400,000 American Homes Have Dumped Pay TV This Year 333
redkemper writes "More than 400,000 American homes have cut the cord and ditched their cable and satellite pay-TV services since the start of 2012. The figure includes 169,000 subscribers shed by Time Warner Cable last quarter, marking the service provider's tenth consecutive quarter of customer losses. It also includes the 52,000 net subscribers DirecTV lost this past quarter, and 176,000 customers who left Comcast."
Goodbye Pay TV (Score:5, Insightful)
Usenet + SAB + Sickbeard = I'm satisfied
Please Find Alternative Ways to Our Money (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Please Find Alternative Ways to Our Money (Score:4, Insightful)
HBO Go and ESPN3 need to be made available to those of us who want their programming, but have no desire to pay for cable.
If anybody from those companies is listening, hurry up and make it happen. You have a customer waiting who's desperate to give you money, but can't without giving 10x that amount to Cox/Comcast/DirectTV/etc.
Oblig. (Score:5, Insightful)
Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems, and he died at eleven o'clock this morning of a heart condition, and woe is us! We're in a lot of trouble!
So. A rich little man with white hair died. What has that got to do with the price of rice, right? And *why* is that woe to us? Because you people, and sixty-two million other Americans, are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books! Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers! Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube! This tube is the Gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers... This tube is the most awesome God-damned force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls in to the hands of the wrong people, and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA - the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new Chairman of the Board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the twentieth floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome God-damned propoganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?
So, you listen to me. Listen to me: Television is not the truth! Television is a God-damned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth... Go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever going to find any real truth.
But, man, you're never going to get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell. We'll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, or that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker's house, and no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry, just look at your watch; at the end of the hour he's going to win. We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in *illusions*, man! None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds... We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality, and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you! You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even *think* like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing! *WE* are the illusion! So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I'm speaking to you now! TURN THEM OFF...
Re:Getting there... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they'll see it as a reason to lobby the government to prop up their failing business model, just like every other business model disrupted by the Internet.
Re:It would have counted me too (Score:5, Insightful)
I really don't get how they do their accounting, and I'm beginning to think they don't either since they're losing so many customers.
If you have CATV then you are counted as a "viewer" for the purpose of selling advertising. Same reason magazines give out free subscriptions.
Re:I did... (Score:5, Insightful)
Me neither. I gave it up years ago and found better things to do with my time.
If supermarkets worked like Cable TV you'd have your cereal sealed into the same container as hamburgers, frozen peas, a pound of apples, two candy bars, six loaves of bread, and you'd be forced to buy the whole container even if the only thing you wanted was that one brand of cereal.
Re:It would have counted me too (Score:5, Insightful)
I've found that I'm much happier, more productive, and better entertained when the option of idly watching whatever is on the air is removed. Even though it's something for nothing, watching it wastes time that would have been put to better use watching shows I'm actually interested in or engaging in some other form of entertainment that I enjoy more (e.g. plowing through my backlog of games, reading a nice novel, finding a friend who I haven't seen in awhile to grab an impromptu dinner with). That's why I unplugged it: to enjoy things I like better more often.
I can't think of a better use of the phrase... (Score:5, Insightful)
And nothing of value was lost.
Re:Getting there... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well many cable TV providers are fighting this trend by offering free service to people who want to leave. Why would they do this?
Well, I can answer that by describing the reason why I get free bicycle magazines. I bought a bicycle a couple of years ago...a really nice one. With it, I was given a trial subscription to a cycling magazine. Nice, but not worth paying for... I would look at it if I had it, but wouldn't buy it. But that's why I got it for free. Initially, I started getting "your subscriiption is going to expire!" notices. Then I got "last issue!" notices. Then I got more magazines after that. But why? Well, the magazines are full of ads. And those ads are worthless if they can't show the advertisers they have subscribers.
Now, let's look at cable TV... lots of ads... ads which are worthless if they don't have subscribers.
Re:It would have counted me too (Score:5, Insightful)
At-least watch Olympics
Why do I need to watch a corporate orgy of sponsorship and advertising where the public foots the bill and they take profit?
So I can see which individual blessed with the right genes and the most funding can run faster or jump higher?
I'd rather watch a Coke commercial. At least its not pretending to be something its not, and it usually has good production values.
Sports (Score:5, Insightful)
If it weren't for sports I think that number would be at least 10x higher.
There was a thread about "cutting the cord" on one of the AV forums recently and sports was the primary argument for sticking with cable. ESPN and its ilk are well aware of the clout they have. Networks like HBO have influence too, but if you can wait a year all of the shows worth watching on those networks are going to be out on DVD/Bluray/streaming.
