Reviews:
 ·ooma
 ·Optimum Online
 ·Verizon FiOS
| $$ the bare minimum for cable-tv service edged up to about $50 a month for basic (unbundled) w/ 1 cable box. that and the increasing value of finding goodies to subsitute for cable-video on the internet for free or low cost rose at it's biggest year over year gains. you can get free radio streams, video feeds, download video.. and for some a video over ip solution in the wild is tons better than couch potato commercials & propaganda.
while some might be lured back by token online streaming (that still doesn't evolve the business model), a free tablet, or cash back bundles (why not lower the price upfront?!?) the public has spoken and if the cable industry's reporting bad numbers, it's probably somewhat worse than they're reporting...
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 BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | And while some may say 325,000 net loss for pay TV is small it also doesn't factor or in population growth. Pay TV would need to add about 250,000 subs per quarter just to keep up with population growth. So the loss is really closer to 600,000 not 325,000 |
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 NightfallMy Goal Is To Deny YoursPremium,MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI
·Comcast
·Callcentric
 ·Site5.com
| When times are tough, sacrifices must be made With unemployment still very high, it is not surprising to see people tightening their belts. I know four such households here who are switching from traditional cable/satellite TV to OTA antenna and Netflix. I had lunch with one of these people last week and he said that the service was too expensive. Of course this is the same guy who goes to the bar 2 times a week and drops $40 each day, but I digress. 
These aren't the cord cutters that are getting their content from the internet or torrent sites. Maybe a thousand of those people are, but not the whole enchilada. A bulk of them just can't afford it or have better things to spend their money on. The cable and satellite companies would do well to take note of this situation. It is only going to get worse until the economy rebounds.
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My domain - Nightfall.net |
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| First sub loss ever? ...companies like Dish saw their first customer net loss ever. That should be DirecTV, not Dish Network. Dish has been bleeding customers for a long time. |
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 IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA
·Comcast
 ·Verizon Broadban..
| said by TheKrell:...companies like Dish saw their first customer net loss ever. That should be DirecTV, not Dish Network. Dish has been bleeding customers for a long time. Dish Network is the worst in terms of customer service. They lasted three months in my house. A few years later, they settled with the Attorney Generals of various states over deceptive marketing. I was affected by the deceptive marketing but my claim was not within the timeframe of the AG settlement.
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I wish I still lived in Iowa; Everything there from rent and groceries to Cable TV is much cheaper in Iowa (especially with an overbuilder in town). |
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| Transition from Analog to Digital TV Big Factor The transition from analog to digital TV is probably a big factor. This has meant both much improved over the air picture quality (the disappearance of snowy pictures) and substantially more TV channels being available over the air. |
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BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | reply to Nightfall
Re: When times are tough, sacrifices must be made It's not just the pricing it's what you get for the pricing. Even if they cut the pricing in half is it still worth it? I think more and more people would say no.
Here's the irony. Traditional content makers want to kill off things like Netflix because they think cable/satellite is the only way to make money. Well guess what my son who has never been much of a TV watcher has been watching season 5 of Breaking Bad on AMC. Now you know why he is watching that? Because seasons 1-4 where available on Netflix. If he didn't have those first 4 seasons available he never would be watching it on TV now. I'm sure my son isn't the only person that has done that. |
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IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA Reviews:
·Comcast
·Verizon Broadban..
| Will never cut the cord The OTA signals around here are unusable, especially after the DTV conversion. My mother's cousin in Northampton (MA) tried various antennas (including amplified antennas, both with a converter box and newer digital TV) and could not get reception of the channels she got before the DTV switchover. So she signed up for basic cable (about $8 per month) which gives her local broadcast stations and a few government access channels. Most (if not all) of the other residents in that building subscribe to cable for the same reason. I am surprised that Comcast is not required to provide free cable to that building as it is subsidized housing for special needs/senior citizens and if I am correct, most cable companies are required by their franchising agreement to provide schools, hospitals, and various non profit agencies free basic or expanded basic cable. Where I grew up (Cedar Rapids, IA), the cable company there (was sold to various operators throughout my childhood) was required by the franchising agreement to provide municipal buildings, schools, libraries, hospitals, and non-profit human service agencies with free cable and they usually got expanded basic.
I tried picking up broadcast TV at my house and the signals are unusable as well as there is too much interference in the area (Springfield MA, urban area).
A good way to stop the cord cutters would be to waive the 250GB cap on HSI for customers who subscribe to basic (or above) cable but don't give Comcast any ideas. Also, subscribing to basic cable also puts you on the books as a video subscriber and the $8 per month on the basic cable saves you about $15 on the internet bill. When I had DirecTV for about 4 years, I subscribed to basic cable to keep the internet bill down.
