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Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

nytimes.com

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Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#161

Post by jedberg »

verisimilidude wrote: post #140
te wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: can I record streams from Sling TV so I can watch on my schedule and skip commercials?

There's no way to skip commercials or record shows. Sling does offer an interesting alternative: each channel is accompanied by an on-demand section of recent broadcasts, meaning you wouldn't need to record anything because it'd already be available for streaming. Sadly, support for this is inconsistent between channels. I signed up for Sling TV over the summer to help get me through long sleepless nights with a newb…

I was on their beta and still have it today. I don't watch it a lot, and only really use it for ESPN and background noise.

But every time I'm about to cancel, there's a big matchup on ESPN that makes me say "just one more month". And then since I have it I throw it on as background noise again. It's a vicious cycle.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#162

Post by peckrob »

profeta wrote: post #157
peckrob wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reality for cord cutters and cable companies alike is that, if it weren't for ESPN I'd have no reason to have cable. It's the only reason I have a pay TV package. During college football season I got a Sling subscription solely to watch college football (ESPN and the SEC Network mostly). I never even really used the Sling app much - it's terrible, crashes a lot, and isn't on AppleTV. I just used my Sling accoun…

Doesn't it air on any open channel? when i got my friends to watch the world cup at home i attached a $5 antenna to the DVR (i build a computer with a $120 TV-in card, and had never used until then!) the image was not the best, but for live sports, who cares?! oh and it got worse every time a plane passed above. anyway, the antenna was a very easy solution for the impromptu need for live sports.

Not sure where you're located, but in the US ESPN is a cable/satellite only channel. The only way to get it is with a subscription.

For college sports, they're also the biggest player. The "big" matchups of the week (usually the highest ranked or most interesting teams) in each market are usually played on the major networks that you can pick up with an antenna from the local affiliate. But the rest of the games being televised are carried exclusively* on cable, usually on ESPN channels.

Keep in mind there are 128 Division 1-A (major) programs, and many more 1-AA and lower programs, so there are a LOT of games going on each week. Some games are played during the week, but the very large majority of them are played on Saturday. So there's way more going on then could ever conceivably be carried over the air.

During college football season, there are something like 7 or 8 games playing simultaneously on the various ESPN channels, not including the "Plus" channels that are only available digitally by WatchESPN.

There are a couple others out there (NBC Sports Network and FoxSports come to mind) but neither are bigger in sports than ESPN.

* Depending on where you live, you can also sometimes get radio broadcasts if you live close enough to the school in question that there's a local affiliate that carries the game. Rights for those are handled differently.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#163

Post by arjn »

virtuabhi wrote: post #110
hackuser wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Russia Today (Though that's state sponsored so it might not be the best comparison) Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar. However, I agree with you that it's not a good comparision. BBC also is state sponsored, but generally considered to be trustworthy. RT is propaganda run by a government that has propaganda as its modus operendi; I wouldn't trust their weather reports.

BBC is not considered trustworthy in India. We listen to BBC for English language but also recognize that BBC still suffers from colonial-era mindset. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC#Indophobi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC#Anti-Hind... "Writing for the 2008 edition of the peer-reviewed Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Alasdair Pinkerton analyses the coverage…

Thats odd, I distinctly remember a huge liking and trust for the BBC (especially radio) among the older Indian folk - middle class and above.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#164

Post by g8oz »

arjn wrote: post #163
virtuabhi wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BBC is not considered trustworthy in India. We listen to BBC for English language but also recognize that BBC still suffers from colonial-era mindset. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC#Indophobi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC#Anti-Hind... "Writing for the 2008 edition of the peer-reviewed Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Alasdair Pinkerton analyses the coverage…

Thats odd, I distinctly remember a huge liking and trust for the BBC (especially radio) among the older Indian folk - middle class and above.

