Another Million Subscribers Cut the Pay TV Cord Last Quarter (dslreports.com) 105
A report from FierceCable says that a million more U.S. pay TV subscribers cut the TV cord last quarter. "Only five of the seven biggest pay TV providers have released their third quarter subscriber data, but collectively these companies saw a net loss of 632,000 pay TV subscribers during the period (385,000 for AT&T and DirecTV, 125,000 for Comcast, 104,000 for Charter, 18.000 for Verizon FiOS TV)," reports DSLReports. "Dish has yet to report its own cord cutting tallies, but the company is again expected to be among the hardest hit due to a high level of retransmission fee feuds and a lack of broadband bundles."
They could avoid it.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:They could avoid it.... (Score:5, Interesting)
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That is the real issue. It was $20/month for basic in the 90's, it's crazy how much more it costs now. Funny too because now that I'm done with TV I don't really care what they offer at any price.
Re:They could avoid it.... (Score:4, Insightful)
I fell the same. After a few years without TV, I don't want it, even if it was for free.
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If a channel needs a paid subscription to view, a sane person expects to not get any commercials on it. And perhaps even some quality content. But eg. Discovery and History channel have commercials and the content is just generic reality-tv crap that can be obtained from any other channel. At what scale is storage-treasure-hunting, alternative history drama or truck driving in Alaska a scientific or educating show?
Cheaply made crappy content plus big bill for it equals no customers. It should not take too m
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registrations_suck opined:
They could avoid it if TV didn't suck.
Nice troll, registrations_suck. It's more than a little undermined by your admission that:
I ditched cable in 2009 - do not miss it at all. Don't even have Netflix, Hulu, or any other subscriptions. If I want to watch a movie, I'll rent it on Vudu, or Apple Store, or even Amazon.
in a post below [slashdot.org].
What that post reveals is that you have no fucking clue what you're talking about, when you say that TV "sucks".
In fact, for the past six or seven years, TV has gotten better and better. Sitcoms aside, TV shows - and I'm including here programs on all those streaming services you don't watch, as well as broadcast and cable programming - have enormously stepped up thei
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Yup. The decline of ESPN alone was enough to get me to cancel TV. Got the call from "retention" a week later -- told them I wasn't interested even if it was free. Liberating. [Truth is I only was using TV to help me take a nap...not a great use case.]
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in a post below [slashdot.org].
What that post reveals is that you have no fucking clue what you're talking about, when you say that TV "sucks".
Sure I do. It's simply unable to compete for my time because it is uninteresting enough to do so. Besides the basic cost - they tack on all kinds of "fees" and "taxes" that contribute to the suck. Then there is the "weekly model" that sucks. I don't want to watch one show a week. If I am interested in the show, put it all up at once. You just don't get that from TV. S
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I noted:
What that post reveals is that you have no fucking clue what you're talking about, when you say that TV "sucks".
Prompting registrations_suck to respond:
Sure I do. It's simply unable to compete for my time because it is uninteresting enough to do so. Besides the basic cost - they tack on all kinds of "fees" and "taxes" that contribute to the suck. Then there is the "weekly model" that sucks. I don't want to watch one show a week. If I am interested in the show, put it all up at once. You just don't get that from TV. So fuck them. Combine that with changing the time on shows, cancelling shows that I AM interested in and I just have no incentive to get sucked into watching.
None of those things speak to my point. You are complaining about delivery models, not about content - and your complaints amount to "I'm locked into the 20th century TV consumer mindset, and I don't want to change."
The fees you complain about are for cable/satellite "tiered packages", while the streaming services you sneer at are each one, relatively modest price per month. As far as watching shows on your preferred schedule goes, that's w
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If my post was unclear, I apologize.
My complaint is chiefly with the content. The content, by and large, sucks. The delivery models just make it suck more - and the cost doesn't help.
While the streaming services may have “modest” price per month – I just don’t find them worth it. To cut to the chase – if I could get whatever the maximum possible cable TV package there is, with all the premium channels, and all of the porn channels, and all of the music channels, along with ALL
That is..... (Score:1)
At some point, the frog jumps (Score:5, Interesting)
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You need to rent a box for $8 per month per TV and suffer an egregious Guide.
While you would need to purchase the units, TiVo has "mini" devices that work off your main unit via TCP/IP, either streaming recorded shows from the main unit or temporarily borrowing a free tuner in the main unit to stream something live. Main TiVo units come with 4 or 6 tuners and multi TB hard drives. You only need to rent a CableCard from your provider for the main unit(s). The UI and Guide service are pretty good - though you have to Tivo for the Guide service (either yearly or lifetime). You can als
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A TiVo box that can record cable also costs $750: roughly $200 for the hardware plus $550 for the All-In Plan.
No unmetered Internet without cable (Score:2)
Meh, just using streaming sites that cost nothing
Legal "streaming sites that cost nothing" lack cable-exclusive series. My roommate appears willing to pay hundreds of dollars a year for the live Rachel Maddow Show.
and we've got a monthly cost of only regular internets.
