Consumer Content Access---Cable vs Networks

[GGT]

(Not sure where to place this....)

Interesting to watch the bribes and threats going on recently, and the timing. Whether it's Disney saying they won't air the Oscars on cablevision, or contract and fee disputes between other providers and the consumer....in the US it's kind of a mess.

Brilliant tactic tho, wait until some popular event (like the Olympics) is due out, and threaten to pull access unless they get more money.

Don't know about you guys, but I already pay just over $100/month for 2nd tier comcast cable channels bundled with cable modem internet.

There are lots of offers for better and cheaper bundles and packages (some including phone), but the fine print means I'd have to change providers every 6-12 months or so....but they add a cancellation fee just like the cell phone contracts....I think we're being screwed.

What do you think?

[Ominous Gamer]

I'm thinking there are enough options out there to not need cable (TV) anymore

[Illusions]

I'm thinking there are enough options out there to not need cable (TV) anymore

Cablevision's televised information on ABC pulling their content from Cablevision highlighted the fact that viewers could watch ABC's content for free on ABC's own website or on Hulu, or even using a digital receiving antenna...so...I'm not certain how this deals with a channel like ABC pulling content from cable. They could just as easily pull content from their website, or Hulu...

[Ominous Gamer]

Cablevision's televised information on ABC pulling their content from Cablevision highlighted the fact that viewers could watch ABC's content for free on ABC's own website or on Hulu, or even using a digital receiving antenna...so...I'm not certain how this deals with a channel like ABC pulling content from cable. They could just as easily pull content from their website, or Hulu...

When Fox was having a dispute with some cable provider they kept running these stupid banner ads during their shows talking about how evil the cable provider was. I sorta laughed at it all, simply because I was watching via a digital antenna

[GGT]

Probably. Next phase might be producers or networks blocking satellite feeds, if they don't get the profit they want. Or big tech making exclusive deals with computer/phone/television manufacturers. Oh wait.....

[ar81]

(Not sure where to place this....)

Interesting to watch the bribes and threats going on recently, and the timing. Whether it's Disney saying they won't air the Oscars on cablevision, or contract and fee disputes between other providers and the consumer....in the US it's kind of a mess.

Brilliant tactic tho, wait until some popular event (like the Olympics) is due out, and threaten to pull access unless they get more money.

Don't know about you guys, but I already pay just over $100/month for 2nd tier comcast cable channels bundled with cable modem internet.

There are lots of offers for better and cheaper bundles and packages (some including phone), but the fine print means I'd have to change providers every 6-12 months or so....but they add a cancellation fee just like the cell phone contracts....I think we're being screwed.

What do you think?

It sounds like antitrust practice, an attempt to control customers with abusive clauses, to prevent competition from gaining customers if company performs poorly.

[Crowheart]

Cable just isn't worth the price to me.
Any show worth watching is usually made into a DVD boxset that can be rented/bought.
Same for movies.

I guess maybe if you were a sports fan it could be worth it for some of those channels.

We just have the regular antenna, and only bought that so my wife could watch her Vietnamese channels.

[GGT]

We just have the regular antenna, and only bought that so my wife could watch her Vietnamese channels.

Didn't all that change recently, by transmission? And all the seniors with "free tv" and rabbit ears had to buy a converter box?

[Crowheart]

Didn't all that change recently, by transmission? And all the seniors with "free tv" and rabbit ears had to buy a converter box?

That's only for analog TV's that you need the converter box.
We have the digital HDTV so we're ok.
You just need a HDTV antenna and you can get the digital channels through the air same as the analog.

[GGT]

So it is about the big tech market, not just making exclusive deals with providers or intermediaries, but making it so older machines just won't work.....

If they ever do this with radio, I'm gonna be pissed.

[Crowheart]

Well, you can use the older stuff, just need the box.

Why the government required the switch to digital, I don't know, but yeah, probably would be naive to think there wasn't some technical business lobbying influencing it, at least in part.

Never was clear what the official public reasoning behind it was.

[Khendraja'aro]

The switch from analog to digital is motivated by the fact that you can fit a lot more channels into the spectrum. About 8 SDTV digital channels take the same space in the spectrum as one analog channel (At the current QAM256, that is).

[GGT]

The switch from analog to digital is motivated by the fact that you can fit a lot more channels into the spectrum. About 8 SDTV digital channels take the same space in the spectrum as one analog channel (At the current QAM256, that is).

Right, so the fancier we get, the more we expect. Over time some "old tech" is just obsolete. No sense in gov'ment subsidizing outdated modes of communication...?

As a tangent here....I noticed how few people wear a wrist watch anymore. They use their cell phone (or car clock) to check the time, even use it as their wake-up alarm. Works fine as long as their electricity is up and running, and they can charge the battery.

[GGT]

I don't claim to understand the technicals, either. Perhaps something about congested wave lengths?

[Ominous Gamer]

I got a skeleton watch last year just so I wouldn't have to worry about batteries or checking my phone. At home I use the cell as an alarm clock, the cell goes 2-3 days between charges, hell I don't even have a charger at home, I only charge the phone at work. The main reason however is that "standard" alarm sound that table top units use (and every movie) is what I grew up with, 12 years of school with the same alarm...it makes me want to murder something

I know the old analog wave space went for billions, but I'm not sure I'm competely between digital yet. So far the viewing hasn't been as nice. With analog you could watch a channel under all kinds of conditions, the quality of the picture being completely into how much time and effort you put into the rabbit ears. Digital is a different story, there is no fuzzy picture, no "good enough" image. Its a perfect image, or nothing.

