I think that all we’re asking for as consumers is that the standard by which this is done is re-evaluated. A little bit of AI and machine learning magic and bam! Snip those commercials right out. I won’t pretend that I understand all that goes into traditional cable marketing and how Google would have to navigate it in order to get these commercials taken out of the service, but I imagine they have the technical prowess to make it happen. I talk a lot about Youtube TV when speaking of the new Chromecast, but that’s because it’s very much core to the experience. Commercials, commercials everywhere (and ads) Having the ability to just see what I’m paying for and nothing extra is something that standard cable did arguably better, and that makes me sad. As a for-profit company, I get that monetizing things is important so that they can pay the bills, but I’m beginning to wonder if there’s some way that this can be done without making me feel like I’ve hit a brick wall every time I get excited about hitting the ‘play’ button. Sure, I love that the entire experience is more modern – from the remote with a voice assistant built-in to unlimited cloud DVR, internet connectivity, a Watchlist, and more, but Google gains nothing by filtering out their content partner’s potential to gain new subscribers. In essence, cord-cutting has just become cable for the modern age. Cord-cutting started out as a way for consumers to save on costs and have more control over their entertainment experience, but it’s quickly devolved into the same hot mess that cable has been for all of these years. If you add in my internet bill, I’m already back up to or beyond what I was paying for Charter Spectrum to handle everything for me – even if you don’t add in the extra streaming providers. Subscriptions nowadays can feel like financial death by a thousand cuts if you indulge yourself too much. It would cost me over $200 per month to be actively subscribed to every single service the Chromecast advertises and I just don’t watch TV enough to justify spending that kind of money. Besides, I’m not really interested in having ‘yet another service’, so at this point, I suppose it’s just my loss. “Just pay for the services you don’t yet have”, you may say, but per month, I’m already paying for Youtube TV ($64.99), Netflix ($12.99), Youtube Premium, and Youtube Music Premium family plan ($14.99), and Disney+ ($8.99) which comes out to over a hundred dollars before tax. Sling TV, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, et cetera. The beautiful cover art is done so well in Google TV’s new UI and it gets me super excited to simply click and watch – something Google has stated several times in their marketing as the intention of the redesigned device – but each time I do, I’m quickly reminded that much of what I visit is locked behind a paywall. The fact that I can’t hide content from services I’m not paying a subscription to is really ruining the experience for me quite a bit. Mind you, this is an issue that I don’t ever see being fixed, because, well, it’s one that is intentionally built into its very DNA. With that out of the way, I’d like to put the spotlight on what I feel is the Chromecast’s biggest issue. The biggest ‘problem’ with the new Chromecast Before we get started, I will say that I won’t bother talking about its lack of Stadia support today, primarily because it sours my mood a bit when I think about how much I miss playing Marvel’s Avengers on my 65″ TV, but more so because we’ve already covered it in a separate post. Yes, it’s pretty amazing, but it’s far from perfect and I have a lot to say about how Google can improve it. While those things still hold true for me, I felt it would be a disservice to everyone reading if I didn’t also discuss my gripes with the new device. Things like a specific feature of the remote and aspects of the live TV feature from Youtube TV, to name a few. Shortly after I had time to play with Google’s new Chromecast with Google TV built-in, I talked about how it was truly the little things that caused it to win me over.
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