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."
I did... (Score:5, Informative)
...and I haven't regretted 1 minute of it.
Re:I did... (Score:4, Informative)
same here, cut my consumption of crap tv at the same time great bonus.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I did... (Score:5, Interesting)
One day I realized I was neglecting my wife, my hobbies, my chores around the house, etc. We got rid of pay cable when Turner Classic Movies was taken off of extended analog and put on to digital, which was one of the few networks that we actually cared to specifically watch.
We went without pay TV for years, and bought our DTV decoder boxes like everyone else, and I rediscovered many of the actually good vintage shows on RTN and Me and other networks. Just recently I started playing with XBMC, and I wholly recommend it. I threw together a junk PC from parts laying around and hooked it into the component inputs on our widescreen HD tube TV, and now we can watch hundreds of "channels" worth of free content from PBS, several cable networks, Vimeo, Youtube, and lots and lots of other sources. They seem to be without commercials too.
Now we can watch what we want, when we want, and can pursue our hobbies without having to interrupt just to watch a stupid TV show.
Re:I did... (Score:4, Informative)
I saved about $10,000 over the last decade by not having cable TV. You probably have similar savings amounts.
Of course even with "just" an antenna I sill end-up watching more TV then I probably should: Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock, Dragnet...... plus hulu's free shows (like Syfy). My schedule is booked even w/o the comcast cable in my home.
Re: (Score:3)
We do watch a few shows when they air new. BBT, New Tricks, Person of Interest. But they're all on the same night, so it's easy to let Thursday be TV night, and to just do whatever on all of the other nights. Certainly sometimes the TV is the thing, but other times I'm out working on the cars or building model rockets or working on th
Re: (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 discipli
Re: (Score:3)
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.
To quote "How To Get Ahead in Advertising"'s John Bristol's commentary about the PR industry "If you breathe, it works on you". I think you're underestimating the PR industry's ability to get under the skin of even the least indoctrinated and well informed. Do you understand that with which you'd tinker? I'm gonna digress here...a lot, but whatever. Companies spend billions every year on PR and they're not just roping in the "sheeple". Read the Robb Report lately? Even the most educated and least indo
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.
Re: (Score:3)
Excuses to protect your silly pride from admitting fault are the number one enemy of personal progress.
That was my point. I believe there's a good chance your pride is preventing you from seeing that you are just as affected by marketing as the person you were responding to. Except that because you refuse to admit you have this fault, you can't fix it. I don't know you personally, so I don't want to judge you here. It's entirely possible you are indeed resistant to these influences. Statistically speaking however, people who think they are beyond being influenced are the easiest to manipulate.
It's like an obese person who blames McDonalds instead of getting more exercise and learning how to have a healthy diet that is sustainable long-term.
Right, but
Re:I did... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is actually why I don't have cable. I cut it off about 8 years ago because I was broke and couldn't afford it. Later, when I could afford it, I realized I was glad not to have a firehose of crap emptying into my living room. So I never hooked up again.
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:I did... (Score:5, Funny)
Good analogy, but you don't take it far enough. In reality it's more like:
"Cereal, hamburgers, frozen peas, bread, tampax, a sears catalog, a bible, a box of adult diapers, a carton of, and a bag of that peanut taffy halloween candy that NOBODY likes" - And you pledge to buy one every month for two years, after which the price goes up unless you sign a new pledge.
Re: (Score:3)
...a bible, a box of adult diapers, a carton of, and a bag of that peanut taffy halloween candy
Perfect for stocking the fear bunker.
Re:I did... (Score:4, Funny)
I think you just the whole thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Your analogy still doesn't go far enough: you need an equivalent of mindlessly channel surfing all evening. Like if you had a compulsion to actually try on all those adult diapers...
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Bundling isn't the problem, as long as I get to choose whether I want the bundle or whether I just want the item I came in for. I may choose to ignore that "great deal" and just get what I really want. No such luck with TV. Either you get networks that show all sorts of crap between the shows you want to watch, or if there is one channel that broadcasts 24/7 "your" program you usually only get it bundled with a load of other networks you don't give a shit about.
Re: (Score:2)
...and I haven't regretted 1 minute of it.
I think about getting TV, but only for one purpose - to follow world football. Nothing else is of much interest to me on TV. My own set has been turned one once in the past 12 years. It still works. I just have not patience for the junk which is continually on. Anything worth watching I pick up later on DVD. Which isn't much, either. TV is overrated.
Besides, I already have all the Monty Python DVDs, what else could I want? Ni!
