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Television The Internet Entertainment Technology

Pandemic Accelerated Cord Cutting, Making 2020 the Worst-Ever Year For Pay TV (techcrunch.com) 93

Posted by BeauHD from the new-normal dept.
According to new research from eMarketer, the cable, satellite and telecom TV industry is on track to lose the most subscribers ever. This year, over 6 million U.S. households will cut the cord with pay TV, bringing the total number of cord-cutter households to 31.2 million. TechCrunch reports: The firm says that by 2024, the number will grow even further, reaching 46.6 million total cord-cutter households, or more than a third of all U.S. households that no longer have pay TV. Despite these significant declines, there are still more households that have a pay TV subscription than those that do not. Today, there are 77.6 million U.S. households that have cable, satellite or telecom TV packages. But that number has declined 7.5% year-over-year â" its biggest-ever drop. The figure is also down from pay TV's peak in 2014, the analysts said.

The pay TV losses, as you may expect, are due to the growing adoption of streaming services. But if anything, the pandemic has pushed forward the cord-cutting movement's momentum as the health crisis contributed to a down economy and the loss of live sports during the first part of the year. These trends may have also encouraged more consumers to cut the cord than would have otherwise. "Consumers are choosing to cut the cord because of high prices, especially compared with streaming alternatives," said eMarketer forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom. "The loss of live sports in H1 2020 contributed to further declines. While sports have returned, people will not return to their old cable or satellite plans," he added.
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Pandemic Accelerated Cord Cutting, Making 2020 the Worst-Ever Year For Pay TV More

Pandemic Accelerated Cord Cutting, Making 2020 the Worst-Ever Year For Pay TV

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  • fees (Score:5, Informative)

    by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @08:53PM (#60529952)

    When you look at your cable bill and you look at all the fees, you realize that it makes no sense. You realize you've been paying many dollars per month to rent things that the rental fees paid off years ago. Its easy to wonder what you are paying for. Then when you use the service its at least 1/3 advertising, probably more.

    I cut the cord years ago. Now I know exactly what I'm getting and paying for, if I don't like the fees I'll drop the service. And seriously fuck services like Hulu that want to put ads in/on/around everything. If you want to get paid then cut the crap.

    • This. Bundling sucks. It's a way for your bill to be $60 for a year then $200 and they have you on the hook.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        This. Bundling sucks. It's a way for your bill to be $60 for a year then $200 and they have you on the hook.

        It's not so good on the other end as well, because you hear everyone complaining about having to subscribe to Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, Disney+, AppleTV+, CBS All Access, HBO, and dozens of other more. Ironically, they complain why can't they just subscribe to one service for all that.

        So no bundling, and no separated services. The former want the ability to buy separate services, the latter want the abi

        • I just subscribe to a VPN for all my entertainment needs

        • Actually, I think it is more accurate to say that people want to buy the specific shows or series that they want to watch and not to have to sign up for all the rest of the crap.

          Ex: CBS All-Access I only care about ST: Lower Decks. Peacock? I only care about Premier League. And the occasional show from Amazon Prime or Netflix or what have you. And maybe some NBA basketball once in awhile. I get tired of paying $5-10/month to watch maybe a total of 5 hours of content over a 3-month period and then get

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

            Actually, I think it is more accurate to say that people want to buy the specific shows or series that they want to watch and not to have to sign up for all the rest of the crap.

            Ex: CBS All-Access I only care about ST: Lower Decks. Peacock? I only care about Premier League. And the occasional show from Amazon Prime or Netflix or what have you. And maybe some NBA basketball once in awhile. I get tired of paying $5-10/month to watch maybe a total of 5 hours of content over a 3-month period and then get forced

          • The big draw of Netflix to me, even back when they were mailing DVDs, is the buffet style offerings, I would try things out that I never would have seen if I had to pay upfront. If I end up not liking a show or movie I never feel like I've been ripped off, I just wasted my own time.

    • Its far worse than this fluff piece makes out.

      It was only a few months ago we were told how cable TV is making a comeback because of covid. It should be true. Everyone expected it to be true. Yet its not. Thats how bad the service value is.

      • I'm certain you meant "worse" for the cable providers not the subscribers. But I can't help being happy.

