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Cable TV Decline: Cord-cutting is accelerating
- impostervt 11y agoJust cut the cord this weekend, after we realized we're paying $170/month for cable, and only watch about 8 shows. Was also paying monthly for Tivo. Already had Netflix & Amazon Prime. Subscribed to Hulu (eats the savings of canceling Tivo) and may add a few others. Still feels weird to not be able to turn on live TV in the background (haven't gotten the HD Antenna working yet). Only downside so far is - it was nice turning on the Tivo and having a small number of shows to watch that it had recorded for us. Now my wife and I have to think - what do we want to watch? Did it come on yet this week? And is it on Hulu or Netflix or Amazon or...
- ch 11y agoMind reporting if you still obtain your Internet uplink from the same provider as your cable? Did you just ditch the TV service or drop the provider entirely?
- impostervt 11y agoJust dropped the TV service. Still have Cox for internet. $60/month for 50mb (not really). But, it's enough for my two kids to stream youtube while I stream from netflix, so I can live with it.
- csydas 11y ago> Still feels weird to not be able to turn on live TV in the background I think that even older generations are starting to realize that the cable bill is pretty much paying for a white noise generator at this point - computers and phones/tablets have so much to occupy attention and time that all it's going to take is a person saying aloud "Why am I paying $X to not watch TV?"
- impostervt 11y agoWhat's funny is my parents, in their 60s, cut the cord about 2 years ago - long before me. My father is technically savvy compared to most his age, but for them saving money was far more important.
- tbyehl 11y ago> Now my wife and I have to think - what do we want to > watch? Did it come on yet this week? And is it on Hulu > or Netflix or Amazon or... I feel like this is where streaming still fails to be better than piracy. I pay 16€/month for a dedicated server, pay nothing for an RSS feed of TV show torrents I'm interested in, spent a couple hours whipping up some scripts to automate transferring the shows to my home and putting them where Plex expects them to be... And when we fire up the TV, it just tells us which shows have new episodes available to watch. Don't care what the schedule is, which service has it, doesn't matter if the Internet is being uncooperative, and I don't have to deal with DVRs sometimes missing a recording or having some other problem (I think I've gone through every DVR solution that isn't tied to a cable / satellite provider). I keep paying for cable and streaming so that someone is getting paid for the content I'm consuming but I'm longing for the day that some box and combination of services can give me that level of just not having to give a crap about the details. After 10+ years of trying different things I finally have something that "just works" all the time, but I'm still responsible for it and I'd rather pay someone else $50/month so that I don't have to be.
- impostervt 11y agoI'm strongly considering this. I've experimented with Plex and it works very well. Haven't done the scripting bit yet, just manually adding some things to try it out. I would also keep paying for Hulu/Netflix/etc, just so that the content creators get paid. But, if I went this route, I could also rip the bajijllion movies my daughters have and no longer worry about them getting their jelly covered fingers on them...
- JustSomeNobody 11y agoI have an old Silicon Dust device and a couple scripts that record the shows I watch each week, transcode them and put them on the plex server. It's a _really_ simple setup, but for the two or three OTA broadcast shows we watch, it's not bad.
- cableshaft 11y agoI just have several shows in my personal collection that I rotate between for background shows. Because I've already seen them multiple times, I usually don't get too distracted by them and can do other things while they're on. I just pop in a DVD or queue up a playlist and let it run for a couple hours. Hunting for live TV that I can tolerate would take up so much more effort for me, and the commercials are basically designed to be distracting.
- charlieflowers 11y agoJust this weekend I helped my mother change TV providers. She went to dish network from at&t uverse. My original thought was to move internet from uverse to xfinity. But xfinity's web site was so sneaky about up front fees that I abandoned them and kept her internet with uverse. Cable companies are blatant scammers. The industry deserves to die.
- izacus 11y agoDon't worry, Comcast and company will quickly fix this by making any kind of streaming prohibitively expensive on their internet connections.
- ascagnel_ 11y agoComcast owns NBCUniversal, so they also own a big chunk of content; they're in a position where they can effectively sink Netflix from both ends by also raising the price Netflix pays for content.
- wernercd 11y agoExcept that Netflix is constantly adding/removing content. Movies become available and then stop being available. This is one of the major reasons Netflix is hitting "Original Content" so hard. They can take away South Park (or whatever it is NBCU owns) but they can't take away Orange is the New Black or other Netflix Exclusives. The real problem then becomes what happens when Amazon Prime has exclusives. HBO GO has exclusives. Netflix has exclusives. Hulu has exclusives. etc. Now, to legally watch all the popular shows, you have to pay 3, 4, 5, etc companies $~10 a month on top of your internet bill. à la carte that everyone has always said they wanted (Why should I pay for sports when I don't watch them? Or Holy TV? or spanish channels?)
