Freegans

madmonk

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2005
Location
greensboro nc
So I'm thinking about ditching direct tv, I know I should be able to pick up 25 uncompressed hd channels with an antenna and other stuff with netflix and hulu, but I just can't bring myself to go cold turkey. I'm tired of paying over $100 a month for a bunch of junk I never watch, but its the speed, discovery, history , fuel, Nick plus a few more that keep me locked in. I would like to hear from some fellow tv watchers that have ditched the norm and how they're liking it.
 
Sorry...not much help, but I've thought it would be awesome if a cable/satellite provider would do a reasonable PPV per channel. IE, $1.50 a channel or something. So you only get and only pay for the channels you want. I suppose that would make writing contracts out with the networks difficult though.
 
Sorry...not much help, but I've thought it would be awesome if a cable/satellite provider would do a reasonable PPV per channel. IE, $1.50 a channel or something. So you only get and only pay for the channels you want. I suppose that would make writing contracts out with the networks difficult though.

I was just telling Directv the other day that they should do this. They said they hear it all the time. I'd even be happy with a required base package at $30 or $40 then add what you want.
 
I have ditched cable for two years now, I dont have the digiat tuner, or HD.

Hulu and youtube work for me, but i didnt watch much tv anyhow.
 
We ditched cable several years ago. Not big TV watchers anyway. Mostly catch the news, and stuff on PBS. Mostly, it's just on for noise. Most TV is pure crap nowadays.

Don't miss cable one bit.
 
I use http://tvduck.com or http://fastpasstv.com, I have cable, but I am almost never around to watch the snows I want, so I watch them later with those sites, when I didnt have cable though I used it alot more, and had no real complaints, pop ups are a bitch, but no commercials like hulu and way more shows, including showtime/hbo shows like Dexter/Spartacus/whatever else.
 
Haven't had cable since the 70's, 80's ? Don't miss it a bit. The over the air stuff is more varied than it used to be. Still got the commercials. Only thing I don't like.
 
A la cart TV sounds great, the issue comes up a lot, but it'll never come about.
Why?
Because there is a minimum expense needed to organize and run a network, and it isn't just pennies. The problem is that the less popular networks that appeal to niche markets would have very few subscribers, and not be able to raise the minimum revenue to operate, and would shut down. The only ones left would be the really popular ones.
Thsi sounds like a perfectly fine situation - capitolism wins, right? Except that it means the total variety available becomes very limited and all stations would then only pander to what is the largest demographic - which is the big complaint people have about the big broadcast networks now, and it'd be virtually impossibele for any new or specific-market network to get going.
Currently the popular networks basically subsidize the smaller ones.
 
A la cart TV sounds great, the issue comes up a lot, but it'll never come about.
Why?

It's already here. Almost anything you can watch on a cable network is available for free, streaming over the internet with limited commercial interruption, including live ESPN.

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/201...tting-is-real-and-its-a-problem-says-verizon/

http://www.lesjones.com/2010/10/25/netflix-now-the-1-source-of-us-internet-traffic/

Financial Times said:
The number of people subscribing to US cable television services has
suffered its biggest decline in 30 years as younger, tech-savvy viewers
lead an exodus to web-based operations, such as Hulu and Netflix.

The total number of subscribers to TV services provided by cable,
satellite and telco operators fell by 119,000 in the third quarter,
compared with a gain of 346,000 in the third quarter of 2009, according
to SNL Kagan, a research company.

Although television services offered by telecoms and satellite providers
added subscribers over the period, cable operators were hard hit, with
subscriber numbers falling by 741,000 - the largest decline in 30 years.

The figures suggest that "cord-cutting" - one of the pay-television
industry's biggest fears - is becoming a reality as viewers drift to
web-based platforms.
(Link)

Now that the cable companies have realized a fundamental flaw in their business model, they've enlisted the help of the Obama administration to legislate them back into business:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120706533.html

We have a PC sitting next to the tv running Win7 media center. It records all the OTA shows we want to watch and handles streaming duties from any of the dozens of different online sources.

We watch what we want, whenever we want to watch it.
 
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