Unless you live in a city whose ISP has a "buy unmetered Internet, get TV free" policy. Some ISPs are known to impose a harsh "cap" (monthly Internet data transfer volume allowance) on Internet subscribers who don't also subscribe to the same company's multichannel pay TV service.
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...or even streaming sites that don't cost nothing.
The cost of a Tivo and a guide subscription pays for a lot of stuff on Amazon.
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You only need to rent a CableCard from your provider for the main unit(s).
Easier said than done. Who hasn't managed to get themselves an exemption when they moved to SDV? You'll get to rent a tuning adapter for each tuner in that TiVo.
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You only need to rent a CableCard from your provider for the main unit(s).
Easier said than done. Who hasn't managed to get themselves an exemption when they moved to SDV? You'll get to rent a tuning adapter for each tuner in that TiVo.
I have a TiVo Bolt with 4 tuners. It uses one multi-channel CableCard and *one* tuning adapter (connected via USB).
And One (Score:4, Interesting)
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its not a "World Series" if its only played in America.....
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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If America is so great, how come you have never won the Copa América?
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> If America is so great, how come you have never won the Copa América?
You mean like the World Cup where our women have won twice?
Apparently soccer is a "just a girls game here".
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its not a "World Series" if its only played in America
Then perhaps the Toronto Blue Jays need to start winning more American League championships.
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Soccer's World Cup only allows land based countries to compete. That's not even one third of the world. And if you throw out Antarctica as well for having no countries, look how provincial the supposed World Cup is.
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its not a "World Series" if its only played in America.....
It is if you're american who is too stupid to realise that other countries exist too.
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> its not a "World Series" if its only played in America.....
You are deeply confused regarding how the World Series got it's name.
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The World(tm) Series was sponsored by the World newspaper, thus the name.
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How many other countries had significant baseball leagues in 1903 when the first World Series was played? Or even really the 50? The MLB established a major brand around the name long before any other countries were close to developing leagues. You think they are going to change the name over a little matter such as accuracy?
Simple economics.... (Score:5, Insightful)
....says that if you lose market share you cut prices to try and regain it. They will no doubt raise prices to try and keep revenue the same...thus driving off even more customers.
Re:Simple economics.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, the simple logic of the cable company... Such refreshing stupidity..
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....says that if you lose market share you cut prices to try and regain it. They will no doubt raise prices to try and keep revenue the same...thus driving off even more customers.
Why would their customers leave? In most cases, they have no choice whether they are buying TV service or Internet service.
Re:Simple economics.... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Raises hand (Score:5, Interesting)
Lost my cable TV 2 days ago, we'll see how it goes, but I'm looking into Kodi boxes and DVDs from the library. I miss the news, the Chargers went to LA last year so fuck them, this will be interesting.
What was really irritating? AT&T was sending flyers to my house advertising the same package I had at $160 for $50/month if I got directTV. But I don't have a south facing place to put an antenna, plus I like online multiplayer games where ping matters. Cox was advertising the same package for $80/month. I decided to bite the bullet and cut the cord instead of getting a new DVR/install.
Re:Raises hand (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Raises hand (Score:4)
Yea, Verizon did the same routine with me...
Send out advertisements advertising a really good rate, confirmed it on their website, called when my "contract" term was up and guess what? The advertised rates are both largely deceptive (because they add all sorts of "necessary fees" that nearly double the actual costs) and because I'm an existing customer (of over 10 full years now), the advertised rate is not available to me. It's only for new customers....
So, you are going to charge an established paying customer, who's never missed a payment in 10 years and won't require you to buy and/or configure anything MORE than a new customer that's going to cost you money to set up?
The brilliance of this was breathtaking.... I was happy to take my business elsewhere and lucky that I could...
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Enjoy your Local News coverage while it lasts.
Broadcasts originating in smaller communities are an endangered species that Ajit Pai (FCC Chairman) is trying to exterminate.
Current rules require a local originating studio for those stations.
Pai's proposal would allow syndicates (like Sinclair) that own local stations to eliminate that local originating studio.
They would convert your 'local station' into a repeater of the network's material.
Then, your 'local' news might originate 3 time zones away.
Politically
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We are the people, and the sheep to be sheared.
Corporations and lobbyists pay politicians big bucks.
The pols then invite the CEOs and lobbyists to write the rules and laws that govern their industry.
And we sheep keep electing those politicians because of some smokescreen wedge issue.
Today the smoke is even murkier with 'alternative facts' and 'truthiness' being accepted as reality.
Evidently critical thinking is beyond sheeps' ability.
When we sheep vote based on listening to our gut one has to wonder where o
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The first 6 months or so are a bit hard. But after that you can pick up pretty much all the shows you were watching on DVD. You are slightly out of date but not wildly.
