Hollywood's Streaming Pile-Up: Should Netflix Be Running Scared From HBO, CBS, Starz?

thewrap.com ^ | 16 October 2014 | Sharon Waxman and Tony Maglio

[nascarnation]

How do you get high speed internet?
Phone or satellite?

[UB355]

Amazon is in their second year of their own series.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

How do you get high speed internet?

If you live alone in an apt like me, get it hardwired. No need for wireless.

Also, buy the bare-bones basic cable with just the local channels. None of the antennas I bought work, so I got the local channels and they gave me a deal on the Internet.

[Noamie]

cbs/abc/&c are free over the air in uncompressed high def.

Basically, cable prices are paying for sports.

Studies show that all channels would cost $1 on an a la carte system.

However, sports channels would be about $100 per channel, per month.

The real reason the providers fight a la carte is because it will bankrupt espn.

Which would be a really good thing.

[ican'tbelieveit]

We have been without traditional TV for over a year now. Son hooked up the antenna to watch Sunday night Fox the other night. I nearly couldn’t sit still through all of the political ads.

Even listening to the radio drives me nuts. More commercial than content. If I could get into it, I would wait for podcasts.

[House Atreides]

How do you get high speed internet?
Phone or satellite?
*****************************************************************************************************
Neither. Verizon FiOS fiber optic landline.

[highball]

I think you’re absolutely right, but that shows how out of whack the proposed CBS price is.

I’d consider it for $2 or $3. But $7/month for one broadcast network? Not a chance.

[zeestephen]

I think the small independent channels will eventually be forced to merge with, or license their content to, the big players like CBS and HBO.

It will be interesting to see how ESPN handles this evolution.

I just watch their college football and NFL programming (games and analysis) plus their World Series of Poker programming.

The other 6 months a year, I rarely tune in, so I would not be willing to subscribe on a yearly basis.

The NFL Channel is going to have political problems at some point.

The NFL depends on Congress for all kinds of exemptions from various laws and taxes.

In exchange, the NFL must give voters “free” access to many games over the broadcast networks.

If the number of “free” games goes down too far, Congress will hear their constituents screaming, and that means big problems for the NFL Network.

[dennisw]

Only problem is stand alone high speed internet access at home is always wildly priced. Comcast etc always want you to bundle it with TV, home phone etc. When bundled, high speed internet access becomes cheaper

ATT wants you to bundle with cellular and home phone

[zeestephen]

Agree - it is a very complex “product.”

Makes it almost impossible to comparison shop because no two providers are offering exactly the same plan.

Plus, the prices are constantly changing, new packages are rolled out, and old packages are cancelled or modified.

[dennisw]

Also, buy the bare-bones basic cable with just the local channels. None of the antennas I bought work, so I got the local channels and they gave me a deal on the Internet.

Same here so my 6PM evening news is PBS. It is awful!!!! I could only watch 10 minutes. So no Fox News for me for a while which I kinda miss but was getting bored with. I miss Discover channel with its many shows based in Alaska but much else.

I wanted only high speed internet but the best Comcast would do for me is "local channels" and  high speed internet

[ops33]

How much does Amazon Prime cost you?

[adorno]

I just watch their college football and NFL programming

Problem is that, the NFL games have to be live for people to even tune in, and CBS's programming would come to the internet a day late. Besides, the NFL would pull out of a contract where CBS or any other station would re-broadcast any games over the internet. So, the NFL and all other leagues would prefer to start their own stations, and contracts with the major networks would die.

As far as the smaller networks merging their content with the big networks, it won't work. CBS has content that would fill a whole day's programming, and so do the other networks. So, there wouldn't be enough time in a day for the lesser networks content to be viewed, and CBS and the other major networks would not want the lesser networks to take away time from their content.

If anything, the smaller networks would have to create their own merged network, and would stay away from the big players. But even that would mean that a lot of small stations would not get enough viewers to connect to their programs, and so, it's doubtful that those smaller stations would want to merge their content with others.

The only a-la-carte system that could ever work, at prices that people want, would be for the cable networks to let people decide on what networks they want to include in their cable packages, and to then charge for just those selected networks.

[SamAdams76]

It’s about $120 a year but it also includes free two day shipping for most things sold on Amazon

[Pan_Yan]

Try Crackle on your Roku. It’s free and they rotate movies every month. They usually have one or two good ones. You do have to sit through ads, though. Unlike Amazon you can even stream it on your phone.