Cutting the Cable Cord - Will Comcast and Direct TV be the next Blockbuster?

As services such as Netflix and Hulu plus get better and better will more and more people cut the cable cord and save money? It is starting... Cord Cutting is Real: 1 Million TV Subscribers Lost to Streaming Services.

I am really tired of paying close to $50 a month for cable. If I can use a local HD antenna and see my other favorite shows on Netflix and Hulu plus for about $20 a month instead of $50... that's a $360 a year I am saving. The technology and bandwidth are in place to get your favorite shows via your network connection. It is only a matter of time until the cable company monopoly is broken. Blockbusters had its business plan ripped out from under them by advancing technology. The result: Bankruptcy. Actually driving somewhere to get a DVD? Redbox? You've got to be kidding.

The cable companies are facing the same specter in the face. DirectTV, you REALLY expect me to pay you $4.99 to watch a movie on demand when Amazon has it for less? Competition is good!

Remember when people actually paid to get the news delivered to their house each morning? Delivered Newspapers, Driving to rent movies, paying for channels you NEVER watch, and other Horse and buggy stuff are all going to go away. If cable TV does not adapt, they will be swept away by the new reality that our technology allows.

Comments

  1. Robert ParrishApril 20, 2012 at 3:38 PM

    I cut the cable ties a long time ago when streaming became more accessible and consistant. Do I miss out on some shows? Yes I do. But spending $7.99 for Netflix streaming and $8 bucks for Hulu saves me about $400 a year. But for a buck, I don't mind driving to Redbox to get a movie Netflix doesn't have, and Netflix has a bad habit of changing up their catalogue.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike KentApril 20, 2012 at 4:16 PM

    My contract is up with DirectTV next January.
    I am thinking very strongly with cutting the cable... now next question... Ruku or AppleTV?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Casey HallApril 20, 2012 at 9:09 PM

    The only question I'm curious about is how long its gonna take networks to start sending their new episodes to the streaming services. Because as it stands I dont know many of the streaming services that offer same day availability of new episodes like standard cable networks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Robert KentApril 20, 2012 at 9:20 PM

    I have Roku and have been very happy with it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. TurnerbrewerApril 21, 2012 at 9:05 AM

    My family ditched DirecTv 8 months ago. We now use an OTA Antenna to watch the major networks, Apple TV to purchase the pay tv shows and we use Netflix for movies. I use our Xbox 360 to watch live College Football on ESPN3 in the fall. We now spend around $200 a year for TV versus the $1200 a year with DirecTv. The only way that I would go back to pay TV is if I could pay for what I wanted to watch when I watch to watch it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. EdwardMarch 31, 2017 at 2:03 AM

    Going back though old comments. and have missed these. Cool.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guiless?

Image
You actually can do a minimal windowing from the command line in Linux with dvtm. Dvtm is excellent for low end machines where graphics are not a priority. In the picture shown we have a working clock, SC a spreadsheet that you can easily export data to your favorite desktop spreadsheet such as Libreoffice, Links2 a web browser pointed to www.google.com, and finally nano a pretty decent basic text editor. I prefer vim, but nano has more of a user interface. Cheatsheet: `dvtm` is one simple, easy-to-use terminal multiplexer. Commonly used Options:     -v         prints version information to standard output, then exits.         -m <mod>   set default modifier at runtime.         [cmd...]   Execute cmd after dvtm is started. KeyBoard Shortcuts:     Mod    Each keybinding begins with Mod which defaults to ^...
Read more

MSOffice vs Libreoffice

Image
From https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Feature_Comparison:_LibreOffice_-_Microsoft_Office Contents 1 Introduction 2 General office suite: LibreOffice vs. Microsoft Office 3 Word processors: LibreOffice Writer vs. Microsoft Word 4 Spreadsheet applications: LibreOffice Calc vs. Microsoft Excel 5 Presentation software: LibreOffice Impress vs. Microsoft Powerpoint 6 Database program: LibreOffice Base vs. Microsoft Access 7 Extensions: LibreOffice extensions adding outstanding features to LibreOffice 8 See also Introduction This page compares the features of LibreOffice 5.0.0 ( download ) and Microsoft Office 2013 . It separates major and minor feature differences and also includes notes on LibreOffice extensions. The comparison highlights differences and therefore does not display any features which are present in both office suites. The feature comparison table is continuously being updated and is work in progress It is a compilation by users and no...
Read more

Raspberry pi zero.

Image
Instead of getting the rpi zero w, I will just add a usb female to my existing pi for the time being.Have lots of leftover cables for the cause.. Can always plug in a wifi or bluetooth module.   Various notes: Simplest configuration to connect to an unsecured wireless router knowing it;s essid: #linux auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp allow-hotplug wlan0 auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp wireless-essid router-essid  Improvisational solder less header pin for the rpi zero Original pi zero fully decked out. with bluetooth, wired m and wireless. Basic setup ----------------- install jessie os do updates install vim mc Wifi ------ Check Ethernet & Wifi Before continuing make sure the Ethernet cable is connected in and you can ping out from the Pi: ping 8.8.8.8 You will also want to set up your WiFi dongle. runsudo shutdown -h now and then plug in the WiFi module when the Pi is off so you don't ca...
Read more