- massysett 11y agoI often see this sentiment; does anybody actually have anything to back it up? The underlying thought seems to be that TV packages must be more profitable for multichannel operators than Internet. Is that true? Your cable operator has to split the TV bill with content providers. Comcast acts as ESPN's bill collector (good deal for ESPN, they don't get the hatred from the rising bills.) With Internet there is no bill to split. I once read that Internet is more profitable for Comcast than TV.
- izacus 11y agoI can't give you data for US, but at the telcos I worked for, TV was the ONLY profitable part of the package. Internet and phone subscriptions were barely covering the operations (partly due to usage of obsolete copper technologies instead of fiber). They were all scared to death of becoming a dumb pipe and are hedging their bets on selling content.
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- mikegioia 11y agoI cancelled all TV from my FiOS bill last month and I couldn't be happier. $175 was being flushed down the toilet every month. The biggest thing, that no news article really captures, is that even if you sign up for a $50/mo TV package, the actual price is closer to $100/mo when you include taxes, fees, DVR rentals (!), etc. No thank you! Like another commenter said, I think a hurdle for the average person is living without TV shows on a fixed schedule. Most people are used to leaving the TV on, or mindlessly flipping channels until anything satisfies you. I could not hope more to move away from that world, and I think that people are finally starting to do that.
- Touche 11y ago> Like another commenter said, I think a hurdle for the average person is living without TV shows on a fixed schedule. The biggest hurdle is sports. Being a sports fan and a cord-cutter at the same time is really hard. Even if you subscribe to every pro sports digital package (which aren't cheap, by the way) you still miss out on all of the nationally televisions games, the blacked out local games, and all of the commentary surrounding sports. Sadly this one is much harder to fix than movies. You can't just build a Netflix for sports because the broadcast rights are too expensive.
- VLM 11y ago"because the broadcast rights are too expensive" They're in a bubble right now, and there is commentary in the sportsball press about what, for example, the NBA as a corporation will do when the bubble pops. Other than go bankrupt and emerge on the other side with the same people doing the same thing. Its a pretty serious concern for them.
- pyre 11y agoA bubble how? Are they saying that the value of the broadcasting rights are artificially inflated? Or the value of the sport in general (licensing, merchandising, ticket costs, etc)?
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- SixSigma 11y agoI've been TV free for about 10 years now (although I subscribe to Eurosport). I now find it strange when I go to someone's house and the TV is blaring away. The ads are just the worst, almost physically painful to experience. I don't think it's too hyperbolic, even if it's a bit of a cliche, to liken TV to other addictive things. It's just too stimulating. Walk into a bar with a TV and you kind of find yourself watching it for no good reason. Watching a sport you don't like, with teams you don't support with the sounds off.
- VLM 11y ago"TV viewers between the ages of 18 and 31 are signing up for cable in ever decreasing numbers" The rationalization in the article was strange nonsense, but combined with long term economic trends http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/07/29/more-millennials-living-with-family-despite-improved-job-market/ http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/07/29/more-millennials-l... If "grandpa" had a factory job paying $50/hr and "dad" got $25/hr in a cubicle and the kid living at home gets a couple bucks an hour as a bartender, you can express the staggering increase in the cost of cable in hours of labor per month. So in grandpa's generation, he only had to work an afternoon to pay for cable, but his grandkids would basically have to put in an entire part time work week to pay for cable, and I'm sure they'd rather eat or pay the rent..
- rs999gti 11y agoI really like Cinemax, HBO, and Showtime original series. How do I cord cut without having to subscribe to these premium channels?
- dimgl 11y agoHBO NOW is great for Apple devices. I'm not sure if Cinemax and Showtime offer an equivalent but they should be soon if cable isn't paying them a big amount to stay exclusive.
- stanleydrew 11y agoHBO Now isn't only for Apple devices. For the first three months of its availability you had to sign up through iTunes. But it's now possible to subscribe through Google Play. In any case I've always watched it through a web browser, regardless of the subscription. Cancelling the iTunes subscription was a disaster of an experience. If you've never tried finding your subscriptions in iTunes on an iPhone consider yourself lucky. It takes 5 clicks to find it: 1. On the Home screen, tap Settings. 2. Tap App and iTunes Stores. 3. Tap your Apple ID. 4. Tap View Apple ID. You might need to sign in. 5. Under Subscriptions, tap Manage. The moron who decided that subscriptions should be hidden behind tapping something completely unrelated like your AppleID should be fired. But seeing as this hasn't been addressed in the last 5 years I guess Apple likes it this way.
- larrydag 11y agoThis looks like a decent one-stop guide. http://www.theverge.com/a/online-tv-stream-price-guide http://www.theverge.com/a/online-tv-stream-price-guide
- rs999gti 11y agoGreat guide. Now what about TV for a household with older parents? They already have a hard enough time using the FIOS cable boxes to navigate TV. Is there an interface for Internet based TV that is easy enough for non-Tech people like my parents and my significant other?
