People who "cut the cord"- Do you regret it?

[tmc]

the only thing i miss is ESPN. wish they had a streaming only option.

 

[smackababy]

Is Rick Bayless related to Skip Bayless? I bet so!

 

[Ns1]

WTTW and LiveWell both have several cooking shows. I like: Mexico -- One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayless.

They don't have the most important one of all: top chef

Already watched everything Bourdain related, including mind of a chef =X

 

[squarecut1]

Once the merger of Comcast and TW Cable is complete, everyone who has cut the cable will be back to paying the same as they were with cable - due to the high priced data usage based Internet bill. That will become the norm. The cable company will have the last laugh

 

[Childs]

I miss HGTV, Food Network and Travel Channel. The only sports I miss is College Gameday.

 

[vi edit]

If the FCC has an ounce of neutrality left in it, that deal will get sqaushed.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'm kind of "Meh" on the NFL. Monday Night Football used to be on ABC. That went away to Cable. So bringing "Thursday Night Football" back for 2/3 of the year is a just barely giving back what you lost a while ago.

Don't get me started on the Sunday ticket. It's $300+ and restricted to Direct TV. That's even worse than needing cable to watch something. And by most accounts the streaming solutions available on line are pure trash. They killed the Xbox, Playstation and stand alone options.

Yeah they certainly have rolled back on popular options like the console support, but I think part of that is the NFL's doing. I think they soon will take the package away from Directv and sell it to anyone willing to pay their prices (probably still $300 or more).

ESPN would certainly be a channel I'd be happy to pay $10 to directly for being able to stream direct to my Xbox or Apple TV. But noooooooo. I can't do that either.

The problem is you would never get ESPN for $10. $10 is the price if EVERYONE pays, including all those single moms that will never turn to that channel for a second. If it became unbundled and sports fans were no longer getting that subsidy then ESPN would probably be something nuts like $100 a month.

That is the harsh truth for anyone wanting an al a carte option- there is no way these companies will voluntarily make LESS money. They will rig it so that you end up paying the same price for the 10 channels you really want for the hundreds of channels you get today, at least initially.

There is only two ways we get an al a carte future that is better for consumers:

1. Consumers switch to other content or

2. The federal government steps in

Fuck Cable companies and providers. I'm sick of it.

Agreed, that is the answer. The only way the consumer wins is if consumers are willing to give up the content they love for other content- watch House of Cards instead of Game of Thrones for example.

As a 30-something I think that chance is shot for my generation. The males are hooked on sports and the females are hooked on reality TV so the cable TV dynasty has another 25 years left in it. The hope is the generation younger than mine that watches Youtube just as much as HBO, or the generation even younger that has abandoned traditional forms of entertainment for Minecraft. Eventually they will be willing to give up the content that has formed a lot of our culture and in doing so will slowly undo the cable system.

Until then our options are limited, and if Net Neutrality dies the chance for someone to come in and quickly disrupt the market without legislation also dies.

 

[squarecut1]

If the FCC has an ounce of neutrality left in it, that deal will get sqaushed.

----
The FCC review is being headed by chairman of the FCC and former cable industry lobbyist[35] Tom Wheeler. Wheeler's appointment in May 2013 was widely praised by the cable industry.[36] Some have raised concerns about Wheeler's previous work as the head of the main US cable lobby,[37] the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

-----

 

[SMOGZINN]

----
The FCC review is being headed by chairman of the FCC and former cable industry lobbyist[35] Tom Wheeler. Wheeler's appointment in May 2013 was widely praised by the cable industry.[36] Some have raised concerns about Wheeler's previous work as the head of the main US cable lobby,[37] the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

-----

It should also be noted that the current President of the NCTA is Michael Powell, who was the former chairman of the FCC. It does not get less neutral then this.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I watch politics. That's it.

Daily Show
Colbert Report
Bill Maher
Occasional Stand-up comedy specials (rarely worth seeing since most comics suck)

I don't mind local sports teams, but is that worth mind numbing myself into stupidity watching ESPN all day? Nope. I'll go to the bar once in a while if I really want to watch a game.

I have no problem finding my way around to the political news items I want and that's fine. Daily and Colbert offer free streams on their websites anyhow. Why the fuck would I pay for cable?

 

[smackababy]

I watch politics. That's it.

Daily Show
Colbert Report
Bill Maher
Occasional Stand-up comedy specials (rarely worth seeing since most comics suck)

I don't mind local sports teams, but is that worth mind numbing myself into stupidity watching ESPN all day? Nope. I'll go to the bar once in a while if I really want to watch a game.

