U.S. Consumers Ditching Cable TV In Droves

IBD's Click ^ | 11/17/2010 | Patrick Seitz

[Slyscribe]

U.S. cable TV operators lost 741,000 basic video customers in the third quarter, research firm SNL Kagan reported Wednesday. That’s the single largest quarterly drop for cable since SNL Kagan began compiling data for the segment in 1980.

Cable’s share of the multichannel pay television market continues to slide, dipping to 60.3% from 62.9% in Q3 2009.

Gains in telecom and satellite TV services were not enough to offset the loss of cable subscribers, so the overall multichannel pay-TV market lost 119,000 customers last quarter.

[justsaynomore]

We are doing the exact same thing - started this past spring.

We might have done it sooner if it weren’t for sports programs. But my husband found a way to watch sports online, and he hooks up the computer to play on the TV set :)

[Buckeye McFrog]

could not happen to a nicer bunch of guys than Comcast

[386wt]

I use a double uhf bowtie on my roof with an inline amplifier at the antenna. I also have an old radio shack rotor motor on the mast since my stations cluster at about 15 degrees apart.

I paid about $100 for the antenna and amplifier.

It's only about 30" x 36" and on a small mast. (used my old satellite roof mount). This link has lots of good information:

antennaweb

[Logic n' Reason]

Hulu through our computer and are perfectly happy.

What is the cost of "HULU"??

[reagan_fanatic]

I’m one of them. Dropped cable after 24 years. Too damned expensive, and it’s always been an irritant that you can’t choose the channels you want.

I’m back to off-air TV, and when I want to see a movie there’s always my video library or Redbox.

[Frantzie]

This is why they fought it. Your bill is divvied up so the networks get about $5 a month. Each network has about 10 other channels. Viacom has VH1, CBS, MTV, Nickelondeon, comedy channel and a few others. Time Warner has CNN, Headline News, Turner, sports channels etc. Disney, Fox, MBC have at least 10 each including sports channels.

Well let’s say a conservative wants Fox, Fox Business and Speed TV. This would KILL the lib networks. Fox ain’t so hot either with the Saudi connection and Prince Al Waleed has deals with ALL 6 networks. Bloomberg is #6 and why do you think he approved the 911 mosque?

They all want access to Islamic markets as well because there are 1.9 billion people and some have a lot of money. You wonder who the secretive elites are destroying America? Start hgere with these 6 networks.

[bert]

www.hulu.com

Check it out

[shield]

YouTube has a lot of great movies.

[Frantzie]

“I propose a $100B subsidy for the industry. It’s too important to suffer like this. People will die without it.”

The elites/libs/islamic/Dems lose power each time someone pulls the plug on cable & sat TV.

[Logic n' Reason]

Thanks, will do!

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

One of the big fighters against that ala carte move was TBN. I guess they couldn’t say “We need your money to help our ministry. We reach into 40 million homes a day.” if only 1000 people chose to have them on their list.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

No duh! If you hate TV so much, why do you jump on every thread about TV or a TV show?

[386wt]

antennaweb I always have trouble typing links. I think this one is better

[Dacula]

http://ent.allmyfaves.com/ Then select the Entertainment tab

[TomGuy]

I get about 40 free channels the old fashion way with an antenna.
I live in a rural town and can only pick up 2-3 digital TV broadcast channels. Many area broadcast stations have reduced their signal strength as more cable/satellite sources became available.

[Paladin2]

Does your antenna have "solid" bowties or ones made of rod?

[Alberta's Child]

Funny you should mention that. I have no TV service whatsoever (I never upgraded my box a while back, so I have no access to TV channels), though I must keep my cable connection for my internet service. It's a business expense anyway, and I really don't miss watching television at all.

I think this is going to become a growing trend in this country, both for financial reasons and for the sake of maintaining one's sanity rather than get bombarded by all kinds of nonsense over the airwaves.

[Alberta's Child]

Sometimes it's not the cable companies that are the strongest opponents of the "a la carte" concept in cable programming -- it's the cable networks themselves. Their biggest fear is that if people aren't "forced" to get their channels through a package deal, then nobody would pay for them directly.

This is the underlying issue in the infamous dispute between the New York Yankees and Cablevision that surfaces every couple of years when the YES Network contract comes up for renewal. For some reason Cablevision is at the center of a lot of these disputes (they just had a recent one involving FOX, too), which tells me that they have a pretty good idea about what exactly they think their customers are willing to pay for.

[reagan_fanatic]

I've worked in the off-air antenna biz for over 20 years. the company I work for (these guys) carries everything you need, and I can help walk you through it.

[Paladin2]

I have one that looks like this:

But it only gets stations up to 45 mi away. It is in the house against a window (no AL screens) but I think the signal is partly blocked by tons of trees and possibly some hills. Even if I put it on the roof, the trees would still heavily block.

I also have an amplified rabbit ear/loop thing in the second floor window and it seems to do just about as well. Both setups go through an amplifier just before hitting the TV.

I recognize that antenna design is the art of compromise and plenty of testing.