There is so much more content available on cable than there is on OTA broadcasts. And the DVRs are very handy because you can watch the local evening news when you eat dinner. Also with the recession, the cable companies are offering some very sweet deals on triple play bundles (many with add-ons like higher internet tiers and premium channels).
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I wish I still lived in Iowa; Everything there from rent and groceries to Cable TV is much cheaper in Iowa (especially with an overbuilder in town). |
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covfam
join:2012-03-05
Black River Falls, WI | WoW only $8 b a month for basic cable where your at? well with charter its $30 a month! thats the same price as therr select bundle with expanded basic and all the HD channels (since its charter the service isnt all that great anyhow) and charter isnt the only one that charging $30-40 a month for thier lowest priced package many companies are now charging alot more for thier "basic" service |
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IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA Reviews:
·Comcast
·Verizon Broadban..
| In Western Massachusetts (at least in Comcast areas), the basic tier averages about $8 per month (including taxes and fees) for bare-bones broadcast basic which includes the local broadcast channels, any required public access/educational/government access channels, and about 2 or 3 shopping channels like HSN and QVC (which I suspect the cable company actually makes money from carrying on their system) and also EWTN (free channel provided by the Roman Catholic church).
I think the rates for broadcast basic are regulated by the franchising authority (here in Mass, it is the state DPU), but the rates for anything above broadcast basic (such as expanded basic, digital cable, high speed internet, cable phone, etc) are unregulated.
Basic cable is handy, especially if the broadcast OTA signals are unusable (due to local interference) or you live too far away from the TV transmitters.
I have many more channels than just basic. I subscribe the the Xfinity Triple Play preferred plus (than includes HBO, Starz, Digital Preferred, blast (50/10) internet and home phone) and I got a good price on it (about $160 per month for the whole package including equipment).
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I wish I still lived in Iowa; Everything there from rent and groceries to Cable TV is much cheaper in Iowa (especially with an overbuilder in town). |
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elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA | Sloppy numbers The figures presented seem to differ substantially from data cited by Nielsen and NCTA, even accounting for a year difference. |
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Reviews:
·Time Warner Cable
·Verizon FiOS
·voip.ms
| reply to Nightfall
Re: When times are tough, sacrifices must be made Cutting off cable is the last thing to go (even above internet). Phone is the first because it can be easily replaced. They are actually adding phone subs though (3 play bundling at prices of 2 play). That is to stop the bleeding they were having.
What nobody mentions is that there is a major competition for peoples entertainment budget, including the internet. I may spend 8 hours a day on the net, and 30 min watching TV, and 1 hour watching netflix. Then there is gaming, consuming on tablets, tweets, FB, (reading, mags, games), music, and just being. So out of my day 30 minutes of broadcast is not worth $60 when I actually watch more on Netflix for $8 and actually consume it more.
So what cable guys aren't saying is that steam, ipads, netflix, web are all siphoning business from them.
Economically speaking content falls under substitution (it's not really that unique and the model is from the 40's), and people are just substituting TV for other forms of entertainment. The water cooler is gone, so the social pressure of "conforming" is gone too.
I just had dinner w/ 3 groups of friends and the discussion of what we watched came up--six people. Maybe 2-3 people agreed upon ONE show (think it was batchelor) and THAT was it. 10-15 years ago that was different. If you missed Friends there was something wrong with you. Today nobody cares. I'm watching Miami Vice on Netflix.
Since cable is not innovating and raising prices, they are going to bear the shotgun that blows up in their face. If Aereo flies, it will blow up the cable model. Cable will have a hard time innovating because like Sony they are also in the content business and that means consumer unfriendly DRM. Take a look at Sony's latest earnings....
Cable can clamp usage for a time (imaginary caps), but there will be major backlash on that too and wifi and the like will go after them. |
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 espaethDigital PlumberPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
kudos:2
·Vitelity VOIP
| reply to BF69
Re: $$ said by BF69:And while some may say 325,000 net loss for pay TV is small it also doesn't factor or in population growth. Pay TV would need to add about 250,000 subs per quarter just to keep up with population growth. So the loss is really closer to 600,000 not 325,000 Using what numbers? The rate of US population growth is declining, including in the key demographic for new PayTV subcribers (the 18+ bracket): 
Source:»www.prb.org/Articles/2012/us-pop···ine.aspxImmigration is also declining due to the unemployment situation in the US. Also, looking at the Q2 number alone is misleading because the Q2 numbers have been lower in the cycle than the other quarters for the last few years. 
