Posted on 11/21/2019 5:24:08 PM PST by SunkenCiv
As our calculator shows, the perhaps impulsive addition of just one service to your budget can snowball into a hefty outlay over a hypothetical half-century horizon, particularly when you're looking at that "true" lifetime cost.
Take someone paying for Netflix's NFLX, +0.07% standard subscription and Hulu, with no add-ons. That person is looking at a monthly bill of $18.98, and a lifetime aggregate cost of $19,264. Factor in the opportunity cost -- as represented by how much money could have been made investing that same money in the S&P 500 over those years -- and the lifetime cost balloons to $87,656.
Now tack on Disney+, and you're looking at $25.97 per month, $26,358 over a lifetime and a "true" lifetime cost of $119,938.
It may be hard to put that number in context over a lifetime, but that's well over three times the current median annual income in the U.S. of about $31,000. It's also, however, far less than the $300,000 "true" cost of an iPhone as estimated by MarketWatch columnist Brett Arends.
In a MarketWatch Twitter poll, 58% of people responding said they only intend to pay for one to two services.
Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Sling, Amazon... there are now So. Many. Streaming options. How many are you going to pay for?
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
I wholeheartedly agree.
People who dump money down that particular toilet aren’t going to take the advice anyway, but the point does indeed make sense.
I have Pluto on the Roku. The Pluto interface just plain sucks, so I knocked it out of my list.
Thx.
Depends on who gets elected in 2024.
Good way to handle it!
Sling tv gives you a tv guide or channel icons to use.
I do not like the tv guide as it is too slow so use the icons as the Roku remote makes it easy to scroll.
The Pluto tv only has the tv guide. There is no back and forth between 2 channels that are widely spaced apart. I think you can setup favorites at the Pluto website but have not tried yet.
The model number... is that in the Setup screen, where I’d check for updates? I’ll have to take a look at that. YouTube stopped working on the Roku 1, and I have not yet checked the Stick to see if it has the same problem.
I’m a little surprised that a YouTube stick never got introduced (there was, after all, a Vudu stick, for cryin’ out loud). That seems like a natural. Google could build in a video editing program and offer free cloud storage for the first year or something, in order to juice production of (hopefully better-looking and better) content, plus driving business to their cloud service.
RE Where is the model number found? On my model (which resembles the size and shape of what restaurants hand you when you’re waiting to be seated) the number is located on the bottom of the Roku “disc”.
“Makin’ a dollar a minute!”
Who in the Hell is going to keep those service for 40 to 60 years?
Now I see Netflix is trying to counter Disney, they are offering the first 30 days free instead of the usual 7 days.
For that deal I may take it so I can see “The Irishman” for free and then cancel.
Works great for me and I like it Pluto.
Who in the Hell is going to keep those service for 40 to 60 years?
People a lot younger than me. BTW, TV is just a fad. Color TV? Same.
None.
Does none work for you?
It works for me.
When my basic+ cable got into the high $20s in the late 90s, I dropped it . I've never gone back. No dish either.
We do have high speed Internet but it is a business expense. I can watch what I want on-line. Not live but I do not watch anything live anyway.
:^) There's not a lot of things broadcast live that are worth paying for.
Pain in the ass to program. Roku and get Pluto, and you pretty much can watch anything. Watching Dean Martin Roasting Evil Knievel. My son is losing his mind! “They used to talk like that?” Funny as hell! Ah the good old days!
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