I ditched cable 5 years ago and I've had to make a few sacrifices. I used to be able to watch my local BigTen basketball and football games on network TV until the BigTen Network came along. Then ESPN took Monday Night Football. Yeah, NBC has Sunday Night Football, but there was something special about MNF. I just don't watch most those games now. I also don't get to see college football bowl games or march madness games unless I go out or to a friend's house. You do miss that a little but then you remember the 100 other things you could be doing with your time and life goes on.
I do subscribe to a number of streaming services and my over the air selection is pretty decent. So, I really watch about the same amount of television that I did before I got rid of cable. I just pay a heck of a lot less now.
Some retort, "Yeah, but you still have to pay for Internet access..." Like I wasn't going to do that anyway? Yes, of course, now there is no "bundle" deal. Fortunately I live in a town with multiple cable providers (yes, 2 different coax cables are run into my home) and DSL so Internet access is reasonable even without a cable TV package.
I also didn't /have/ to buy extra equipment for watching streaming video on my TV. I use my PS3 which was not bought for streaming video but, rather, for playing games. Now it gets more use as a media player than a game console though. The only device I /did/ buy that I might not have needed to before was a Roku for the bedroom TV.
If cable companies offered an a la carte subscription service I might actually sign up again, but I don't see that happening.
Re:Goodbye Pay TV (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're still partaking in TV programming, regardless of the means, you haven't said goodbye to it.
Re:It would have counted me too (Score:3, Insightful)
I enjoy watching people try their best and work hard to succeed. The commercialism is unfortunate, but watching the sports on TV there is very little of it visible.
Re:I did... (Score:3, Insightful)
same here, cut my consumption of crap tv at the same time great bonus.
Likewise here. It feels like the quality of my life has improved. Now that I am no longer bombarded with commercials I don't have the desire anymore to buy things ( unless I really need it).
So you're impulsive, undisciplined, and display follow-the-leader (sometimes derisively called "sheeplike") characteristics?
Advertising can't work otherwise. That's why these master manipulators use beautiful women and cute children and fuzzy kittens in their propaganda, because getting an emotional response bypasses rational thought. That's where not being impulsive comes into play. They love to get you to buy things you don't really need by making you think you might need them, that's where discipline kicks in. They want your purchase to be their idea and not your own evaluation of your wants, needs, and budget, which is why being an individual is so important.
I guess that sounds negative but the purpose of explaining this to you is so you can see just how ruthless and devious these people in marketing really are. These traits are not really your fault. The school system and the media and the government all find them useful to varying degrees and they all encourage these character defects. Becoming your own man or your own woman in a meaningful way that makes you resistant to manipulation/propaganda is difficult because at first the deck is stacked against you, but it is more than worthwhile.
The other problem a lot of people have is that they're prideful and easily offended so they don't take criticism well, preferring to get mad at me for trying to tell them something like this rather than being grateful someone is actually telling them how it is. If that kind of outrage is so valuable to you that you'd rather continue to be impulsive, undisciplined, and easily led, well, that would be your option, but I hope you can do better than that. As you see I feel no need to sugarcoat everything to make it easier to hear because that's exactly the sort of thing a manipulator does so that'd be rather hypocritical of me.
Re:It would have counted me too (Score:5, Insightful)
Did it to themselves (Score:4, Insightful)
Because the majority of content providers follow this same format, we now have hundreds of channels, most of which are airing total crap... or decades old reruns. Sprinkled inbetween these channels are the core channels that people really want to watch. Unfortunately you have no choice in your lineup, and because the content providers force everyone to sign the same contracts, you don't have any choice in what you get to watch.
Sick of it all, everyone's turning to Netflix or outright piracy.
Re:I did... (Score:5, Insightful)
Depends how low you want to set the bar for passing as human.
I'm not the AC you replied to, but I agree with him.
The bar is pretty low. Humans are just like any other animal, mostly ruled by instincts, and our emotions are easily manipulated. We do have capacity for great intellect, and have accomplished great things as a result, but don't fool yourself into thinking your really that much ahead of other animals. It's just that small differences count for a lot.
The people who recognize this are typically far better at resisting their base impulses. People who think they aren't influenced by mass marketing are typically the puppets of their psychological tricks. It's only when you manage to put aside your feeling of superiority that you can see it in yourself. And it's only when you see it in yourself that you can do something to stop it. If you don't know it's happening, you can't fix it.
Even though... (Score:4, Insightful)
Even though my only current option for TV is satellite and my ISP is capped at 600 MB/day, my wife and I have seriously talked about dropping our TV subscription.
It's not Netflix or internet content. It's just shitty TV.
Re:Getting there... (Score:4, Insightful)
Except they are not government-regulated, it is just prohibitively expensive for a competitor to run cable on the power company (a gov't regulated monopoly) poles. Which is why the Internet is so disruptive to these entrenched businesses.
http://gizmodo.com/5830956/why-the-government-wont-protect-you-from-getting-screwed-by-your-cable-company [gizmodo.com] Apparently there used to be exclusivity but that was repealed. Probably in the guise of "de-regulation" that everyone is so fond of.