Cable subscribers flee, but is Internet to blame? (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

AP/Houston Chronicle ^ | November 4, 2010 | Peter Svensson

[Zakeet]

Cable companies have been losing TV subscribers at an ever faster rate in the past few months, and satellite TV isn't picking up the slack.

That could be a sign that Internet TV services such as Netflix and Hulu are finally starting to entice people to cancel cable, though company executives are pointing to the weak economy and housing market for now.

[mquinn]

I went to that website just now and immediately get hit with with porn spam disguised as chat messages in the lower right-hand corner. No thanks.

[TomGuy]

Does anyone have a box that they recommend, or any thoughts on TV and movies from the internet?

I have a ROKU box (roku.com) to stream Netflix. It will also stream Amazon VOD and a few others. The number of 'channels' is growing. I have HS Cable Internet, so bandwidth is not a problem. You need as a minimum about 1.5Mbps to stream video to your TV.

I have a WDTV (Western Digital TV) box that plays various video formats (AVI, WMA, MPEG) on my TV, via USB attached hard drives.

The newer Roku box is about $60. The newer WDTV is about $120.

There are several other boxes that are coming available. Google is working with Logitech to provide GoogleTV.

The big problem now, is that the networks see $$$ and are trying to play hardball even with decades-old content. They are jacking up the prices of their licensing. Thus, even the network cooperative, Hulu, is having problems sustaining content.

[billakay]

This is timely. I actually JUST dropped cable the other day.

I signed up for a "triple-play" discount deal when my wife and I moved into our apartment. It was running ~120 per month for Internet access (with the speed upgrade), phone service, and TV. The discounted year just ended, and we received notice that our bill was going up to ~150/month.

We realized that we watch TV on cable MAYBE once per week, and use the phone for faxing MAYBE once per month. All of our other media comes through our PlayStation 3 courtesy of Netflix and Hulu Plus. On top of that, the TV that we do watch is available on Hulu the next day.

It was a no-brainer. We canceled the TV and phone, and kept the internet. Bill came down to $65/month. If I really want a "landline" for faxing, I can get the lowest Vonage plan for $9.99/month.

The worst part of all this is that you can get the local cable company (Optimum Online/Cablevision) on the phone in < 10 mins for regular customer service, but to turn off the cable, you need to talk to someone in the "disconnect department," which has > 40 minute wait times. They must really be hurting.

[TomGuy]

Then they mailed me, emailed me, ran online and TV ads telling me Directv was $29 a month.

Cox Cable is similar. They have all kinds of special pricing deals and bundles for new customers.

We existing customers get sKrewed -- full price, no specials, no deals, only occasional short-term free viewing of premium channels. If we do bundle 3 or more services (not the ones I have, of course), we might get a $10 discount on our billing.

[SaraJohnson]

Yes it does please me. Thank you for noticing.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Agreed. My wife and I mainly watch Turner Classic Movies anymore. Some of the old stuff is great! Plus no advertisements!****

Amen to that!

Now, on a regular channel they have part of the tv screen filled with advertisements for other shows they want you to watch during the week during the program broadcast you are watching.

I still remember when AMC was worth watching as they had one break in the middle of the movie broadcast and that was all. Now a two hour movie lasts three hours because of advertisements.

TNT used to have movies! Now it is mostly cop shows over and over and over again.

Back years ago Turner had seven minute blocks of advertisments. Why seven minutes? If you wanted to tape a movie and put the VCR on hold during advertisements, the VCR wouldautomaticly shut down after six minutes!
Now they cover the lower corner with advertisements for other shows.

TCM Rules!

[TomGuy]

I am seriously thinking of dropping cable.

Just over 2 years ago, I dropped the landline telephone. I don't make many calls. I was being charged $25 per month plus a minimum of $5 for any long distance (like to the adjoining town).

I went with a pre-paid cellular and couldn't be happier. Just yesterday I renewed it (I have several hundred minutes built up and they carry over) at a total cost of $77 for 15 months of service.

If cable keeps raising their prices, I may drop back to basic + Internet, as I have Netflix streaming.

[devane617]

I have already dropped back to basic and use hulu/netflix for hd tv shows/movies. it works great. I can’t imagine that cable will exist in a short few years. everything will morph to the internet....works for me.

[EEDUDE]

“No, I canceled cable because it’s nothing but 100 channels of noise.”

Same here. The rate of commercials seems to have tripled over the past few years as well.

