This. It went from cluttered-but-useful to sacrifice-everything-for-pretty. With a propensity for things like showing thin-stroked white uppercase text on yellow backgrounds. Which is nice unless, you know, you want to actually read the text, much less parse it quickly. And screens mostly devoid of information (lest it obscure the pretty background picture), so you can see maybe 3 or 4 titles (programs or episodes) at a time - it's like using an interface with blinders on (imagine if you were limited in the Finder on the Mac to windows that only showed a 2x2 grid of icons, and you had to endlessly scroll to find things).
This is a good description of some of the issues with Hulu and Netflix's UI on the ATV4. The apps are needlessly complex, but at the same time missing basic features. One of the feature that made the ATV3's Netflix app so great was the genres and sub-genres. Not too long ago, genres was added to the ATV4's Netflix app, but they are very broad, and not in sub-categories like the the ATV3 app. AN example would be Genres>Horror>Vampire Horror. This is one of many other issues with both Hulu and Netflix.
And what does it cost to get just internet from Comcast?
This will not be the same for everyone, but I switch back and forth every few months to a year between Comcast and FiOS. I do that to get the "New Customer Rates". I understand that I am very lucky to have more than one ISP available at my home, so I know not everyone can do this.
Right now, I am paying $39 a month for 25Mbps downloads from Comcast. I could pay an additional $20 more a month and get 200 Mbps downloads, but I find that 25Mbps to be adequate for my very stream-heavy family. I do not rent my cable modem.
Everyone likes to talk about "cutting the cord" and whatnot... but I never hear any real numbers.
The problem with real numbers is that everyone situation is different. Some people are perfectly happy with the $8 Netflix account. Some people have to have sports channels. Some people would say that they must have the fishing channel (my brother), so they are forced/choose to buy one of the highest cable tiers.
I don't like the argument against cord cutting that it will be almost as expensive as cable. Even if that was true, you would still be save some money. But in many cases, it is what people choose not to forgo that ends up making the total costs of cutting the cord so high.
Another issue about cord cutting is the definition. It could mean so many things. Some people may consider cutting the cord as in no cable service at all. I personally believe that just getting an internet plan, with a bare-bones TV service included as cutting the cord. In many cases, it only costs a little more, and you can get a premium channel like HBO. Then you can get a streaming service like Netflix for most of your content viewing.
I consider it cutting the cord, because the customer is not buying the expensive cable tv tier that the Cable Companies are so used to their customers getting.
Also, a significant portion of many people's cable bills are the equipment rentals. IMO, one part of cord cutting is reducing/eliminating the amount of the equipment rental cost.
I'm willing to forgo the 5% I'm "missing
I think that is what it comes down to, what a cable cutter is willing to forgo. People could save a lot of money a month by having only internet and Netflix.
I personally get HBO and Showtime every couple months, either through my ISP/cable provider, or the apps. If it is from the ISP, I never pay full price, and many times, I pay $5 more for a lite-TV package with a premium channel. Add the family plan of Netflix, and the commercial-free Hulu, plus the Stars app every once in a while and my family never runs out of content. All while saving a significant amount of money over cable.
