Posted on 10/25/2015 5:14:44 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Whatever you call it, it's killing the cable tv business.
It’s no secret that young people like to consume entertainment they don’t necessarily pay for.
But when business and tech types talk about this reality, they tend to use neutral or even flattering language: Millennials, they say, like to “swap” files and “share” subscription passwords. After all, super-earnest, bike-commuting, coffee-sipping twenty-somethings don’t look like dangerous criminals. And let’s face it, no business wants to alienate the work-force’s largest generational cohort, with billions, if not trillions, worth of spending ahead of it.
But now some Wall Street analysts have decided to come right out and use another S word—steal—in discussing the problems facing some traditional media enterprises.
“The millennials are a generation that grew up (and will likely grow old) ‘sharing’ (read stealing) passwords for access to content if it continues to be ignored,” wrote analysts Mike McCormack, Scott Goldman, and Tudor Mustata in a note to clients Tuesday. “We believe it is the most significant cause of the declining pay TV subscriber base.”
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
I followed the whole issue of digital music sales closely in its early days, and when Napster hit the scene it really exposed the flaw of a digital model -- mainly from a legal standpoint.
Most of the youngsters these days have been taught that everything is a “right” and therefore, it should be free.
Stupid autocorrect. Plaza Cable Guy joke.
Bundling ended my brief subscription to both Dish and cable.
I’m shocked your cable costs are $167 a month, or $2000 a year.
But your point is well taken even if you found a much cheaper cable or satellite package. The way they bundle channels together on different “tiers”, as my satellite provider calls them, you end up paying for channels you don’t want and never watch.
Horrible customer service (India,Philippines, no actual Americans to talk to), data caps, outrageous prices, MPAA RIAA going after ma and pa for diddly squat while paying movie stars and music stars millions...
I remember pre-cable when a handful of networks provided better choices for free than all the cable stations combined do today.
Very good point.
My oldest grandson doesn’t have it because of the cost and he says there is very little that he really wants to watch.
What? No laws? No abeyance? How rude.
The real reason people are dropping Cable TV is that we don’t want to pay every month just to surf through 2,000 channels and still find nothing to watch.
We can watch movies and TV series and documentaries through Roku.
It’s one of them alright. Among many.
Never watch television, only Netflix and so when I sit down to watch tv I am sitting down to be entertained. And I choose how.
End result was still the same though. I was interested in watching very little of it. The stuff I did watch, I watched just to do it. the few things I was actually interested in, I could get free on youtube most times
There was a time in America when there was no TV. My dad got the first one on the block, and neighbors would come over to watch it. People got along just fine without TV, or the few channels offered.
Now there are thousands of ways to watch video entertainment. Can't just blame "stealing" or sharing. Cable TV is marketing a product that's overpriced and not as valued so much anymore. Too many other options. Just got back from a hike overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and walking along the beach; more interesting watching nature. My granddaughter played with shells and starfish among the wet rocks on the beach. Better than TV.
Cable in the 1970’s was sold as “commercial free” because “you pay for it”.
I see commercials as theft because I PAY for cable.
I see 14-17 minutes of content in a 30 minute segment as theft.
I see charging $10 per month per set top box as theft as those boxes were sold to the public as “better and no increase in charge! Honest!”
I’ve worked extensively in the cable world, and there are no bigger thieves in any market.
I’m not going to worry about big business media whining about how they are being hosed. As big media runs interference for big government by outsourcing good American jobs and lobbying to import more turd worlders, I’m going to be okay seeing their bottom lines erode. The sooner big business media loses power over entertainment, the quicker their power over the eroding culture is diminished.
Father Knows Best; Dragnet; Gunsmoke; What’s My Line; I Love Lucy; Leave It To Beaver; My Three Sons; The Andy Griffith Show; Concentration; College Bowl (my Dad worked with Robert Earle at GE); Death Valley Days; Cheyenne; Bonanza; Queen for a Day; Art Linkletter Show.
There were so many good ones!
I agree. We need more competition and more independent viewpoints and ownership in news media. We have a consolidated corporate media who sees their primàry job to muzzle and brainwash the public so we fall in line with a corrupt government and establishment financial class.
Probably most of the Cable execs are climate change believers who encourage folks to ride bikes and buy electric cars.
And use the roads for free that those of us who buy gasoline pay for.
Cry me a river when those who steal the roads also supposedly steal their cable profits.
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