      • Which confirms what everyone suspected: Cable TV is sports. That's the only reason to have one nowadays. All this "bundling" and hidden fee-fees are a way to hide the fact sports are the major expense for Cable TV networks but also their major offer, and all that "bundling" and fee-fees is so they can pretend sports doesn't cost that much but you are also getting something else for that money.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by reg ( 5428 )

          I suspect their numbers would also be far worse if people actually paid attention. Most people are leaning pretty heavily on their internet connection right now, and for a lot of people that is via cable. If you're busy with working from home, distance learning, etc. you probably don't have time to sit on the phone to comcast and figure out if you can get out of your current 12 month deal with them and into a new internet only deal, since that's only for new customers right? Plus if you do, they'll say s

          • Re:fees (Score:4, Informative)

            by stdarg ( 456557 ) on Tuesday September 22, 2020 @09:23AM (#60531248)

            I had the opposite experience back in April. I found out that the service I use (AT&T gigabit) was being offered for $49/month to new subscribers for 12 months and then a regular price of $70/month. I was paying $100/month and had just gotten notice that it was increasing to $110/month because of a new equipment rental fee.

            Well I called them up, saying there must be some mistake because the ongoing rate (not promotional) is only $70. I was told the ongoing rate depends when you sign up, etc etc. However, because of covid, they were super eager to help. I told them look I don't want the promotional rate, just give me the correct ongoing rate. The guy was like no no, I can get you the $49/month rate for 12 months and then $70 ongoing. Plus I'll refund the last 3 months of the extra amount you've been paying ($100 vs $70, so $30*3).

            Needless to say I was happy with the outcome and then the service rep went into a spiel about how AT&T wants to help out during these tough times etc.

            So it's definitely worth calling, it didn't take too long, and I got a very good outcome. I don't know if companies are still feeling so charitable but it's worth a shot.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by syn3rg ( 530741 )
          NBC appears to be moving their EPL coverage to their paid platform, Peacock. I wonder which pro league coverage is next to move to a subscriber only platform.
    • Not to mention the cable box interface is worse than a raspberry pi with Kodi. You are still forced to use remote controls rather than a keyboard.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Bert64 ( 520050 )

        Yeah this...
        Being forced to use whatever shitty box they supply to access the content that you have paid for.
        If you paid for access, you should be able to access it on whatever device you see fit - the same flexibility we had with OTA TV.

    • Xennial here. Always just saw cable TV as something my parents wasted money on, filled with commercials, old movies and crap. The real treat was getting to go to the video store and renting something I actually wanted to watch.

      As an adult, I never had any desire to subscribe to cable TV. Is one still a "cord cutter" if he never had a cord in the first place?

      • I'm the same way. I've never had any desire to subscribe to cable TV. In the industry those of us that have never subscribed to cable (or any pay TV), are known as "cord nevers".

      • > Is one still a "cord cutter" if he never had a cord in the first place?

        The term you're looking for is "cord-never". The growing numbers of "cord-nevers" is worrying the Pay-TV industry. Younger suckers... errr subscribers, are not coming in fast enough to replace older subscribers who are dying off.

    • but shouldn't it a good year, most people spent time at home yet they used tv a lot?? isn't it??

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      When I cut the cord years and years ago I asked if they wanted the box back. They said "nah, recycle it". So it's apparently not even worth the cost of return postage to them. In fact they wanted me to pay to recycle it.

      Chucked it on eBay back before they banned such things.

    • It's worse than that. Cable secret way to make money is to use the "boil the frog" method - counting on lazy customers. If you LOCK your cable rate with a long term commitment, they tell you that fees and taxes may vary. I get taxes, but only ones I can verify, not invented taxes like Comcast does which I have observed go up as much as 100% in one billing cycle sometimes multiple times a year, then when questioned, Comcast customer service says "we don't know what tax that is that just doubled, talk to your

  • Aww (Score:5, Funny)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @08:59PM (#60529968)

    It couldnâ(TM)t have happened to a nicer monopoly.

  • Make your bill simple. Just buy internet. Don't bundle. Pray you can get the good price at the next contract negotiation. (Right now cable, 100mb/s down for $40 month). No other fees. Yes, I pay for Netflix, but Plex gets a lot of use too.

    • Just buy internet. Don't bundle.

      Good luck with that when the local ISP offers the Internet and TV bundle for a lower price than Internet by itself. One way for this to happen is ISPs that impose a monthly usage quota on Internet-only customers but waive it for the bundle. For a heavy user, the overage fees can exceed the price difference between the bundle and Internet only.

