Posted on 12/13/2013 9:24:31 PM PST by publius321
A thought provoking Marketwatch article regarding the growing trend of cable "cord cutting" demonstrates the need for a shakeup in the cable television industry. The industry is being run into the ground by old guard gatekeepers. It is becoming a case study of what not to do when faced with competition from visionaries with new technologies and business models.
Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts is best thing that ever happened to Netflix shareholders. Listen Comcast shareholders: Despite CMCSA sitting near 52 week highs, that is abysmal compared to what the market cap SHOULD be and WOULD be if the company was run for the benefit of consumers AND shareholders alike.
NETFLIX is an example of a media company run according to the desires of its customers and owners.
$NFLX's Hastings exposes the utter incompetence and arrogance of $CMCSA management. Netflix owes its great success and continued existence to Roberts and Comcast. If Comcast was run by management who ran the company according to the dictates of the market, Netflix would be out of business or at best a minor niche player offering redundant services.
Comcast is an example of a MONOPOLY that is going to be taken down -without- antitrust suits waged by the Justice Department because the monopoly is run by leadership that is in effect holding shareholder assets HOSTAGE.
Roberts epitomizes the "old guard", a gatekeeper whose agenda is to control what you watch. OUST Roberts & you will double the market cap.
CEO Roberts FORCES customers to pay for trashy channels like M-TV 1,2,3,4... VH-1 Bravo, Al Jazeera and; other raw sewage but REFUSES to give us channels that millions want and repeatedly request like The Blaze TV as one example.
Many of the trash networks like the aforementioned wouldn't even EXIST if Comcast didn't FORCE them on subscribers in their basic package because they wouldn't garner the requisite funds to produce their poison if the majority were not forced to pay for their network ala Roberts.
Netflix knows what you want and gives you WHAT YOU WANT. What you want (by evidence of incessant "chord cutting" is ala carte. Instead of "ala carte", Comcast delivers "ala Roberts". That's the key to their downward spiral.
In my past writings, some have written to me saying, "if you don't like Comcast, you don't have to subscribe… nobody is holding a gun to your head." I wish it was that simple. I am working on getting my master homeowner's association, representing hundreds of homes to drop the contract they negotiated with Comcast. As it stands now, I have no choice but to pay for the Comcast trash because it is incorporated into my dues.
I have listened to customers complain about this juggernaut for decades. Boycotts do not work because as Roberts and CMCSA management has demonstrated; they have no compunction about running the company's assets into the ground as if they were their own to abuse as they please. The only way to quell the ongoing sabotage and exodus of customers to Netflix - is for shareholders to start making demands. It is time for the SHAREHOLDERS to start standing up for their investment. Shake up the Board of Directors, remove management - or divest.
Comcast employing compulsive liars like Al Sharpton and Martin Bashir (who was relectantly let go by resignation) at MSNBC demonstrates CEO Robert's disregard for $CMCSA shareholders and THEIR company's assets.
As I recently tweeted directly to Obama’s golfing partner and financial "bundler" Mr. Roberts, “if you want to use Comcast assets to advance your PERSONAL agenda over shareholders, take the damned company private.”
Unless shareholders go on the offense, expect to continually read articles about cord cutting and continue to expect subscribership to migrate to alternative services like Netflix.
Why do you need Fox News? It’s almost as bad as MSNBC. You can get all your news online, and it will not contaminate your brain with all it’s nonsense.
They said things like: why do you want to PAY for what should be FREE?
Ironically, there are virtually no drive-ins anymore, and, who the HELL wanted to watch Walter Cronkite and the two whole other network anchors spew liberal nonsense?
Hey I’m old, single and I need background noise. I like that to be Fox News. My choice Maybe you are a more perfect being than I am, but I like what I like. and I HATE MSNBC
Comcast took over Golf Channel, SNY, NBC Universal with GE as a partner in crime. Has anything improved?
Away from eating out
Away from buying new cars
Away from Taking trips to Vegas..... Maybe Vegas will stop voting for Reid
Away from buy homes
And what ever other expense they can reduce to cover their large increase due to ObamaCare
76% of Americians live paycheck to paycheck, where's the extra money coming from to pay for ObamaCare? Private company's lower sales!
Gee and Congress cannot find any money to cut!
Comcast is NBC. There’s the problem.
I know what is causing your problem. The new digital technology does not work well with a poor signal to noise ratio. This is caused by poor mechanical connections (or water saturation) made by the center conductor at the ground block or to the splitter that sends the signal to the different locations in the house. It may even be where your cable connects to the cable input in the back of your cable box. If the box connector has an enlarged center conductor, suspect the box. If you have two TVs, does the problem happen with both TV? If the problem happens at both TVs suspect a poor connection at the house splitter, the ground block, or further back in the system feed.