Re: (Score:2)
I keep Cox as my business internet tho.
But how many people out there...don't have nice TVs
Re:I did... (Score:4, Interesting)
No, I just don't watch TV anymore. Last time I regularly watched TV was during STNG, around 1990. They had a few awful episodes during the 7th season, and I tuned out and never came back. I have seen only a few DS9 and Voyager episodes. Meh.
There was this new thing called the Internet. You could actually participate instead of passively absorbing whatever messages they thought people wanted or needed to hear. Now I've done enough grinding in MMORPGs to have a full appreciation of how boring and tedious that can get. TV is worse than that, that's how bad TV is.
I don't have much of a movie collection either. Just a handful on DVD and VHS. No BluRays. Whenever I've tried to identify shows worth watching, I come up with so little that I don't bother. Last time I strolled through a Blockbuster, I didn't see a thing on the shelves that I thought worth watching. Don't subscribe to anything like Netflix either.
I also object to the MAFIAA's policies, and do not wish to patronize an industry that treats their customers so shabbily. There are plenty of other, better things to do.
Re:I did... (Score:4, Interesting)
Is anyone cutting the content cord, that actually has a decent AV system they've invested in?
That would be me. After yeras of bitching about nothing good on TV, I finally did the raitonal thing. I still get DVDs, but no OTA anything, no cable, no sat, nothing "real time" at all. I don't even miss it a little.
I still watch TV,mind you, at higher quality than most cable (to just by the bitching of /.ers on other stories), but only once its out on DVD as a complete season. The rate at which top-quality new stuff becomed available to me is the same at which it becomes available to you, only the latency has changed. The massive upside is: no filler No turning on the TV in hopes of finding something good, then watching even though I didn't. I haven't seen a commercial at home in 10 years or so.
Only turning on the TV because you have something really good to watch, and otherwise spending your time doing something more productive - well, I highly recommend it.
Re: (Score:2)
Wait, seriously? You had a broadcast station that tried to air Dolemite?
That's really funny.
Re: (Score:3)
Getting there... (Score:2)
Now if only the giants would see this as a reason to innovate and increase competition and lower costs. We haven't quite gotten there yet.
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: (Score:2)
They're already a government-granted monopolies... That's why they're one of 2, or perhaps the only options for high-speed Internet service in any given area. Can't prop them up much more than that!
If too many people are dropping cable TV, the cable companies will just raise the prices on internet service, in the sneakiest ways possible. I know in my area, Verizon has introduced FIOS, eliminating DSL, and making the lowest-cost internet service from a mere $65/month... My local cable company is either i
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Personally, I don't see why people are so adversed to OTA HDTV. The vast majority of decent-quality original content is on the OTA broadcast networks, and with the switch to digital, the picture quality from an antenna is superior to any pay service.
I think I have all of two OTA network shows on my regular viewing schedule. Everything else I watch is either from cable-only networks or the premium stations. For my money TNT, USA. FX, and A&E have far better programming than OTA. I honestly don't remember the last time I followed a show on ABC. And NBC has had only one show in the last several years I found interesting. I don't eschew OTA channels because they're OTA, I do it because their content is of little interest.
I will grant you that the pictu
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:Getting there... (Score:5, Informative)
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.
I'd double-check the credit / debit card you used to buy that bike. Years ago I bought something at Best Buy and the cashier said they were offering a free subscription of some magazine, and to just fill out the card with the address to send it to. I was just a stupid college student back then and filled out the card. After those "your subscription is about to expire" notices, I also kept getting the magazines. But they charged the same credit card I used to make the best buy purchase for the renewal, without any action on my part.
I called and got them to refund my money, but it's easy to overlook a $20 purchase that happens once a year, so I'd check just to be sure.
Re: (Score:2)
Well many cable TV providers are fighting this trend by offering free service to people who want to leave.
Now, let's look at cable TV... lots of ads... ads which are worthless if they don't have subscribers.
I discontinued my cable TV from my bundle that included Phone & Internet. It was $60 less on the bill, but they never turned it off
but Cable TV does not make a lot of money from TV commercials, yes they do insert some, but the originating Station makes most of the money from the ads.
Re:Getting there... (Score:5, Funny)
Shut up. I'm old. I like to tell stories to make me think my life is meaningful.
Time Warner Cable serves KC (Score:3)
Goodbye Pay TV (Score:5, Insightful)
Usenet + SAB + Sickbeard = I'm satisfied
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: (Score:3)
If you're still partaking in TV programming, regardless of the means, you haven't said goodbye to it.