I think it's more accurate to say that the BBC is disliked by the newer Hindu nationalist types for not pandering to their world view.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#165

Post by cptskippy »

peckrob wrote: post #109
brightball wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever people talk about the money in college football right now, I generally tell them to blame Tivo (and subsequently Netflix). Tivo started it with the ability to record and watch later while fast forwarding through commercials. Netflix with it's mountains of commercial free content followed next. That put a huge advertising premium on content that people NEED to watch live like sports or hit shows like Walking…

> The reality for cord cutters and cable companies alike is that, if it weren't for ESPN I'd have no reason to have cable. It's the only reason I have a pay TV package. During college football season I got a Sling subscription solely to watch college football (ESPN and the SEC Network mostly). I never even really used the Sling app much - it's terrible, crashes a lot, and isn't on AppleTV. I just used my Sling accoun…

> an unbunbled or streaming subscriber would need to pay $36 a month for ESPN access for them to generate the same revenue they generate through current cable carriage contracts.

ESPN and professional sports are way over valued and forcing everyone to subsidize sports fans. This is literally the reason why people are becoming cord-cutters, they're tired of paying for things they don't want. Right now 1 in 6 cable subscribers watch ESPN but 6 in 6 cable subscribers pay for it. Cable companies really need to move to an a-la-carte pricing model if they want survive but they're afraid of the large networks pulling their bundles. It's almost like we need a cable monopoly or union to break the network monopolies.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#166

Post by largote »

avn2109 wrote: post #158
rogerbinns wrote: post #7

The article did not mention Al Jazeera deciding to remove their Internet streaming, and requiring that you can only view via your local cable provider. See this page with the big note to US people: http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/201146152255537258.html I used to check in on their coverage on the Roku channel, but they made a business decision to prevent that. I can understand their decision to make their success…

I thought Al Jazeera was run at a loss as a propaganda expense by the Qatari government. Is that untrue?

Most of their articles and videos seem to be quite objective. Might be run as a way of raising awareness (every once in a while) of Middle Eastern progress, but I certainly wouldn't call that propaganda.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#167

Post by ascendantlogic »

eewffwe wrote: post #133
thinkpad20 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if it weren't for ESPN I'd have no reason to have cable. It's the only reason I have a pay TV package. Yup. Unfortunately, even just getting ESPN (and similar channels like FS1 etc) means buying huge bloated bundles. I'm hopeful this will change in the next couple of years though.

Sling TV. $15 a month (ESPN/ESPN2 are included).

Just give me that and the BIG10 network and I'm set.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#168

Post by mahouse »

outworlder wrote: post #151
mahouse wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Pajero is called Montero in several countries, which include the Spanish-speaking ones.

Of note: it is called Pajero in Brazil, which is a Portuguese speaking country. I wonder what happens when someone crosses the border (any border) with it.

That it gets funny I guess. Around my neighbourhood there's always a Pajero parked around. I've smiled at it for years. Childish humour never dies.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#169

Post by notlefthanded »

mahouse wrote: post #130
icebraining wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the pause between them. In a four letter word, I'd say that's quite different. Would you have read it as "no va"?

There's no pause between both syllables in either way of pronouncing the word. And you are right, it's not pronounced the same way, but if you intend to mock the car, you just stress the other syllable.

Stresses are pretty important in spanish. Take father/pope and potato; viva la paPA has a pretty different meaning from viva la PApa

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#170

Post by nikolay »

taurath wrote: post #132
nikolay wrote: post #114

Al Jazeera and their AJ+ are funded by the Qatar monarchy. I closely monitor their "news" on Facebook, the hidden agenda is so obvious! I think they might be closing down because oil price keeps dropping.

All media has a hidden agenda - its nice to get a different one sometimes, because when you're only exposed to one all the time you start to forget it has an agenda. There are many things not said and topics not covered in US media, the first and foremost being any direct representations of people suffering from US-led military ventures.

There's no independent media when it comes to geopolitics, unfortunately. We as hackers should challenge the status quo!
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