4 ms·

Like most people here, I would love to cancel my cable TV and TiVo subscriptions and just get all my content on demand. However, aside from streaming every movi

by mrshoe 17y ago

Like most people here, I would love to cancel my cable TV and TiVo subscriptions and just get all my content on demand. However, aside from streaming every movie and TV show, Netflix/iTunes/whatever also needs to nail these two features: 1) Live events. Sports, breaking news, presidential inaugurations, etc. 2) Same day for new TV episodes. I don't want to find out what happened in The Office at the water cooler the next day. The other hurdle is that the cable companies practically have a monopoly on broadband in many areas. I can already see how the call to Comcast will go. "You're on the special TV+internet plan, which is $99/month." "OK, I just want internet now, so cancel the TV portion." "No problem, that brings your monthly bill to $98/month." .... Wonderful.

SwellJoe 17y ago
"You're on the special TV+internet plan, which is $99/month." "OK, I just want internet now, so cancel the TV portion." "No problem, that brings your monthly bill to $98/month." This is actually accurate. My cable Internet plan is $68 per month with Comcast. To get basic cable television would cost one dollar more (and yet I still don't want it, since I don't own a TV; which was stunning to the salesperson). I hate Comcast.
- jsares 17y ago
  That's because if they charge you the extra dollar they get to count you as a customer to the advertisers.
elai 17y ago
If you use bit-torrent & RSS you can get #2. #1 tends to be covered by "Youtube live broadcasts", ESPN360 ( http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index ) and other special streaming services. It would literally just be a matter of signing contract to achieve it. It's already here in a way.
hippee-lee 17y ago
You can cancel cable/satalite and still get local/national news and most sporting events. I use a $35 antenna. All the sporting stuff is in hd now the other content is hit or miss. When i get some extra cash i am going to get a mac mini for the tv shows i like and the downloadable neflix media. I was also able to get a naked dsl line from qwest for A decent price.

by mrshoe 17y ago

SwellJoe 17y ago

"You're on the special TV+internet plan, which is $99/month." "OK, I just want internet now, so cancel the TV portion." "No problem, that brings your monthly bill to $98/month." This is actually accurate. My cable Internet plan is $68 per month with Comcast. To get basic cable television would cost one dollar more (and yet I still don't want it, since I don't own a TV; which was stunning to the salesperson). I hate Comcast.

jsares 17y ago
That's because if they charge you the extra dollar they get to count you as a customer to the advertisers.

elai 17y ago

If you use bit-torrent & RSS you can get #2. #1 tends to be covered by "Youtube live broadcasts", ESPN360 ( http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index ) and other special streaming services. It would literally just be a matter of signing contract to achieve it. It's already here in a way.

hippee-lee 17y ago

You can cancel cable/satalite and still get local/national news and most sporting events. I use a $35 antenna. All the sporting stuff is in hd now the other content is hit or miss. When i get some extra cash i am going to get a mac mini for the tv shows i like and the downloadable neflix media. I was also able to get a naked dsl line from qwest for A decent price.