      • IDK. Those bundles are great the first year, then your bill likely doubles. Most people don't think about that second year of paying 2x the current bill when the promo price stops. I have a 2 terabyte cap. I work from home and we stream just about everything. I have only hit it once when a home server got stuck in a windows update loop. Granted, I don't own a 4K TV but that's not my thing. Saving money is. I'll buy a 4K projector to replace my 1080p when the price falls to ~700 ;) maybe then I'll worry a

        • Re: The bundle is cheaper for some (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Rockoon ( 1252108 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @09:57PM (#60530156)
          To burn up a 2TB cap watching video....

          ....you can stream 4K for 6 hours a day.

          But if you watch 1080P video, you can stream 24/7/365, and you would still have about 500GB of cap left over per month.

          The cable ISPs where I am have implemented caps twice. The first time the town council yanked and invalidated the exclusive franchise instantly and let another cable company in. The new cable co (Metrocast) bought out the customers from the old, and a year or so later tried to implement a cap themselves. We are now serviced by Atlantic, who still has no cap a decade later.

          Thats how its done folks. Lots of Californians here look to the federal government to solve this "problem" whereas people on the east coast actually solve this "problem" by threatening to remove the local people actually responsible if they dont fix it immediately. On the local level, you have a lot of influence, if you want it. Californians dont actually want influence.

          • But if you watch 1080P video, you can stream 24/7/365

            True if you live alone. If you have more than one person in the house watching separate streams, be they for school from home, work from home, or entertainment, you may have to drop down to standard definition to fit the Internet video use of all residents age 7+ into the 1000 to 2000 GB/mo quota. This is even more difficult for people living outside the service area of fiber or cable, as satellite and cellular Internet had quotas in the low double digits GB/mo last I checked.

      • I should state that if you find yourself in that boat where the internet is more than internet + TV, you can usually haggle to get the promo again. Been doing this with Comcast since 2017. Still on the promo. Takes a little effort I suppose.
      • I'm from FIOS country, what are overage fees?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tepples ( 727027 )

          Overage fees are what home Internet subscribers who can't afford to move to FiOS country have to pay when they exceed the quota set forth in the ISP's residential service agreement.

      • This is true as only recently I cut the cable. For comparison I looked at Comcast to see what an internet only option would cost, $299/month whereas their bundle that includes almost everything including many premium channels was "only" about $250.

        Fortunately in my area Fios offered a much better deal.

        I've even heard from multiple people the way you used to be able, when your bundle price expired, call up Comcast and complain and they'd renew you on some fairly close new bundle price, no, they've stopped t

    • Make your bill simple. Just buy internet. Don't bundle.

      What happens when everyone cancels their cable TV and only subscribes to broadband services, and the greedy telcos aren't ready to give up their nice fat profit margins?

      Oh right, it'll be just like that hypothetical future scenario where nearly everyone owns an EV and charges it overnight to get that off-peak discount. The magical free market fairy will spread pixie dust on your bill and you get to keep your savings. I keep forgetting about her.

      • New services like Starlink and Google Fiber, which only care about internet, could prevent the telcos from trying to make up lost cable revenue with caps or increase fees.

    • The scary thing is the flip side, When these Telco's turn cable companies turn ISP's suddenly find their money business is gone, and everyone only wants internet to watch Netflix/Hulu/CBS/Disney+/HBO/AmazonPrime/etc... they'll just drop the Data caps on your home internet, and start offering 'internet capless bundles' where a select 'package' of streaming services don't count towards your cap.

      For a low fee of $50 a month on top, you too can get HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and NBA center court all include

  • Sports channels need to be add on's like hbo! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @09:02PM (#60529986)

    Sports channels need to be add on's like hbo!
    All the ESPN channels are like $10/mo on there own
    NBC SN / CBS Sports network / etc are like $2-3mo
    local rsn's / collage sports are like $2-$15/mo

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Revek ( 133289 )
      No can do on those sports channels. ESPN insists that in order to have them on the basic or expanded tier that the cable company also carry all of their other crap. Want MTV or AMC? Viacom forces you to carry all of their crap if you put it in the basic or expanded tier. AMC is one of the greediest of them all. Every time a contract comes up they double their price. They don't provided one more second of content but always want more. They require you carry other channels and you have to charge for the

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Bert64 ( 520050 )

        Well you're referring to small local cable providers, who have virtually no bargaining power... The larger operators have a lot more leverage.
        But it sounds like your local cable provider needs to stop being a cable tv provider, and just switch to being an ISP.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Just stop watching expensive sports. Stick to ones that are aired for free. Sumo is really good.

