Posted on 02/09/2009 4:28:16 AM PST by Zakeet
Porter McConnell gave up on pay TV last summer after noticing that monthly rates kept creeping up.
Now with no satellite or cable TV, she watches her trusty old TV set with an antenna or she goes online to catch her favorite programs. Once in a while, she buys shows from Apple Inc.'s iTunes service. McConnell also upped her subscription to Netflix Inc.'s movies-by-mail service so she gets two DVDs at a time instead of one, for $15 a month.
"Part of it is, I've got to economize," said the 30-year-old Washington, D.C., resident who works at a nonprofit.
McConnell is the kind of consumer who makes cable and satellite TV operators lose sleep. While a weak economy invariably makes people pinch pennies, this is the first time that viewing shows online has become a viable competitor to pay TV, making cutting the cord easier.
Cable operators are starting to notice. Glenn Britt, chief executive of Time Warner Cable Inc., voiced his concern Wednesday in a quarterly earnings discussion with analysts.
"We are starting to see the beginning of cord cutting," he said. "People will choose not to buy subscription video if they can get the same stuff for free."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I remember when cable first came out, the claim was that there would be fewer commercials because we were paying for the channels. American Movie Classics, HBO, and Cinemax were the examples. I’ve quit watching pro football now because quite honestly, with games stretching to four hours (a 60 minute NFL game typically includes a total of 12 minutes of game action if you only count from snap to whistle), that I’d forget who was playing and what quarter it was during the interminable 5 to 7 minute commercial breaks.
Same here, although the speed depends greatly on the time of day. Early mornings it's plenty fast. Evenings not so much....
Cable companies have enjoyed a government-enforced monopoly for too long. They are arrogant and charge too much. They force you to pay for channels that you don’t want. Most of all, they charge too much.
Ding ding ding ding ding! You got that right. The price should be going down as they infuse commercials into pay TV. I remember when cable came out and that was it’s big selling point. Now it’s the same as watching the networks, only we have to pay monthly as well.
From what I know of you, you may not, indeed have any “extras” to cut. I have read about, and found, that if you catalog ALL and EVERYTHING you spend money on in a couple of months, you just might find something.
90% of it was “brain poison”,
and I couldn’t let my kids watch even the “kids’ channels” because of the commercials and the worldly messages in those.
We got the 3 package [High-speed/phone/basic cable] deal from Time Warner a while back. Saw the ad on TV, told hubby we could have it IF it was under $100 total a month.
When he called, they tried to tell him the service in his area is $50 more than advertised. He told them "I saw it on my TV", "But sir, it's more in your area", they replied. "MY TV!!" he said again.
Needless to say, we got it as advertised and locked in a set price of less than $97 a month for the next 2 years. Between that and Netflix by mail and online, we never run out of things to watch.
You think DSL sucks? Try dial-up! :-)
Is it possible to download programming that is digital or would at least look good on my 42” widescreen?
Anyone know? Bueller? Bueller?
we gave up on cable years ago.
Then when we moved, it was too an area that didn’t have cable anyway.
So - next week we’ll probably watch our free signal go “poof” (local stations are still going digital next week).
I thought the prices of those little converter boxes would drop once all the coupons expired.
Whenever we visit someone with cable we say the same thing....Alot of channels - but there’s still NOTHING on!
Saw them done this way on analog TV a while back, too.
Good thing! Some of those shows had been run so many times, the soundtrack was getting warped.
“What do you do when there’s no extras to cut? “
start clipping coupons, buying powdered milk, and cutting the dryer sheets into thirds? :)
Sweetheart, I didn't know you came to FR....aren't you supposed to be working?
:-)
YUM!
Do you do things like re-use Ziploc bags and sheets of foil [if they aren't too soiled, of course].
Or put Walmart bags in small garbage cans instead of buying regular garbage bags?
[I do, because I'm a Charter member of the Incredibly Cheap Club]
LOL!
What I'd really like to do is tap into all of the Discovery, History Channel, type shows via the Internet and download them onto my TiVo.
Is it possible without putting the Geek Squad on retainer?
note
How soon after an episode is broadcast does it go up on the Fox website?
I ask because our cable company has been forced to drop the local Fox station, KOKI TV23, because the Kansas City owner wants to dramatically increase the fee. They want the fee to be much higher than the cable company pays to all the other locals combined.
http://www.cableone.net/LI/Pages/default.aspx
Here are the perps:
http://www.newporttv.com/content/contactus.aspx
Sure, it’s capitalism, but the downside for Newport is that the buyer wants no part of the deal. A product or service only has a certain value if there is at least one buyer who agrees with that valuation.
They gave me a 'promotional' discount of 50% for two years....never hurts to axe; once in awhile you get lucky.
I don’t own a TV nor do I see a need to own one.
I often watch streamed episodes of "24" via hulu.com on my Sony 46" TV. Video quality is slightly less than DVD, but well above VHS. The great thing is I watch the program on my schedule, not the network's. The duration of commercial interruptions on Hulu is also shorter, much shorter, than broadcast.
I reduced most of the digital artifacts in the picture when streaming video by fiddling with the TV's video settings menu. With modern digital TVs there are myriad setting options. On my own set, you can adjust settings for each input source (computer, DVD player, etc) independently.
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