment which is the base plan and $20 off a month for the first two months on its higher tier plans Paramount plus is still having its promo of half off uh either of the plans uh so 30 or 60 for a year and that's good through the 23rd and uh YouTube TV just announced a 3- week free trial and it still has her $8 off a month for the first four months so plenty of out there uh so getting into it the first slate of NFL games as as you likely know um thanks Jason thanks for stopping by um the first game or the first Friday night game tonight is Packers Eagles exclusively on peacock um in Brazil between uh and so it's only on peacock unless you live in Green in the Green Bay Milwaukee or Philadelphia TV markets then you're the game will also be on NBC starting next Thursday uh Thursday Night Football will be on Prime video for the rest of the season fun fact about that game should tell them about where one team is and where the other is oh yeah read read this yesterday so the NFL I don't know if it was the NFL or not but the Packers are the visiting team the Eagles are the home team and the Eagles are are basically like a stone throw from the stadium the Packers their hotel is 2 hours away from the stadium and so they have security concerns are acting like a true really true traveling team and um so yeah that's just interesting I know one other piece we will not be here next Friday uh we play uh K St plays Arizona next Friday night so we will be tailgating at this time next Friday so anyway um anyone has any food suggestions for a wildcat on Wildcat battle drop it in the chat yes uh so we're going to start off with the Direct TV uh Direct TV stream Disney disput um this does not look like your normal everyday uh Carriage dispute that uh we have become to has become too commonplace in the streaming and cable space lately so last this past Sunday over 11 million Direct TV Direct TV stream and Erse uh customers lost access to Disney owned channels uh it came the blackout came 10 minutes before the Sunday night college football game of LSU USC and um Direct TV on their part is saying that they are giving clients a $20 off credit uh on their accounts if yall can see here but you have to qualify and you have to go to this site directtv.com back/ tvpromise yes this is not something they're just giving you yeah they're not just giving like YouTube TV has done in the past and others have done in the past you have to go to the site that Nicole mentioned and we'll actually put it uh in the notes of the live stream after it runs um but you have to go to this site to see if you are eligible to get this $20 credit um you should be um but this is Dr TV um so this has gotten pretty nasty pretty pretty quickly um Disney says that it wants a fair quote unquote Fair market-based agreement that reflects the value of its content Direct TV said in a press release that Disney is forcing it to agree to wave all future claims that Disney's behavior is anti-competitive and that any future lawsuits must be adjudicated in California not New York YK since that is where the southern district of New York judge ruled against venue Disney created a page on its site telling Direct TV customers where to get their networks now Direct TV stance shocker who lose right there yes Direct TV stance uh they argue that Disney is forcing them into what they call quote unquote fat bundles that require subscribers to pay for unwanted channels and uh they are advocating for smaller more customized packages that align with customer preferences Direct TV also claims that Disney is gouging customers and Distributors which will be key here in a moment that gouging aspect um so it's pretty Choice coming from Direct TV they say Direct TV says that they are willing to wait out as long as they need even if it's after Monday Night Football errs it claims quote Disney demanded that to reach a deal we must wave all future legal claims that its behaviors and I competive unquote which is what I stated a minute ago and this is part of a broader Trend in the industry where content providers and Distributors are increasingly at odds over how to balance Rising content costs and shifting consumer viewing habits uh Craig Moffett uh an analyst that we've uh cited uh quite a bit um he's tracked the cable industry for decades says the combination of the venue legal defeat in the Direct TV Disney Clash he sees as a potentially apoc apocalyptic uh for the traditional TV business quote it's not an overstatement to say that bundling is everything for the pay TV industry unquote and claims and he wrote to clients on Tuesday quote without it what's left of linear TV or at least its economics would rapidly unravel replace by a punishing allart model that even at Strat feric prices for the musthave networks wouldn't come close to replacing the Lost revenues of the current model unquote so this really is a lot about bundling um bundles are being challenged by customers and Distributors and um Disney has claimed that they have made several uh proposed several options including a sports Centric package that that packages ESPN and ABC to keep its large amount of customers on Direct TV but that hasn't stuck yet so that choice part on Direct TV's stance they announced this morning about an hour and a half two hours ago a price hike in the midst of this what is seemingly on the surface a bad bad uh Carriage uh agreement they announc it this morning starting on October 6th uh it's going to depend on what level uh Direct TV stream plan you have but the entertainment so the base package is going to go up $7 a month to $86.99 making it the most expensive base plan assuming that you don't have a don't have fubo with narison choice is going to go up $6 to $114.99 Ultimate $10 to $129.99 and Premiere $5 to $169.99 this