OT: a little more news on the way you watch tv...

[kikdakan]

i hardly watch espn anymore except for any games that are available. i see espn is going to launch streaming service in 2018. following that, Disney is going to launch it's own service. i really wish i could cut that cord. just not feasible yet for me.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/08/12/week-tv-dramatically-changed/561764001/

 

[bigboxes]

When I was a young adult, I cancelled cable tv and was fine without it for many years. TV just wasn't important. Of course, all of the games were not broadcast and it was before the modern internet. Disney/ESPN are just trying to get a piece of the (revenue) pie. They can do what we want. And so can we (the viewers). I cut cable tv (kept the wonderful internet) and subscribe to PlayStation VUE. I save $40-50 a month after purchasing devices for all of my tvs.

Just like my phone service, I don't want contracts and being tied down because my provider "owns" the equipment. Now, I'm in control. I'll move to whoever provides the best service for the price and change whenever I want. I let my service lapse over the summer and will do so again whenever I feel that the service providers are not listening to me. I've got internet and OTA antennas and that is good enough if I have to cut the cord. I don't need to spend $100+ for 200 channels of shit that I never watch. Not again.

When I signed up with VUE in December they lost Viacom. Well, boo hoo. I can live without MTV, Spike TV, the History Channel (which rarely plays history shows anymore) and Comedy Central. Doing without paid tv this summer made me realize how little I cared for the programming garbage that is available today. Sure, it's nice to have, but ESPN and the others better watch out. I can do without them!

 

[sloth316]

When I was a young adult, I cancelled cable tv and was fine without it for many years. TV just wasn't important. Of course, all of the games were not broadcast and it was before the modern internet. Disney/ESPN are just trying to get a piece of the (revenue) pie. They can do what we want. And so can we (the viewers). I cut cable tv (kept the wonderful internet) and subscribe to PlayStation VUE. I save $40-50 a month after purchasing devices for all of my tvs.

Just like my phone service, I don't want contracts and being tied down because my provider "owns" the equipment. Now, I'm in control. I'll move to whoever provides the best service for the price and change whenever I want. I let my service lapse over the summer and will do so again whenever I feel that the service providers are not listening to me. I've got internet and OTA antennas and that is good enough if I have to cut the cord. I don't need to spend $100+ for 200 channels of shit that I never watch. Not again.

When I signed up with VUE in December they lost Viacom. Well, boo hoo. I can live without MTV, Spike TV, the History Channel (which rarely plays history shows anymore) and Comedy Central. Doing without paid tv this summer made me realize how little I cared for the programming garbage that is available today. Sure, it's nice to have, but ESPN and the others better watch out. I can do without them!

I agree with this 110%...have happily been a Vue/Netflix subscriber and saving $50/month....I did see PS Vue is going to jack my mid-tier package up from $35 to $45, but it's still substantial savings over DirecTV or Cable....the future is via streaming services

 

[bigboxes]

I agree with this 110%...have happily been a Vue/Netflix subscriber and saving $50/month....I did see PS Vue is going to jack my mid-tier package up from $35 to $45, but it's still substantial savings over DirecTV or Cable....the future is via streaming services

I pay $45, but that's because I live in a metro area and they include at least 5 local channels. Still better than cable. To be fair, I don't have a problem with those that want Viacom. VUE should offer Viacom as a package for those that want to pay for it. Just don't bundle it in with no option to do without.

 

[TheBeav815]

Only reason I have TV is for football. I suspend DirecTV usually in January, turn it back on for the Spring Game, then suspend it the rest of the summer. I'll turn it back on in a few weeks to watch NU and the NFL.

Wife's parents let us use their Netflix and HBO Go accounts, we have an old XBox360 in our room we use to watch them. I have Amazon Prime but almost never use it because I hate their interface. The others are vastly easier to navigate.

 

[SeaOfRed75]

Anyone use the new Hulu Live Tv that is in beta? Its similar to Playstation vue and sling tv. Around $40 a month. Cloud dvr. Multiple devices at once. Thinking of giving it a try.

 

[TarheelHuskerFan]

I see internet prices going up soon

 

[bmb81664]

I see internet prices going up soon

We got rid of CL Prism recently and are streaming only. I then noticed CL is offering a $55 price for life on internet so I jumped on that. So I should be immune to internet price changes unless they really limit my bandwidth.

 

[saluno22]

I see internet prices continuing to go up

FIFY

 

[Aksarben]

What's going to happen (and actually is in some markets Omaha included) is the cable company gives you 1TB of data per month and if you go over that the cost is $10 per GB for overage. They see this coming and cable TV fading away so they've set up their revenue model.