    • collage sports are like $2-$15/mo

      Jessica is in the lead with her circle of photographs of her family at the beach. What's this? Suzy has just pulled ahead by placing a portrait centerpiece in her amalgam of found objects. And here comes - it's all over! Emily has won the match by placing her final newspaper clipping and forming a picture of a large cat out of hundreds of tiny pet adoption ads for cats!

  • Worse than, say, 1905? Or 1456? Or 3597 BC?

  • Nothing puts a cherry on top of an untenable life that’s been largely out of your control than having your entertainment crap out when you need it most. Well, except a lack of food or water. But without those theres the millions facing eviction/forclosure or currently unemployed or underemployed. Everything combined is going to make for some of those interesting times none of us signed up for.

  • Seriously. I have a couple of young children and myself and my wife. With the exception of "broadcast news", we literally do not consume any TV content. Movies and "TV series" and educational programming are available on alternative providers like Amazon Prime (which I use for the shopping benefits so the extra streaming content is a bonus). No need to rent a cable box, pay for "regional sports fees", 911 fees, few commercials to sit through, blah blah blah blah. If I REALLY want old fashioned TV conte

    • With the exception of "broadcast news", we literally do not consume any TV content.

      That's like the easiest content on TV to ditch. All they can do is quote news you've already read about online. Completely pointless to sit around and wait for them to read it back to you.

    • With the exception of "broadcast news", we literally do not consume any TV content.

      I am surprised: broadcast news probably are among the most useless cable offerings. Unless things have changed, their approach consists of a lot of talk, with very little substance, with the infamous "still to come" before every of the many interruptions per hour, to end up with a few minutes worth of story which was, most of the times, uninteresting to begin with. Plus all the substance can be obtained online, without the interrupts, self-promotion and other nonsense pushed in the broadcast version.

      • Should you avoid electric Cars more to come.... Hear at Exon we are doing all these wonderful thing.... Electric cars are going to destroy the economy...

    • Broadcast news is the reason why I don't watch Broadcast TV.
      Especially 24 hours Cable News Stations. You Low budget Local News channel isn't so bad as it was meant to turn on and watch for 1/2 an hour. Get a gist on what is happening locally see the weather then do something else. They will also let you know what is happening in your area. Very little Propaganda, or time being filled with Editorials and and partisan debates.

      Cable National News only goal is to keep you on that station for you to watch the A

  • That aren't being "cut". Internet TV still comes through the same coax FFS. How is every year the worst year, and yet there are still cords left to "cut"? Just die already. And kill this stupid metaphor too.
  • "The cable, satellite and telecom TV industry is on track to lose the most subscribers ever". What cable or satellite provider doesn't also offer internet? And what exactly is the "telecom TV industry"? Is someone getting television over their POTS telephone?

    • And what exactly is the "telecom TV industry"? Is someone getting television over their POTS telephone?

      Over a POTS telephone, no. Over lines owned by a company that still offers POTS telephone service, yes. Though those companies are doing their level best to shed every last POTS customer just as fast as possible so they can get out from under POTS reliability regulations and tell customers to fuck off when their soft phone loses connect 9 times a day.

  • Same as the old boss.

  • Pay TV? (Score:3)

    by Bobrick ( 5220289 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @11:31PM (#60530402)
    You would have to pay me to watch the shit on TV honestly.

  • The headline mentions 'cord cutting', and then alternatives, but OTA (Over the Air Broadcasting) is not one of them. OTA is, you know, that thing that was pretty much the only way one watched TV origiinally. That's still how I watch it, but I sometimes get the feeling I'm the only one in the world who still does. Obviously I'm not, but I don't know anybody else who uses it. When I mention it to acquaintances, they give me a funny look, even old timers who I presume gave up on it when it went digital.

    It

    • Probably because OTA is not available everywhere. The presence of Cable has led to a huge disinvestment in OTA infrastucture, both on the transmitter and the receiver end. How many apartment blocks have central antennas, say, in New York?

  • YouTube TV (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ancil ( 622971 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @11:51PM (#60530446)

    Is there a streaming service out there like YouTubeTV, circa 2-3 years ago?

