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Cable television is a worse experience than watching video on the internet in every way. I really don't understand why people are still doing it.

wil421 10y ago
It's the price and access to many channels. Some channels are not available unless you get cable. A few college football games are not accessible with out cable. For example with Uverse for $129 I get 18mbps internet, sufficient for my wife and me, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz and about 50+ other local/network channels we watch from time to time. If we cut the cable and got a $40-50 Internet package plus the 3 out of 4 of the premium movie channels, sling tv, an antennae with DVR from Amazon, Netflix, maybe Hulu or something else. Spread the antennae cost over 2 years. Our costs would be way more than what we are paying. We rarely watch our favorite shows live. If we have something coming up we usually wait 10 minutes into the program and fast forward the commercials.
- bryondowd 10y ago
  I've seen this argument before, and it still seems odd to me. I get the argument of paying more for convenience, but comparing to buying every possible other service at once annoys me. Most cable cutters I know are smart about it. They pay for one or two services, for less than a quarter the cost of cable. For variety, you can stop one subscription and start another, say when you finish binge watching a show available on Netflix and want to watch something on Hulu. Do you really watch so much TV that you need "3 out of 4 of the premium movie channels, sling tv, an antennae with DVR from Amazon, Netflix, maybe Hulu or something else" all at once?
  - wil421 10y ago
    You are right and I have heard of the buy, watch, cancel and repeat. It's similar to what I do when my promotional pricing runs out with cable. My comparison was for what I currently have to what it would cost to get the same experience from cord cutting. It was an apples to apples comparison. All that said, once google fiber gets to my street I am going to give cord cutting a try. Hell I'll probably read more anyway.
dzdt 10y ago
Channel surfing. I don't get it either, but my I know lots of people who do. Streaming services are great if you want to pick something and watch it start to end. Not so great if you want background noise and the ability to quickly flick between many sources.
- elthran 10y ago
  If you want background noise and many sources, what's wrong with radio?
- devishard 10y ago
  How does this differ from surfing shows on the internet?
ryandrake 10y ago
I do--don't watch it myself, but my wife does It's simply more convenient when she just wants to watch what's on, and not have to navigate some crappy UI. It's "ON" + channel number and you're done. As opposed to "ON" + wait + menu + wait + down + left + select + wait + select + scroll scroll scroll + select. If you ever want to quick switch away to something else, it's back to menu navigation. And forget it if you ever need to type anything in....

wil421 10y ago

It's the price and access to many channels. Some channels are not available unless you get cable. A few college football games are not accessible with out cable. For example with Uverse for $129 I get 18mbps internet, sufficient for my wife and me, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz and about 50+ other local/network channels we watch from time to time. If we cut the cable and got a $40-50 Internet package plus the 3 out of 4 of the premium movie channels, sling tv, an antennae with DVR from Amazon, Netflix, maybe Hulu or something else. Spread the antennae cost over 2 years. Our costs would be way more than what we are paying. We rarely watch our favorite shows live. If we have something coming up we usually wait 10 minutes into the program and fast forward the commercials.

bryondowd 10y ago
I've seen this argument before, and it still seems odd to me. I get the argument of paying more for convenience, but comparing to buying every possible other service at once annoys me. Most cable cutters I know are smart about it. They pay for one or two services, for less than a quarter the cost of cable. For variety, you can stop one subscription and start another, say when you finish binge watching a show available on Netflix and want to watch something on Hulu. Do you really watch so much TV that you need "3 out of 4 of the premium movie channels, sling tv, an antennae with DVR from Amazon, Netflix, maybe Hulu or something else" all at once?
- wil421 10y ago
  You are right and I have heard of the buy, watch, cancel and repeat. It's similar to what I do when my promotional pricing runs out with cable. My comparison was for what I currently have to what it would cost to get the same experience from cord cutting. It was an apples to apples comparison. All that said, once google fiber gets to my street I am going to give cord cutting a try. Hell I'll probably read more anyway.

dzdt 10y ago

Channel surfing. I don't get it either, but my I know lots of people who do. Streaming services are great if you want to pick something and watch it start to end. Not so great if you want background noise and the ability to quickly flick between many sources.

elthran 10y ago
If you want background noise and many sources, what's wrong with radio?
devishard 10y ago
How does this differ from surfing shows on the internet?

ryandrake 10y ago

I do--don't watch it myself, but my wife does It's simply more convenient when she just wants to watch what's on, and not have to navigate some crappy UI. It's "ON" + channel number and you're done. As opposed to "ON" + wait + menu + wait + down + left + select + wait + select + scroll scroll scroll + select. If you ever want to quick switch away to something else, it's back to menu navigation. And forget it if you ever need to type anything in....