Posted on 09/15/2014 8:22:53 AM PDT by servo1969
This is huge, huge news. But don't get too excited. For now at least, the a la carte "cable television" service will only be available on your mobile devices. Though it happened a few years sooner than I would have expected, the news also isn't a big surprise. It was just a matter of time before our Bundled Cable Overlords came to terms with the reality of reality.
And while that probably won't change for traditional cable customers anytime soon, McAdam acknowledged that when it comes to the Web and mobile, a different approach is necessary.During a Thursday appearance at a Goldman Sachs technology conference, Verizon Communications chief Lowell McAdam said the service will likely include access to the "big four" broadcast networks, as well as "custom channels."
"No one wants to have 300 channels on your wireless device," McAdam said. "And I think everyone understands. It will go to a la carte." Major cable and pay TV services have long resisted an "a la carte" approach that would let customers pick and choose the channels they want to pay for rather than pay for a bundle of 300+ channels. For about a decade, they have argued that a la carte would result in increased pricing and less channel diversity.
As far as the future is concerned, the most important sentence in those four paragraphs is, "No one wants 300 channels on your wireless device."
That's exactly right. And eventually, everything is going wireless. When that happens, do you really want 100 or 200 or 300 channel apps on your iPhone, iPad, or Roku player?
Nope.
And that, along with cost, is why bundled cable's days are numbered.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Gonna miss that Armenian Entertainment channel.
Streaming is the way to go!
Ever since I bought my Chromecast, I’ve been finding that most of what I watch is Netflix, Hulu, or YouTube.
Spent a wonderful couple of months watching 1920’s Australian murder mysteries, on Acorn’s pay YouTube channel.
Goodbye MSNBC.
He’s wrong about one thing...He predicts the end of 80 networks..it’s easily over 100
Their five viewers will be very disappointed.
What’s the advantage of networks? I wonder if shows could be produced independentl;y and sold or rented to streaming sites. The bigger streaming sites could produce shows as they do now.
Aren’t networks passé?
Thinking about:
We may a lot for directv. $160 per month. I have all premium channels. Everything except sports packages.
Yes I’m a TVholic.
If I cut directive, I could pick up Amazon, Netflix, and Huluplus and pay about half that.
One of the primary reasons I finally dumped my dish was not just because of the high fees, nor the fact I only cared about watching five or six channels out of the hundred-plus channels I was receiving. The main reason is because I realized my high fee wasn’t really due to those minor little network channels I viewed (which cost the dish/cable companies very little to carry/liscense), but because of the high costs of carrying a ton of channels I regarded as putrid, vile, and full of lefty propaganda. Even though I didn’t watch such channels, I was basically ‘underwrighting’ them by paying my monthly bills.
I somewhat miss the five or six channels I used to watch. But not nearly as much as I thought I would. Not by a longshot. And it’s all overwhelmed by the satisfaction I now get, knowing that not one cent of mine is going to fund any one of those depraved channels, from HBO to MTV to the like.
My ideal would be to select by program. If I want 1 HBO program, I don’t want to subscribe the the network.
One can only watch so many Ferris Bueller's Day Off !
The greedy devils at the cable and satellite companies want to keep larding up their lousy packages with dozens of commercial channels and off-beat junk that no one watches. Out of 225 channels, our family watches about 15 on a semi-regular basis. If it weren’t for sports, we would do without this monthly expense.i
Do it.
I haven’t watched TV for years. It’s very liberating.
Of course the guys at work gave me crap about it, but they’re starting to see the light.
My Verizon phone has a micro hdmi connection. Hook it up to the big screen and use my home cable internet.
Nice picture!
That’s what’s nice about Chromecast. Just plug it in to your HDMI, then from YouTube you can cast it to your TV. And the best thing is that it doesn’t tie up your phone, the content streams directly to the Chomecast dongle.
XBMC.
Google it.
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