this is after two price hikes in 23 January and November and no value ad because of it um so that there's a lot there um again this is two big companies I've not looked at how big Direct TV is recently but I have to imagine that Disney is quite a bit bigger but still two big companies that are fighting it out leaving us as a consumer in the middle and then Direct TV which I would tend to in this case I would tend to probably lean a little bit more in their standing um they're going and raising prices in in the midst of this um without adding something to it uh you see you know someone like pho they raise their prices they give you a value ad Direct TV is not doing that and Direct TV itself is also raising prices for its satellite customers um along the very similar lines and so it makes me me personally at least feel hard pressed to see any of their sigh in this because they're just as bad they're just doing it slightly differently with their own thing but it's just as bad yeah uh hi to everyone in the um chat and you're welcome Jen we love passing on deals to y'all um so we're gonna move on to our next topic which is about venue and we and Raymond pointed out that Spectrum did the same thing last year I asked for the credit too often that's unfortunately the case um it should be like YouTube TVs don't on the past we're just giving everyone impacted you know X credit yeah but Direct TV is not doing that and we're yet no we're raising prices on you to boot yeah so yeah it's either poor customer service like not just not valuing that as a business and or not having the mar not feeling like you have the margin to do what's right for your customers I mean Google which owns YouTube TV sitting on a big pile of cash so arguably they can afford to just roll out the credit but it is the right thing to do yeah so and I it will be fascinating to see how long this cares dispute goes on um because Direct TV seems dug in yeah and do it's not that the dispute itself is new I mean we to Raymond's point we see these things regularly but this where the streaming industry and where cable is and we'll get into that in a minute is right now that's different we're at a different point and so I think that's what makes this Carriage dispute critical and really worth watching yeah especially with what's going on with venue fubo yeah and so just to talk about venue a little bit so um there is an ongoing lawsuit now with venue and it it's we've talked about that here but what it's doing is Raising questions about how fans will Access Sports content in the future um so there are concerns over higher pricing viewing options and um we saw this piece came across this piece in the Wall Street journals an opinion piece um very strong but we had disagreed with much of it we'll just come out that some of it yes uh some of it we agree with but this person the author really takes the side of the media companies in this piece um taking the side of Disney Fox and wbd um he states that venue is a transitional product we agree um but he makes several points that we really disagree with first he says I'm going to quote him here from the article um the Anti-Trust delusion remember that's f is charging AR venue with antitrust violation and a judge agreed enough to the point to have a case about it he says quote the Anti-Trust delusion survives on distorted thinking that ignores the shrieking evident rate of change in underlying markets we disagree because we think there is a legitimate Anti-Trust issue at stake in this case um he accuses the judge of being anti- bundling and defends Fox Disney and wbd as saving consumers money with the traditional Cable Bundle and says that venue is a skinny bundle um that consumers have been asking for so we disagree we think the Judge isn't being anti- bundling by questioning the potentially anti-competitive nature of venue um will Disney wbd and fox so will venue be offered to other distributors um or will they make consumers come to them to get it if it's the latter that's anti-competitive because if they have something unique then they can raise the price without competitive pressure to bring it down and you could argue who would stay with cable then anybody that has cable for sports is just going to drop cable and go to venue and and to be fair we do also definitely see where fubo is wrong in this so it's we can see both sides in this it's just this article um it was choice and what what I my personal favorite was um in the middle of the argument he glosses over the over his disclosure says disclosure Fox a corporate cousin of our parent is a party of the lawsuit and one of the losers in the judge's decision so arguably has some sort of skin in the game skin in the game not a ton but some and yeah appreciate the opposing Viewpoint because it crystallizes some things on the other side right and um it also leads us to another question which is um is cable TV finally dead now we we know it's been dying for some time we're not on the vine yes we are obviously not ignorant to that fact um a few just numbers to throw out there that probably many of us are already familiar with won't be surprised by cable now represents only and this came out this week yeah the new some new stats um 26.7% of all TV viewing um which is it's a decline because people are streaming streaming services account for 38.7% of all viewing broadcast TV represents now only 20% of viewing and you know there's a lot of reasons for that um one of those is that networks are and Cable cable and broadcast networks are pulling their premium content the shows everyone wants to watch increasingly pulling those off of broadcast and putting them on peacock on um Paramount Plus on you know their Hulu on their own CH uh streaming platforms because they want you to sign up