Consumers Dropping Pay TV Services

IBD's Click ^ | 8/23/2010 | Patrick Seitz

[Slyscribe]

The number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom TV services in the U.S. fell for the first time ever in the second quarter, according to research firm SNL Kagan.

The U.S. multichannel TV market lost 216,000 customers last quarter, vs. a gain of 378,000 a year ago. The total number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom video fell to 100.1 million in the second quarter, SNL Kagan says.

[verity]

"Pay attention to Frantzie."

When hell freezes over!

[who knows what evil?]

You can rent TONS of claasic TV shows from Netflix...nearly everything offered on cable nowadays is crap. I really have no use for it...too many books to read, and I’ll NEVER be able to catch up before my time is up. I’ll keep trying, though... :-)

[TexasNative2000]

Mad Men is, by it self, worth the monthly subscription price.

[Ammo Republic 15]

The fact that people are dropping their cable and satellite services thrills me.

I agree with Frantzie that this is how we are funding the left.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

The basic problem is that there is very little on TV worth watching anymore. In addition when you do watch, you are insulted.

[pegleg]

If it weren’t for live sports I’d drop cable completely.

I keep DTV just for the NFL ticket. I'm in 3 Fantasy Football leagues and I'm the Commish in one of them. I did drop the movie channels since my wife uses Netflix and loves it. So I get my sports fix and she gets her movies :-)

[USNBandit]

I had Direct TV until recently. Their equipment was so prone to failure that you had to get the "protection package" to cover the tuners. What I didn't realize was that every time you execute that plan they added a year onto your contract. There was no way to get out without breaking the contract.

The only reason I got dish in the first place was that I hated the cable company.

[Frantzie]

Thanks. I don’t know the answer. TV is not America or mom or apple pie. It is a tool to send out propaganda now and control the population. When I fly; I have to avoid CNN at the airports and bury my head in a book with an iPod to avoid Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock or some other pro Democrat pro obam crap. CNN on Delta is even more disgusting.

I do know that the 5 networks own the majority of the cable stations.

The monthly cable and sat TV fees are divided up by $1.00 or less than a dollar per channel or a few more than a dollar. So Viacom/CBS/VH1/Nickelodeon/MTV/other probably makes $5 to 6 a month. You never turn it on but they get paid. Disney/ABC is the same. Each network have at least five channels and some a dozen or more. I would gues 90% of the channels are owned by the 5 networks or HBO which is even worse.

So every network gets probably $5 to 6 a month. Then most of them have Saudi/Mid East investors including Fox/News Corp. and Time Warner/CNN.

NBC/MSNBC/CNBC/GE and I think Comcast owns 50/50 has endless deals in the middle east for jet engines, water desalinization, turbines for power gen etc.

GE may eventually go bankrupt. It is all based on flaoting short term commercial paper and GE Finance has tons of bad loans on their books. Imam/Uncle Sam had to backstop all the debt. Wonder why MSNBC forths at the mouth for Obama?

Then you have sports where they make a lot of money. The NFL went on insane fawning over Obam that looked like Cuba or the old USSR for Stalin. This was inbetween the “dumb white guy” commercials.

The last straw was ALL the networks and ALL TV support the Imam, the 911 Victory Mosque, ObamaCare aka the first Islamic tax on Americans and Islam. They are the enemy.

Propping up McCain is another thing.

They can do anything and say anything because they know people will not cancel sat or cable TV.

[Alberta's Child]

Very interesting turn of events. I heard a report on Bloomberg Radio on this very subject a few weeks back, and this was exactly what they were saying.

In addition to cancellations from people facing financial difficulties, I believe cable and satellite television have now reached a point where they can no longer generate the "critical mass" they need to support their extensive offerings. What I mean by this is that they now offer so many channels to their customers that so few of those channels attract enough viewers to make it worthwhile for the cable/satellite companies to pay (and pass on) the cost of carrying them.

[moehoward]

No wonder Comcast just increased rates again.

Just saw a DIsh Direct ad for 5 months free.

[moehoward]

"If it wasn’t for my wife and son I would have dropped cable tv service a LONG time ago."

Yeah. The On Demand is a great pacifier for my 3yr old.

[Frantzie]

They are all bad. All of TV supports the victory mosque, the Imam and Islam. The NFL, NBA, MBL and NCAA along with ESPN fawn over the Imam. I cancelled TV a year ago because I said no more propaganda. I saw an NFL game at a relative on thanksgiving and they had all these NFL Obama commercials followed up by endless dumb white guy commercials.

It is all propaganda now folks.

Fox is almost as bad as the rest now and has at least 7 to 10% Saudi ownership. The Saudis are the money behind the victory mosque and ALL CONQUEST mosques built in the West.

I read some things about the Fed and the Treasury and the Imam is monetizing all the debt ie printing money so we will probably end up like Zimbabwe.

TV is helping them all the way and Fox is not our “friend.” The other networks are just bigger enemies.

[Ammo Republic 15]

I agree Tom. I have watched almost no TV since the late 70’s other than movies I can buy on vhs or dvd.

And most of those would be politically incorrect films like westerns or war movies.

[mrsmith]

Search “Gray-Hoverman antenna”: pick up stations 60-90 miles away, diy for about $20 in 2-3 hours.

[VOA]

“
Consumers Dropping Pay TV Services
“

Well, the cable services have resisted the “a la carte” (pay only
the channels you want) with the strength of Three Hundred Spartans.
If they end up being punished by terminated subscriptions...
the cable operators only have themselves to blame.

[Frantzie]

Keep enjoying the propaganda. All the networks and ALL TV support the Victory Mosque and Islam. This is in between the endless “dumb white guy” commercials.

TV is all propganda now and Fox has major shareholders who fund every conquest Mosque in the west including the Victroy Mosque. Wake up sheeple.

[bmwcyle]

They need to start offering channels you choose and lower the price. I heard in Grand Rapids they offer this. It is time to offer is around the country. Then I would not have to support MTV, BET, Spanish Channels, China Channels, etc.

[smokingfrog]

I subscribe only to tv online.

How much does it cost?

[Alberta's Child]

The technology is in place to allow people to pay for only those channels they want. But the cable companies won’t do this because they know much of what is on cable would not withstand a fair and free market.

That's an excellent point. It's worth noting that this is precisely what has driven that long-running dispute between Cablevision and the New York Yankees that surfaces every few years when a contract is up for renewal. Apparently Cablevision wants to offer the YES Network (the Yankees' own network) as a stand-alone premium channel and charge only those customers who are willing to pay for it, while the Yankees insist that it must be included in a broader Cablevision package.

[US_MilitaryRules]

I would drop DTV in a heartbeat but we watch Motocross on speed and Top Gear on BBC and Holmes on Homes. All recorded on the DVR. I wish I could just order a few channels.