The one thing cable companies said goodbye to for certain was my revenue stream.
Feel free to split all the hairs you want after that, doesn't matter to me.
Re: (Score:2)
As a grad student I get a discount for Amazon Prime ($39/year). With a $80 Roku and a $3.25/month payment I have access to a ton of TV on DVD content as well as movies. Even at $80/year ($6.67/month) it's a huge bargain over the fear of having my ISP cut off my connection for piracy--something as a husband, parent, and professional I don't care to do like I did in college.
In our case we also have Netflix (the children's selection is better than Amazon) and for my wife, Hulu+ so she can watch her favorite cr
Re: (Score:2)
Be sure to have them remove their lines! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Much better view without their worthless wires overhead in my backyard.
I thought that the resident paid for that wire in the installation, cant you take the wire down yourself and use it for the new antenna?
It would have counted me too (Score:5, Interesting)
...but for some reason my cable/internet provider charges less for 10Mbps when it's also packaged with their basic cable than they do when it's by itself. So, I gladly accepted their $8/month credit to add basic cable, and I simply unplugged the cable from my TV as soon as the cable guy had left. Strange thing is, this isn't a special as part of signing up with a contract, since I have no contract with them.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm in much the same position, though having paid for it I did take the trouble to plug it in for the Olympics. I find the commercials aggravating and the coverage as bad as it ever was, and I'll be unplugging it again as soon as the games are over.
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: (Score:2)
It's all about the numbers... the sales numbers. They can't easily justify keeping certain operations in business if they can't show numbers.
And see my other post (http://entertainment.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3022619&cid=40862245) about the value of ad revenue.
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.
Re: (Score:3)
If you live in a mansion, would you keep your old motorhome that's on cinderblocks in the driveway? Of course not. It serves no purpose except to clutter things up. That's how I feel about cable. For every purpose it serves, I'm better served by something else.
If what I want to do is veg out, there are plenty of shows I want to watch, so rather than watching whatever is on at the moment, I'd rather go watch the ones I'm actually interested in on Hulu, Netflix, or elsewhere. If what I want is to be informed,
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.
Re: (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:It would have counted me too (Score:5, Insightful)
Please Find Alternative Ways to Our Money (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Please Find Alternative Ways to Our Money (Score:4, Interesting)
I really hope some of the companies out there (HBO especially, I needs my Game of Thrones fix) figure out other ways of getting money from customers. I wouldn't want to see the shows I like cut back or eliminated if the tv/cable networks go the way of newspapers. So, dear cable/tv companies: We have money, we want to support your art. Let's figure something out!
I.e., don't be douche bags and try to tie your loyal fans into antiquated distribution methods that we, the consumers who drive the economy and thus are your bottom line, have repeatedly and soundly rebuffed.
Re: (Score:3)
Hate to break it to you, but to commercial TV you're not the customer.
You're the product.
Re: (Score:2)
Not to HBO, which is at whom his jab is aimed, due to their choice to limit HBO's online streaming to current cable customers. They don't have commercials and collect all their revenue directly from their customers (and I guess content licensing onto other networks or media, whatever).
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.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought HBO is owned by Time-Warner so don't hold your breath about them decoupling HBO from cable. I'm in the same boat you are: would love to get/pay for HBO but not cable.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
So, dear cable/tv companies: We have money, we want to support your art.
That's like complimenting the milkman on his diet because "his" milk is SO DELICIOUS.
The artists make the art. The cable/tv companies only deliver it to you. The internet has made delivery trivial. Cut out the middle-men, pay the artists more.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Simple solution:
1. Charge the same money.
2. Get rid of ads; who pays to watch ads?
3. Produce an hour of quality television a day, no "reality TV".
4. Repeat above hour 4 times a day, the other 5 hours in rotation are the shows from the previous hour a day that week
5. Make your entire back catalog available to subscribers on demand.
People who watch more than 6 hours a day are not anyone's target market, you don't need to "produce" 24 hours of content for 24 hour channels, or pay royalties on reruns from 10 ye
Re: (Score:3)
Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.
HBO isn't going to piss off all of the cable companies by going behind them and distributing their shows a la carte. They do that and they lose a very strong negotiating position. Come contract negotiation time, the cable companies will demand a bigger cut of the subscription, or will even refuse carry HBO outright, or some such. Not to mention there are probably stipulations on the existing contracts about these things, e.g. content can only be delivered to HBO subsc
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:Oblig. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Oblig. (Score:5, Informative)
For those who found the above too long/hard to read, you can watch it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Gf0VKXk5Q&feature=related [youtube.com]
I'll just be over here soaking up the irony.
