I’m Giving Cable 6 Months To Live | Hacker News Reader

I’m Giving Cable 6 Months To Live

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7 pointsdotBen13 comments

He's not calling the death of Cable. He's saying he's paying for cable for 6 more months to see if he wants to keep paying for it.

-yawn-

I realized a while back that I could -buy- the DVDs for my shows and save money over a cable bill. That was when I pulled the plug. I'm quite happy to see Amazon selling VOD now, even if it's a bit more expensive than I want to pay. (It's still cheaper to buy the DVDs, but that's not HD.) It means I get to watch the shows when my friends are, instead of waiting 6 months. It's nice to be in on the conversations.

This post, like many right now, angles the 'disruption' against the cable providers towards using Hulu/Apple TV/XBox Live (and Bit Torrent - there I said it, seeing as no one else is 'fessing up to using it).

I actually anticipate a bigger disruption beginning to emerge: cutting out the TV out completely. It's such a waste of time and brain power. I'm sure the average HN'er watches far less TV than the national average.

Clay Shirky once said that TV is the modern 'opiate of the masses' in a talk "Gin, TV and cognative surplus" (vidoe: http://blip.tv/file/855937/) - it's really worth watching.

The problem with this argument is that TV is one of the few mediums that is seeing its usage rate increase. There was a recent survey that made news by claiming that TV had dropped ten percent in the "most important gadget/device in your life" list until people actually looked at the data and noticed that over two years "flat-screen TV" (a separate item on the survey) had risen to 10% on the list... It is hard to make a serious claim that TV is not getting better every year and the fragmenting of the market has brought niche programming that would have been unheard of less than a decade ago. The claim that TV was the new opiate of the masses was made long before Shirky came onto the scene and it will continue to be made long after he is dead. The television landscape is in a state of rapid flux, the delivery mechanism will probably be radically different in ten years, but in thirty years when children need to go to a museum to see what a newspaper looked like they will still be watching TV.

No TV here, threw it away about 5 years ago, never looked back. You can waste enough time on the internet if you want to do so.

I went without television altogether for quite some time. I have since then experienced both cable and broadcast content. Frankly, I find both services lacking in quality content. The broadcasters seem content on offering mostly reality television shows, legal dramas, and medical dramas. The few comedies that are on can be watched on Hulu. (NOTE: PBS still has good stuff, but its shows can be found all over the Internet). As for cable, since the Discovery Channel stopped showing good science stuff and the History Channel stopped showing history stuff, I see no reason to ever return to cable.

Many of the good History documentaries are on Netflix streaming.

After again experiencing cable/broadcast, what was your feeling/experience when vieweing commercials?

I usually pay zero attention to commercials. I'm not interested in being sold something while I am trying to relax.

Whether or not the author of this article is able to cut out Comcast, he's going to be at the mercy of one or another video content intermediary until either football stops making exclusive deals with said intermediaries, or until he decides that broadcasts of current football games aren't must-have content.

I'm not holding my breath for either of those to happen.

Slingbox at a friend's house for the football stuff.

Well for the many people out there that don't care about football not paying $4 a month straight to a station they never watch feels nice.

Couldn't tell if he was sharpening his sword to do battle, or impale himself.

I have had Comcast for about 2 1/2 years now, paying around $70/month, only for internet. I sometimes use an over-the-air ATSC box for some local channels. Recently got the price dropped to $30/month (strange story).

I have an Xbox 360 that is seldom used for games, mostly a dedicated Netflix device.

Not a sports fan, particularly. But, I do find it interesting when watching cable/satellite tv at a friend's house or bar, somebody is paying to have commercials served to them.

I actually do miss commercials, though not interspersed with the content I am viewing.

I was probably the last guy to find out about the 'Old Spice' commercials.

Not sure why satellite is not an option for this guy, though. Dish network has some pretty cheap plans.

Also, he could get a slingbox and a good friend that would let him install it, maybe pay for the extra cablebox rental.

Not sure why satellite is not an option for this guy, though. Dish network has some pretty cheap plans.

I know the building MG used to live in - it is a modern downtown condo and you cannot install satellite very easily in those. If he is living where I believe he is now living, it's the same issue.

I've heard that the FCC says everyone is entitled to erect a satellite dish if they want but that's useless if you live on the wrong side of a condo building or don't have a balcony. And expect flak from the HOA if you do, esp if it's an up-market condo building.

What happens is cable companies do deals with the building developers to have cable run to each condo ("cable ready") and in return the building agrees not to let anyone install a satellite dish on the roof. Or they do have a communal satellite but it doesn't have an HD-ready LMB, which was the issue in my old condo.

Slow news day.

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