[Dacula]

I canceled DISH this past week and have enjoyed spending more time with the kids and wife.

The MIL came in last night and was upset that we did not have TV so that we could The Ohio State Buckeyes. I told her that they were off this weekend.

[HearMe]

The cable companies and telcos still own the pipes that make all internet and streaming services possible.

Notwithstanding, if you look at the earning reports of the cable companies this article exaggerates.

It counts that many users are dropping one service, the old analog, but it downplays that they are switching to digital and bundled services.

[TomGuy]

The rate of commercials seems to have tripled over the past few years as well.

A one-hour program from the 60s-70s has about 48 minutes of content.

Today, a one-hour program has about 39-41 minutes of content.

Just last year, the TV broadcast industry reduced the content from about 41-43 minutes per hour by adding about 3% more commercials.

And they wonder why the viewership is dropping.

I frequently will record a tv program to DVR and watch it via the DVR player just so I can skip through the commercials.

[HearMe]

Also note the churn. Where people drop traditional cable, they often sign up with the new similar services from ATT U-Verse and Verizon Fios.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/A-look-at-cable-satellite-TV-apf-2177887706.html?x=0&.v=1

[bilhosty]

“That could be a sign that Internet TV services such as Netflix and Hulu are finally starting to entice people to cancel cable”

Could also be because of the economy.

[Bobalu]

Broadband is really all that you need now.

With broadband you have:
Free phone (Google Voice)

Access to usenet for TV and movies(180GB of use is 25.00 and gets you roughly 200 films or 400 one hr TV programs)

Netflix access

Free Republic :-)

Streaming of many TV channels.

---

I don’t know why it is taking so long for amateur production houses to get started streaming shows using P2P.
It would not be that difficult to create content people would be willing to watch for free. (News, reality, variety, comedy..etc) Using P2P to distribute means all that is needed to put out a show is a normal speed internet connection...You make $$$ by placing advertising in the video stream. I’d watch a daily 15-30 minute political commentary show created by some of the great folks here on FR! I’m sure many others would also, ads could support it once it had enough viewers.

IMHO it would be wise to migrate FR itself to a P2P platform. A simple website at the freerepublic.com address would serve to explain how to download the small P2P app and set it up and install it into your browser. Reliability could be better than it is now and costs would be minuscule compared to what it is now. It would also be very hard to shut down.

[deadrock]

Not Baseball, unfortunately. Same with ATDHE.net Once in a blue moon they may put one game(and only one) up on the site.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I canceled cable service recently. My reason: the programming is absolute crap. 50% reality TV straight up. And 95% of those shows suck. Most shows on TV have terrible writing and are not entertaining in the least.

News sucks. When CNN was new, it was brilliant. Any time of day or night you could turn on one of 2 CNN channels and get 24 hour news from around the world. What is TV news now? FOX News as maybe 1 hour of news, mostly political & US news, and 23 hours of commentary shows. If I want talk shows, I’ll listen to the radio. What I want from TV news shows is who, what, when, where and how, from the US & abroad.

TV news absolutely sucks.

So I get all my news from the internet and I subscribe to Netflix for entertainment. After watching re-runs of Moonlighting, the point is driven home just how FLAT RAW SUCKING BAD the writing is on cable TV. Seinfeld was the last really entertaining show on TV and I can’t even remember how long ago it wrapped up.

TV sucks. I wish the programming was good. I wish every show didn’t have at least one fag character. I wish every family show didn’t have a moron for a dad. I wish the writing was not so banal and stupid.

TV sucks. That is why I canceled. I was not getting close to my $70/mo worth. Netflix has been far, far better.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I grew up on Route 66 but forgot everything but the theme song. I just finished the first year of Route 66 and was surprises how good it was. The themes were pretty universal and apply as well today as ever. Add in that I could see the American landscape and cityscapes from 1960, and it was a real joy to watch. I’m looking forward to the rest of it.

It is a shame Maharis was gay. If he didn’t get Hepatitis from gay sex, he wouldn’t have had to leave the show. The Hep sapped the energy he needed to shoot the show. The show didn’t last long after he left. Milner and Maharis had great chemistry.

[I still care]

Cable is way too expensive. They give you 100 channels and most people only want ten.

I would love to pay foxnews, say, $8 a month (I pay now about $65 for all those useless channels.)

I would watch TCM and Fox. That’s it.

[Peet]

Cable companies have been losing...

Gee, whatever are we going to use as an example of how NOT to do customer service?