They will: he'll promise to regulate the 'evil cable companies' and/or 'subsidize' your cable bill.
And his followers are stupid enough to believe him: Remember this?
Posted on 06/19/2012 4:55:11 PM PDT by Beave Meister
It started with homes, then cars, and now penny-pinching Americans, especially minorities, are giving up cable TV because they just can't afford it in the lingering recession.
Instead, they are switching back to free TV, improved with the recent switch to digital broadcast which requires a special antenna but eliminates the $70-$100 monthly cable, satellite or broadband service fee.
Industry officials had worried that Americans would begin "cord-cutting" in a shift to internet TV, but the recession is more to blame, not internet bling.
"It's not so much cord-cutting as cost-cutting that's motivating this. There's possibly recessionary issues here," said Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.
An ownership survey conducted by GfK Media found that about 6.9 million homes abandoned pay TV last year, a shocking number that industry sources chalk up to the sagging economy. What's more, the survey found that the number of Americans watching only free-TV surged from 46 million to 54 million. GfK said that means about 18 percent of all homes with TVs, or 21 million, watch only free-TV, a jump from about 14 percent just five years ago.
"When asked why they cancelled TV service, the overwhelming majority, over 70%, cited cost-cutting; cord-cutting because of online options was cited by less than 20%," said Dave Tice senior vice president of GfK.
Younger Americans, minorities and low-income homes, socked by unemployment and the economy have jumped the cable ship in the highest numbers. The GfK poll found that minorities make up 44 percent of all broadcast-only homes.
But according to Wharton, the shift isn't all bad. He said that more and more cable-like shows are now on free digital broadcast, especially those for minorities. "There is sort of an explosion in free network programming," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
$70/month for 300 channels of crap. With commercials.
What’s the value proposition?
Thanks, that’s about what we’re willing to pay. I listen for that ad.
Roku: I checked their offerings.
Doesn’t have any of the channels I use on cable:
ESPN ESPN2 SpeedTV, NBCSports, FoxBiz, and Big10.
I got direct TV because I am in an rural area where I can only get 3 fuzzy channels with only one clear one. And all my TVs are old and would needed to be upgraded to get HD
I am tempted to drop it as it is way to expensive but I dont know if I can live without watching my favorite shows like “Best Pillow Ever”, “How it is Made”, and all them Bigfoot shows.
We ditched DISH and just have Netflix streaming.
Between Top Gear and all the documentaries we haven’t missed a thing’ don’t watch movies anyway.
Women and minorites hit worse ping
I’m not understanding completely. Do you have landline phone? Or just DSL?
I just got tired of the abject, stomach-churning sleaze from both cable and the networks. Trying to find one single solitary decent show to view (and a few do exist) just became no longer worth the depressing effort of wading through the sewer that modern television has become.
So, I started buying dvd-sets of old shows and movies that genuinely entertain me and buoy my spirits. I now have a pretty huge library. Both cable-tv and the networks can take their sick dreck and go to hell!
You can also get many movies that are coming onto general cable for free at the library and pay $1-2 per episode to watch a single beloved TV series. Then there is the classic “go to someone else’s house to watch it”.
Then there is the modern frustration of someone watching a TV show or movie in snippets on Youtube, taking up a library computer.
They will: he'll promise to regulate the 'evil cable companies' and/or 'subsidize' your cable bill.
And his followers are stupid enough to believe him: Remember this?
My husband and son like “how it’s made”, but “Mythbusters” we all watch.
My six year old said he was thinking of being a Mythbuster because they blow stuff up without dying. I agreed that it was a really cool job. His jaw dropped. “They get paid to do that! They get money, too! I am so doing that when I grow up!”
Keep your cable/satellite TV connections. Catch every game and reality show. Have some more bratwurst, beer and pot. We’ll want some of the mindless slaves of this debt regime, if any survive, to work cheap in the fields in a few years.
If the friggin cable companies weren’t raping their customers with outrageous fees, they might keep more of them also. They have raised rates several times in past 4 years all the while the depression has gone on. And then wonder why many have bailed.
I had a land line and cancelled my phone service, since I just use my cell phone. The service comes thru the land line. They did provide a splitter, but since I don’t use it for a phone I just stashed it. it is DSL
I’ve heard that over the air TV has less compression.
I’d love ala carte for History, H2, BBCA, Me-TV, Military, TCM.
I have found a lot of classic shows and movies on Youtube, some whole and capture them as I go.
Although generally true, the reality/supernatural/America's got/whatever losers seem to be driving programming.
By sheer coincidence, I discovered that a neighbor can receive most over the air programming with rabbit ears.
Good-bye Satellite TV.
I will miss Fox news and a few documentary channels which actually broadcast what their names suggest.
Not sure what the name is, but there is a service for only $10 a month that broadcasts (rebroadcasts?) all network series. Satellite and cable has yet to figure out that (mostly) crummy program is discretionary, when financial push comes to shove. Just like slice and dice cell phones.
Don’t worry. The FCC will pick up the cost of their Internet access... at taxpayer expense.
That makes sense. Less and less available bandwidth over a cable “pipe” as they pile on more stuff.
They can throttle the bit rate but at the expense of quality. Most people may not notice a difference.
Noticed the video skipping recently. Wonder if they are intentionally dropping frames. Audio was fine but we would notice skipping audio. Maybe it was an artifact of a poor encoding? AV sync was okay.
I found this site to be pretty neat for adding private channels: HERE.
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