I had my satellite turned off a year and half ago as I can get all my shows online - shows, movies, documentaries, series - old and new on my time schedule. (Well, I do have to wait one days delay before I can watch "24"...but it's with only 30 second commercials, cutting watch time in half...and I save up and watch 4 at a time, so's I don't have to wait a week to see what's gooing to happen next. Makes for a nice popocorn fest.)
The free watching includes live TV - except that FOX makes it difficult. For some reason, they are adamant that people not be able to get them live, so we play this cat and mouse game. WE get a link, in a few days, they shut it down. and then we play 'Groundhog Day'...
With over 800,000 and counting that have now shut off their cable/satellite feeds in favor of getting everything on the Internet, FOX will start loosing viewership.
Cable/satellite is going to go the way of print media. I'd be willing to pay a nominal fee for online feeds of the handful of stations I listen too. I will not pay the extortion fees of satellite to get "280" stations when I only watch a handful.
But, even a small fee should not be necessary. Ads should cover it for the stations. There's no need of installations of any extra equipment or billing or bookkeeping involved with watching online. Then there's the added perk of having your keyboard at your fingertips to quickly check up on anything someone claims - trust but verify.
Wake up FOX. WE're moving into a new era. Technology waits on no man - not even Rupert.
The internet’s near instantaneous ability to spread the message through the use of memetics(what they call “talking points”)is infinitley superior to that of T.V. . The internet is also superior to T.V. as a tool for social control. Together they can create an almost imperceptible secondary reality for the human mind. The powers that be are caught in a catch 22 in regards to their plans to “regulate” the internet. If they regulate it to much ,they will loose some of their abiltity to discern the mind of the public. If they don’t regulate it enough, they risk a large segment of the public going “off message” and thinking for themselves. I think the awakening that has occured over the last couple of years or so is evidence of the latter.
I have a term I use to describe the effects the media as a whole has had on the minds of the citizens of this country, Pavlov’s Nation. They keep ringing the bell but I’m not listening.