Has cutting the cord jumped the shark?

The cable channels that are getting hit hard are ones that used to make tons of money from reruns of shows from the last twenty years like TNT, WGN, TBS and so on. The cable audiences for these reruns are declining because they're all available on streaming.

 

We cut the cord in 2015. I remember because we got our smart tv (mistake!) the night of the Patriots/Seahawks Super Bowl. We have cable internet. Had to upgrade the internet due to the pandemic in order for the two of us to teach class and the two kids to be in class. We've had Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. I mainly watch MLB during the season and then get a pay service for a month to watch the playoffs. Then it's mainly podcasts and YouTube. Kids have plenty to watch on Netflix and YouTube.

 

Try the YouTube Downloader for anyone who wants save something on YouTube and watch later at your leisure. Reddit has at least 1 documentary page (there were 2 the last time I checked). Reddit members are uploading documentaries to YouTube and posting links on Reddit all day long. Here is a link - I can't find the other link I had:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/

 

I believe MeTV actually beats a lot of these cable channels in the Neilsens fairly regularly. I know once I get Locast in my market (Columbus) I'll be happy to just leave the telly on channels like MeTV and Heroes and Icons when I'm putting around the living room or basement doing stuff like perusing this forum.

 

@Ty D. Tatman so you are the one who watches MeTV. The bandwidth is well-utilized.

 

A quick Google search says that these cable channels get two to three times the number of viewers that MeTV gets every week.

 

Don't count on Locast. The last time someone tried this scam he was shut down by the Supreme Court I believe. I signed up for that one - I think it was called Aero maybe. It even had a DVR haha. He put thousands up mini antenas in a room and charged you 10 bucks a month to rent a antenna. The issue is "retransmission" and the lawsuits were filed awhile ago. You can't pull someone's signal from their tower and send it to other people. As you know, Locast asks for "donations" I think they call it. Good luck with that!

Aereo - Wikipedia



Type Private
Founded February 2012
Defunct November 21, 2014
Fate Bankruptcy, assets and intellectual property later acquired by TiVo
Headquarters
New York City, USA
Area served
Various US cities
Key people
Chet Kanojia (Founder and CEO)
Products Over-the-air television on Internet-connected devices

 

Anyone interested in making the most of cutting the cord can check out these sites:

Cord Cutter News puts up news pretty much every day and they have have a YouTube channel and web site with daily updates as well, although Luke Bouma sold it and he was more knowledgeable than the two hosts they have now. Luke has his own YouTube channel now, but not much cord cutting - probably a covenant not to compete that hopefully will expire at some point.

All News Archives | Cord Cutters News

Cord Cutter Confidential is for those more tech minded.

Cord-Cutter Confidential

As for Locast:

Locast cites an exception in United States copyright law that allows retransmission of television signals by non-commercial entities at no charge, aside from that required to maintain the service's operations. (The exemption was originally intended to cover third-party translator stations owned by non-profits.)

In July 2019, the parent companies of the four major U.S. broadcast networks sued Locast, alleging that the service violates copyright law. The plaintiffs also alleged that Locast undermined its non-profit status by accepting financial support and promotion from cable and satellite companies. The networks maintained that Locast gives the carriers an unfair negotiating advantage during carriage disputes that prevent them from retransmitting local programming. Locast filed a countersuit, arguing that its service complies with the aforementioned exceptions and accusing the networks of colluding to limit the availability of their programming via free-to-air means in order to protect the pay television industry.

Locast - Wikipedia

 

No. I don't regret it at all. I'm quite happy paying $35 a month and using generous friends subscriptions.

 

It's been at least a decade for me, and there's no going back.

When will streaming "jump the shark"? When they introduce ads.

It happened to the cinemas, so it's a matter of if, not when.

 

Speaking of internet, we had to do the same thing. I didn't know much about it but our speed was 30. Sometimes we would have buffer issues (but rarely) watching Netflix or YouTube on the TV. Then when the kids started school remotely they kept getting kicked off Zoom and Google Classrooms. (One is in 5th grade the other a sophomore in college). So I called the maker of our Mesh WIFI system thinking it was messing up because the light on it would turn red. They troubleshooted for me, had me update software and it still happened. So I called the cable company and they said they could double my speed to 60 at no charge. Great! But 60 wasn't enough and they still kept getting kicked off. So I called back and paid a few dollars more for speeds of 100. Wasn't good enough - they still got kicked off. The 3rd time I called them I said "give me 1G!". Upgraded and have not had any issues since. But as a result my bill went up over $100 a month. So a few weeks ago I called and told them I was switching service and that I did not really want to do that because I had been with them for 20 years. So they reworked my bill and it is much cheaper now. If they up the price again I will call them back and tell them the competition has a much better deal and to see if they can match it.

We still have 2 cable boxes, one in the living room and one in my oldest daughter's bedroom and most channels are crap but I like SEC Network and Smithsonian Channel and like having a DVR to record shows overnight on TCM or stuff from NBC.

