The End of Cable TV

[Flopper]

I have had cable since the 1980's, nearly 40 years. It has been the backbone of my family's Entertainment. A few years ago I started streaming movies from Netflix and Prime. The picture quality, the sound, the reliability was far better than cable. So I though why do I still have this archaic technological. The cable box/dvr is 10 years old and it is the latest thing the cable company has to offer. There have been no real enhancements in 5 years. It is slow responding to commands, it freezers up every day or so, and customer service just tells me to unplug it, wait 10 secs and plug it in. After about 5 or 10 mins, it is up and running. Some times the problems are fixed and sometimes not. After several call to customer service and a talk with my neighbor who has the same problems, I decided I was done. I was going to cut the cord.

The first thing I learned in my journey away from cable was that are many entertainment options with the Internet unlike the choice of 4 package of channels offered by my cable company. I signed up with an Internet Provider for $20 for 3 mos then $40. I have prime and added Netflix for $15 a month. So for $55 a month I have more movies and series than I can watch in a life time. I was paying a $160 a month for cable.

In spite or all the streaming, I found I missed having TV channels and weekly shows. DirectTV and other providers offer TV channel streaming. You get a box like cable, a remote, and a choice of channels.. So I got a small package of channels. For me it is the best of all worlds, streaming movies and series and live TV channels. It is cheaper than cable, faster, and no problems. I believe cable will not last another decade. I expect cable companies will offer their packages of TV channels over the Internet like DirectTV and the cable will be used to connect customers to the Internet as most are doing now.

 

[WinterBorn]

We cut cable in January of 2013. Haven't really missed it except during football season. But then, going out for wings and beer so I can watch a Bama game isn't bad.

 

[occupied]

Only reason I have cable is that I live too far away to reliably pick up anything with an antenna. Gotta have the local TV for hurricane season.

 

[1srelluc]

Only reason I have cable is that I live too far away to reliably pick up anything with an antenna. Gotta have the local TV for hurricane season.

What, you don't trust your NOAA emergency radio?

 

[Flopper]

We cut cable in January of 2013. Haven't really missed it except during football season. But then, going out for wings and beer so I can watch a Bama game isn't bad.

You can get live sporting invents over the Internet. The are several companies that offer packages of sports channels. However, I'm just interested in LSU and Florida, and UW in college ball and Seattle and New Orleans in the NFL. and their games are usually on broadcast channels or ESPN. I catch Bama sometimes since they always have a good team.

 

[occupied]

What, you don't trust your NOAA emergency radio?

I have many weather radios. Most of them are these nifty combination flash light/radios that can be charged by a built in hand crank. Never have to worry about batteries in those.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Only reason I have cable is that I live too far away to reliably pick up anything with an antenna. Gotta have the local TV for hurricane season.

There's always the dish.
When I lived in Junction Texas that was your only option.

 

[Flopper]

Only reason I have cable is that I live too far away to reliably pick up anything with an antenna. Gotta have the local TV for hurricane season.

You can get local TV over the Internet. In fact you can get the cable channels also over the Internet.

 

[Flopper]

There's always the dish.
When I lived in Junction Texas that was your only option.

I don't know about Dish but DirectTV offers most of their channels over the internet.

 

[occupied]

There's always the dish.
When I lived in Junction Texas that was your only option.

Had that. The rain outs sucked balls. Probably not as much of an issue out there. It's very much an issue with a hurricane coming.

 

[1srelluc]

I have many weather radios. Most of them are these nifty combination flash light/radios that can be charged by a built in hand crank. Never have to worry about batteries in those.

I have one of those, it even has TV channels on it.....Sorta.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I don't know about Dish but DirectTV offers most of their channels over the internet.

LOL...when I lived in Junction dial up was the only internet option.

 

[occupied]

You can get local TV over the Internet. In fact you can get the cable channels also over the Internet.

I'm aware of that but my wife never really learned to use a computer. She's an amazing rarity in this day and age.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Had that. The rain outs sucked balls. Probably not as much of an issue out there. It's very much an issue with a hurricane coming.

Never used dish when cable was available.
But yeah rain outs were exceedingly rare because it only rained 3 times a year and you got 6 inches each time.
While I'm being somewhat sarcastic it's not far from the truth.

 

[Flopper]

LOL...when I lived in Junction dial up was the only internet option.

