Cutting Cable: Companies Losing Customers

CBS News ^ | February 8, 2009

[Zakeet]

Porter McConnell gave up on pay TV last summer after noticing that monthly rates kept creeping up.

Now with no satellite or cable TV, she watches her trusty old TV set with an antenna or she goes online to catch her favorite programs. Once in a while, she buys shows from Apple Inc.'s iTunes service. McConnell also upped her subscription to Netflix Inc.'s movies-by-mail service so she gets two DVDs at a time instead of one, for $15 a month.

"Part of it is, I've got to economize," said the 30-year-old Washington, D.C., resident who works at a nonprofit.

McConnell is the kind of consumer who makes cable and satellite TV operators lose sleep. While a weak economy invariably makes people pinch pennies, this is the first time that viewing shows online has become a viable competitor to pay TV, making cutting the cord easier.

Cable operators are starting to notice. Glenn Britt, chief executive of Time Warner Cable Inc., voiced his concern Wednesday in a quarterly earnings discussion with analysts.

"We are starting to see the beginning of cord cutting," he said. "People will choose not to buy subscription video if they can get the same stuff for free."

[Richard Kimball]

I remember when cable first came out, the claim was that there would be fewer commercials because we were paying for the channels. American Movie Classics, HBO, and Cinemax were the examples. I’ve quit watching pro football now because quite honestly, with games stretching to four hours (a 60 minute NFL game typically includes a total of 12 minutes of game action if you only count from snap to whistle), that I’d forget who was playing and what quarter it was during the interminable 5 to 7 minute commercial breaks.

[Thermalseeker]

Mine doesn't. It's as fast as I need it to be for anything and is very reliable.

Same here, although the speed depends greatly on the time of day. Early mornings it's plenty fast. Evenings not so much....

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Cable companies have enjoyed a government-enforced monopoly for too long. They are arrogant and charge too much. They force you to pay for channels that you don’t want. Most of all, they charge too much.

[Boiling point]

Ding ding ding ding ding! You got that right. The price should be going down as they infuse commercials into pay TV. I remember when cable came out and that was it’s big selling point. Now it’s the same as watching the networks, only we have to pay monthly as well.

[MrB]

From what I know of you, you may not, indeed have any “extras” to cut. I have read about, and found, that if you catalog ALL and EVERYTHING you spend money on in a couple of months, you just might find something.

[MrB]

90% of it was “brain poison”,
and I couldn’t let my kids watch even the “kids’ channels” because of the commercials and the worldly messages in those.

[MamaTexan]

Hmmm, but one still have to have a high bandwidth conduit to the computer.

We got the 3 package [High-speed/phone/basic cable] deal from Time Warner a while back. Saw the ad on TV, told hubby we could have it IF it was under $100 total a month.

When he called, they tried to tell him the service in his area is $50 more than advertised. He told them "I saw it on my TV", "But sir, it's more in your area", they replied. "MY TV!!" he said again.

Needless to say, we got it as advertised and locked in a set price of less than $97 a month for the next 2 years. Between that and Netflix by mail and online, we never run out of things to watch.

You think DSL sucks? Try dial-up! :-)

[SampleMan]

I know you can get TV programming on-line, I've done it, but its always compressed for a small display.

Is it possible to download programming that is digital or would at least look good on my 42” widescreen?

Anyone know? Bueller? Bueller?

[Scotswife]

we gave up on cable years ago.
Then when we moved, it was too an area that didn’t have cable anyway.

So - next week we’ll probably watch our free signal go “poof” (local stations are still going digital next week).

I thought the prices of those little converter boxes would drop once all the coupons expired.

Whenever we visit someone with cable we say the same thing....Alot of channels - but there’s still NOTHING on!

[MamaTexan]

I would imagine it was Paramount. I watched an old one the other day online at Netflix, and the description said they had been remastered.

Saw them done this way on analog TV a while back, too.

Good thing! Some of those shows had been run so many times, the soundtrack was getting warped.

[Scotswife]

“What do you do when there’s no extras to cut? “

start clipping coupons, buying powdered milk, and cutting the dryer sheets into thirds? :)

[MamaTexan]

Or you buy Budweiser instead of Sam Adams..... Well OK I wouldn't go that far but you get the point.

Sweetheart, I didn't know you came to FR....aren't you supposed to be working?

:-)

[MamaTexan]

I have a garden and this year expect to make my own “organic” strawberry jam.

YUM!

Do you do things like re-use Ziploc bags and sheets of foil [if they aren't too soiled, of course].

Or put Walmart bags in small garbage cans instead of buying regular garbage bags?

[I do, because I'm a Charter member of the Incredibly Cheap Club]

LOL!

[TomGuy]

I know you can get TV programming on-line, I've done it, but its always compressed for a small display.

I have this set-up:

32" HDTV with long video and audio cables to laptop. Laptop is on wireless router or long network cable stretched across the floor.

I can play a video stream from hulu.com and it shows nicely on the TV, because the TV becomes a giant monitor via the RGB selection on the TV.

It will depend on (1) the website's stream. Sometimes they are glitchy. The stream from Fox's website is bad, glitchy. The same program streamed from Hulu is usually glitch-free.

(2) Your ISP connectivity. Sometimes my highspeed internet is pathetic. For example, I have had only occasional email connectivity for a week. Sometimes the web is snail slow.

[SampleMan]

I have cable access.

What I'd really like to do is tap into all of the Discovery, History Channel, type shows via the Internet and download them onto my TiVo.

Is it possible without putting the Geek Squad on retainer?

[Dedbone]

note

[savedbygrace]

How soon after an episode is broadcast does it go up on the Fox website?

I ask because our cable company has been forced to drop the local Fox station, KOKI TV23, because the Kansas City owner wants to dramatically increase the fee. They want the fee to be much higher than the cable company pays to all the other locals combined.

http://www.cableone.net/LI/Pages/default.aspx

Here are the perps:

http://www.newporttv.com/content/contactus.aspx

Sure, it’s capitalism, but the downside for Newport is that the buyer wants no part of the deal. A product or service only has a certain value if there is at least one buyer who agrees with that valuation.

[ErnBatavia]

Several years ago, at our previous address, I called Time Warner (I think they were "Cablevision" at the time) and told them I was mulling satellite; followed up with the query as to whether they had a program to keep me in the family.

They gave me a 'promotional' discount of 50% for two years....never hurts to axe; once in awhile you get lucky.

[WorkerbeeCitizen]

I don’t own a TV nor do I see a need to own one.

[6SJ7]

Is it possible to download programming that is digital or would at least look good on my 42” widescreen?

I often watch streamed episodes of "24" via hulu.com on my Sony 46" TV. Video quality is slightly less than DVD, but well above VHS. The great thing is I watch the program on my schedule, not the network's. The duration of commercial interruptions on Hulu is also shorter, much shorter, than broadcast.

I reduced most of the digital artifacts in the picture when streaming video by fiddling with the TV's video settings menu. With modern digital TVs there are myriad setting options. On my own set, you can adjust settings for each input source (computer, DVD player, etc) independently.