Streaming versus Broadcast TV

[monkey44]

We've never done much streaming, except we are Prime Amazon and view some selected movies or series. No commercials.

We'd like to know the benefit of streaming networks over regular TV as far as content - maybe - but more interested in how the entertainment presents to the audience.

For example: We watched a few Olympic contests, but quickly tired of the constant interruptions and split screen commercials. Similar to how sports - football and baseball - do now during games. We gave up quickly on the Olympics - which we've always enjoyed in the past. It was truly horrible - both content and commentary. We felt really bad for the athletes that train so hard, and got *%^$_ ed.

Do we gain anything with streaming? Does streaming present the same interruptions, more, less?? We think of paying for network streaming entertainment as a seperate issue. If we pay, no commercials, if free - well then we have to put up with it. An exchange sorta ...

We did not buy a 'big screen' so that commercials could use half to show ADs and half to show the entertainment as is what happened in Olympics and pro sports.

Is this the same in streaming, when the content is the same?

Hope I'm asking this properly. We expect no commercials if we buy an HBO movie, for example. And if we buy a TV channel over and above what we receive on our Comcast package, we're paying extra to delete the interruptions.

Can someone explain the difference in these venues? Thanks M44 & Genie ... 🙂 🙂

[Gdetrailer]

Benefit?

You can "choose" any program at any time provided the streaming service has made it available.

That's it.

The downside, most streaming services have a multi-tier approach in pricing.

Lowest cost, you pay for the service and yet you still get commercials, plus you have limitations on how may devices can access the streams at the same time.

Higher cost, you pay more for the service and no commercials, often allows for for devices to be streaming at the same time.

You use up your Internet data at an alarming rate. To reduce the amount of data you use to fit your data caps you may need to reduce your stream quality to Standard Definition (SD 480i) and not any HD quality.. Might look OK on your phone screen but put that onto a 50+ inch TV and it will get pretty ugly looking.

Streaming via campgrounds WiFi is questionable at best with most campgrounds.

You might be camping in a location which has weak to no cell service and campground WiFi does not exist rendering your paid subscription totally worthless.

You don't use the streaming service as much as you thought you might, well you still pay for it..

You will have to pick your poison on which streaming services you subscribe to.. Otherwise you will end up paying much much more than if you just paid for Dish or Direct.. Many programs are held exclusive to certain streaming services and do not crossover so you may find yourself paying for Disney+, Discovery+, Netflix, Amazon prime and so on just to get the programs you want to see..

Most streaming services have been quietly bumping up the prices and are no longer as cheap as they were.. $10 here, $20 there, it all adds up..

As far as the Olympics goes, as usual coverage was very lame.. Been that way since the 1970s.. There is so many sports that takes hrs and hrs in the Olympics and only a small window of prime time coverage they must compress or not cover a lot of sports..

This time they had limited coverage on CNBC and USA network, Hockey was on CNBC which I was fine with since I don't care for Hockey.. USA network had some extra coverage of some of the events, but often repeated the previous days covered events from OTA NBC.. I personally wouldn't pay one dime or sign up (even if free) for for NBC Streaming just for Olympics (or any of the OTA networks) as the big three networks don't have one single redeeming program to watch that I can't watch OTA.

[jorbill2or]

If you buy a certain network, like paramount plus ( cbs) you can normally get basic which has commercials or pay extra for none or few. Regular live network programs abc nbc cbs have commercials , no different than over the air. If you talking about streaming services with multiple scheduled channels like Hulu youtubetv sling etc then no , commercials are also there. It’s really just like cable tv. You pay for access to the channel You can of course start the program late and fast forward through.
They all have free trials . Try one ( or all) and cancel before trials end . It will give you an understanding of how they work. We use youtubetv as our Sat tv replacement. Along with several pay networks. STARZ hbo etc are commercial free.
Which network are you wanting to stream ?