- josefresco 11y agoJust got this in my email, here's what I pay in Massachusetts for Comcast/Xfinity: ==================== Xfinity TV Digital Starter $69.95 HD Technology Fee $9.95 DVR Service $10.00 Additional Outlet $9.95 Additional Outlet $2.99 Additional Outlet $2.99 Xfinity Internet Performance $53.95 Modem Rental $10.00 Taxes, Surcharges and Fees $11.69 ==================== The fact that I pay extra for a DVR/and HD made sense in 2005, not so much in 2015.
- soylentcola 11y agoThe fact that they charge for extra outlets always makes me facepalm. Charge for each box you are forced to rent, sure. It sucks but it at least makes logical sense. But the cable wiring in your house? That's yours! Why would you need to pay for that?
- josefresco 11y agoI have two "boxes". One is the DVR, the other is a "regular" box with guide and On Demand. I then have a couple other TV's in the kid's rooms with Comcast's most basic "box" (no guide, limited channels etc.). I probably could kill one of them, and if I bought my modem I'd eventually save maybe $13/month (albeit after 6 months of paying off the modem/time to modify services)
- matwood 11y agoYou should call and badger comcast for a deal. I'm on a deal now for less than $200/month for nearly every channel x1, 2 room dvr, and 120Mb inet, and a phone line (yes, my wife still uses a fax machine). The problem with the starter (unless you can get a $99 deal) is that you have to add HD and DVR. So you think you're on the cheap plan, but it makes more sense to move up where those are included if you need them. Comcast website is deliberately obtuse and dealing with them is pain, but it can be done. Tweeting at them seems to get the best response and can get you a personal service person who seems to have the power to fix things. With that said, when this deal is up I'll evaluate again if I can cut the cord and still get shows I want to watch without much hassle and decent internet.
- slantaclaus 11y agoThey'll blame technology, but for me at least, it was the "worst in the world" customer service from time Warner cable. Also, the desperation that they employ trying to prevent you from cancelling is enough to ensure I'll never go back.
- Jtsummers 11y agoSame. I initially cut cable (and cable internet) because Cox kept disconnecting me instead of my neighbor, and expected me to take time off from work (wouldn't show up in the evening or on weekends) to get me reconnected. Treat customers poorly, and if you don't offer them a compelling reason to stay (cable is hardly a necessity, and there are other ISPs), and they'll leave.
- Someone1234 11y agoThis is what I never understood about this "make it hard to quit" strategy. If you make it EASY to quit then people won't think twice about returning, if you make it super hard then people will do everything they can to avoid re-subscripting to avoid going through that again. To give an example: - LogMeIn & SiriusXM Satellite Radio: Both make cancelling a huge pain in the butt. You have to call in, they bug you, and it take forever. Both I've considered re-subscribing to, and both I decided to go with a competitor (TeamViewer, and Play Music Unlimited respectively). - Hulu+: I quit and rejoin Hulu several times a year. But they make it so easy to quit, I don't think twice about joining. I think this whole "make it hard to quit" strategy is part of a bigger problem with businesses: short-term-ism. Meaning businesses only dwell on one quarter at a time, and ignore their own future. Often times with the management/CEO coming in, burning down a company's long term for short term profit, getting personally rewarded, and then jumping ship before the long term issues become evident.
- ArkyBeagle 11y agoDidn't TW grow by acquisition? It's 72.2% debt: http://quicktake.morningstar.com/stocknet/bonds.aspx?symbol=twc http://quicktake.morningstar.com/stocknet/bonds.aspx?symbol=...
- rm_-rf_slash 11y agoAside from sports there is no reason at all to pay for cable. Most paid services can get you the same content without also having to watch ads. It just seems absurd to me that a business model can exist in the Internet age where you pay to see ads and still have no control over your content aside from switching channels.
- JustSomeNobody 11y agoOnce it gets bad enough, internet prices with skyrocket to compensate. or they'll link internet data caps to prices of cable tiers or some other such nonsense.
- neves 11y agoI cancelled Cable TV altogether. I don't want my children to see ads. Now I just have Netflix. When I want to watch the news (usually during elections) I plug an antenna.
- PatentTroll 11y agoIn addition to OTA, I've found CBS has CBSN - a 24/7 news channel available on roku. I found their coverage of the Paris attacks to be pretty good, easily on par with what I'd be watching on CNN or something. That and Democracy Now feed my "cable news" need just fine. But mostly, I've learned to live without 24/7 "news" coverage and I'm happier for it.
- petke 11y agoI'm an old movie addict and have never had cable. The cost to value ratio never made much sense to me. Even back in 98 there was ways to get movies for free or cheap on the internet. Back then it was zero day ftp's and today its streaming sites like netflix. I wish cable died already.
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