Cable-Free Since 7/12 (Score:2)
Re:Cable-Free Since 7/12 (Score:5, Funny)
Easiest habit I ever kicked.
Cable free since July? You haven't even gone two days yet.
Dear Comcast (Score:4, Funny)
Don't let the door knob get wedged up your ass on the way out.
Sincerely,
A Happy Ex-customer
Irony (Score:2)
I unplugged 32 years ago.
However, after watching a crew do the filming of a tv show here in Portland a while ago, I was shocked at how many people and how long to took to film tv shows. It takes several hours or even days to film what would be about a minute on tv.
Those people are all paid union wages
Those people are paid by advertisers and subscribers.
So, I can foresee one of two things happening if enough pull the plug like I did.
Either we will see worse shows (skimping on the costs of filming
Re:Irony (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Either we will see worse shows (skimping on the costs of filming) or more commercials to make up the lose of subscriber revenue.
We are already there. The quality of the programming is really getting bad with literally 300 channels but nothing to watch and when you do find something they stuff in as much advertising as they can. They put banner ads in their interactive TV screens and insist on playing commercials when you try to search their "on demand" offerings. It is getting really sad.
Re: (Score:2)
More commercials? We're already at the point where the commercials are occasionally interrupted by some kind of show.
Meanwhile in Latin America (Score:4, Informative)
DirecTV alone added a record 645,000 subscribers in the latest quarter [foxbusiness.com]. And they added 593,000 subscribers in Latin America during the first quarter [paidcontent.org].
Youtube is more original, cheaper, easier, and... (Score:3, Interesting)
...interactive.
Honestly, other than live sports broadcasts, paid TV is crap. HBO and Showtime have good shows they put out, but I don't need to see them first-air, and they don't play relatively-recent movie releases anymore on those channels.
Cable Television used to be the best thing ever. It used to be you would see amazing amounts of programming that were simply unavailable through traditional networks. This content existed because the major networks had frankly rejected a lot of good ideas. Well those great ideas turned into formulas in a mature industry, formulas that are now followed without deviation. The Discovery channel used to pick up all the untouched NOVA ideas and it was awesome, now when I turn on the multitude of science/engineering channels I'm left to try to not punch my television into pieces because it's telling me that Egypt was built by aliens. The comedy channel used to be almost 24-hour-a-day stand up routines, which was fantastic, it changed from that a long time ago. Thankfully the cartoon network is still the lone shining beacon of basic cable that still provides true entertainment, but it's the only one at this point.
Cable died because they got cheap, they went low-margin-formulaic on their content generation, and hence their content is essentially all crap.
I can't think of a better use of the phrase... (Score:5, Insightful)
And nothing of value was lost.
Oblig, Star Trek Quote (Score:5, Funny)
That particular form of entertainment did not last much beyond the year Two Thousand Forty.
Well, duh! (Score:5, Interesting)
TW charges too much, keeps pushing their prime channels to higher priced tiers, and refuses to offer als carte programming to customers.
Comcast is no better than TW, and to add salt to the wound they spy on their customers for the government and the MAFIAA.
DirecTV has poor service, fails to deliver product, and screws customers for cancelling services [lawyersand...ements.com]. I had them for 4 weeks with the promise of internet service. No one installed the internet service. After being passed around DirecTV phone support for 90 minutes, I cancelled my service because they failed to deliver. And I STILL had to pay a $135 early termination fee, despite not signing any contractual agreement.
The industry is getting greedy and corrupt, and consumers are tired of it. Very soon my parents will join the exodus.
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: (Score:2)
> If it weren't for sports I think that number would be at least 10x higher.
At least. Maybe 100x higher.
Problem is, it is a package deal (Score:3)
Sure, cable TV packaging today involves both bundling up of channels as well as bundling of services.
In part, there is a reason for this. I'm not going to address the bundling of channels as we already know why that is done and what the financial ramifications would be if they stopped doing it. Instead, a far less obvious factor here needs to be mentioned. Cable Internet generally doesn't pay for itself. What? You mean there is a service that is being provided at a loss? Well, not really. You see, it was assumed from about 1980 on that if you could get cable TV, you would have it. The folks way out in bumble that could not get it were of course envious of their closer-in friends but the logistics and economics of wiring rural communities made it impractical. It still is impractical in many places.
