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Greater numbers cutting cable service & TVs

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by Joe, Mar 12, 2013.

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  1. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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  2. C0usineddie

    C0usineddie VIP Whale

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    My mom lives in a complex that is getting renivated so they severed their ties with the cable provider as part of that process. Getting a new one once construction is complete.

    I bought her one of those convertor boxes.

    She gets a grand total of 4 channels. 2 of which I never heard of.

    I have cable and get about 400 channels.

    i dont think i will be shutting my cable off anytime soon.

    She did sign up for some streaming netflix to fill in the gaps but its not the same. No recording shows or anything like that. Works for some I suppose. Of course lots of people think tv is bad anyway, like somehow having a steady stream of information is bad for you.

    I love tv and love cable even more.
     
  3. gubilxix

    gubilxix Low-Roller

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    I need my sports.

    I would cut the cord, but I watch too many sports to try and find them online.:beer: TV shows are just the bonus. Plus the DVR is a nice addition. Still waiting for the pick and choose your channels package as I only watch about 8 channels out of the 14,286 :grrr: (yes that is an exaggeration) that I have.
     
  4. smartone

    smartone VIP Whale

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    Every so often I'll be speaking with someone I don't know and as an "icebreaker", I'll refer to a big game or last night's Celebrity Apprentice or something like that and be met with, "we don't own a TV" in their best "look down their nose" at those of us who do OR the others who say, "while we own a TV, we rarely find time to turn it on!"

    Well... I like information and I like to be entertained and I never, ever feel superior to anyone, especially over TV watching. Those people are weird and their kids are weird... if I wanted to be Amish, I'd move to Pennsylvania. :Þ
     
  5. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

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    Those of us who live where broadband doesn't reach cannot/will not give up satellite:peace: (matter of fact, our internet also comes from the satellite, and it's much faster than the old dial-up, thank goodness, but still not fast enough to skype or stream anything of length...)

    When my boss is in Tanzania, he has faster internet than I do at home. If he has power......
     
  6. numeno

    numeno VIP Whale

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    a 50% increase in the 5 years where streaming services started isn't the best statistic.

    I recently did cut cable TV. It wasn't out of a lack of watching it, I just wanted to try it out. If I had a family I don't see how I could have cut it. The reason I finally decided to try not having it was I upgraded a service and the following months bill was $200+. I think most of it was just hating to be screwed on every little thing.

    - $10/month to rent a box that has a piece of crap interface
    - $10/month extra for DVR service with that same crappy interface
    - Getting 400+ channels when I don't watch more than 10 of them
    - Getting ~80 HD Channels and when I flip to ones I watch I get an error and it simply doesn't play. This is probably an problem with TWarner, but there were nights were I would be flipping through channels and find 5-6 things I'd watch and every HD channel was simply not functional.




    Time Warner's CEO(I think, some officer) recently stated that there is no demand for gigabit ethernet and that is why they see no reason to roll it out like google fiber. They say most of their customers aren't even on their top tier. Well if you phase the question as "Would you pay $300/month for gigabit ethernet"? of course the answer is no. If you asked if you want it for $50/month like google fiber, them I'm pretty confident the answer would be yes 90% of the time.

    I really feel that cable providers are either the worst of easily top 5 companies in the world that are as anti consumer as you can get. Their entire business revolves around selling you so much crap when all you may want is 10 channels. Every little thing costs money because they know your options in some cases may be zero.
     
  7. hammie

    hammie VIP Whale

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    I read where Cablevision on Long Island is suing Viacom (MTV, Nickelodeon) because it does not want to carry a bundle of its lesser channels. However, just try to get a cable provider to offer unbundled service!
     
  8. bswim

    bswim High-Roller

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    If it were just me I'd cancel everything but my cable internet. But the wife and daughter watch enough TV that we keep the cable.

    For me personally, I don't watch sports, there's enough content on the network sites, Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Plus that there isn't enough time to watch it.

    We had HBO last year and I LOVED the hbogo website and phone app. Over 1400 HBO shows online to stream whenever you want. HBO has some of my favorite shows of all time (besides Dexter) I just wish I could only pay for hbogo and not pay Comcast they're outrageous rates to get a "premium" channel. I'm sure in time it will happen.
     
  9. Kcitsme

    Kcitsme Low-Roller

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    In the days before cable, we who watched free TV, were told that they would soon offer cable TV. We would pay a small amount to watch TV free of commercials and it would extend our viewing pleasure. We all thought this was crazy. Who would want to pay to watch TV. Well here it is, many years later, and we are paying outrageous fees and have tons of commercials. The free stations kept disappearing into the new cable line up. Little by little our viewing pleasure became less and less. I am curious as to what wonderous things we will be offered next?
     
  10. Viva Las Vegas

    Viva Las Vegas Elvis has left the building

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    I cut the cord in 1998 after the last Larry Sanders Show. Haven't missed it since. Usually flip around on the road and after an hour or so had enough of the garbage until the next trip.

    If I can book channels on an as needed basis, I'd pay for TVG (the horse racing channel) and MLB and would be OK. I had free online service for both, but cancelled my TVG account and MLB blackouts home games online / via the box & games during national telecasts (how brilliant :rolleyes2: ).

