A Sea Of Red

We dropped cable/fiber 2.5 years ago and have relied on the internet ever since with nary a regret. I know many of our regulars have done so as well. Here's a cool article on how the entertainment industry is responding to the crisis ...

Miami Herald wrote:Posted on Saturday, 01.26.13

Watching TV on web is disrupting cable, broadcast worlds
New technologies that give viewers more say over what they watch and when is making traditional providers of TV entertainment nervous.

BY GLENN GARVIN
GGARVIN@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Veteran programmer Rob Barnett recently attended a breakfast meeting of television executives where the talk turned, as it almost always does these days, to “disruption,” the industry buzzword for the way new technology is upsetting the TV applecart. From somewhere down the table, he heard a question: “Has anybody here cut the cord?” — that is, dropped cable service in favor of just watching TV through the Internet? Barnett shrugged and raised his hand. “Mine was the only one,” he recalls. “But when it went up, I saw beads of sweat break out on the foreheads of some of the guys across the table.”

When Barnett and 5,000 or so others gather Monday for the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) convention at the Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach, there will be plenty of sweaty foreheads, some acquisitive smiles and — perhaps most numerous — blank looks of confusion. Not since cable turned the old three-channel TV universe on its head in the late 1970s has the industry been in such a state of disoriented befuddlement.

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My wife and I have not had cable since we were married (five years). When we're at someone else's house watching Tv, inevitably a comment about having to watch commercials or nothing being on that we wanna watch is made.

i am an out of contract dish subscriber who is very much contimplating it. the only thing i really truly give up is espn. most college stuff is online and i guess i can stream about anything i want to watch to the tv anyway....will probably go for it and give it a shot. if it sucks too bad we'll just give it back. heck they may try and keep my business and offer me a sweet deal. who knows.

RubberMallet wrote:the only thing i really truly give up is espn.

+1

I would gladly pay $5 a month for ESPN streaming. (Hey, its $60 a year they are not getting now).

My wife likes the ability to just turn the tv on and have something playing. She doesn't like Netflix or Hulu Plus or anything like that. We'll likely be one of the last to cut the cord when it comes to cable.

For me and my wife, most of the stuff we watch or would watch isnt on Netflix or Hulu so when we do get TV in the house, chances are we will be among the last much like SJ and his wife

SuperJon wrote:My wife likes the ability to just turn the tv on and have something playing. She doesn't like Netflix or Hulu Plus or anything like that. We'll likely be one of the last to cut the cord when it comes to cable.

a ridiculous reason to spend money on something like cable or dish. but who said women are rational.

BJWilliams wrote:For me and my wife, most of the stuff we watch or would watch isnt on Netflix or Hulu so when we do get TV in the house, chances are we will be among the last much like SJ and his wife

so wait, you don't have a tv in the house but the stuff you do watch isn't on netflix or hulu? what on earth are you watching?

Until I can get HBO without cable, I'll be stuck paying Comcast.

Until I can get a decent bandwidth, I'm stuck. I can barely watch youtube videos sometimes.

RubberMallet wrote:

SuperJon wrote:My wife likes the ability to just turn the tv on and have something playing. She doesn't like Netflix or Hulu Plus or anything like that. We'll likely be one of the last to cut the cord when it comes to cable.

a ridiculous reason to spend money on something like cable or dish. but who said women are rational.

She's a chemo nurse. Her days are more stressful than I can imagine. I'm okay paying a little extra a month for her sanity at night.

SuperJon wrote:

RubberMallet wrote:

SuperJon wrote:My wife likes the ability to just turn the tv on and have something playing. She doesn't like Netflix or Hulu Plus or anything like that. We'll likely be one of the last to cut the cord when it comes to cable.

a ridiculous reason to spend money on something like cable or dish. but who said women are rational.

She's a chemo nurse. Her days are more stressful than I can imagine. I'm okay paying a little extra a month for her sanity at night.

And indirectly, your own sanity as well. Happy wife, happy life as they say.

RM- she is a big fan of My Fair Wedding with David Tutera. For me its the ESPN family of networks (and for the record no we dont have an XBOX 360 either) and Speed Channel and occasional forays into Fox News, CNBC and a few other channels that I wouldnt be able to find...that and though she isnt a nurse like SJ's wife is, she does like having something going in the background as well (and with the baby she will want to have something available for them on occasion as well)

(sorry this is going up a little later than I planned but my computer had some issues yesterday I had to take care of and we dont have internet at the house either)

speaking of all this, ESPN3 or watchespn or whatever you want to call it doesn't work for me anymore. Did verizon broadband (non-fios) stop their partnership with them?

LUconn wrote:speaking of all this, ESPN3 or watchespn or whatever you want to call it doesn't work for me anymore. Did verizon broadband (non-fios) stop their partnership with them?

No, it still works for me. It has changed, however. It used to be that most games were available unless it was "blacked out" in your area (which was true for either ESPN3 or on Cable). Unfortunately, many/most games are part of "WatchESPN," which requires a subscription to one of the cable companies… Ugh.

oh, so WatchESPN is something different? That basically means ESPN3 is useless unless you want to watch sports center or something.

BJWilliams wrote:RM- she is a big fan of My Fair Wedding with David Tutera. For me its the ESPN family of networks (and for the record no we dont have an XBOX 360 either) and Speed Channel and occasional forays into Fox News, CNBC and a few other channels that I wouldnt be able to find...that and though she isnt a nurse like SJ's wife is, she does like having something going in the background as well (and with the baby she will want to have something available for them on occasion as well)

(sorry this is going up a little later than I planned but my computer had some issues yesterday I had to take care of and we dont have internet at the house either)

the news channels are understandable i guess. as for things going on in the background, my wife has shows going on constantly and they just roll through episode after episode without her having to touch it.

dumbcomputer

Fair enough. I talked to her about it soon as we got married and we both agreed that we'd like to do cable (or satellite) initially. We may change over once our little one is old enough to watch and understand television

LUconn wrote:oh, so WatchESPN is something different? That basically means ESPN3 is useless unless you want to watch sports center or something.

Actually… you can't watch Sports Center.

There are ESPN 3 "exclusive" games… including Liberty Flames.
Anything that has a "key" icon by it requires the subscription. The other games are free for us.

I'm still holding out with DirecTV for the Sunday Ticket package. If that ever goes up for streaming over the internet here in the US, I'd cut cable in a heartbeat.

It was until homeland security got involved.

LUconn wrote:It was until homeland security got involved.

Best program on Showtime EVER. Although, I only watch it when they run marathons on Free Preview weekends!

Agreed, LUconn. All they did was push everyone to less stable European sites where quality is less than optimal. The old desktop I have had connected to my TV the past few years is on its last legs and being bombarded by pop-ups hasn't helped matters. How long until Amazon Prime, YouTube or Xbox Live bids for the web rights to the Sunday Ticket package? It is inevitable IMHO.

You can already get the Sunday Ticket package including RedZone on the PS3. I think it costs like $300 a year or something ridiculous though.