Is TV Over the 'Net Really Cheaper Than Cable? 285
jfruh writes "More and more people are joining the ranks of 'cord-cutters' — those who cancel their cable TV subscriptions and get their televisied entertainment either for free over the airwaves or over the Internet. But, assuming you're going to do things legally, is this really a cheaper option? It depends on what you watch. Brian Proffitt contemplated this move, and he walks you through the calculations he made to figure out the prices of cutting the cord. He weighed the costs of various a la carte and all-you-can-eat Internet streaming services, and took into account the fact that Internet service on its own is often pricier than it would be if bundled with cable TV."
Providers aren't dummies (Score:5, Informative)
I did it... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Providers aren't dummies (Score:3, Informative)
> Same story applies to cell phones.
Stop whining about the government being needed. Just shop a little and then stop bundling a loan into your monthly cell bill for the iPhone (or top of the line Android). I only pay $100/year for 2000 minutes or texts, work the math out to get the monthly. I supplied my own handset though, they aren't expensive at all if you know where to shop and don't need the latest features. Now AT&T has a cheap ass GoPhone you can get a similar $100/yr plan on.
Oh, you want Gigs of Internet bandwidth crammed into scarce wireless spectrum the cell carriers are spending Sagans annually to continually upgrade to ever faster speeds and still can't keep up? Pay up sucka, that tech ain't cheap yet but if you guys keep paying long enough you will finance a network that will eventually be big enough, widespread enough and finally cheap enough for me to get a data plan.
The article in a nutshell (Score:5, Informative)
The author took 4 pages (you start on page "1" and click through 3 other pages ... ads at each step) and basically he says this:
Open a spreadsheet. Enter in all the shows that you like to watch on cable. For shows that are available on HuluPlus, assume you'll subscribe to HuluPlus ($8/mo). For a show that is available on Amazon, enter it's cost per episode (less than $2). Same if your show is only available on iTunes or some other media center. Add up the costs, calculate a "monthly" cost to stream your shows. Compare to your monthly cost for cable TV.
That's pretty much what the article is about. I've just saved you a bunch of clicks and ads.
It is what I have been saying about my own television watching. When my wife & I moved two years ago, we opted not to sign up for cable TV, choosing to stream everything instead. We have Netflix for movies and "TV on DVD", HuluPlus for most of our current shows, Amazon for a few others. We bought a Roku ($99) to stream everything to our television - and it effectively paid for itself over a couple of months. Our monthly cost for all that is way less than the monthly cost of cable TV. And as long as the math continues to be in our favor, we'll keep streaming.
There is no good way to get content legally (Score:5, Informative)
Netflix streaming has a poor selection (for my tastes anyway), and Amazon is only slightly better, and even then only if you are willing to pay to rent on top of the Prime membership. You can get a broader selection on disk from Netflix, but not on a whim.
Hulu has a terrible selection as well. When you want to pick up a show from the beginning, and it's been playing for a while, they have only a few episodes of most shows, even on the paid side.
You can get a lot from Apple, but expensively (about double the DVD cost to see a TV season). And even then, they don't have a long tail for those who prefer more obscure stuff. Probably because content providers are afraid Apple will do to them what Apple did to the music industry.
But you can get anything you want, even foreign or obscure material, by torrent easier than you can get Finding Nemo. So the bottom line is content providers suck at giving people what they want when they want it. Until they stop sucking or get disintermediated, there will not be a convenient and legal way to get content.
flexibility on content and timeliness helps (Score:5, Informative)
After the first time I watched an entire season of a show in the space of a single (and very lazy) weekend on a DVD years ago, I was unable to return to waiting for weekly installations. I now prefer to wait until a season is over, or even until a series has concluded entirely, before bothering to spend my time watching it.
Sometimes at the conclusion it will become clear that you shouldn't bother. For example I was waiting for LOST to end before watching it, but based on the non-plot-spoiler reviews I've read, I'm glad I didn't waste my time in the first place.
For quite a while now there has been more video entertainment than a single person could watch in one lifetime. If your primary reason is to be entertained --rather than to be able to discuss current entertainment at the office the way people do sports games-- you'll save time and money being selective about what you watch, as well as by not being in a hurry to catch the latest episode.
Re:I'm sure about one thing... (Score:4, Informative)
BFE?
Bum Fuck Egypt... a.k.a the back of beyond or the middle of no where.
Yes, absolutely... (Score:2, Informative)