Posted on 05/19/2012 6:14:24 PM PDT by AmonAmarth
Comcast’s plans to do away with its 250 GB data cap and charge users based upon usage marks the end of an era for cable TV providers, and for the online video industry. No longer will users be able to endlessly stream all the content their hearts desire. Not just that, but the fact that usage-based pricing is arriving at the same time that more, higher-quality content is appearing online could have a dampening effect on demand for services like Netflix or Hulu Plus.
Comcast, of course, says that its new, usage-based pricing policy is pro-consumer, and to a certain extent it is. The average broadband subscriber — those who only use up about 8 GB or 10 GB of data a month — shouldn’t necessarily pay the same as those whose usage goes above 300 GB in the same period of time.
But for those of us who are avid streaming video users, usage-based pricing models could change the overall value proposition of watching video on the Internet.
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
Wireless (4G WiMax etc.) will end up killing Comcast soon enough. Comcast is just overhanging the market, giving the consumer the desire ahead of availablity.
Look up Plex.
Between Plex and Justintv, I get everything I want to see.
You can “Plex” most YouTube videos. I’m not sure what site you are looking to watch.
There are tons of Roku channels too.
Free market to the rescue!
Problem is that all the shows worth watching are on cable networks now. Every show that my wife and I regularly watch, Game of Thrones, Borgias, Spartacus, True Blood, Dexter, etc etc, are all cable. Broadcast television is utter crap with insulting commercials every seven minutes.
I’m a dabbler. Most of the time what I dabble will be on You Tube. I suppose I could get a video card for a PC that supports a television, either the modern HD video or the old fashioned NTSC.
Going over 200 GB requires a lot of watching. I have a Roku box and a PS3 connected online, watch a lot of Netflix movies and MLB.TV games, and the most I’ve ever gone to in a month was 55 GB.
Ha, good luck on that. Between the two of us, my wife and I have 5 4G (what they’re calling 4G) devices on 4 separate accounts. We regularly exceed the data cap and are throttled back for the remainder of the billing period.
I think you completely misunderstood the story, Ike. The days of you being able to endlessly stream Netflix, Hulu and Vudu over the internet are coming to a close. This story focused on Comcast, but it’s a move that all providers are going to, whether you have cable, fiber-optic, or as you put it lowly DSL. Right now about 30% of internet users stream video from sources like Netflix. It’s already been recognized in the industry that the infrastructure is not there to handle it when it climbs to 50%.
My hubby hooked a tower up to our LCD tv.
The picture died this week but it’s been good up until now.
We watch a lot of Judge Judy, Iron Chef and Mystery Science Theater on YouTube.
There will have to be work arounds such as cacheing during non peak periods.
It’s not nearly as much as you think. HD streaming hits on average about 1.3gb an hour. Have a household like mine with 4 computers and two internet enabled blu-ray players that can simultaneously stream, and you can chew up 8gb an hour just with family members watching television.
Without a payback guarantee, no company will spend the capital to run lines.
Comcast took over our ATT cable company and expanded the service to include internet (ATT didn't offer it). Verizon is not going to wire the county for FIOS.
My options were to continue to use a bad phone line from Verizon (and max 1.3 dsl) and use dish or direct tv or go with comcast for a good product. The price is pretty much equal. Since verizon would not even admit my phone line (outside line) was bad, it was a no-brainer. Thanks to going all digital tv, we all need either cable or satellite.
Every patriot should cancel cable because of Oprah and Matthews? Well genius, if it wasn’t for cable we wouldn’t have Fox News and ESPN either.
Anything else you think we should get rid of just because liberals take advantage of it? Cars maybe? Electricity?
That’s without a doubt being considered. I don’t think anyone that’s truly tech savvy expected this to last though. When I first read that streaming had broken the threshold and accounted for more than half of internet traffic, I saw the writing on the wall. When I learned just how small a percentage (at the time less than 25%) of users it took to consume that much bandwidth, it removed all debate from my mind.
The FReepers on this thread that think that this can go on and that the free market is going to provide this bandwidth at current rates is dreaming. As it gets worse, someone will offer unlimited data, but it won’t be for $50 a month.
That’s really the bottom line. Bandwidth is going to become more precious, and it’s going to cost more. There won’t be any getting around that.
“Game of Thrones, Borgias, Spartacus, True Blood, Dexter”
Ha, I’ve never seen a one!
I’ve followed maybe two shows that have come out in the last ten years
There’s no accounting for taste, I love the old shows- Perry Mason, whatever.
They’re broadcast over the air on the secondary digital channels.
So? I download thru the torrents every week.
download thru torrents? it sounds so.....shady
Then by all means, expand upon your idea and show why only an idiot would believe this. It’s enough to say, but can you support the idea?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.