I had a decent amount of DVDs when I cut the cord. I then took the money I spending on cable and bought whole seasons of shows. Dropped them all on a NAS and I am STILL ahead cost wise what TW wanted to charge me. I am just shy of 1500 movies and 200 complete TV shows. All on DVD and ripped to a NAS with a KODI menu front end. No pirat
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> I cannot imagine why anyone spends hours a day watching TV,
Because some people would rather watch someone's else fake life then live their own real one. That would entail they would have to get off their ass and DO something (productive) like learn to play a musical instrument, read a book, etc.
Keeping up with the KarTrashians is exactly the problem with society. You have a generation of sheeple instead of leaders.
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I feel like cable wouldn't even have so many cord cutters if they just charged everyone the advertised prices - even the loyal customers. Or even just consistently advertised the actual prices (without bundles).
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Heh! I was looking at a Time-Spectrum ad, and they were claiming $29.99 each for TV phone and internet. My bill is twice that, and I don't know anyone with a $90 bill.
Can't you just get the news online? (Score:2)
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$140/month
As a matter of interest what kind of dollar are you talking there? I dropped my cable package when they tried to charge me more than $40 AU dollars per month. The idea that someone even pays $40 greenbacks for cable astounds me, let alone $140.
Cut the cord (Score:2)
Cut the cord a year ago. Tablo streaming and DVR OTA TV to four screens and mobile devices. Playstation Vue for sports and Netflix. Haven't missed cable. Saving $1300/yr.
Netcraft corfirms: Cable is dead (Score:2)
(Posting for the official record.)
It is now official. Netcraft has confirmed: cable TV is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered cable TV community when Nielsen confirmed that cable TV market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all viewers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that cable TV has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. cable TV is collapsing in complete di
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I hear you. We haven't had cable in at least 15 years; can't say as that we've missed it.
We didn't drop it to save money, we dropped it mainly because it was 200 channels of craptastic shit that simply wasn't worth watching. But with that said, at ~$100 a month we've saved almost $20,000.
If they ever pulled their heads out of their asses and let us do an ala carte deal at a dollar or two per channel we'd probably get 5 or 10 channels, but that'll never happen. Apparently they'd rather have $0 a month than $
Didn't mention Kodi for a change. (Score:1)
Only two reasons (Score:2)
1) Lack of anything meaningful to watch on it. I think every other station on DirecTV is either an infomercial, religious programming, or in a language I don't even speak. ( Spanish ) The culled down list of channels I flip through is maybe a dozen. Maybe.
2) Monthly cost of said programming far exceeds its value. Far, FAR too expensive for what it is. Cut the cost in half and you might slow the bleeding a bit. For a while anyway. You still need to fix #1 if you plan on having any long term custom
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I have said it outloud more than once: " There is no way I would ever pay full price for this. "
Agreed! Every week now, I get flyers hung on my door for Comcast Xfinity and Verizon FiOS. I already have Verizon FiOS for internet and I won't subscribe to their TV service. In fact, just yesterday I caught the Comcast dude hanging the flyer on my door and I told him to remove it. He asked me why and I simply and logically stated, "You might want to save Comcast some money on printed material because there is no way, even in the shady side of hell, that I would ever give Comcast any of my business." He pic
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I almost feel bad for them, I get these fliers in the mail for a massive savings discount on bundles of services that I don't need or want. Maybe it'd be nice to have a home phone line for the kids to use, but at the prices offered I'd be better off getting them their own cell phones.
I don't feel bad for them. They've been greedy and anti-competitive for way too long.
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This is actually the best TV season for me in years. 95% of it is still crap, but the remaining 5% is as much or more than I have time for. The problem is, a lot of that is also on Hulu, and without commercials! Is the remaining stuff worth the $$$ that I'm paying? That seems doubtful, and getting more so with every price rise.
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Have you noticed your Internet bill going up lately?
This.
I've had Earthlink through BrightHouse the last several years. It used be significantly cheaper than the "internet only" price offered by BrightHouse. The price has slowly been creeping up, and now that BrightHouse has been gobbled up by Charter Communications, it's only a matter of time before there's a big price increase.
And Yet (Score:3)
With all the cord cutting, myself included, I don't understand why more content providers aren't breaking with tradition (or contracts) and offering their programming via streaming. For example, I want my national news via my Roku box. I checked with Fox News (don't judge me) and the only way I can stream their content is with an account like DirecTV or one of the cable providers. It's a dying industry and content providers really need to either offer themselves al-a-cart or figure out a way to group together on their own. I won't be paying for 100 channels of infomercials or crap I don't watch anymore just to have news and weather. I am guessing most others commenting here feel the same.
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Cable TV has Outlived it's Lifespan (Score:1)
I now pay $100 for a fast internet package. The cable company is annoyingly incessant sending me mail asking me to buy TV package. $300 gift card if I sign up for a 2 year deal. W
Don't cry too hard, they ARE making up for it (Score:2)
In the six or so years since I cut the cord, Cox has raised my internet rate from a somewhat reasonable $55 to a ridiculous $79 with no significant increase in bandwidth.