I have no problem finding my way around to the political news items I want and that's fine. Daily and Colbert offer free streams on their websites anyhow. Why the fuck would I pay for cable?

Best post ever! Calls ESPN watching stupidity; admits he watches Bill Maher.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Best post ever! Calls ESPN watching stupidity; admits he watches Bill Maher.

You have to understanding something - As a conservative, I'm admitting to watching Bill Maher. Yes, I have the decency to hear both sides of arguments instead of hearing just one-sided views.

Regardless of how numbskulled Bill Maher is, and regardless of how much they often have a circle jerk (literally, I imagine they go back-stage and have a circle jerk) when he invites people as retarded as Michael Moore and another liberal and have a 3v1 the whole time, I still don't mind seeing other people's point of view from time to time. I prefer it when he has a more even guest list, but I digress. Unlike Daily and Colbert, where 90% of the time it is just completely liberal sided with no conservative to give a counter-view.

And let's be honest, Colbert is political sarcasm for the mentally handicapped. Yes, I can tell you're being sarcastic 10 years ago, it wasn't funny then, it still isn't. But to 15 year old college kids who think they know what is going on in the world apparently it is :awe: (I much prefer Daily)

 

[DesiPower]

I miss football

Last year in August I moved, after the move i never subscribed to Cable anymore, just internet. For the next 6 months I was busy with setting up the new home, it was fun and exiting and consumed most of my time, football was not on the top of my mind, whatever time I did get, the OTA games were more than enough to keep me entertained.

This year, I am all settled down, den/media room is all setup, all that I need to do it sit back and enjoy, but now I dont have ESPN and NFL channels. So few games to watch in OTA... I am missing it...

 

[squarecut1]

It should also be noted that the current President of the NCTA is Michael Powell, who was the former chairman of the FCC. It does not get less neutral then this.

It wasn't too long ago that Comcast had this 250 GB per month limit - which is ridiculously low and impractical if you are doing any kind of streaming. It is now "suspended" because they don't want this thing to get highlighted during the merger process. But once that is done, they will screw everyone big time, these bastards.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Suddenlink gave me 250gb a month and $10 for every 50gb over that. One month I had a $90 overage bill. That is why I moved to AT&T, despite it being slower. From what I understand they never make you pay more than around $30 on overages.

 

[Uppsala9496]

It wasn't too long ago that Comcast had this 250 GB per month limit - which is ridiculously low and impractical if you are doing any kind of streaming. It is now "suspended" because they don't want this thing to get highlighted during the merger process. But once that is done, they will screw everyone big time, these bastards.

My fear is they will institute the hard cap. I stream all the time. My daughter sometimes forgets to close out the browser when she is done watching a show, so it will stream all day long even though the TV is off. It doesn't happen often, but just one or two times a month and my usage is extremely high.

 

[z1ggy]

If this does happen (evil Comcast/twc merger and hard data caps) why can't a 'Virgin Mobile' of ISP come out and offer non data cap'ed use (albeit at slower speeds most likely)? I would bet many people would switch to that just so they could browse and stream limitlessly (and to give Commiecast/TWC the middle finger), especially people who aren't hardcore gamers and don't mind a touch of load time.

 

[smackababy]

If this does happen (evil Comcast/twc merger and hard data caps) why can't a 'Virgin Mobile' of ISP come out

Why? Because, ISPs are granted a local monopoly, own the lines, and can easily force out any start up trying to offer a comparable service. Even if they couldn't legislate their way to victory, they could easily charge such a high price for use of their network, it would be cheaper to build your own infrastructure (which is something most can't afford).

In reality, I would pay higher taxes if I got a 100/100 subsidized line from the city / state. Put fiber throughout the entire city, raise property taxes like 0.1%, and offer $30 a month unlimited internet.

 

[squarecut1]

And there are laws in place in around 20 states that prevent cities and municipalities from offering their own internet service.

 

[poofyhairguy]

In reality, I would pay higher taxes if I got a 100/100 subsidized line from the city / state. Put fiber throughout the entire city, raise property taxes like 0.1%, and offer $30 a month unlimited internet.

I am pretty anti any sort of government internet option, unless it is something limited for tourists. I think good old competition works- Google came into my market and even though I can't get it overall speed packages went up.