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Kamus
join:2011-01-27
El Paso, TX | The problem with "cord cutting" is... It's not really cutting the cord if you are simply ditching their video services in favor of their "broadband" service.
As long as we have to turn to them for Internet service they'll still get the money they want.
Caps are the key evidence here. |
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 GbcueP.E.Premium
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA
kudos:8 | reply to BF69
Re: When times are tough, sacrifices must be made I did that. My friend starting watching BrBa and it was on Netflix. I checked it out and got hooked, but I already had cable and AMC... |
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 SysadminPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-07
Elk Grove, CA | No more DirecTV I dumped DirecTV in the spring and got a TiVo box. We now watch the local stations from the antenna and also watch a lot of shows via Netflix on the TiVo. I think the only thing I will miss is Monday Night Football. |
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NightfallMy Goal Is To Deny YoursPremium,MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI Reviews:
·Comcast
·Callcentric
·Site5.com
| reply to BF69
Re: When times are tough, sacrifices must be made said by BF69:It's not just the pricing it's what you get for the pricing. Even if they cut the pricing in half is it still worth it? I think more and more people would say no.
Here's the irony. Traditional content makers want to kill off things like Netflix because they think cable/satellite is the only way to make money. Well guess what my son who has never been much of a TV watcher has been watching season 5 of Breaking Bad on AMC. Now you know why he is watching that? Because seasons 1-4 where available on Netflix. If he didn't have those first 4 seasons available he never would be watching it on TV now. I'm sure my son isn't the only person that has done that.
Without the content makers, Netflix wouldn't have Breaking Bad. In fact, Breaking Bad wouldn't be around at all without AMC. I think there is going to be a change in the way content is made eventually. Until then, every cable TV subscription and advertisement and DVD box set sale goes toward the making of these shows.
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My domain - Nightfall.net |
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NightfallMy Goal Is To Deny YoursPremium,MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI Reviews:
·Comcast
·Callcentric
·Site5.com
| reply to elefante72
said by elefante72:Cutting off cable is the last thing to go (even above internet). Phone is the first because it can be easily replaced. They are actually adding phone subs though (3 play bundling at prices of 2 play). That is to stop the bleeding they were having.
What nobody mentions is that there is a major competition for peoples entertainment budget, including the internet. I may spend 8 hours a day on the net, and 30 min watching TV, and 1 hour watching netflix. Then there is gaming, consuming on tablets, tweets, FB, (reading, mags, games), music, and just being. So out of my day 30 minutes of broadcast is not worth $60 when I actually watch more on Netflix for $8 and actually consume it more.
So what cable guys aren't saying is that steam, ipads, netflix, web are all siphoning business from them.
Economically speaking content falls under substitution (it's not really that unique and the model is from the 40's), and people are just substituting TV for other forms of entertainment. The water cooler is gone, so the social pressure of "conforming" is gone too.
I just had dinner w/ 3 groups of friends and the discussion of what we watched came up--six people. Maybe 2-3 people agreed upon ONE show (think it was batchelor) and THAT was it. 10-15 years ago that was different. If you missed Friends there was something wrong with you. Today nobody cares. I'm watching Miami Vice on Netflix.
Since cable is not innovating and raising prices, they are going to bear the shotgun that blows up in their face. If Aereo flies, it will blow up the cable model. Cable will have a hard time innovating because like Sony they are also in the content business and that means consumer unfriendly DRM. Take a look at Sony's latest earnings....
Cable can clamp usage for a time (imaginary caps), but there will be major backlash on that too and wifi and the like will go after them.
Excellent post!
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My domain - Nightfall.net |
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BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | reply to espaeth
Re: $$ Ok so using you're own numbers the US population grew by 2.26 million people. between 2010-2011. There are about 2.6 people per household( according to the US census ). So the number of households in the US in is increasing by 870,000 per year or 218,000 per quarter. It's been pretty consistent that at least 90% of US household subscribe to pay TV over the last 15 or so years. So of that pay TV should have been increasing by 196,000 per quarter just to keep up with population growth. But it's lost about 325,000 even taking into account the growth in subscribers of u-verse/FiOS. So that's a true loss of 520,000. |
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BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | reply to elefante72
Re: When times are tough, sacrifices must be made said by elefante72:Cutting off cable is the last thing to go (even above internet). I'd cut cable before internet. I can replace TV to an extent. OTA, Netflix etc. If you cut internet how do you replace that? |
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