200,000 people stopped paying for TV last quarter, but why?

[Burty117]

I know, BT will charge £5 for not going through Direct Debit as well, and after getting an Experian account I found that they won't help your credit rating either if you don't pay by Direct Debit :S they won't mark it down but won't contribute to the fact your paying for a monthly bill?

Scum Bags!!

Dang you did get a good deal with them! How much I wished I was in an area where I can get off BT lines and onto . . . well virgin or any other company willing to offer me an alternative line

 

[Arris]

I have BT vision but have considered dumping it due to mostly using it for movies on demand which are also available through PS3 and the freeview reception through BT vision being faulty when using HDMI output (don't know why but tuning/reception using other connection is much better than when plugging in hdmi cable).

Considered getting a FreeviewHD box and dumping BT Vision and the monthly charge but given that BT have already been working with major UK TV companies and others on a replacement system (http://www.youview.com/) it seemed like throwing money away. So I'm just going to make do with Freeview/BT vision until then. Sucks having a FullHD TV for almost 6 years and the only HD stuff I view on it are Blu-rays (and my PC when I used it as my monitor). BT Vision "On Demand" HD stuff requires that you download it 3-4 hours before you watch it. Looking forward to some time in the near future being able to watch HD tv!

 

[Guest]

I did this 15+ years ago. Since I'm in a suburban area I can get a reasonable amount of traditional broadcast stations and now the internet fills in some additonal shows. My biggest complaint about pay TV, is you get a lot of junk you don't want nor will ever watch. What you do want has more and more commercials and less content. It seems like years ago shows were so much better and engauged the viewer, now it's mostly stuff that you soon forget.

 

[DADEO]

I hear you, samething here and a antenna doesn't help.
Comcast....got you by the b@lls and slowly squeezing.

 

[Benny26]

Never paid for TV...Freeview's good enough for me. I have a few friends who say most of the paid stuff isn't worth it anyway.

 

[ramonsterns]

Why do I not watch TV anymore?

Probably because it goes something like this:

Nothing to watch
Rerun
Nothing to watch
GOSSIPGOSSIPGOSSIP
Oh look, a decent movie. What are they saying?
*turn up volu- FOR ONLY FIFTEEN PAYMENTS OF NINETEEN NINETY FIVE THE SUPER SONIC JET STREAM STEAM MOP CAN BE YO-
*mute*
*15 minutes of continuous commercials later*
What was I watching, again?

Forget it, time to use Netflix.

 

[SNGX1275]

I dropped cable tv just over a year ago. For internet and TV I was paying $139 and I was only watching about 4 of the 15 or so HD channels I got. Not watching the 60+ SD at all (except for maybe ESPNU occationally).

I see a lot of people talking about OTA tv, but where I live I can't get any. I suppose if I had an antenna on a 30' pole above my roof I could, but there is no way I can get anything with inside the house. I might be able to wire one up in the attic, but I've yet to meet anyone that lives in this town that gets OTA TV.

The hardest thing about dropping cable was missing college sports. Luckily I've found a few ways to watch online, but most of the time the quality is crap.

 

[captaincranky]

"Doc, It Only HUrts When I Don't Laugh.......

I hear you, samething here and a antenna doesn't help.
Comcast....got you by the b@lls and slowly squeezing.

In which case, you might consider adding a premium porn channel to your service, then kick back and try to enjoy the ride....

 

[Guest]

I ditched cable about 2 years ago because I knew I didn't watch at least 3/4 of the channels I had in my plan or whatever.
So I noticed one of the biggest problems is having channels you never watch in your entire life(MTV).

They should make a package for you to be able to pick certain amount of channels for a reasonable price.

 

[Guest]

you can watch football on network (free) TV. Unless you have NFL ticket, you really only miss one broadcast (MNF on ESPN)

 

[Guest]

I once asked my Comcast provider whether they would agree to sell us channels "a la carte." The answer was -- "we'll get back to you on that."

The cable companies are SCARED S#!TLESS that people will actually WANT that service, will DEMAND it, and will flock in DROVES to the Internet to ESCAPE THE DELUGE OF CRAPPY, ABYSMALLY-BAD CHANNELS that exist right now.

The last thing in the WORLD that they want is to sell you individual channels.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Guest said:
you can watch football on network (free) TV. Unless you have NFL ticket, you really only miss one broadcast (MNF on ESPN)

Yeah, but isn't Jon Gruden still on MNF? "Who's got two thumbs on the mute button and doesn't want to listen to Jon? THIS GUY!"

The thursday night games on the NFL network, and there are more this year than last year. Since the owners couldn't bump the season to 18 games the other solution to getting us more football was more days of the week with games. Sat is college, Fri is high school, so we'll see more and more thursday games.

So Hulu and Netflix are great 'n all, but can I get a DVR to work with my antenna? And when will Hulu get CBS shows?

 

[Guest]

I'm about ready to cut the cord, not because I can't afford it. I'm one of the lucky ones that still has a good paying job. I'm about to cut it because "their ain't cr*p on tv".
I'm not into sports...that nixes about 20 channels. I don't watch the shop on tv channels. That nixes another 10. The local (thanks to digital) 10-12 channels I can get OTA.
I get most of the news from the internet anyway, so why pay 40-100 dollars a month for cable?

