There is an endless supply of threads, blog posts, and articles talking about how to save money by "cutting the cord." Looking at how services are shaping up with package bundles, price increases, and carriage disputes, in a lot of ways this is turning into more of a "cord switch." With the content producers calling most of the shots, eventually this is going to lead to price uniformity for content between cable, satellite, and streaming providers. One key disadvantage the streaming providers will have at scale is that their distribution costs will continue to increase linearly with their number of simultaneous viewers. Eventually we're going to hit a scaling threshold where linear distribution (live TV) streaming will be more expensive to the consumer than cable or satellite.
Even knowing the costs will increase, here are what I think the "killer features" are that will still make streaming worth it in the future.
Unified TV Interface
For years I've used Harmony programmable remotes to control my entertainment devices. For the most part, the solution works okay, as long as everything responds correctly to the remote inputs. Occasionally the AV receiver will ignore an input change, the TV won't turn on, the DirecTV receiver will ignore a power on command, but 95% of the time it works the way it should. Still, the remote still presents an uphill battle for anyone else who uses the remote (wife, kids, house guests).
As you switch between services, each device has its own slightly different navigation interface, different icon set, and you have to hunt on the remote to find things like the "red button" or "yellow button."
In my current setup with an AppleTV 4k, everything works with a single 6 button remote. A single button press of the remote engages HDMI-CEC to turn on the receiver, set the input, turn on the TV, and also set the input there. With that single remote, 100% of our entertainment options are unlocked.
Want to stream a movie off the home NAS server? Launch "Infuse"
Want to watch local OTA stations live? Launch "Channels" which taps into an antenna connected HDHomerun
Want to watch "cable" networks? Launch "YoutubeTV" or "Philo" (this fragmentation is still necessary in the streaming world, unfortunately)
Apps are available for all our subscriptions, from Hulu, to HBO, to Netflix.
Across all the apps, text input can be done either through voice dictation or via iPhone/iPad text input. Siri voice commands like "Fast forward 30 minutes" can be used.
When anyone is done watching, just hold the "Home" button, select "sleep" and everything turns off.
1 remote. 1 interface.
Watch anywhere, full experience
Perhaps the best benefit of online streaming with "cloud DVR" is having a centralized playback index. You can start watching a show on TV, pick it up right where you left off on your iPad, and finish up watching it on a phone. It's all the magic of DirecTV multi-room viewing, extended to any device you can use anywhere with an Internet connection.
User profiles
Sometimes it can be annoying to dig through a long list of DVR programs just to find the one thing you specifically recorded and wanted to watch. One of the best features of online streaming services is individual profiles for DVR content, channel lists, and preferences. This is an area where YoutubeTV really shines, because you can customize the order of your live channel guide. I can put the channels I care about most at the top of my list, meanwhile, my other half can arrange her channels in a way that appeals to her the most.
As YoutubeTV learns the things we each tend to watch, it makes personalized suggestions of other programming that might appeal to us individually. As a discovery tool for content, this is a huge win over traditional TV.
The end of DVR management
This didn't present itself as a huge win until we got to services like Youtube TV and Philo. It's surprisingly nice to not have to think about deleting DVR content ever. Similarly, it's nice to be able to do "blanket recording" with services like YoutubeTV, where I can just select "Record all NHL games." I might not watch half of the games, but it doesn't matter. There is no space allocation that I'm taking up, and I don't have to worry about deleting recordings to make sure I have room. Most importantly, I don't have to be selective about what I record out of fear it will purge things off my list too quickly.
Faster rollout of picture quality enhancements
Unlike their broadcast counterparts, streaming services inherently have the ability to present multiple stream types to clients. This means that they can more quickly add things like h265/4k streaming options without having to completely revamp their entire infrastructure to do it.
YoutubeTV has come a long way in the last 18 months. When I first looked at the service, there was still a lot of limitations around frame rate and bitrate. Now they're offering streams of NBCSN de-interlaced into 1080p60 hitting bitrates north of 7mbps. This is the first year that I've gone primarily to streaming to watch the NHL playoffs instead of DirecTV. This time of year seems to be rough with DirecTV (satellite) compression, and there are nights where the picture quality of YoutubeTV blows DirecTV away. Here's an example of a particularly bad night for DirecTV:
DirecTV: https://live.staticflickr.com/7874/33712441738_d30851f0f3_o.jpg
YoutubeTV: https://live.staticflickr.com/7818/40623425183_2f4ae976a5_o.jpg
Even knowing the costs will increase, here are what I think the "killer features" are that will still make streaming worth it in the future.