    Love the service, and it used to be $35 a month. It had everything I wanted, including all the locals.

    Then they decided to jack up the price to $50 [cnbc.com] and add a bunch of stupid channels I don't care about. Then they went ahead and hiked it up to $65 [cnet.com] and added even more marginal channels I don't care about.

    Hey, I get it, not everyone has my taste in channels. Feel free to add higher tiers at higher prices, and throw in the dumb NFL channel. Knock yourself out. But instead, they've chosen to become The Cable Company II

    • Youtube in general has been under some very incompetent and out of touch management for years already. You can clearly see this in their long running attempt at trying to boost non-native content from mainstream news sources despite the way it continues to do laughably poorly against native content. There's also a lot of talk about how native content creators are the lifeblood of the site, yet absolutely nothing has been done to address their #1 issue going back at years and years, over-aggressive automatio

      • Youtube in general has been under some very incompetent and out of touch management for years already. You can clearly see this in their long running attempt at trying to boost non-native content from mainstream news sources despite the way it continues to do laughably poorly against native content.

        They're perfectly in touch. With their customers. Not you. They're getting paid to promote that shit. They don't care what you or anyone else likes. They're doing what they're getting paid to do. No reasonable algorithm would suggest the NBA or NFL channels to me, but do they always show up? Yup. 'cause YouTube is getting paid to make sure they do. Same for news.

        YATP: You Are The Product. Never forget that.

  • it sucks as a product (Score:3)

    by n3r0.m4dski11z ( 447312 ) on Tuesday September 22, 2020 @12:47AM (#60530538) Homepage Journal

    Was on vacation and had the opportunity to stay in a motel with a TV. The amount of times the same commercial repeats is insane. Like the amount of times i was told to worry that my clothes are wrinkly when they come out of the dryer. Like this was something people fucking worry about. Who has time for that shit? Buy a fucking iron if you care that much about wrinkles! Like over and over and over again...

    another one telling me why a laundry detergent is better than the cheaper budget brands. over and over and over again... sure you pay more, but look at all the lies you can tell yourself about quality to make up for it! here are some, over and over and over again.

    as someone with no cable going on 22 years, i cant believe the shit that people put up with. AND THEY PAY FOR IT!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      I haven't owned a TV in years. US TV, it has to be said, is particularly bad for long and frequent advert breaks. I don't know how people tolerate it, to be honest, I mean... how do you watch a TV movie when it's 50% longer just because of the ads?

      Even in the EU it's bad enough to make me switch off. I loaded an RPi I had, with a DVB-T card, put tvHeadend on it, and if I *want* to watch something that I hear about (where? I don't watch ads! Mainly Christmas TV and one-offs and new episodes of things I

      • I mean... how do you watch a TV movie when it's 50% longer just because of the ads?

        I remember watching the TV censored version of Terminator 2 on broadcast when I was young. So, not the director's cut, so it's shorter, and with scenes removed to please the FCC, so it's shorter still. With commercials, it was 4 hours long. Unbelievable.

        I had pay TV for 6 months when the girl I was living with wanted it. The girl and the pay TV have both been gone for many years now. I find the commercials and banners and sounders and channel identification widget and ALL that bullshit absolutely intol

  • Live sports is where cable shines (Score:3)

    by ptaff ( 165113 ) on Tuesday September 22, 2020 @02:49AM (#60530658) Homepage

    Tried many online alternatives this summer while watching NHL playoffs; they all suck one way or the other. There was not a single game where there was no glitch. Sudden switches to shitty resolution, image freezes, disconnects. All using a stellar internet connection that has no trouble whatsoever; probably technical issues with the stream providers.

    Signal's also often overcompressed or inadequate (30fps sucks for a fast sport such as hockey).

    Also tried IPTV a couple of years ago, it sucked too with similar problems.

    Then there's DRM on many streams that prevents you from sending that signal to your huge TV in the living room. If you're lucky, a HDCP downgrader/stripper might work, but tell that to 99% of people and you'll get a blank stare.

    Meanwhile, cable delivers, without glitches. Live sports may be the last remaining use case for cable TV, but a major one IMHO.