My big beef is the focus is on the speed and not the cap. With my last ISP, the 30mb down plan had a 250gb cap and the 108mb down plan had only a 350gb cap. After a year at the 108 I downgraded to put the $50 it saved towards cap overages.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I think good old competition works- Google came into my market and even though I can't get it overall speed packages went up.

The problem is that good old competition doesn't work when companies refuse to compete.

Every company can't come in and lay down their own lines, we simply have limited space to do so, and each additional company wanting to compete would incur a greater and greater expense making them less and less competitive. It is very much a case of first one to market wins, and we already have winners that is it nearly impossible to compete with. So instead of competing the companies just draw up borders and stick to their domain. The competition then becomes in stock share not in market share. In essence they will compete by trying to buy each other and adding to their market share that way.

Google can't really compete with the local competitors, they are taking a bath on their internet service. No company smaller then Google could have hoped to even get as far as Google has.

 

[smackababy]

I am pretty anti any sort of government internet option, unless it is something limited for tourists. I think good old competition works- Google came into my market and even though I can't get it overall speed packages went up.

My big beef is the focus is on the speed and not the cap. With my last ISP, the 30mb down plan had a 250gb cap and the 108mb down plan had only a 350gb cap. After a year at the 108 I downgraded to put the $50 it saved towards cap overages.

Generally, I would be against government run options as well, but the problem is "good old competition" isn't happening, as Comcast, TWC, etc have made deals with municipalities to be the sole operator of internet service in that area.

A local government building the infrastructure and subsidizing what is basically a necessity would be fine by me. Especially, since them building the new infrastructure would be something better than the old, crappy networks we currently have in place.

 

[DrPizza]

I've only skimmed this thread from time to time, but it appears that much of the discussion revolves around content delivery - finding another way to get similar content.


Get some freaking hobbies! You don't need to constantly be watching movies, television shows, series, etc. Seriously, find something else to do - read a book, go to the gym, learn to do something. It might be hard at first, "I miss... <favorite television show>" One television in our house; it's been on for a total of about 100 minutes (one movie) during the past month.

And, think about it... someone being asked to completely cut the cord 40 years ago would say, "but, but, I can't give up watching the Brady Bunch on Friday nights!" 30 years from now, when you look back on 2014, you're going to think, "omg! I was such a loser to think that <favorite television show> was so important. What a waste of my preciously short life to sit on the couch."


<sorry, meant to be excessively blunt, rather than troll-like; it's probably hard to discern the difference.>

 

[PenguinPower]

I've only skimmed this thread from time to time, but it appears that much of the discussion revolves around content delivery - finding another way to get similar content.


Get some freaking hobbies! You don't need to constantly be watching movies, television shows, series, etc. Seriously, find something else to do - read a book, go to the gym, learn to do something. It might be hard at first, "I miss... <favorite television show>" One television in our house; it's been on for a total of about 100 minutes (one movie) during the past month.

And, think about it... someone being asked to completely cut the cord 40 years ago would say, "but, but, I can't give up watching the Brady Bunch on Friday nights!" 30 years from now, when you look back on 2014, you're going to think, "omg! I was such a loser to think that <favorite television show> was so important. What a waste of my preciously short life to sit on the couch."


<sorry, meant to be excessively blunt, rather than troll-like; it's probably hard to discern the difference.>

Sorry, but why should you care how someone gets enjoyment? Some people enjoy reading, some people enjoy going to the gym, some people enjoy learning new skills, and...some people enjoy watching TV/Movies or playing video games. What difference does it make?

And, think about it... someone being asked to completely give up reading 40 years ago would say, "but, but, I can't give up reading <favorite book> on Friday nights!" 30 years from now, when you look back on 2014, you're going to think, "omg! I was such a loser to think that <favorite book> was so important. What a waste of my preciously short life to sit on the couch."

And, think about it... someone being asked to stop going to the gym 40 years ago would say, "but, but, I can't give up going to the gym on Friday nights!" 30 years from now, when you look back on 2014, you're going to think, "omg! I was such a loser to think that going to the gym was so important. What a waste of my preciously short life to sit on the exercise bike."

And on, and on.

 

[Childs]

I've only skimmed this thread from time to time, but it appears that much of the discussion revolves around content delivery - finding another way to get similar content.


Get some freaking hobbies! You don't need to constantly be watching movies, television shows, series, etc. Seriously, find something else to do - read a book, go to the gym, learn to do something. It might be hard at first, "I miss... <favorite television show>" One television in our house; it's been on for a total of about 100 minutes (one movie) during the past month.

The same could be said for a poster having over 44k posts. To each his own.