for those so it's it's logical it makes sense um the reason I'm showing this headline here is that that um there is a financial aspect to all of this that's just worth looking at um major media companies are writing down their cable assets here you see wbd had a stock dip because of that um it is saying and this is the whole point of bringing it up wbd is saying its cable networks are worth 9.1 billion less than what they say they are on paper and so and that happened with Paramount as well yeah and you don't have to be a stock market junkie or anything to appreciate that it's just a sign again that the cable and satellite um Revenue model is in steep Decline and so you know they really are collapsing they used to be profitable for the studios um now it's forcing Reliance on streaming revenues and that is still struggling to become profitable because it costs a lot of money to prop up a new way of Distributing content so why does all this matter well it impacts um the dispute that we're seeing between Disney and Direct TV because they're in a standoff now and they know this is happening and I think I think the um cable networks satellite networks like Direct TV are trying to cling to what they can before the last gasp um and then someone like Disney doesn't want to give that you know they they don't want to give up anything either so they are in a standoff um and just a few other points that show that even channels cable channels like VH1 um TBS used to have new content premiering there now it's largely reruns so um without content worth paying for just to take Direct TV side here fubo side um what they're asking why should we have to keep paying you more money when you're taking your content off and why should our customers have to keep paying more for that content so um you know it's not like cable TV we're going to wake up tomorrow and it's going to be gone I just talked to someone yesterday that still has a landline Technologies get replaced by new ones the older Technologies don't die overnight we still use radio um so I do think that when we look at like where is this going it doesn't surprise me to see analyst saying streaming's eventually going to look like what cable used to and I think what's what we're seeing change is how the content is dist distributed instead of cable it's going to be coming over the internet and companies like isn't it AT&T that owns Direct TV or did yeah did the companies the com casts that are behind NBC and peacock the companies that control the internet fiber they're just going to shift to making money off of that and delivering content over there in the same way that someone like AT&T or Cox who owns the cable C uh cable wires were charging you for that service as well as the content on it so yeah there's a few comments uh want to address uh yeah with venue on hold what's our reaction to Max plan is charge for the sports um add-on for Bacher report supports add-on uh we're going to address that but yeah we're not surprised by it we don't like it especially given that it's highly highly likely that wbd is not going to have the MBA um after next season um and Bill is is exactly right that Sports is really a the driver behind this um given that so much of what what is watched live as Sports and football um but what what I who I really feel for is for the subs for the person who doesn't need Sports doesn't want sports but they're with a service makes they want something close to a cable like experience and they're being held hostage and they're like with direct Direct TV stream in this case they're stuck without ABC or so one of their local networks or other networks that they may want to watch that uh for those tertiary like channels that Disney owns that really don't cost any they're they're without they're without that because of sports generally speaking and I agree with you space goost uh their downfall uh really began when they got rid of Turner networks and um they have raise rates consistently since then and then okay they have rsns which is great but then that you know puts a base plan at or near $100 a month and uh so it's yeah and R and your right ESPN does charge the most for their channels it's about $10 a month a little under that um um and that is true it is interesting to me as well that that's what they're charging Distributors and we know that is not what we pay yeah for those channels so there's quite a bit of markup going on exactly and so we T so next topic we touched on this last week it has changed um with rsns we had uh reported last week or discussed last week what have been reported that Amazon that Prime video was going to be pulling out of there reported 115 so $15 million investment into B uh into Diamond Sports that has changed and there have been some other issues um there they were in court again this week um their diamonds Financial instability uh remains to be an issue um they uh let's see here uh judge ruled on so diam Sports secured uh new deals with NBA and NHL teams for the 2425 season enabling them to continue broadcasting games for 13 NBA teams and nine NHL teams but it's Major League Baseball that's really the the key piece in this um Major League Baseball isn't happy and they understandably so so Diamond Sports is given until April of next year to really say what they're going to doing going to do and that's you know right In the Heat of the beginning of the baseball season so they're under understandably concerned about this so New York Times reported this and um so they were again they were in court this week and so this is a quote from New York Times judge Chris Lopez on Tuesday approved deals Diamond recently reached with both the NBA and AHL calling them a step in the right direction but contained in those agreements is a key date that has put