Unified TV Interface
For years I've used Harmony programmable remotes to control my entertainment devices. For the most part, the solution works okay, as long as everything responds correctly to the remote inputs. Occasionally the AV receiver will ignore an input change, the TV won't turn on, the DirecTV receiver will ignore a power on command, but 95% of the time it works the way it should. Still, the remote still presents an uphill battle for anyone else who uses the remote (wife, kids, house guests).
As you switch between services, each device has its own slightly different navigation interface, different icon set, and you have to hunt on the remote to find things like the "red button" or "yellow button."
In my current setup with an AppleTV 4k, everything works with a single 6 button remote. A single button press of the remote engages HDMI-CEC to turn on the receiver, set the input, turn on the TV, and also set the input there. With that single remote, 100% of our entertainment options are unlocked.
Want to stream a movie off the home NAS server? Launch "Infuse"
Want to watch local OTA stations live? Launch "Channels" which taps into an antenna connected HDHomerun
Want to watch "cable" networks? Launch "YoutubeTV" or "Philo" (this fragmentation is still necessary in the streaming world, unfortunately)
Apps are available for all our subscriptions, from Hulu, to HBO, to Netflix.
Across all the apps, text input can be done either through voice dictation or via iPhone/iPad text input. Siri voice commands like "Fast forward 30 minutes" can be used.
When anyone is done watching, just hold the "Home" button, select "sleep" and everything turns off.
1 remote. 1 interface.
Watch anywhere, full experience
Perhaps the best benefit of online streaming with "cloud DVR" is having a centralized playback index. You can start watching a show on TV, pick it up right where you left off on your iPad, and finish up watching it on a phone. It's all the magic of DirecTV multi-room viewing, extended to any device you can use anywhere with an Internet connection.
User profiles
Sometimes it can be annoying to dig through a long list of DVR programs just to find the one thing you specifically recorded and wanted to watch. One of the best features of online streaming services is individual profiles for DVR content, channel lists, and preferences. This is an area where YoutubeTV really shines, because you can customize the order of your live channel guide. I can put the channels I care about most at the top of my list, meanwhile, my other half can arrange her channels in a way that appeals to her the most.
As YoutubeTV learns the things we each tend to watch, it makes personalized suggestions of other programming that might appeal to us individually. As a discovery tool for content, this is a huge win over traditional TV.
The end of DVR management
This didn't present itself as a huge win until we got to services like Youtube TV and Philo. It's surprisingly nice to not have to think about deleting DVR content ever. Similarly, it's nice to be able to do "blanket recording" with services like YoutubeTV, where I can just select "Record all NHL games." I might not watch half of the games, but it doesn't matter. There is no space allocation that I'm taking up, and I don't have to worry about deleting recordings to make sure I have room. Most importantly, I don't have to be selective about what I record out of fear it will purge things off my list too quickly.
Faster rollout of picture quality enhancements
Unlike their broadcast counterparts, streaming services inherently have the ability to present multiple stream types to clients. This means that they can more quickly add things like h265/4k streaming options without having to completely revamp their entire infrastructure to do it.
YoutubeTV has come a long way in the last 18 months. When I first looked at the service, there was still a lot of limitations around frame rate and bitrate. Now they're offering streams of NBCSN de-interlaced into 1080p60 hitting bitrates north of 7mbps. This is the first year that I've gone primarily to streaming to watch the NHL playoffs instead of DirecTV. This time of year seems to be rough with DirecTV (satellite) compression, and there are nights where the picture quality of YoutubeTV blows DirecTV away. Here's an example of a particularly bad night for DirecTV:
DirecTV: https://live.staticflickr.com/7874/33712441738_d30851f0f3_o.jpg
YoutubeTV: https://live.staticflickr.com/7818/40623425183_2f4ae976a5_o.jpg