    If I did subscribe to a movie rental service, it would be a local Facets (also serves the nation via mail) which offers 65,000 DVD choices + VHS for older films not on DVD (not netflix).

    [YOUTUBE]r8DLbAQGg6I[/YOUTUBE]
     
  11. sandman748

    sandman748 Low-Roller

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    I cut my cable off two years ago, and have streamed everything ever since. I can't get over paying $50+ per month to get a few channels that I watch at most an hour of per day. I now pay $8 for netflix (not worth it in my mind, but I fully support where they are going), another $10 for hulu plus, and I jump back and forth between competing internet providers so my internet is never more than $30 per month. I watch only what I want , when I want, from wherever I am and pay less for everything , including internet, than the price of basic cable.

    I signed up on a $10 per month promo, for HD basic cable and turned it off after a week. Even for $10 cable isn't worth it when we've got so many alternatives to choose from and the picture quality was barely better than an HD stream.

    For those who rely on satellite, I totally feel for you. My in-laws are paying $80 just for TV services but they don't have a choice as they are in the middle of nowhere.
     
  12. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

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    There are many, MANY, things I love about where I live. Lack of high speed is probably the thing I hate the most:rolleyes2:

    I did give up premium (movie) channels many years back when I realized how little I actually watched on them and it would be cheaper to buy the dvds of the shows or movies I wanted to see (or free, if available at my public library.....)

    I do have Amazon prime, so I watch stuff for free when I'm traveling and have faster internet. I've been able to watch a couple sitcoms at home (~24 minutes) and the buffering isn't too bad, but anything longer is out of the question....
     
  13. 9wishes

    9wishes Low-Roller

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    I get 13 channels with rabbit ears, sometimes more. That includes all the networks, a couple movie channels, a music channel and ME TV which is all classic old tv shows. Gave up cable in 2008. Husband keeps getting enticed by all those bundle ads (he's the guy they build displays for in stores cause he'll buy the sh it). I read not too long ago I think Intel was beta testing ala carte satellite TV. That I could go for. I think that's why we have been so bombarded with bundle offer ads. They want to get people tied into contracts before their business starts to fall apart (maybe already has). I just buy the show series I want on itunes. We've probably saved $5k since we shut it off. So you can live after cable/satellite lol.
     
  14. bswim

    bswim High-Roller

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    My mom used to have one of the C-net? dishes, the HUGE ones. it was ala carte, you got to pick and choose what channels you wanted. The ONLY channels you got were the ones you wanted. Except for some obscure news feeds, those could be entertaining, some reporter standing outside a prison for an execution for hours, they weren't "live" but the feed was always running. Stand around picking their nose, scratching their butt LOL
     
  15. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

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    We had a C band satellite at the house we lived in before we built our current house (11 yrs ago) It was mostly a la carte but odd....And for network channels, you had to pay more, and our feeds were out of NYC, Nashville, LA.... So I had primetime at 5pm :rolleyes2:
     
  16. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    I am most likely in the minority but I like my triple bundle. Is it too much-yes. But, after spending 10+ years living in the boonies, where the only service available was Directv (its snowing, go brush off the dish) and the only internet was also satellite-better than dialup, but still very slow, unreliable and expensive. Crappy & expensive phone service from GTE.

    I'll stick with cable. I like TV, just not local TV and what they choose to call News.:poke:

    I like sports, news, movies, HBO, a few TV shows & all the political channels. And I'm quite happy with our internet speed and free nationwide calling.
     
  17. Bubbavegas

    Bubbavegas VIP Whale

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    NO WAY!! I don't watch many shows but am an addict when it comes to my MMA programming and despite the ability to illegaly stream PPV and the amount of Youtibe vids and such without my sattelite I would be lost when it comes to the only sport I watch. Now if I could just get a package with Fuel, FX, Spike, PPV and AXS we might have something there.
     
  18. 9wishes

    9wishes Low-Roller

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    I think my dad had the first big satellite dish in the county so he could watch the horse race feeds. I used to love wild feeds. I would watch Wheel of Fortune in the morning when it streamed to the local markets and at night I'd amaze my sister with how good I was at the game. It was a bitch to find stations, we had a monthly guide about six inches thick. So, been there, done that, for decades. Also sacked my satellite internet, just make my iPhone a hotspot for the iPad and laptop--anywhere, a little slower, but that'll improve, too, I think. You know how fast technology changes...I'm sure more choices will be coming.
     
  19. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

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    Yes, but.....Demand can drive supply - and most certainly prices. We actually just had a provider with "broadband" come out into our county. But the speeds are lower than satellite and lots more expensive. No 4G, and I don't get good 3G with my mobile phone out here very often(so I didn't get a mifi when they came out - wasn't faster than what I had, couldn't easily share, more expensive, etc)

    We've been told there's no way we'll get cable out here in the county (limited audience, not a lot of demand = too expensive with no profit for the business) Satellite speeds have definitely improved since we first got satellite internet, and prices have come down, but low population density and reduced chance of profits for the companies mean that our options in rural areas will probably remain limited, no matter what technology might actually be available.....
     
  20. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    I've never given it much thought. Just pay the bill every month.
     
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