Cord Cutting or How I Love to Pay Less to Get More of What I Think I Need

By Jan Lann, Editor, Computer Club of Hot Spring Villages, Arkansas
February 2019 newsletter
www.cchsv.org
editor (at) cchsv.org

https://www.fastcompany.com/90304498/20-great-free-streaming-services-for-cord-cutters

I may have just stumbled on, for me, the Holey (sic) Grail of news: For years, I have been attempting to get entire news shows from the internet, but only gleaned news clips, necessitating watching a few minute snippets and then having to click on another snippet and another…., which is extremely annoying (at least to my laziness, I mean, my invaluable time).

I am almost certain or 92.5% certain that there are big cities that might provide me with an entire news show, either in real time or archived (i.e., not in real time).

Just today, I found the Answer:

STIRR

https://stirr.com/

Where, after a little experimentation, I was actually and remarkably able to watch a Channel 7 newscast from Little Rock in its entirety (and after it had been broadcast). I hope this encourages others who may not have satellite or cable tv or, like myself, would like to emancipate myself from the costly slavery to these services.

If you have a hunger for less low brow entertainment (no value judgement there, of course), here is an offering:

PBS

https://www.pbs.org/

PBS and PBS KIDS have streaming archived (not live yet, the web sites state) and there is a wonderful service I subscribe to for $5/month where I can access hundreds of previous PBS shows: https://www.aetnfoundation.org/

For you weather watchers out there, the Weather Channel just threw a wet blanket on me, unceremoniously announcing to me (just me?) that I could not watch them without signing in from a tv provider.

Fortunately, though, Weather Nation, http://www.weathernationtv.com/ came to my rescue, although it was not as simplistically easy for me to navigate as I would have desired, but, for free, I am not complaining (too loudly).

Another service, XUMO https://www.xumo.tv/ offers live tv news, etc.

As I suspected, the article (as above) from Fast Company confirmed my intuition that MSNBC, FOX NEWS and CNN cannot be watched live without another provider, satellite tv, cable, etc. But there are a few free workarounds:

  • CBS News for live, anchored news coverage.
  • NewsOn for local news from select stations around the country.
  • Plex or Haystack TV for a personalized newscast that pulls in clips from various sources (including local stations).

Live news can also be found in Pluto TV, Xumo, Stirr, and The Roku Channel,.

All in all, there is a wealth of avenues to slink off the pay-for-tv reservation. I have listed in this story only a few. Perusing the entire article from Fast Company will yield far too many probably but you can choose your favorites, OR NOT.

[print-me]

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