Reminds me of a European Smart home component manufacturer, they sold systems for years and I think were taken over or something, then told all their customers they need to signup for a subscription or they would shutdown their services. An online guy put up a bounty to hack their system to break the control and the company is suing him.

As a sub no thanks.. As a purchase, please..
On my Polestar2 I bought the Power upgrade option unlocking 80 hp if memory serves, something like 400->480 and it makes a difference. I was happy to fork the $1200 or whatever that was, because you cannot do that with ICE at that price.
The subscription model is driving me mad though, same thing with software - I buy old versions of Stuff now because I refuse to join that Sub model , it's like an HOA.
My plumber went sub too !!! Pay $100/mo and you get x% off repairs and a discount on parts and priority service. I changed plumber just on principle.

I wonder, the way the subscription model is going, how we're gonna grow old and not broke... You cannot own anything anymore, even your house, the way property taxes and whatever repair services are climbing circumventing whatever price control safeguards.

I think the various "cable" (cable, satellite, whatever) companies know that they have sports guys over a barrel, so they hold back the best channels so they require an extra/premium subscription service. And they know that hard core sports guys will pay darn near anything to get their sports.

But if most of the guys are moving to peacock, why don't you get a peacock streaming subscription and kill off the expensive sports package?

We've had the "cable" cut since 2012ish, but then I don't care about sports and we don't watch that much TV. We'd previously only had Netflix. We now have Netflix and Hulu because they are free with our T-mobile Home Internet.

I am OK with paying for a service, but paying monthly for an option in a car as if it was a service, NFW!

I guess these days, everyone wants an app on their phone that works from anywhere in the world. For that sort of setup, things need to be managed from a central location for the app to target.

For me, if I've got a smart home, I'd rather have everything only locally networked in the home with no external access. If I want external access, I'll setup some sort of VPN whether it's IPSec or SSL, but then that's outside of the capabilities of most folks.

I used to have a smart thermostat years ago. It had an API of some sort that a guy wrote a simple GUI for. It's what I used to control the AC, and was only accessible on our home network.

[QUOTE=masraum;12533237]
But if most of the guys are moving to peacock, why don't you get a peacock streaming subscription and kill off the expensive sports package?



Cutting their 'Sports Package' would mean losing ESPN and BTN
Big Ten Network is one I surely wouldn't want to lose.

You're right...they have it figured out...esp with their 'triple play' package. Cut one of the three...price goes up.:mad:

.

[QUOTE=stevej37;12533264] They are also paying a bill, and need to offset that bill by charging.

I don't know when these are from or even where, but...
https://media.npr.org/assets/img/201...8d72cb1f97.png

https://www.streamingmediablog.com/w...1.45.15-PM.png