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TECHNOLOGY A23
Monday 18 January 2016
Tech at a Glance:
The differences between the new online cable bundles
TALI ARBEL This photo shows the Roku 3, a product for streaming popular house. For the TV, you need cluding ABC and ESPN, will
Associated Press video services, apps and games in high-definition, in Decatur, an antenna for live chan- be added at an unspeci-
NEW YORK (AP) — Tradi- Ga. Moving the traditional cable bundle online, stripped down nels, though you get chan- fied date, and CW isn’t
tional cable providers are to fewer channels and freed from ugly cable boxes, is all the nel apps like HBO Go and available.
launching TV packages rage these days. The Roku box, which also lets you watch Net- Fox Now for on-demand You can watch up to three
that don’t require cable flix, Amazon and other services, is smaller and slightly less un- video if you have a stream- simultaneous streams in a
boxes — good for you be- sightly than a cable box typically is. ing gadget like Roku, Ap- home.
cause you save on month- ple TV or Xbox. Benefits: You can record
ly equipment fees and (AP Photo/Ron Harris) Where it’s available: Boston shows so you can fast-
don’t need a technician to and Chicago markets for forward through commer-
come install it for you. except for WatchESPN. at $10 cost me more than Comcast’s existing Internet cials, but they expire after
But there are also draw- A family with multiple TVs $13. You need a phone customers. The company 28 days, with no ability to
backs. Some services are would probably want call to sign up and cancel. plans for expand to other archive them, as you can
easy to add and cancel, more than one subscrip- Channels took about three regions and create more with traditional DVRs.
like Netflix is. Time Warner tion. (If you add HBO, you seconds to load. channel options. Drawbacks: You need a
Cable required a phone get three streams for that Where it’s available: New Price per month: $15, plus PlayStation or Amazon’s
call for both. Apart from channel only.) York City; Mt. Vernon, New taxes and fees, which can Fire TV device to sign up.
Sling, leaving your home Where it’s available: Na- York; New Jersey for peo- add up to an additional $4. Price is comparable to reg-
cuts off access to a lot of tionwide. ple who also pay for Time ular cable.
video. As with traditional Price per month: Starts at Warner Cable. There’s no SONY VUE Where it’s available: Chi-
cable service, sometimes $20, plus taxes where re- timeline beyond that. What you get: Major cago, Dallas, Los Angeles,
there are unexpected fees quired. Adding HBO costs Price per month: $10 for broadcast networks and Miami, New York, Philadel-
that end up on your bill. $15, and add-on packag- over-the-air channels, $20 popular cable channels. phia and the San Francisco
A breakdown of what’s es of channels with themes if you add Showtime and Those owned by Disney, in- Bay Area.q
good and what’s not: like sports, movies, kids and Starz, $50 to also add sev-
world news are $5 each. eral dozen cable networks
DISH’S SLING TV including AMC, Disney,
What you get: About 20 TIME WARNER CABLE’S ESPN, Fox News and TNT.
cable channels, including ROKU APP (WITH NO CABLE These are promotional pric-
ESPN, ABC Family, AMC BOX) es that will rise. Local taxes
and Food Network. Over- What you get: Different and fees are additional.
the-air channels like ABC, tiers of service that mirror
CBS, Fox and NBC are not cable offerings: Local net- COMCAST STREAM
available; Univision is for works and a bundle with What you get: Local net-
an additional fee. You can popular cable channels. works, HBO and the ability
only watch one stream at Five simultaneous streams. to watch two simultaneous
a time, so it’s not for fami- Benefits: You get TV and streams.
lies. most popular streaming Benefits: An Internet-based
Benefits: It’s the best deal video services through a DVR with 20 hours of stor-
for live TV, with a slim pack- free (for now) Roku 3 box, age that lets you fast-for-
age of some of the most which is easy to use. Chan- ward commercials and
popular cable channels. nels are high-definition watch outside the home.
The same shows are avail- quality. Drawbacks: Live TV works
able at home as when Drawbacks: With taxes and only on phones, tablets
you’re away. fees, a service advertised and computers in your
Drawbacks: There have
been quality issues with
streaming. You can’t re-
cord shows. There are
some on-demand epi-
sodes, but you can’t skip
commercials for most, and
it’s hard to figure out where
the on-demand episodes
are. Sling announced at
CES last week that it will im-
prove that by March.
You don’t get access to
apps created by channels