 

I rarely had buffer issues before the upgrade. My issue now is we need a WiFi extender and no matter which one we use, there's constant drop-offs.

 

WiFi extenders don't seem to get the job done. Look into getting a Mesh system. We have the Tenda Nova (3 cubes placed throughout the house, one by the computer, one behind the TV and one in my daughter's room). When we upgraded to 1G they threw in a Eero so I am currently using that with no issues (one by the computer and one in the living room and the house is covered). I did offer to let them keep the Eero but they said there was no charge and even if I gave it back there was no discount.

https://www.amazon.com/Tenda-MW6-802-11AC-Mu-Mimo-System/dp/B076JLJVTG

This one worked well for us, no complaints for me. i think it even has more coverage and the Eero.

 

You can buy Ethernet hubs that plug into power outlets, so you can get wired internet in different rooms without drilling into the wall and running cables. They have to be on the same circuit, but it works really well. I don’t want to stream 4K over WiFi so this is the perfect solution.

 

There’s ads all over streaming currently. I haven’t seen them on Netflix but have on most others.

 

Thanks. I will take a look at it.

 

The best advice I've heard is to subscribe to Netflix and watch just that for a month or 3. Cancel that and checkout Amazon for a while, cancel that and then move to HBO, etc.
Unless you have a household to please, I'm sure there is enough on each one to last you a while and still keep the cost down. The fact of the matter is that you get A LOT of media for $10-15 a month.
Try thinking of everything you've watched in the last month and add up the cost of buying those shows and movies on DVD's, not to mention the storage space that physical media can fill.

The trend we've seen is that every studio wants to have their own streaming platform and will take things back that they provided to Netflix and Amazon.
I'm curious to see how long it is before the music labels do the same thing...

 

Good question. We’re considering it but we have homework to do.

 

I currently have Disney+/Hulu bundle for $15, Netflix for $15, and Directv which ranges from $50 to $130 depending what discounts I have going on. I think they've finally given me the last of the "I'm gonna cancel" discounts, and looks like Hulu Live is a good alternative. We'll go from $140 total for Disney/Hulu/Directv to $75 or so, still get access to Hulu's shows my family likes, enough live channels, plus the local channels AND espn plus SEC channel that kept me from cutting the cord in the past. Still isn't cheap but I get tired of the Directv dance.

 

I'm now a bit apprehensive about cutting the cord from Spectrum cable when I keep seeing all the hiccups, freeze frames and pixelated screens of Zoom feeds of talking heads with little movement on a wide range of TV news station broadcasts, C-SPAN and talk shows who I would think have the best and fastest broadband on the planet.

Here I am in podunk Texas and I can't even get good reception with an over the air antenna. And Spectrum just went back to charging me the previous rate of $57/month for Basic Limited after getting a $17 discount for a sports package I didn't even know I had and if I did wouldn't watch. I don't watch sports on TV.

 

I have Netflix, HBO Max and free services. Dropped cable after learning that 90% of the shows I watch were on these 2 services. I will just subscribe to others for a month out of the year to get the other 10% plus shows I can rewatch.

 

What’s frustrating is paying for a channel within a platform like YouTubeTV and then having to miss out on original content because it’s on their own streaming channel.

Once you subscribe to Discovery+, YouTubeTV, Disney+, Paramount, and Netflix you’re pretty much back paying cable prices.

Still, I appreciate having the control over somewhat a la carte content. Of course once I add Britbox and Criterion...

The hell with it, I’ll just watch PlutoTV....

 

Turns out those rapscallions at the T-Mobile store neglected to tell her TVision was getting kiboshed this week. I went over to help her set up the system and was wondering why this bundle of cable channels and free Netflix was not appearing in her account/Tvision interface. A Forbes article from last Monday let me know it's kaput. I say she returns their hardware and gets a Roku.

 

Perfect example of how the entertainment distribution industry doesn't know its right hand from its left nut when it comes to informing their customers for both hardware and software functionality.

A Spectrum CSR I talked with yesterday about why I got a $17 credit for a sports package I didn't know I had explained that was a Time Warner Cable hold over after Spectrum took ownership in 2012 where their software didn't somehow update all the package deals and promos for all customer accounts they now manage.

She concluded I wasn't suppose to get that credit and kind of said with a smirk in her voice that I should be glad I got it. I replied I didn't ask about that specifically but wanted to know whether I have a Sports package or not because the menu interface searching among a thousand channels got stuck on Sports programming and it took forever to get back to my normal menu listing of Basic programming.

She said I never had a Sports package. After that I hung up.

 

one thing that is difficult to find on traditional TV these hays is quality educational documentaries. Curiosity stream cures that problem and is available on many platforms, Roku, Android, Chromecast, Amazon, AppleTV etc.

https://curiositystream.com