[GGT]

Yeah, well....as "you young whippersnappers" get older, they're going to have to change one field Alzheimer's test (where a circle is drawn and the subject is supposed to place the clock numbers---if they can't do it, it's a sign of bad things in the brain).

El-ed schools already have to teach how to read an analog clock, because most kids have only seen digital ones.

[Ominous Gamer]

El-ed schools already have to teach how to read an analog clock, because most kids have only seen digital ones.

I remember having clock exercises when I was in school...

[Crowheart]

When we're old who knows if the kids will even know what a clock is anymore.

They'll probably just push a button on their head and a virtual HUD will pop up or something.

[GGT]

When we're old who knows if the kids will even know what a clock is anymore.

They'll probably just push a button on their head and a virtual HUD will pop up or something.

Sounds like the Jetsons. I'm still waiting on my hover craft, jet pack, and Rosie!

Plasma Transporters still kinda scare me tho, since the original movie The Fly.

Kind of funny to ask my kids what they can conjure up in their imaginations.....it's mostly a reaction to movies and technology already out there, not really anything "new". If anything, they have a "screen" mentality. Wanting to be in 5 places at the same time, in super-fast speed. Almost like they become the computers they've grown up with.

*shivers*

[littlelolligagged]

Me too, OG.

[GGT]

It used to be (cough) that kids arrived in kindergarten knowing their ABCs, how to tie their shoes, read a clock/tell time, and the primary colors. They could hold a crayon and maneuver scissors---good fine motor skills. They could sit still for at least 15 minutes, not interrupt the teacher, and were toilet trained.

Nowadays (cough) kids show up at school sometimes in "big kid diapers", velcro shoes, horrible manners and short attention spans, not knowing the alphabet or colors, or how to "share their toys"....but they have a kiddie cell phone with ring tones and can use their opposing thumbs to play a strategy kill game.

oh yeah, and they think Cut and Paste is a computer app

[littlelolligagged]

Strange, we learned all that in preschool, and kindergarten, and first grade. We also learned that Reagan was god and that Jimmy Carter tried to ruin the country.

Quit acting like the good ol' days were so great. They weren't.

Gee, we can go back to when my dad was in school instead - in this country at that time he didn't go to school with the little black kids who lived down the road. That must have been great. Also, in kindergarten and first grade he learned to tie his shoes, cut, his ABCs, and color in between the lines - not that he actually needed to learn these things. And yes, I just called him and asked him.

[Crowheart]

Reagan wasn't God?

*Takes down altar*

[Being]

I get all my TV OTA. I couldn't justify paying for 100 channels when I only wanted 10. I really do miss fuel though.

[Dreadnaught]

Frankly they are terrified of the margin pressure that streaming Web-based products have. Ultimately, they are going to have to face up to the fact that their job is becoming simply to build data pipes into homes.

[']['ear]

Does anybody else remember the start of cable, when there were NO commercials? Subscriber fees paid for all of it. There were only a few premium channels, you had to pay for them, and then there were certain non-network channels from major metro area that had good alt programming (e.g. WGN from Chicago, IIRC.)

I joke about the tech gap all the time. My folks and in laws hardly know how to use their computers and cell phones. I joke with my wife that we will be the same with our matter synthesizers.

[Dreadnaught]

Like many businesses, the margins eroded...or they tried to grow revenues by adding layers of revenue models which themselves cost money.

If they stuck to pipe building, they could probably find pretty healthy margins. Except then a whole chunk of the ad industry would have to innovate or die.

[Ominous Gamer]

I wonder how viewing habits would adapt if cable went back to being ad free, and the online services from the various providers picked up a commercial heavy format. Seems like a win win for everyone till cable finally dies.

[GGT]

Not just ad/marketing industry. Look at newspapers....

No lolli, this wasn't about 'how great the old times were', we just went on a fun tangent a while.

It's about the transitions in information and technology. Papers, cable, satellite, phones. Consumers caught in contracts with cancellation fees, provider using customer niches as pawns in the bribes 'n threats. Innovate or die is true, but at the onset of this, and until things play out over time better, the consumer gets screwed. IMO.

When cable tv was new, it was considered expensive---enter hacking and pirating, adding outlets in rooms (they used to charge by outlet) was fairly common. Until they had computer apps to see how many sets in house were accessing their feed. Cable Police

Now it's easier to use a laptop and find wifi hub with streaming, or pirate a movie, all "free". Or go to a sports bar for the big prize fight instead of Pay-per-View. Can also watch Netflix movies on XBox, Blockbusters are going out of business, .99 Red Box units popping up at grocery stores.....I think it's interesting to wonder how this will all pan out. And when consumer prices will adjust downward.

[Dreadnaught]

Paradoxically, the ad market gets more accountable and measurable spending from online ads, but usually values it lower on a CPM basis than regular TV ads.

There are a lot of theories about why that is. Part of it is psychological, part of it is simply demand. The other part is that advertisers can't tell if they want to buy "premium" content or throw their spending into an exchange where they target audiences or contextually relevant interest groups.

What results is a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue. Sites like Hulu offer advertising that is arguably more compelling and measurable than a regular TV ad. But the ad buying is entrenched around TV ads and conventional TV ads will always have more reach until TV is eliminated leaving nothing but likes like Hulu.