6 Things You Might Not Know About Cord-Cutting

[Guest]

Is cord-cutting a realistic prospect?

6 Things You Might Not Know About Cord-Cutting : Read more

 

[fyend]

So how much did TWC pay you to write this "article" ?

 

[deftonian]

The article seems kind of desperate. Take this for example:
""Game of Thrones" on iTunes costs roughly $39 per season. Or you can upgrade to get HBO (which typically comes with a bunch of other channels) and get all three seasons, along with the entire back-catalog of HBO originals for (depending on the provider) typically $10 to $20 (or more) per month."

You stated that $39 for the season on iTunes, but the season is about 4 months long. Let's say cable company charges $20 a month for HBO. Now you've paid $80 for that season had you gone with the cable option. You then try to back it up with, "which typically comes with a bunch of other channels". So you're trying to justify it by masking it with other channels that usually play the same things at different times. Or C rated basic cable style movies. I bet what cable companies are affraid of, is that if a-la-carte was introduced, people would realize they watch less TV than they thought and would pay for the few channels they have on their favorites list.

However, I see some points to their fear. I fear that if we go a-la-carte, so many programs and channels would probably cease to exist because nobody will order it. Thus, the premium for the popular channels will probably get high to support the parent companies loss of revenue from the other channels.

 

[rwinches]

Oh Please!

When you don't have it you don't miss it.

Basic $15 cable plus OTA DTV plus Redbox plus Netflix et al is fine.

You can get sports over the internet also.

 

[bambootoothpick]

This article is certainly written to make the people, who have never been interested in stream, feel better about themselves. Someone is afraid that the TV watchers who tend not to think out side the box might start thinking inside a new box, "Oh your streaming? Maybe I should too."

 

[michael908]

In Canada point #5 is true. I was planning to get rid of my rogers set top box and cable and get unlimited internet. But the catch is that you have to have a home bundle in order to be eligible for unlimited internet (home phone, internet, and cable). Or you have to pay the "bundle price" in order to get unlimited internet.

 

[bambootoothpick]

Michael908, I'm sure you are aware that this is done by the TV companies to influence the customers choices.

Customers need to make choices that impact the companies economically in such a way that the companies respond to our choices.

As long as customers make their choices based on company product manipulation we will never control the destiny of the services used by all people, all the time.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hold my breath for change. I have no belief in it.

 

[KelvinTy]

The only thing I watch on TV is the news channel... Even though the news are total bias and misleading. The only reason why I watch it is because it's a free channel.

 

[booyaah]

You basically lost a lot of credibility with me at 2) Economic Recovery.

Newsflash: We are about to go into another economic tailspin if this Syria crap starts another major war.

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I will agree with 5 though, if you are an existing customer, you will never get a better deal than a new customer and/or without a bundle it sucks.

 

[booyaah]

You basically lost a lot of credibility with me at 2) Economic Recovery.

Newsflash: We are about to go into another economic tailspin if this Syria crap starts another major war.

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I will agree with 5 though, if you are an existing customer, you will never get a better deal than a new customer and/or without bundling, it sucks. All I wanted to do was swap my HD converter for a HD DVR converter and pay the small monthly upcharge but TWC said I couldn't without breaking my bundle.

 

[happyballz]

Why is this even posted? Bunch of biased opinions from a person who's business relies on people watching TV shows.

Cable TV is overpriced and full of commercials ... I timed commercial vs show time and on Discovery's channel commercials took 34 minutes of a 60 minute "reality" show.
So I am basically paying to watch commercials... idiotic.

 

[odoketa]

HBO costs not $X / month, but $X plus a cable subscription.

To be fair, you do have to pay for internet. But I'd be surprised if the readers here weren't already.

I dropped cable in 2003. I've never looked back. Having an extra $80/month is pretty nice. I use hulu free for everything, and if it's not there, I don't watch it.

Another point is that now, with growing independent content, you're paying a la carte anyway - want 'Orange is the New Black'? That's Netflix. The Awesomes? Hulu. Etc.

 

[whiteodian]

I've been without cable TV for two years and I'm doing great. I have Netflix and Hulu+ for $7.99 each. It's not perfect, but definitely worth it to me.

 

[Tuishimi]

We are one of those "rare" families. We do everything through netflix and Amazon... purchase only what we want to see and that ends up being a lot cheaper than cable for us. There are only a handful of TV shows we follow and if we want other entertainment we get it from netflix either by streaming or DVD.

