Public television no longer has the courage to watch it live online.
Last week, PBS introduced the loose online stream of 88 member stations, giving the audience that cut the cable the option of a loose but dubious live reception, and Google’s $65/month YouTube TV streaming service.
The last option itself did not arrive until mid-December, ending a long era in which PBS stations were the only local stations that were not available on major television streaming services.
But loose viewing of PBS online introduced without a tweet or press release may not be a frame for all YouTube TV subscribers due to rate increases from this Google service.
First, the list of member stations that offer free live streams does not fit the overall one that can be obtained on YouTube TV. For example, while WNET in New York, Washington WETA, and Chicago’s WTTW now broadcast loosely, Boston WGBH, San Francisco KQED, and Los Angeles. ‘Not SoCal PBS.
Second, this new option works on fewer devices. You can take a look in a browser (PBS specifies Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Microsoft Edge, but the WETA stream also worked on iPadOS DuckDuckGo browser) by visiting pbs. org/livestream or clicking the “Live TV” button on your local station site OR you can watch the PBS Video Channel app on a Roku device.
The first deserves to be open to anyone who has a newer computer, but does not allow viewing on the big screen, through a Chrome browser wirelessly connected to a Chromecast connected (or integrated) to a TV. watch on a TV, but leave the owners of Apple TV, Amazon Fire boxes and sticks and other lucky streaming devices for now.
But perhaps not for long: PBS spokeswoman Atiya Frederick said in an email Tuesday that help would arrive on “additional platforms by 2020. “
PBS streaming allows the audience to suspend live programming, but no DVR is available. Also note that you can only view the primary channel of a PBS affiliate, not the secondary channels that an on-premises virtual stream can transmit.
An industry analyst said those software and hardware limitations seriously hamper the attractiveness of this new venture.
“Like any smart grid, PBS needs to build its audience and success,” wrote Brett Sappington, vice president of market research firm Interpret, in an email. to succeed in the growing number of other people who do not have pay TV. “
He downplayed YouTube TV.
“This replacement is unlikely to charge many YouTube TV subscribers, basically because YouTube TV continues to stream many local PBS channels and would upload more by 2020,” he said. “If YouTube TV had lost PBS, it could be another story. “
For YouTube TV subscribers to lower prices, Hulu Live TV is necessarily your choice outside pbS doors, but it costs $10 less, and you also get hulu’s original programming.
In August, Leichtman Research Group estimated that Hulu had the largest TV subscriber base, with 3. 4 million subscribers compared to Sling TV’s 2. 26 million, at the time of the Durham, NH report. YouTube TV does not disclose the number of subscribers, although Google CEO Sundar Pichai cited more than 2 million subscribers during the company’s fourth quarter 2019 earnings call.
Traditional pay-TV services, however, are an even worse bet now than a staple of many people’s viewing can be received online loose in much of the United States.
Market-by-market peculiarities, such as the asymmetric availability of regional sports network transmission, would possibly continue to reduce the search for audience to escape the treadmill from the endless increases in the value of pay TV, but the overall image deserves to be clearer than ever: streaming is the new norm.
I observe the intersections of technology, culture and strength since the definition of “social media” began with CompuServe and local bulletin board systems and
I look at the intersections of technology, culture and strength since the definition of “social media” began with CompuServe and local ad board systems and the Washington Post had not yet introduced a website. From 1999 to 2011, I wrote the column on customer technologies in the mail and since then I have continued to write about comment loops between us and our gadgets, apps and for media like USA Today, Yahoo Finance, Fast Company and Ars Technica. I’m also a regular speaker and moderator of panels on occasions like Web Summit and SXSW on those topics, I met most of the founders of the Internet and once gained an email reaction from Steve Jobs.