Cable Cost are going High

I called the AZ Republic newspaper to find out why there was a slightly higher charge on the Visa bill. I was told it because the Thanksgiving day paper cost more. After some fruitless discussion about how they notify readers of this extra charge, I point out that the Thanksgiving day paper was basically the usual Thursday paper but with extra advertising.

Yes, that's right, I was told; it cost more to produce, so you have to pay more.

And these business wonder why things aren't going so well.

Wrong. Cable companies pay for content, and recoup their money (+profit) through a combination of subscriptions and advertising. The cable gets ~$1200 + advertising revenue per customer per year, and from this pool they can buy content from content producers like NBC, Viacom, etc.

Now consider that Google makes about $40/user/year off ads. Even if Hulu made as much money per user per year as Google, they'd still be making < 5% of what Time Warner Cable makes per user per year, selling arguably the same content.

So as cable TV subscribers are replaced by lower-value internet TV viewers we should expect the total amount of money available to buy content to decrease rapidly. Consequently, there will be less money available to produce said content.

So when Kagan says "Somebody has to pay. It’s not going to stay on Hulu forever for free" she's exactly correct.

Whether or not that matters is another discussion.

The interface of cable TV is what makes me shy away from it. I've been bothered with it for years for several reasons.

First, how long does it take to find something you actually want to watch? I've seen many instances of flipping through a set of ~100 channels in search of something interesting. However, with frequent ads and no indication of what is on any given channel, it's easy to miss something worthwhile.

Second, channel numbers hold no significance. Channel #Z means station Y only through company X in region V. Figuring out the layout when I'm away from home is not worth my time.

Third, the provided "cable boxes" you can fork out extra money for each month are a poor excuse to improve the cable tv experience. Yes, they show what's on each channel, but paging only ten out of hundreds (including those you don't receive). What about a decent search feature? Some have a search, but input with a standard remote is awful. Include something with a QWERTY. Finally,they're slow. Waiting multiple seconds for every action should not be a common occurrence in this decade.

When the average Joe starts realizing these issues they've put up with for years, I have no doubt they'll follow the techies.

You bet. And it's not just TV... it's also phone. I disconnected cable a few years ago and don't miss it. And 2 weeks ago I disconnected my landline and replaced it with an Ooma device.

Note: I would have gone land-line free, but for me I don't think it's a good idea to have my "official" phone number be my cell #. I would have used google voice, but they couldn't port my number. So Ooma seemed like a reasonable 2nd choice.