NEWS: The Demise of Cable

CULTURE: The Demise of Cable

by A.J. Focht

As the New Year begins, a lot of people are looking for ways to cut their spending. If you’re one of these people, you might want to start by scrapping your cable bill. Having any kind of network programming bill (cable, satellite, etc.) is becoming unnecessary. Even in those awesome ‘bundle’ packs you are paying significantly more than you have to, since most of the content included by the cable and satellite companies is now being offered by internet streaming services.



Netflix has cornered the streaming market in recent times. In addition to their streaming online, which can be viewed via computer, Xbox 360, or Nintendo Wii, they are going to be getting a button on your remote in the near future. The company offers streaming options on a large selection of movies and television shows, and is currently in negotiations in an effort to offer subscribers more current series content.

And if your fave show doesn’t end up on Netflix, it’s likely on Hulu. Hulu offers many of its programs free online – but only for the last five episodes. An $8 upgrade allows the user to access all episodes. Hulu Plus also allows streaming through the PS3 and several other devices.



[Kaelyn in Good Fortune]

Getting down to the math, a Netflix streaming-only plan costs $7.99 a month and Hulu Plus also comes in at $7.99. The current lowest price for Direct TV and Comcast is $29.99 – and that’s before you add premium channels. These rates are also the special introductory deals that only last a year or so. The additional bundled services aren’t cheap either. The lowest internet special with both companies is $19.99, which means the combined $16 from Hulu Plus and Netflix plus a $19.99 internet connection is still cheaper than any internet / cable bundle.

Aside from the price, there are several other advantages in kicking your cable company to the curb. Both Hulu Plus and Netflix allow every episode of the season to be viewed at the viewer’s discretion. You don’t have to make sure you are free when the new episode of Glee is on for example. Instead, you can watch all the shows you love any time from the point they are released onwards. Also the time spent listening to advertisements is greatly decreased.

Now for a lot of you, I am probably preaching to the converted. Most all of us know how to find these shows for free online. To those who prefer that method, I blame the loss of the next Firefly on you. However Hulu, Netflix, and any other legit streaming service are counted when it comes to viewing audience figures. This means when you watch your fave cult show on Hulu, the TV companies know and are less likely to cancel because no one is watching.

You may have other reasons for keeping your cable but I ran out of them myself. With only a Netflix subscription, and being content to watch Hulu based shows as they are released, I have managed to cover all my cable viewing needs. There is the occasional downside, like only the first episode of The Walking Dead making it on Hulu, but for the most part viewing TV in this way ended up being not only a better deal, but a better experience too.

The reality is that cable is becoming as unnecessary as a home phone. An high speed internet connection is now the key to having access to unlimited television series and movie options. With the help of any current gaming console, most Blu-ray players, or an internet TV, all of this content can be viewed right on your TV as always. Attempts by cable to keep up, like Xfinity, just aren’t enough to make up for their high prices and viewing restrictions.

I gave up cable in early 2010. I don't miss it.

Cool story, brah.

Why use cable when there's a delightful series of tubes at your disposal?

Yeah, clearly we've reached "the demise of cable", when the sharpest, most innovative programs - Breaking Bad, Louie, Archer, Mad Men, Always Sunny, Justified, Daily Show, Terriers, Walking Dead, Conan - are all on cable (and not by accident - cable produced shows are given more time to develop, to build an audience, and to flourish artistically, less encumbered by weekly Nielson rating demands) and network programing is largely languishing in creative malaise.

i always like reading stories about the demise of cable.

I have been reading about them for a while now.....

It's kind of a neat process to watch.

OMG! The My Beta VCR is going to kill cable television!

OMG! Laserdiscs are going to kill Cable! OMG! Laserdiscs killed themselves!

OMG! DVDS! Are going to kill Cable Television.

OMG! Blu-Ray is going to kill cable television.

Here is the deal. Believe it or not, there are still people in the world that use a *gulp* dial-up connection. There are people in the world (much like some people in my family) that *gulp* hate computers. I can't even get my father to understand which buttons he has to hit to make the U-verse remote work, i get a call every week with annoying questions about how to use Gmail.....GMAIL!

