Tell me you want to be a cable service without telling me.
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2026
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Yesterday I watched Spain - Belgium on a live stream on Prime Video. The same stream was available on Netflix and YouTube.
It was like live TV, but properly enshitified. Instead of professional journalists and commenters, you get streamers reacting to the game, improper comments, like and subscribe notices, publicity every time the ball stops, paid viewer comments overlayed on the broadcast. A complete shitstorm.
I realized that this is what the future of live TV looks like. So I think I'm done with it.
…Wow.
“What if we took early 2000s cable, and added everything bad about YouTube and Twitch to it?”
The TV from Idiocracy made manifest. How I miss the 90s.
I know this sounds like a bad thing, but I can't wait for Ow My Balls.
Jackass.
Go away, im baitin!
That's pretty much America's Funniest Videos. About 35% of their videos are guys taking it in the groin.
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We had a few shows we liked but in general TV always sucked
For real, watching shows you like on Netflix on demand is far superior to mindlessly scrolling through 70 channels and waiting for commercials to end, like we did in the 90s
True, yet somehow this is even worse. There's always a deeper level of hell.
I have a friend who keeps telling me I need to watch this movie. However I just realized I don't need to, I'm living it.
In idiocracy the president realized he was in over his head and needed a smarter person to fix things
So this is worse.
watch it still, unlike reality, it's funny, until you realise that even idiocracy is better than this
President Camacho at least tried to find the smartest people to solve the problems
the moment that he showed resolts, Camacho, with zero ego, let him take the presidency.
And Camacho really cared for the public and their welfare.
Sounds like tv from the outer worlds and cyberpunk 2077
I don't have local live TV channels so I hooked up a coax antenna to my TV and I got the local Fox station so I watched it on there. Free TV!
My favorite Springsteen song.
56, we lost animal planet.
Thanks! I'll have that song in my head all day now to remind me why I cancelled all my subscriptions!
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next thing they'll think up is a free tier supported by just ads
If only there were some technology where they could then distribute this over the air.
Riiight, then you would only need like a dumb display panel that could receive the signal. Someone should patent this quick!
brilliant! it's like radio but with pictures, idk if the technology is there yet tho...
Pluto, Plex, Tubi already did that + live tv streaming.
All we need now is to bring the feeds into our home for free. Maybe an antennae device of some sort?
Believe it or not, a LOT of people really want this. It’s a lot to do with “choice paralysis”. They can’t choose what to watch, but they want to watch something. I’ve gotta admit I’d like to just be able to go to a sci-fi channel and watch something random.
I’ve been using an app called Coax (Apple only, which will disappoint some) to do this with my Plex library and it’s glorious. Beautiful retro styled schedule grid, automated channel/schedule creation, even has a weather channel with Jazz playing. I’m rediscovering stuff that’s been sitting idle on my server for years because it’s just fun to see what’s “on” and be like, ‘Oh yeah, let’s check that out for a few minutes’ and then I end up watching the whole thing.
I’ve gotta admit I’d like to just be able to go to a sci-fi channel and watch something random.
I recently discovered that Sling TV has over 500+ live TV free channels. It's like Pluto or Tubi but way more channels.
My Samsung TV has a channel dedicated to stargate.
I turn that on after work and just watch what ever episode from whatever iteration while i decompress from work
The problem I have with most of these services is that every channel is too hyper-specific, often literally just playing a single show or, at best, 2-3 shows but in multi-hour blocks. Incredibly lazy IMO.
To me, the appeal of linear terrestrial TV is having channels that show a wide variety of things throughout the day. If I wanted to see 24 hours of non-stop Mr. Bean I’d download them and shuffle the folder.
Been meaning to try random Jellyfin plugins that sim tv channels.
https://github.com/binarygeek119/FinTV
https://github.com/DrewThomasson/JellyfinTV
The second one even does custom ads based on channel content. I would love a plugin that queries random retro ads off the internet. Like you're watching Star Trek and get an ad for the SNES or Supersoaker when shows have scenes designed around commercials, or between episodes.
I'm using Tunarr which hooks up to a Jellyfin or Plex library and lets you customize channels and filler content (ads) with a bunch of different scheduling tools. Definitely a more heavyweight solution than those plugins but a lot more flexible.
You still have to find the filler content yourself but there's plenty of playlists on YouTube and Tunarr also supports local libraries so you don't need to clutter up your Jellyfin library with them.
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I've recently been getting into free IPTV streams. There are 1000s and 1000s and free streams from all over the world in pretty much every language with over 2000 in English alone. Most are not geo blocked. You can find a list here: https://iptv-org.github.io/
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Y'all, the greatest joy in my media universe is the 24/7 MST3K channel that's on one of these things. Guaranteed laugh within 2 minutes. I don't need to select the episode. I don't want each episode in a row. I want random.
Full circle, except gated off now. I'll count that as a win for the company.
Next week - Live talk shows without video! You can order a special subscription package to your car. Now only currency 9.99
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