Your Comcast service technician should have a meter that checks signal to noise as well as the signal level. They may find the problem is not even be at your house, but in the trunk line that feeds the homes in your neighborhood, or in the line splitter that feeds the signal to your house. Anywhere there are these mechanical connections, you can have loss of signal quality. Since Comcast has a Customer Guarantee that says, “We will resolve routine issues in one visit or we’ll credit you $20 or give you a free premium channel for three months,” they had better get that nasty pixelation problem fixed on the first visit.
Did you know that Comcast has a Customer Guarantee that will give you $20 credit to your cable bill if it does not fix your problem on the first visit? Hold Comcast’s feet to the fire and get them to fix your problem. Their prices are high enough that you deserve a perfect picture.
I refuse to watch Comcast’s MSNBC and cannot understand why they are fool enough to put their name on such a piece of journalistic trash.
I miss unscrambled C-Band satellite.
You could watch a lot of channels, premium channels included for free with the exception of the cost of the hardware.
Most content can be viewed online, but pic quality can run from HD to pixelated.
For several years, it was easy to get every channel on DishNet by installing certain software on a “Free To Air” satellite box that cost about $100.00 and a DishNet Dual LNB Dish.
That lasted for several years up until about 2-3 years ago when DNet finally swapped out all the Cards with new encryption, but it was a fun four years while it lasted!
Boxing, MMA, PPV Movies, Premium Channels, NFL from around the CONUS before they “spotbeamed” local channels and I heard that Adult movies were available as well, but I never bothered to look at those...
Bell Express in Canada used the same encryption, so pointing another Dish at their sats got you all of their channels as well, including NFL Sunday Ticket.
Then the HD boxes came out. More expensive, but now you had HD as well.
Like I said, it was a nice 4 year run of free TV with every channel on DN wide open.
So I heard... ;>)
The other thing is what happened to those basic plans. They were originally about $5 a month, providing better reception than the antenna and local access channels. That sure disappeared quickly.
I'm very close to giving up cable TV. The basic plan has hispanic stations but not CSPAN. What's holding me back is I'd like to find an antenna (or figure out a placement) that would be a bit more reliable for getting all of the local channels.
Tivo baby!
I have a digital TV.
We gave up comcast cable a few months back. We get a handful of channels through an antenna but a ton of stuff through netflix. There are tons of series and more kid stuff than my tv loving little ones can watch! And no commercials! Only thing I miss is Fox news. Oh well, you can’t have everything!
All that means is the TV can receive ATSC signals broadcast over the air. The scrambled signals on your cable are not in ATSC format, and you need a cable box or cablecard to receive them.
I have a Roku device which gets "clips" of Fox News programs daily. So I can watch "the best of" shows like O'Reilly, Kelly, Hannity, etc..
I also have Netflix on my Roku for occasional movies. Vudu has become a favorite for occasional watching of newer releases that Netflix doesn't have.
We dropped DirecTV in August of 2012 and haven't looked back. Roku and an HDTV antenna for local channels satisfies all our viewing wants.
Screw Satellite/Cable TV's high fees!
That was my point they chose some channels to scamble the digital signal and other digital channels they left un scammbled and you could still be view them without a box to descamble them.
Have you seen the picture over broadcast TV?
I was blown away by the superior picture vs. cable. Cable 'compresses' the signal and it loses some of its resolution.
We're about 12-15 miles from the antenna farm. I went online, You Tube actually, and built an antenna w/ coathangers that works very well.
Broadcast TV doesn't have the content we like so I still have U-Verse, but the antenna is waiting in the wings if ever needed.
Hey I’m old, single and I need background noise. I like that to be Fox News. My choice Maybe you are a more perfect being than I am, but I like what I like. and I HATE MSNBC
You need background noise? Get Sirius/XM satellite radio. There are over 100 stations on the basic service - the only downside is no Rush on the patriot channel. Fox news IS there w/o the picture but no big deal.
I pop mostly between patriot, Sinatra, 60s, and deep tracks with brief forays into blues and country.
Hooked the XM receiver to a Crane FM x-mitter (cranked the output) so I can get the signal anywhere on my little patch of earth.
“...I’d like to find an antenna...”
Most of the digital broadcast signal is in the old UHF range. I use an old bowtie antenna meant for UHF. It looks like a piece of wire fence about 2.5 feet tall by 1.5 wide with some bowtie-shaped pieces of wire in front of it. There are instructions for building one easily found on the web.
Bad weather can interfere with the signal, but I get a variety of stations from 35-40 miles away. Some of the “sideband” stuff is a gas — old 50s tv shows, old movies and so on. For example, our PBS (*spit*) station has four “bands” the main station, then (e.g. ) 57.1, 57.2, and 57.3 where one is kids’ stuff, one is cooking, and so on. All over the air.
(Disclaimer: Your mileage may vary.)
I don't get the point of paying for something that's free...bottled water, Sirius and other pay-for radio, towel dry my hair, etc.
Even if I drop cable TV, I'm still stuck with the cable company for computer. They're just plain awful. I pay for inside-cable repair insurance, basically to cover their ineptitude.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.