MLB on the offensive both required Diamond to come out of bankruptcy by April 1st shortly after the baseball season season begins unquote and MLB has uh 12 total teams on Bal uh three of which have contracts expiring at the end of this season and they said on Tuesday that they would seek quote drastic legal action unquote if Diamond Sports can't speak sooner with regards to their plans for the 25 season and then yesterday late yesterday afternoon New York Post so remember that Amazon had said last week we're pulling out we're not interested that has changed now uh and of we actually recorded a video that's going to be running on Monday that's going to be contrary to this but uh came out yesterday afternoon New York Post quote Amazon is in late St late stage talks for a contract to live stream on Amazon Prime this coming season season all the balet sports BR broadcast of 12 NBA franchises as well as five MLB teams and nine NHL teams sources close to situation said and under this deal Amazon would broadcast all NBA games that are not nationally televised for 12 teams and another quote from the New York Post uh a source said it is not exclusive allowing Diamond to further expand its reach by signing deals with other platform forms including YouTube and so in the in the midst of this um you know with some teams trying to work out as we discussed last week work out uh deals to air free over the air in their city or other things uh I take Prime video stepping in as as a good thing generally speaking but don't know you know enough about it until more of it fleshes out and um yeah and I agree with you Space Ghost That Space Ghost it's it's a forced situation to pay for them and that really shouldn't be the case um when you're looking at what like 12 to $15 a month and for someone that doesn't want that that just raises the price even more and that flows in that makes it harder for you to get yeah makes it harder for you to get when you only have fubo or TV stream can't it be something like AMC plus where you can add it on through any provider yeah or you can get the belly Sports bus app it's not very good it's not very good at least the last time we tested it so uh this is still ongoing and hopefully we'll have more news um in the near future on that and as was addressed in the comments um max came wbd came out this week and and it's reported that they are going to start charging for the Bleacher Report Sports add-on it's we've had it for what six 8 10 I can't remember how long it's been um since last fall late last fall and they're going to start charging uh streaming service customers an additional $9.99 a month uh for access to it for uh sports like NBA MLB they added like Mountain West games um and this really isn't on one hand it's really not surprising given that venue was on hold and they've been offering this for free for so long um and but but wbd feels the need to establish a clear streaming strategy for sports rights as its traditional cable networks decline CEO David zazo is focused on tradition wbds lucrative Sports rights programming as they call it such as March Madness and MLB playoffs from cable with streaming although that they are set in all likelihood to lose NBA rights um and despite losing NBA Warner Brothers has added other sports like the French Open Mountain West games and Bloomberg uh reported on it saying quote the future of major media companies including Warner Brothers and ESPN depends on solving the 20 billion challenge of monetizing live sports streaming was zazo and ESPN's Jimmy pataro playing key roles in the upcoming Sports bundle venue and it's um yeah it's from what I read They're hoping to get whatever lingering technical issues uh they're having with it and and our usage of it over the months we've not really run into any technical issues that I can remember at least nothing significant um so um you know some more good comments in the comment section I completely agree with Bill the only way to stop uh price increases is people to stop paying for it um and uh and if you are someone who we had earlier here uh like Jason says if you can watch your teams over the air and if and be satisfied with that um you know we just need it's okay if you can't but enough people get to that kind of feeling that'll be the kind of pressure from the market that brings the prices back yeah in line yeah and given how the economy has been over the last few years mean to pay a hundred plus dollars for a platform where you're only going to want three or four networks and then someone like fubo so many of them are the fast options why should I pay pay for that yeah and um and I agree with Space Ghost I also don't have a problem with the charge for the Bleacher Reports uh Bleacher Report sports package as long as it remains voluntary I agree yeah that's not coach I wouldn't want that and all the communication from them thus far has been that it's a voluntary add-on um if they change that to well you're going be like fubo and well you're going to get this RSN fee if they change that that that's going to be a huge nail in their cof in my opinion because at $10 for Max we watched Max quite a bit we can see the value in in $10 to pay for Max but then you make it $20 right then it makes us seriously question okay are we just going to get rid of it and get it once or twice during the year and watch what we want for a month and and move on yeah and I think that goes back to you know it started as HBO which is a very specific kind of content it they always had a higher price rate but it was something people were willing to pay because it was quality content then they merged with Max and you had a lot of Lifestyle like discovery type content coming in but they really didn't change the price so that was okay uh now if you if