Streaming WARS Leave Consumers Not Much Better than with Cable

Yeah thats whats happening. You're a good 10 years late on this hypothesis

This is a trigger for discussion and not about proclaiming myself to have been the first to have entertained this notion.

Why pay? There are plenty of free streaming services (crackle, peacock, roku, etc.). Plus Amazon Prime pretty much pays for itself in avoided shipping costs. How much TV do you need to watch?

joed|rt wrote:

Why pay? There are plenty of free streaming services (crackle, peacock, roku, etc.). Plus Amazon Prime pretty much pays for itself in avoided shipping costs. How much TV do you need to watch?

I do not watch much. Maybe you did not read that. I do not k is much about Peacock and Crackle. They are free?

joed|rt wrote:

Why pay? There are plenty of free streaming services (crackle, peacock, roku, etc.). Plus Amazon Prime pretty much pays for itself in avoided shipping costs. How much TV do you need to watch?

How cute. Someone thinks that Amazon doesn't bake in shipping costs into its Prime pricing.

If you were born after 1995 and like movies from the 20th century, streaming is a whale of a deal. But if you were born in the 70s or 80s and have seen everything worth seeing from before 2000, streaming is a rip off where you pay about as much as cable just so you can get the one or two half decent shows or movies that come out every other month.

I rip off most stuff I watch, and 'stream' via a phone-to-TV cable, because I don't have broadband at home any more.

We use 5G phones as hotspots for that, and watch YouTube most of the time.

OTA TV fills in the blanks. I paid for the Sound Running thing last weekend, though. I'm good with that.

What's really cute is the people who never learned to get just about whatever they wanted free on the internet by 15 or 20 years ago. These people somehow convinced everyone else into forgetting that and signing up to pay for everything.

For a few glorious years, nearly everything was on youtube and there were too many people posting it for it to be stopped. That was the Golden Age. Now youtube tries to rent you stuff from 70 years ago. And there never was a big alternative to replace them.

Good, TV is stupid

Hardloper wrote:

Good, TV is stupid

Yeah except TV is not really a sentient creature as far as I know. Are you telling me Hardest of Lopers that your mind is much more fertilized by the b.s. here than the b.s. on TV?

Is it acceptable to still watch dvds?

Hardloper wrote:

Good, TV is stupid

Compared to posting on letsrun?

ddidididid wrote:

Hardloper wrote:

Good, TV is stupid

Compared to posting on letsrun?

Yes, compared to almost anything

Precious Roy wrote:

joed|rt wrote:

Why pay? There are plenty of free streaming services (crackle, peacock, roku, etc.). Plus Amazon Prime pretty much pays for itself in avoided shipping costs. How much TV do you need to watch?

How cute. Someone thinks that Amazon doesn't bake in shipping costs into its Prime pricing.

If you were born after 1995 and like movies from the 20th century, streaming is a whale of a deal. But if you were born in the 70s or 80s and have seen everything worth seeing from before 2000, streaming is a rip off where you pay about as much as cable just so you can get the one or two half decent shows or movies that come out every other month.

Do you know how much faster, easier and cheaper Amazon is than all other alternatives in many instances? We use it all the time for our work because it is considerably cheaper and quicker than the local distributor on small quantity orders (we still run the big orders through distribution). But if we need small quantities quick (if we need a particular part for an out of town project where local distribution doesn't have it and it would take a week for them and waiting would cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, Amazon is a wonderful thing to be able to draw on). From my experience, Amazon has saved me and my business considerably more money than I pay for the Prime membership.

For what it's worth the advantages of streaming over cable are (1) you can watch what you want any time and don't have to wait until it starts on some channel; (2) you can (somewhat) pick and choose what you subscribe to instead of having to buy entire cable packages; and (3) if you're content with poor quality and limited selection there are free options like Roku that others have mentioned.

I need to re-evaluate my tv package(s). I'm that guy that has direct tv + all kinds of streaming services.

The last time I decided I was going to junk it all and go for nothing but streaming by the time I figured in what I'd need I think I was saving like $10-15. Not really worth the hassle.

I pay Netflix and I have prime which I'd have anyway. Seems to keep my family happy enough.

I'm never going back to cable until they make serious changes to the model. Are they still charging for cable boxes? Pass. Are they still charging more for "HD" boxes? Lol As if any f&$#&&ING person has a box TV still? Pass.

I'm getting pissed off just typing this. Do glad I told them go l to pound sand years ago.

It is absolutely not the same. First streaming services offer much bigger choice of movies, tv shows, tv channels, you can stream everything what you want these days. Second, the the cable was just to expensive + all the extras which you have here and there. I am definitely not going back to cable

I agree with the premise.

We are TV junkies in our house.

I have to have cable.

I’m going to watch live sports and live tv.

The local news.

It used to be the decision for HBO, Cinemax, Showtime.

They all have good shows.

Netflix became quite useful.

Then we got Hulu for the Handmaids Tale.

We have Prime.

Got Disney for Hamilton and the Mandalorian

Now we see Paramount has good shows.

There’s Apple TV for Ted Lasso.

There’s a huge money grab out there.

I understand those using work arounds to watch everything for free. It’s no shame to be unable to earn a decent income.

Xfinity had me paying $250+ per month for cable and WiFi, until I cut the cord three years ago. I now only get WiFi from them for $50/month

The things that bugged me most about cable were the cable box rental, remote rentals, and all the taxes and fees that got added on. The sports fee was particularly irksome. It was something like $10 per month.

I have / share Netflix, hbo, and prime. I subscribe to sling on and off.