Posted on 03/26/2015 1:07:16 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The Wall Street Journal recently published a strange piece called “Why Cable TV Beats the Internet, For Now.” Despite pay-TV losing 1.4 million customers last year, it seems the WSJ is device-challenged and unwilling to embrace the obvious future dominance of Internet streaming media. And the war to discount your cost for pay-TV is heating up.
Geoffrey A. Fowler of the WSJ’s Person Tech section describes himself as a “tech columnist and someone who watches enough TV to own a Snuggie.” He acknowledges that cord-cutting allows cheaper choices than pay-TV, but strangely he worries that “Internet TV means juggling gadgets.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I guess DirectTV didn't read the memo.
Also came with DVR service, again, cheaper than just the internet alone. So for just under $65 a month, we have Fios’ basic offerings, plus DVR service (and another 3 months of free HBO...)
Otherwise, we cut the cord for pay tv service about 7 years ago. Sometimes miss breaking news events, but much of it is streamed online now. We've saved at least $8,500 by doing so.
We finally got Roku.
I canceled my cable four years ago.
If you call DirecTV and threaten to cancel, they’ll start dealing.
They think this will save them money and in the short term it may but no way in the long term....I dumped my land line and pay the same price for internet and cable that my neighbors do for all 3. Anyway, I see it going like this.......the people who keep cable will not have the data limit on there internet. Those that dump cable will EVENTUALLY have 250 data a month to use for streaming both internet and Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. I will keep cable until the bitter end due to that fact. I know people who dumped cable and still pay the same for just internet. The cable companies will win in the end. They always do.
Tel me your story.
I find that to be an extremely attractive feature.
As one who is just now making the shift, one of the grandest things is exactly that I can switch something I am watching from the TV to my tablet, or to my laptop or desktop... I no longer have to miss part of a show if I get up to cook dinner, or have to do something in the office... It is to the point that I have even thought to give up my flip phone for a smart phone, just for the purpose of being entirely mobile with this feature... And that is no small thing, as I have resisted smart phones for nearly a decade.
Sorry, CableTV... Adapt or die. Too much money for content I not only don't want, but often cannot stand. That I have to 'juggle gadgets' is not going to fix your problem.
We’ve been clean 7 years now. Best decision we ever made.
I would get rid of cable except for being a sports fan (who does not want to steal a feed from online).
It may work until you realize you miss all the live sports you get over cable. Indeed, most cite live sports as the only reason why they won’t give up cable TV.
I’ve never paid for TV.
I do have a Netflix account over my fast cable modem. So the cable company gets a minimal cash flow, which is necessary to support my work anyway. So my entertainment has a marginal cost of $0.
A couple of months ago we upgraded our Xfinity service to get 105mbs (real world around 80mbs. still not bad). We also got all the premium channels and more.
NO CONTRACT!. We can cancel or downgrade anytime.
The premium channels are useless for us. They will go away.
Mrs p6 does like some of the HD channels but we can downgrade and keep them.
So far it has been worth it. IIRC we pay !$160-180 a month BUT that is all we do. At our age we don’t go out much and if we do it’s with our kids and grand kids.
We cut off the extra cable outlets in the bedrooms BUT we can watch most of what we like via the Xfinity app to devices OR OTA.
We will be cutting back as long as the 105mbs service stays the same. If not we’ll have to keep it.
Also I like to watch some channels carried by Xfinity locally like the Pennsylvania Cable Network - mostly for the farm show - as well as watching the ponies run at the local harness racing track.
Can’t get them anywhere else. That said we really don’t NEED all this. We have done without before and I’m sure we will do without again. As long as we can afford it we’ll keep it. When we can’t, we won’t. No tears.
Oh we like the DVR feature too.
Dittos.
Or you can always keep your ISP email for a small monthly service fee. Don't know what it is now but it is was small; maybe $10 per month.
If you are not into sports, Roku is the way to go. 32 bucks a month for cable internet only at my location.
Just wait until the bundling (if you have it) expires. The bundling discount expires at the end of the term if you don’t add something else to the bundle. I always thought that the bundling discount is indefinite — it isn’t.
And it can get really expensive each time you add something else and it expires a year later.
But that is part of their game.
Between streaming, downloads and over-the-air TV, it’s pretty hard to justify spending anything at all on cable.
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