you add in the sports without the option I think you're trying to become cable again and forcing everybody to to pay a higher rate for everything even though you don't necessarily want it and it takes us away from the all a cart which is what I think as someone in the comments shared it's really what we we would like yeah as long as It's Not Over the Top pricing for the $40 for ESPN or something and and Paul brings up a great question will Amazon stick with this move with balet sports um and that's a great question because now as we discussed last week ESPN wanting to dip their toes in Regional stuff that could be why Amazon has supposedly change course and then you have Disney and Amazon fighting over excuse me these local sports rights I think they will because they've got more cash to sit on than Disney and why why wouldn't they since they have NFL games they going to have uh have NBA games and with ESPN I remember we read one article that hinted at them wanting to offer access to just a team like be able for you to pay for just one team's games if Amazon hears that and they think well we can do that I mean you know there's a lot of money to be made there yeah and Nancy brings up a good point as well that's sling handling Sports pretty well and and I think they do um given the two different plan options and if you want more Sports you can add on the the sports add-on and so it's there uh for people that want it but it's not forcing you like fubo or Direct TV stream though I will say one downside to offering individual if if it gets out of hand like where um you can just sign up for your team's games what happens to someone like my team like the Chargers that really people they're not the Cowboys they don't have a nationwide following uh if they stop Revenue sharing what does that mean long term for the quality of the sport so it's just we could talk about it all day but we won't we'll wrap up with a story on Disney I don't know if y all saw this um I thought it was really interesting Disney uh got hacked um looked like it was a Russian group that said they were like Pro consumer but who knows they got Got a Hold through one employee um access to gosh a lot of data um 44 million messages on a Disney Employee slack Channel and this is just through one employee my if they would have gotten access to more employees it would be amazing how much more content 18,000 spreadsheets 13,000 PDFs and um you know the Wall Street Journal did an article here they've begun to Wade through what was and um some highlights just to share with you so um Disney does not release data on its streaming platforms publicly in terms of separating out you know what did Disney plus make in Revenue what did Hulu generate in Revenue well they were able to see in these documents that Disney plus generated $2.4 billion of Revenue in the March quarter and that that was 43% of the revenue that Disney reports for it um entertainment business consumer direct to Consumer which also includes Hulu so it kind of shows you that Hulu is actually playing maybe a bigger role it might be more valuable than we thought and that plays into those ongoing negotiations between Disney and Comcast over that remaining third share of Hulu um some other just little po PRI uh there was some data about them Disney considering ad campaigns from Netflix and other Rivals that it was considering running ads for them on its platform and as someone who still has somehow a spot in my heart for Disneyland um Genie plus generated $724 million on pre-tax Revenue over three years just at Disney world alone and then just one final thing about Disney to share if you subscribe to Disney plus you might have seen this um it live we knew this was coming feeds of live channels have started well curated Life channel feeds um similar to what we see in a lot of the fast Services um Disney has started adding those and um if we'll see if we can show it here um this is just I'm logged into my Disney plus um let me see if I can show you where to find this if I can uh get rid of this ad ah well it logged me out I'm sorry guys but um just to let you know it'll show up there in terms of U right along the top you'll be able to see a um Banner at the top that'll say like with a little icon and a lightning bolt and it'll say live and then it'll have the show and you can click in to watch it live um when I saw it was just Disney Jr stuff um I know that's one of the feeds they're running um and so it was promoting whatever show was running I think it was Bluey um at that point and you could click in and watch that live and I noticed they did that again farther down on the home screen as you're scrolling through content it would have a big banner um that said live so something to keep an eye on uh great yeah great and all but I think they need to add ABC like you can uh peacock on NBC NBC on peacock or CBS on plus yeah that's fair like live feed of ABC because they have put in ABC News live but that is a free um streaming channel available widely on Fast services so yeah they added a live feed of ABC including your your locally aired NFL games that would be interesting wouldn't it yeah so um I was a lot this week uh thanks for hanging around uh for a few minutes longer um just a few reminders we won't be here next Friday because we will be tailgating at that time um gok State and um we will have in the notes of this live stream the site to go to if you're Direct TV or Direct TV Stream customer just see if you qualify for credit and don't forget about those uh deals that I mentioned uh at the top of the live stream if you're looking to save some money thanks Jason for the kind words we appreciate you all um joining in it makes the work we put into it worth it so thank you guys have a great weekend and go cats yes