So the pricing of cable Internet services was done for market-building reasons and for competitive reasons. The idea that someone would have Internet without Cable TV supporting the physical plant aspects of the connection was foreign to everyone. Nobody would do that. So cable Internet services were priced with the idea that the physical plant was supported by the TV service charge and the Internet could be priced really low to attract more customers - and bundling the services makes it even more attractive to just have all of them together.
Now you have people dropping the cable TV portion of the service and just going with the Internet connection. Admittedly, 400,000 subscribers nationwide is a drop in the bucket and isn't going to really affect anything. Should this number expand we might see some real changes being forced upon us. Changes like:
Now a lot of cable systems are going to be faced with capacity problems if more than a small fraction of their customers are trying to use IPTV streaming services. The systems were never designed for that kind of load and there is almost nothing that can be done without huge increases in bandwidth to the nodes that serve 500-1,000 homes at a time. Huge increases, like trying to deliver 10GB/sec. The other alternatives are replacing the entire cable infrastructure with fiber and eliminating the neighborhood node concept entirely. Both of these are extremely costly, so costly that it may seem foolish to embark on that course for any but the strongest players. Pushing back on IPTV delays that decision - because in many cases the decision will be to just turn it off.
So as more and more people move away from broadcast TV to IPTV services we can expect to see cable systems hit very, very hard and reacting in some unexpected ways. While the Internet of 1995 was interesting and a low-cost service to be provided, today's connections are pretty pricy for the cable company without a lot of payback. Tomorrow's Internet connections are going to cost them a bloody fortune to supply and many may simply choose not to make that kind of investment.
You can always get a T-1 connection anywhere in the US and probably anywhere in Canada.
400k - 275k = 125k (Score:2)
400,000 people cut the cord, but that doesn't count the 275,000 subscriber increase for Verizon and AT&T's TV offerings. Doesn't change the overall trend, but it is misleading to say that overall 400,000 people cut the cord when it's really "only" 125,000.
Stopped television over 5 years ago (Score:2)
and I don't regret even one minute of it. Recently I saw a commercial on television at a friends place. The funny part about it was that I got the feeling I should know this guy, because he was presented in a way that suggested he needed no further introduction, but really, I had NO clue at all who that was. My friends were surprised that I didn't know him at all. I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything really.
Would your life be incomplete without (for example) Jessica Simpson. Sorry Jessica. I hav
I remember when cable TV first arrived (Score:3)
What happened?
READ MY LIPS-- subscription media companies, you have a choice. Either provide FREE content that is ad supported, OR paid content that is ad free. Period. There's no way I am going to pay you to spam me with ads. Your greed has no bounds, and it looks to be doing you in. I say good riddance. Other media sources have risen up to fill the vacuum you currently occupy in ad-free media.
In the meantime, I will continue to rent or buy DVD content that is not interrupted by ads.
Re: (Score:2)
> In the meantime, I will continue to rent or buy DVD content that is not interrupted by ads.
At least for now.
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.
Our Overlords (Score:2)
are greatly displeased at this development.
Without most of the public distracted by sports, sitcoms and stories of young doctors/lawyers/policemen in love they are likely to find time to think and question their place in life, politics, etc.
We cant have people doing that, it'll fuck up the economy.
um, is this significant? (Score:3)
Ok, so almost half a million subscribers of several types have dumped various kinds of pay TV.
That sounds like a lot, right? But, there are an estimated 115 million households in the US. (via us census)
So those half a million, comprised of geeks who have found another way, and households who just can't afford both cable *and* food, are approximately .3% (point three percent) of all US households.
So... slow news day?
I'm watching Netflix right now (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
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.
Does This Add Up? (Score:3)
$40 fair... $120 ridiculous (Score:3)
I would keep cable with a decent channel selection at $40.
But regardless of the starting deal it soars to $90 to $120 very quickly.
Not worth it.
Not the whole story. (Score:3)
And FiOS and U-Verse added 275,000 users.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Fuck NBC. Let them strangle themselves. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
There are no "basic" packages that cost $200 a month.
Why do people make up nonsense numbers? Or why not just say $2 million per month if you're going to make up nonsense?
Re: (Score:2)
In a word.. Nope, at least not a legal one.
I'll be that somebody will finally work out the license issues (i.e. pay the huge fees) and do what Hulu sorta started, a pay per stream to your device for any cable channel you desire for a fee over the internet. Why cable companies even bother putting analog signals onto coax these days? Just stream over a network connection to a bunch of cheap set top boxes, or (gasp) to streaming devices the homeowner may already have. Can we say cheap on premises equipment