Media executives are finally accepting the decline of cable TV as they plot a new path forward

CNBC ^ | 10/24/2020 | Alex Sherman

[T.B. Yoits]

Bundled cable TV is a dinosaur. Just like legacy newspapers.

There are a lot of anti-American propagandists who know their day is over as they only existed as a non-profitable show in a bundled cable package.

The streaming deal signed with Joe Rogan is a landmark milestone.

I didn't think I'd be so surprised to see the faces change so fast on television news. The veteran propagandists from the news channels are running out the clock and being backfilled by temp labor "replacement propagandists" who don't seem to make it past one month of employment.

[dfwgator]

Pretty much YouTube has everything I would want to watch. Haven’t watched network TV in ages.

[Grampa Dave]

Our location over a decade meant no cable yet. So we went to Dish and continued with AT&T land lines. The AT&T cost was outrageous for 2 land lines and a fax.

Dish worked for awhile until their CEO had an ego explosion.

AT&T came into our area and offered a good deal the first 2 years. A neighbor got the AT&T guy to admit that they had a throttle/speed brake on their internet to slow it down. When the college kids came home for weekend or a holiday, the internet made snails look fast.

Then their rates went up, a neighbor with some political pull got Comcast to put in cable. Comcast was good for 2 years. The phones were quote free and their internet compared to AT&T was speedy.

Then Comcast started increasing their prices every 6 months.

Our bill in a short time went to over $250/month.

Freepers advised me and others to go to Comcast Business and stream our tv. In spite of a couple price increases, their package is just over $130/month. We are saving at least $200+ per month.

We use Prime as our streaming connection. It has a ton of movies and reruns. We like the Brit shows and have a couple of $5/month subscription fees. The only net we watch is CBS and that costs $5/month.

The internet is blazing fast.

[Captain Peter Blood]

What I can’t believe is that TCM is not available as a stand alone streaming channel. I would subscribe in a heartbeat if it were. I refuse to go back to any subscription situation just for that.

[reformedliberal]

...Fox...
____________________
Haven’t had subscription TV for 12 years. Do not miss the blare of Alert! and Breaking News! If I want to see something on Fox, I am content to wait 24 hours and pick up the clip or show on YT for free.

Go bare and try it out. Promise the companies will all flood you with discount/free-for-limited-time offers and you can sign up again and save money.

It’s different in various markets. Where I am, the population is low, especially in winter, and dial-up equals about 90mbps. $80/month, unlimited internet and we stream Netflix and Amazon Prime and Roku Channel (free with device). Real America’s Voice on Roku is a good channel if we both want to watch a larger screen news channel together.

We are online a lot, but we each have various interests, so we spend time on diverse channels or searching our interests. We watch maybe an hour of streaming TV together/day. DH spends down time streaming oldies and DIY shows on the TV w/Roku. I have crafts, reading (Kindle—mostly indies that are free on promotion) and FR for my personal enjoyment.

I am not stuck in front of the TV. I have various tabs open at once. I feel informed without being propagandized. We are on flat land, so if I wanted commercial TV, I could put up an antenna. So far, no urge to do so.

[ConservativeMind]

YouTube is Google.

You are correct.

[Sans-Culotte]

A lot of people here are big Roku users. I still have a Roku, but for about a year I primarily stream with Apple TV. It's a little streaming player that works much like a Roku. But because it has the iTunes store, I have been able to purchase digital copies of movies for about $4.99 each. They are not always that cheap, but they always have something on sale. If it is a movie I really, really like, I will buy the Blu-ray version. But for some films, I settle for digital (like the Marvel superhero films).

I would not listen to the people that say "ditch TV entirely". I could personally do without my DirecTV subscription, but I keep it because my wife likes the endless reruns of Magnum PI, Rizolli & Isles, NCIS, etc. However, even if I cut the cord, I would always have a TV in order to watch my movie collection in hi-def and surround sound (if the movie has it). I would never want to do without Ben-Hur, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Casablanca, Rio Bravo, Spartacus and countless other classic films on a 60" TV screen in hi-def.

[mountainfolk]

Wifi is required for streaming as it is for the internet. No contracts are required for the various streaming services. Month to month but necessary to keep track of the dates involved if you plan to discontinue at the end of your month. Some services offer longer agreements for a discount. Prices vary. My complaint is the remotes that are so small and have black, faint lettering on the buttons. The one thing I miss about cable is the large remotes, easy to navigate and read. We have visited many streaming sites and found that for the time we have to watch, one at a time is sufficient. We try to find a long series that we can follow to the end and then find another. We have several comedies we insert at times and they are all years older and just plain fun or amusing. Streaming is a learning experience all around but worth cutting the cable, for us anyway. Also, we can use our laptops to watch anything we get on tv. Antennas get you local news and weather plus other programing that is available depending on your location.

[ConservativeMind]

BTTT!

[ConservativeMind]

WiFi is definitely not needed for streaming Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire, or the like.

We stream to our 4K HDR TV using an Ethernet cable directly plugged into our router.

[mountainfolk]

You are correct. Had overlooked the Ethernet cable since we do not use it as it is quite inconvenient. Thanks for the correction.

[VideoDoctor]

TV has created a passive America addicted to lowest-common-denominator pandering. I’ve chosen not to be part of that pack.

You're very right about that.

In fact, it was over 5 decades ago that Marshall McLuhan referred to Television as the "medium is the message"

At the same time the term "the opiate of the masses" was applied to Religion.

I believe today you could apply "the opiate of the masses" to Television itself.

[minnesota_bound]

PlutoTV is free. It is an app you download to Roku and other same type devices. Many shows of all kinds including news. All sorts of interesting old shows and movies. The 007 channel. Goldfinger is playing now.

[minnesota_bound]

I am watching Star Trek The Next Generation on PlutoTV.
The quality of the picture is really great unlike the broadcast version on 13.4 in my area. MeTV has the worst quality. There are some shows you can hardly make out the faces like WKRP.

[Ozark Tom]

MOFI4500 4G LTE cellular radio and router combination is one alternative. Look into rural internet option informational videos as a starting point for an alternative data connection. Try services modeled after the T-Mobile Binge On™ for streaming options. Streaming data is often not counted in the same manner as other date usage. Use of a VPN on the user device served by the cell radio/router combo is useful in avoiding throttling, as the overall data flow is made anonymous to purpose.

The provider cost per Gigabyte delivered can be argued to have fallen to a fraction of a penny, per sources. These providers routinely charge a $10/50GB overage fee, or $.20 per GB.

https://broadbandnow.com/report/much-data-really-cost-isps/

https://broadbandnow.com/internet-providers-with-data-caps

[Ozark Tom]

5G—when it eventually delivers on the hype—will deliver up to four gigabits /second speed best case conditions. This is at minimum a ten-fold increase in data rate over 4G available now. Would make 4K streaming a bit more practical for cellular served devices, at a delivery rate of ~7 Gbyte per hour.

Not that you can actually perceive that level of detail on a phone sized device. You would need a large tablet with OLED display to approach depicting that optical resolution in a useful manner.

[mfish13]

Thanks for the info