Most smaller towns in rural areas today have a lot better than Dialup. If the service provider is a cell phone company it will probably be 5G which should be at least fast enough for Netflix, probably in the range of 20 to 40mbps

 

[Flopper]

I'm aware of that but my wife never really learned to use a computer. She's an amazing rarity in this day and age.

If you get a smart tv which can be less than $400, you can either plug it into your Internet or connect to it with with WIF. After that you just use your TV remote to choose what you want to watch. Like cable, the cost is dependent on what you want to watch.

 

[shockedcanadian]

I have had cable since the 1980's, nearly 40 years. It has been the backbone of my family's Entertainment. A few years ago I started streaming movies from Netflix and Prime. The picture quality, the sound, the reliability was far better than cable. So I though why do I still have this archaic technological. The cable box/dvr is 10 years old and it is the latest thing the cable company has to offer. There have been no real enhancements in 5 years. It is slow responding to commands, it freezers up every day or so, and customer service just tells me to unplug it, wait 10 secs and plug it in. After about 5 or 10 mins, it is up and running. Some times the problems are fixed and sometimes not. After several call to customer service and a talk with my neighbor who has the same problems, I decided I was done. I was going to cut the cord.

The first thing I learned in my journey away from cable was that are many entertainment options with the Internet unlike the choice of 4 package of channels offered by my cable company. I signed up with an Internet Provider for $20 for 3 mos then $40. I have prime and added Netflix for $15 a month. So for $55 a month I have more movies and series than I can watch in a life time. I was paying a $160 a month for cable.

In spite or all the streaming, I found I missed having TV channels and weekly shows. DirectTV and other providers offer TV channel streaming. You get a box like cable, a remote, and a choice of channels.. So I got a small package of channels. For me it is the best of all worlds, streaming movies and series and live TV channels. It is cheaper than cable, faster, and no problems. I believe cable will not last another decade. I expect cable companies will offer their packages of TV channels over the Internet like DirectTV and the cable will be used to connect customers to the Internet as most are doing now.

Cable TVs biggest draw today is live sporting events and news etc. I bet you sports alone is responsible for for a large chunk of male cable subscribers of a certan age demograpbic. Without which, they wouldn't have cable. Just know that in the event of a nuclear attack of alien invasion, you will not have the privilege of receiving the five minute advanced notice before your doom.

 

[occupied]

If you get a smart tv which can be less than $400, you can either plug it into your Internet or connect to it with with WIF. After that you just use your TV remote to choose what you want to watch. Like cable, the cost is dependent on what you want to watch.

Got a couple of those. Unless they changed something recently the local channels have been difficult or impossible to access live.

 

[Flopper]

Cable TVs biggest draw today is live sporting events and news etc. I bet you sports alone is responsible for for a large chunk of male cable subscribers of a certan age demograpbic. Without which, they wouldn't have cable. Just know that in the event of a nuclear attack of alien invasion, you will not have the privilege of receiving the five minute advanced notice before your doom.

That might be so. However, I think the main reason people have cable today is that they have had it for years. It has been the primary method of bringing entertainment into the home.

Before we had reasonable priced smart TVs, before 2015, watching video on cable meant huddling around a computer. The first smart TVs were introduced in 2008 but it was about 2015 when prices became affordable for most people. Each year the size of screens increased and prices came down. In 2015, 75% of homes got their TV from Cable and Satellite. Today that is 56% and is falling ever year.

When you buy a smart TV which is just about the only kind available and you have high speed internet as 85% of homes do, cable tv does not make much sense. You can connect your smart tv to your internet and subscribe to live streaming TV services that offer the channels you get on cable starting at $15 or $20 a month up depending on what channels you want.

You can get all the sports you want on the internet that you get on cable. The TV channel streaming services offer sports packages just like cable and satellite TV. Older adults are the primary subscribers to cable. Younger adults think it is too expensive for what they are interested in.

 

[Flopper]

Got a couple of those. Unless they changed something recently the local channels have been difficult or impossible to access live.

I have a smart tv and subscribe to a direct tv streaming package. I get all the local channels plus over 75 other channels. Accessing the local channels are no different than accessing them on cable. DirectTV is one of the more expensive TV streaming services. Unlike some of the others, you get remote and a receiver so you don't have mess around with apps.