There are thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people like him out there, in all age groups.

So while people like you and i have no trouble using things like Hulu and Netflix, there are still plenty of people that are happy with cable.

Hopefully what will happen is that Internet television and subscriptions will wake up the goliath cable companies and make them realize that they now have competition, serious competition that will require them to become more competitive.

Why even watch tv period? Then you wont need a cable bill lol. Maybe Im just old fashioned and like to get out and do things instead of being a couch potato in front of the tube.

False dichotomy.

Most cable companies are broadband providers, so they're still going to make money. Perhaps not the bucketloads they're making now, but they'll probably survive unfortunately. Would be nice if this forced them to offer a-la-carte style service instead of the "You can get these 90 channels, or pay $40 for every channel we have" bullshit.

Wait, what?

Not only are they broadband providers, they also provide phone service too. We bundle all three through U-verse. I run a HD 1080P 32" LCD TV. My monitor is a LCD HD 1080P 23". My parents watch TV more than i ever do. They have a 32" Tubed TV with the attitude "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

I think the biggest problem with the idea that Internet TV being the demise of the cable companies is that Fiber Optic is going to be the demise of the cable companies, and then something will have to be the demise of the Fiber Optic companies.

That and people fail miserably at technology. Internet TV is great, but i would gamble and say that most people don't even realize it's possible to have an internet connection on a TV (as advertising for that just started) and most people don't realize you can hook a computer up to a TV. People love their TV's and aren't too excited about watching TV on a monitor.

I also don't think the older generation (and perhaps some of the younger generation) understand the difference between broadband services (cable and fiber optic) and television providers (cable and fiber optic), and the fact that there isn't one.

The same person that supplies you your internet connection in most cases supplies you your television connection like you said. That is the reason that i hope people continue to watch millions of hours of TV because you know once they start losing money on the television side, they're going to raise rates on the internet side.

Either way, even with the false idea that cable companies are going to "go away", it would be sincerely nice if they started doing what you stated. With numbers like these, even if 1 million people stopped their cable service, that is only 1.6% of the number of people utilizing it. I would imagine once people start utilizing Internet TV more, you're going to see the cost of Internet TV rise almost uncontrollably.

I'll most likely have an in-depth conversation with the Baby Jeebus before the demise of pay TV.

Head, desk.

I think the major obstacle for most people when it comes to watching TV shows on the internet is the hardware. The older generation is stuck in the mentality that to be on the internet it has to be on a computer in the office. However, with newer TVs and hardware, internet TV is becoming just as easy to access and watch as Cable providers.

I agree with you there, but there will be an evening of the playing field. I think this whole process is healthy. In the end the benefit is the consumer, the classic case of Creative Destruction. Who knows where this will go.

hulu andd most american channels (ABC,Commedy Central, MTV) and even some youtubes won't play for us out here- even if you subscribe to hulu prime. I miss breaking bad, modern family and Dexter- so I have to wait for them to come out on DVD or netflix. I guess my point is that internet can't do everything like you think it can

The same place it went when cable became popular? Nowhere? Because the same people will control the new avenues of creation and distribution?

Sporting events are not usually carried on Netflix or Hulu. Luckily, the NFL and DirecTv have announced they will offer the Sunday Ticket package online starting in 2012, at about the same rates it costs to add it to the satellite package ($350/season)

ohh ... but it can!

Three posts back?

ORLY?

Sure it can, if you do what I do: pirate everything that isn't given to you in the way you want to consume it. Of course, to do this I have to belong to literally secret torrent communities (complete with false front pages that look like an un-setup blog) and setup utorrent to automatically download shows from RSS feeds. But it works fantastically.

If they're not going to give it to me on Hulu or Netflix or some other way I want to consume it in a timely manner, I'm going to take it for myself. And I heartily advise everyone else to do the same.

The days of content providers dictating to you when and how you consume their content are over. It's only a question of how long it takes all of them to realize this.