 

[none12345]

"Cable TV is overpriced and full of commercials ... I timed commercial vs show time and on Discovery's channel commercials took 34 minutes of a 60 minute "reality" show.
So I am basically paying to watch commercials... idiotic. "


Once upon a time, paid tv, ie cable, was no comericals. Thats why you paid for the channels to get rid of the comericals.

Then, say about 30 years ago, a 1 hour long show was about 51-52 minutes of show and 8-9 minutes of commercial. Today a 1 hour long show is usually 41 minutes of show and 19 minutes of commercial. Ive never watched anything as bad as >50% commercials, but i dont doubt the above quote.


I just want to be able to pay a monthly fee and have access to the sum total of all tv ever made. My monthly fee can be divided up among whatever shows or movies i watch that month, with say 10% going as an administration fee. Why does this have to be so hard....

I know the answer. Its marketing rules.....and its retarded.....

 

[Nick_C]

Record show on PVR; Watch show while fast forwarding through adverts.

 

[fulle]

An observation I've made is that people who fall into the "baby boomer" generation generally have cable with some packages. Gen X, probably has cable... but Gen Y sees very little value in cable, and is highly likely to cord cut.

For example, in one of my groups of friends there's a sample of about 12 people between ages of 20-32... and not a single one of them has cable. My sister, who's in her mid 20s, has cable because her husband is a big sports fan. I can think of 4 other people in their mid 20s who are also big sports fans, who decided to STILL not purchase cable, and get their sports content from sports bars, and various online sources.

For reasons, I can really only speak for myself, since I haven't asked each of these younger people why they don't like cable... but for myself, I hate that the content isn't all "on demand". I think that the idea of having to watch a show at a certain time, or record a show, when it's not live content, is completely absurd. I find the user interface slow to navigate, and lacking options. And for the cost of the service, the amount of commercials is unacceptable.

If I had to put a number on how much money I think cable is worth to me... it'd be negative. With the very large amount of commercials, I actually feel they should be paying ME to sign up for the service, not the other way around. Perhaps tiered based on how much commercial content I watch... so when I see that they not only think I should be paying THEM for watching their commercials, but that they think I should be paying them A LOT of money to do so.... It feels like a bad joke.

 

[CaedenV]

I have never had cable, and so I really don't miss it at all. I do have cable internet, which has been a great experience most of the time, and has provided me with tons of entertainment both in the way of video and other content.

Back in the day there weren't many legal options, but today? My word, there is tons of stuff out there! A lot of it can be found on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or RedBox for dirt cheap, or free. More premium content you will have to get a bit more creative, like buying a season DVD/BluRay which is a bit expensive, but often times you can sell it for some 50-75% of what you bought it for when you are done with it, so that $50-80 season really becomes $25-40 for a season, and typically with better quality than what cable would have provided in the first place.

The best part? No commercials!
You can watch 2 episodes of a show in the time of a single show on TV or cable. For a 1 hour show you are saving yourself the annoyance of ~25 minutes of people hocking medication, insurance, and cars at you. For a 26 episode season you are talking about 10.8 hours of your time, which is more than enough time saved to justify the time it takes to order and sell discs. I consume a ton of content and will blow through a season of a show in 1-2 weeks. In a years time with a season every 2 weeks that is 281.6 hours of commercials that I am avoiding. There is far too much to do and see in life to spend that much time watching commercials about products I am not interested in.

But the big deal breaker for many is when you want to watch a show 'live'. Watching live sports, or being in a work environment where everyone is going to spoil a show for you if you do not watch it immediately becomes a huge hurtle to cross. But for those of us who are not into live events and viewings the grass is much greener and cheaper on the non-cable side.

 

[timw03878]

Someone should tell this moron that printing of worthless paper and a mounting debt isn't a "recovery"

 

[ap90033]

Uh LAME... This article is so biased and obviously not factual.

I myself spent a couple hundred bucks on HD Homeruns, and now can record 4 shows at the same time and am only limited by how much hard drive space i have (can we say 4TB or more? Yeah baby!). I get CBS, FOX, CW, ION, ABC, NBC, etc. 90% of any show I would watch is on these networks.
I use mediaportal (FREE btw) to show a Gorgeous GUI that organizes everything very nicely...

Oh and Economic recovery? Dude Seriously? You even THINK we are anywhere Near any kind of Recovery? Seen the price of gas? Seen the price of groceries? Eaten out lately? Seen people's (who have a job that is) latest pay raise? OMG what a STUPID comment.....