 

[Ohio_husker]

I work for a cable operator (small company that you have not heard of). Company opinion/policy is to welcome customers who want to cut video and stream over the top of our internet service. We are doubling bandwidth capacity every 4-6 months and make virtually nothing off of video service due to the high cost of content pushed by the networks.

I have not heard the pricing model internally that Aksarben mentions but it does make sense from both the provider and consumer side. People who consume the largest pieces of the network pay extra and those who use it for low bandwidth/low impact reasons pay less.

 

[TheBeav815]

What's going to happen (and actually is in some markets Omaha included) is the cable company gives you 1TB of data per month and if you go over that the cost is $10 per GB for overage. They see this coming and cable TV fading away so they've set up their revenue model.

ATT appears to be doing that as well. I have no real concept of how much data I use in a typical month...but I'm guessing 1TB isn't a mind-blowing amount. If they're like cell carriers they give you enough for it to sound like a lot, but for it to be no problem to run up some overages.

Edit: This article suggests it would take some dedication to make it to 1TB of data in a month.

$10 a gig is outrageous. But they know full well even in major cities there are at most 2-3 providers who all happen to also provide TV service. So they have no real interest in doing real harm to cable TV. All they need is the big cable companies to go pay-per-use and they'll be all set to fleece us til the end of time.

 

[saluno22]

Edit: This article suggests it would take some dedication to make it to 1TB of data in a month.

I can envision that cap being reduced to where it will make a difference for more people. Maybe it's just paranoia.

 

[Ohio_husker]

A TB is a massive amount of data. Approximately 300 hours of HD streaming on Netflix. 1000GB I would be surprised to see the cap that high to be honest.

 

[saluno22]

A TB is a massive amount of data. Approximately 300 hours of HD streaming on Netflix. 1000GB I would be surprised to see the cap that high to be honest.

I'm sure they are looking at the future of data usage. When Verizon and others put a 1GB data cap on new plans around 2008 (?), at the time I'm sure most (like me) looked at their data usage and saw a piddly little number in the 10s of MB range, maybe 100-200 MB, and thought nothing of the 1GB cap. Now it's a huge deal if you stream anything.

I'm betting anyone who does VR or 3D stuff and wants to down such content is going to be contending with that 1TB limit. I don't know what that stuff uses for data, just a guess.

 

[Aksarben]

This is a copy of the notification I received from COX Cable in January 2017 (I was wrong on the overage charge, it applies to 50gb as opposed to 10gb) --


Dear (name removed),

We are writing to inform you of an upcoming change to Cox High Speed Internet service in your area related to data usage.

Your Cox High Speed Internet service currently includes a data plan of 1 TB (1,024 GB).Beginning 02/20/2017, if you exceed your monthly data plan we will automatically provide additional blocks of data for $10 per 50 gigabytes (GB), as needed. This will not impact 98% percent of customers, but instead only charges the heaviest Internet users.

To help you get accustomed to this change, you will be provided a grace period for your first two billing cycles after the effective date. You will not be charged if you exceed your data plan during this grace period.

Your recent data usage history indicates you are unlikely to exceed your Cox High Speed Internet data plan of 1 TB per month.We will notify you by email and browser alert when you reach 85% and 100% of your monthly plan.

To view your data usage and learn more about data usage, visitcox.com/datausage. You can also view your data usage by downloading the Cox Connect mobile app.

Thank you for continuing to choose Cox as your Internet provider.

 

[kerpal_68]

If you want to complain about internet prices move to a town where your only option is Great Plains. I think I pay 90 some dollars for 15mbps.

 

[saluno22]

If you want to complain about internet prices move to a town where your only option is Great Plains. I think I pay 90 some dollars for 15mbps.

Is there a data cap on your service?

For comparison sake, I think Cox in Omaha is $65 or so for that bandwidth with 1TB monthly cap.

 

[Aksarben]

My cable bill on COX in Omaha is $87.99 per month.

 

[kerpal_68]

Is there a data cap on your service?

For comparison sake, I think Cox in Omaha is $65 or so for that bandwidth with 1TB monthly cap.

I'm not sure. I know I would never get close to that though.

 

[kikdakan]

If you want to complain about internet prices move to a town where your only option is Great Plains. I think I pay 90 some dollars for 15mbps.

i live in ne/sd and have midco 75xstream (75mbps) and pay $47.95 there is a bit of a discount because i bundled my services. there are several options in this area for internet.