 

[3DCGMODELER]

Sick of the crappy programming...
To Many Commercials..way to many commercials.... 1 hr show u lucky to see more than 7 minutes before a 4 minute commercial...
To Much Paid programming...
To many repeats..... I mean the same movie twice in a row, come on now...
Cost keeps creeping up every month.. a dollar here a dollar there ...
Just had enough of COMCAST doo doo..

Cut the cord last month.. do not miss it at all
Hello Netflix... no commercials ... wahooooo

 

[Guest]

ditched Comcast after my wife watched the last episode of The Sopranos
ditched the paper newspaper seven years ago, or so
kept the wife for 20 years, and counting

brick and mortar businesses are doomed in this economy of services and internet connections, who's going to a bar to meet people when they have facebook (arrhhh!!! wrong example...)

life goes on, in the cloud

 

[oldikes]

its the crappy programming, of course. I find myself watching crap i dont even want to watch just because theres nothing else on and im bored.
Netflix here i come!

 

[Butch]

I just dumped my $130/mo. satellite bill and went to Netflix streaming and local HD channels. I NEVER watch commercials. Everything I have watched for the last 7 years have been DVR'ed. I will miss that FWD button! Maybe I'll get a Tivo or two.

 

[Guest]

I live in a rural area with no OTA digital reception. Have dial up, going to DSL asap, Will a "slow: (cheaper) DSL connection be good enought to run Hulu, Netlix, etc? Also want to run a tablet off wireless with the DSL...if and when my model tablet gets support for Netflix- will that cut the bandwidth even more? Thanks

 

[captaincranky]

I live in a rural area with no OTA digital reception. Have dial up, going to DSL asap, Will a "slow: (cheaper) DSL connection be good enought to run Hulu, Netlix, etc? Also want to run a tablet off wireless with the DSL...if and when my model tablet gets support for Netflix- will that cut the bandwidth even more? Thanks

I have 1Mb service from Verizon. It isn't anywhere near optimal for internet TV and streaming movies. On a service such as Hulu, the stream lags, buffers, and pixelates fairly often.

The maximum expected bandwidth on 1 Mbs DSL is equal to 124KBS a second, it's not enough for heavy media usage.

You can forget multiple PCs running simultaneously. Trying to work on the PC while it is downloading a large file, is just asking for trouble. If the download stream is broken, the file can't be saved. A 1GB file takes about 3 hours to download with 1 Meg DSL.

 

[captaincranky]

Moving on, I haven't had cable in perhaps 17 years.

I'm fortunate that I live in a city where I have perfect reception of at least 20 OTA TV channels. That said, digital television came still 20 years too late. The RFI environment in a large city makes older analog TV unusable. I gave up on the lower end of the VHF TV band almost 20 years ago. I was unable to access channels 3 & 6. which are CBS and ABC respectively.

Anyhow, I enjoy the scripted dramas on network TV quite a bit. So, it's all too easy to piss away 3 hours a day, 5 days a week on those, not counting national news and "Jeopardy", which kills another hour. PBS is good too, only now the fund raising is constant, they just bounce it from sub channel to sub channel.

So, with my 1meg DSL for streaming in only dire emergencies, (locked in for life @ $17.95) 10 Redboxes within 5 miles of my house, and a willingness to buy DVD box sets of shows I really like, "I don't need no steenking cable".

Besides, I really loathe Comcast, just for the pure joy that hatred gives me!

 

[Guest]

Hey these guys claiming to be in a rural location and can't get an ota channel...Where the heck are you? In the wilds of Montana or Alaska. With a tall pole and a premium antenna I suspect you might approach 100 mile reception. Of course I can see the problem if you have a mountain range in the way.

As for paying for tv. I can't believe some of the prices being bandied about here. $130 for tv? Really? I used to live on a farm and still got all the channels I ever wanted ota. I thought back in the day when people payed $17.95 per month for 30 cable channels that it was a waste of money. But over $100? What is the word that is on the other side of ludicrous? I can't see any one regardless of income wanting to pay that kind of money for tv. I mean where is the value? A lot of people must have a world view that differs significantly from mine to pay for tv. And it's not a matter of money for me. I have the cash. I just don't think it's worth it.

There has been a trend in America to persuade people to pay money for things that used to be free. Tv, bottled water, subscription radio. Wake up folks. You should ask the people taking your money to give you a few kisses because you are certainly getting *ucked. Better yet. Just don't bend over.

 

[captaincranky]

There has been a trend in America to persuade people to pay money for things that used to be free. Tv, bottled water, subscription radio. Wake up folks. You should ask the people taking your money to give you a few kisses because you are certainly getting *ucked. Better yet. Just don't bend over.

Well, when the cable company drops the soap, some people believe it's only polite to pick it up for them.

 

[SNGX1275]

Hey these guys claiming to be in a rural location and can't get an ota channel...Where the heck are you? In the wilds of Montana or Alaska. With a tall pole and a premium antenna I suspect you might approach 100 mile reception. Of course I can see the problem if you have a mountain range in the way.

As for paying for tv. I can't believe some of the prices being bandied about here. $130 for tv? Really? I used to live on a farm and still got all the channels I ever wanted ota. I thought back in the day when people payed $17.95 per month for 30 cable channels that it was a waste of money. But over $100? What is the word that is on the other side of ludicrous?

Rolla, MO. Check it out on antennaweb.org We are about the same distance away from 3 cities that broadcast, right at the edge of each of them.

The $130 is likely a internet/tv bundle, not $130 for just tv.