    • Business model has changed, the number of 'Must Have sport nuts' is shrinking, shrinking. Probably has something to do with unstable gig employment, and the younger more tech savvy lot getting it elsewhere. If the stock market is rewarding Apple on future revenue predictions, then company's reliant on cable revenue should be crashing, hard. It will be some time before all you can eat for $10 mo becomes an option. H265 makes other options possible in Europe. Wait till AC1 or H266 makes sharing the new normal

  • Other countries see different dynamics, including strong growth of cable TV subscriptions.
    Modern cable TV offering is digital, may include an application to view your content on a mobile device or computer, often bundled with data SIM card and other services.

  • Cut out DishTV and have NEVER thought about going/paying again !! ESPN/sports was the only thing keeping me on Dish before then. Explored other ways, including Kodi/internet sites and haven't missed a single game that I wanted to watch.

  • Did I just say that?

    YouTube TV at $40 was very nice. Then they added some bullshit channels taking it up to $50.

    Charter internet cable with a lot of other channels is $45 (plus fees and taxes, comparable). But the unlimited cloud recording is worth a bit.

    I'll probably stick with YouTube TV (unlimited DVR which I can watch on my T-Mobile phone anywhere I have access is really powerful) but up the Chater internet to 400MBPS as we have way too many devices (2 kids on Chromebooks, my laptop, and maybe 2 TVs,

  • We;re now paying more for ala cart television than we did for Cable TV. Thanks to everyone who made that possible.

    • But we are getting what we wanted.
      We wanted to pay for the channels that we watch, and not for the ones that we don't watch.
      When we said that we wanted this, most of us understood that we may be paying a little more ovall. But having content you want to watch was worth it.
      Also we have a little more control on what we watch. If it is going too expensive. We can say. Goodbye to Netflix. But Keep HBO and Disney.

  • Got rid of DirecTV and switched to Orby (rural) (Score:4, Interesting)

    by clifwlkr ( 614327 ) on Tuesday September 22, 2020 @09:52AM (#60531356)
    I have an off grid cabin in the middle of nowhere, and rely on satellite internet for work, so streaming is not an option for me. DirecTV kept hiking fees, adding 'sports fees' which I never watch and don't want to pay for, and started charging never ending equipment rental fees, etc. The darn bill was way over $100 a month, and I finally had enough of them. But I still like to watch some documentaries, reality type stuff (Alone), and some other random things here and there. So I had to find something else that was way more affordable and not just fee after fee. I found Orby and it was a great fit. Very limited selection of channels and no local tv, but you pay for the equipment up front and you own it. The monthly fee is $50, no additional fees or taxes, pay as you go, cancel and restart through the app any time with no fees. Additionally, I could do a self install and they even threw in a signal meter with the install kit. Quality of the display is not great, but for gosh sakes, it's just junk TV to pass the time on a rainy day, not a cinematic experience. I am not a paid shill for this company or anything, just letting other rural people know there is a cheap option out there now. I wish more companies would go this route. I hate sports, don't care for many of the channels, and just want some basic stuff to watch on rare occasion. That is not worth over $1200 a year. The cost is sunk once the satellite is in the sky, so why not get more subscribers by offering cheap basic channels. Orby is doing a decent job of that, albeit with a very limited selection. I think DirecTV would stop their bleeding if they offered a barebones package as well. There are many of us out here in rural areas with internet that is crappy and will not allow streaming due to data caps. I was a direcTV customer since 1993, but it just wasn't worth that much money anymore. I was glad a bargain basement offer came along without a contract....

  • I find that I really don't miss it. I'm not even going to think about going back until I get the ability to pick channels a la-carte without having to do bundles. I shouldn't be forced into for paying for channels like CNN, DIsney or ESPN just to get another channel that I do want. Especially when cable channels are just as bad for commercials as over the air.

    Even then, cable needs to do something about commercial volume. Cable channels aren't required to normalize commercial volume like over the air channe

  • ... but it doesn't, and to the best of my knowledge won't for the foreseeable future. There are shows that I like to watch which are exclusive to certain channels and while you can stream the shows online from their website, such exclusive content is locked behind a mechanism that verifies you have a cable subscription that includes the channel from one of the cable providers which provides it.
  • The pandemic situation has affected the world economy in every way possible. Rather than paying extra for almost the same content on PayTv, one should get back to reading. There are plenty of freshly published books out there that would serve you best and make feel satisfied with every penny spent on the same. If you are in fact looking for something interesting to read, you can check out the book "Stop. No!" in Amazon.com apart from many other platforms. Click on the link to read now: https://www.amazon.co [amazon.com]

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