The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth • Hacker News Board

Re: The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth

#21

Post by Merad » Thu, Dec 01, 2016, 1:00 AM UTC

gregmac wrote: post #18

ams6110 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't read the paywalled story but where I live there's really one option for internet: Comcast. So if I literally cut cable, I have nothing (I cut my phone landline years ago, and AT&T has no high-speed internet in my neighborhood anyway). What I do is I have the "basic" TV + internet package, as that's actually cheaper bundled than getting internet by itself. I have no ESPN, HBO, etc. I do miss some sports but I ca…

> What I do is I have the "basic" TV + internet package, as that's actually cheaper bundled than getting internet by itself. I've heard this before, and on the surface seems like it's probably skewing a lot of the numbers (making the number of cable TV subscribers artificially higher than it otherwise would be). At the same time, you, like many others, do have it hooked up to your TV, and you watch it at least occasi…

Where I live Comcast is the only option, and it is not (to my knowledge) possible to get an internet only package at all. I imagine that I am reported as a "cable customer" even though my TV isn't connected.

Re: The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth

#22

Post by gozur88 » Thu, Dec 01, 2016, 1:00 AM UTC

Sure, that's why ESPN lost over a million subscribers in the last two months.

If there's any evidence people are eschewing internet video and going back to cable it will be the first I've seen.

Re: The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth

#23

Post by sundaeofshock » Thu, Dec 01, 2016, 1:01 AM UTC

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #8

awalton wrote: post #3

Is it really though? I haven't had a cable subscription since I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, didn't have one for four years before that, and I have yet to be convinced that I'm actually missing anything - anything I care to watch can be found trivially online (even without piracy, though often you have to sit through ads...) My demand for content hasn't really changed, just my will and desire to put up with b…

One thing I'm noticing with cable-cutting is that the market is getting more fragmented. Instead of just getting Netflix and watching free Hulu with ads, now you have to get Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Now, pay for Hulu, buy the Starz app, pay for MLB, etc. in order to compose all the content you want. It's equivalent to buying cable packages where you spend money on a bundle engineered to have only 20% of what you wa…

That assumes you want all that content. One of the reasons I cut cable is becuase I didn't want to pay for content that I never looked at. The only content I pay for now is HBO Now and Amazon Prime, plus streaming movie rentals. If I want sports, I usually just go to a bar. If I want the BBC (which I do), I just VPN into the UK and watch stuff.

Re: The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth

#24

Post by bryan11 » Thu, Dec 01, 2016, 1:02 AM UTC

So you cut the cable service and replace it with internet service. The money goes to the same cable company, right?

In my area, you have one choice for cable internet service. with the fastest internet plan and largest data cap available in my area, the data caps allow about 120 minutes of HD video daily without incurring extra fees. It seems like the cable companies are moving to a metered service where you pay for what you use, much like old-style phone service where you paid by the minute.

It looks like cable cutting is going to affect how shows are produced and provided, but overall it's a money maker for internet providers.

Re: The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth

#25

Post by nickthemagicman » Thu, Dec 01, 2016, 1:03 AM UTC

Just get Sling TV. Its essentially cable.

Re: The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth

#26

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 01, 2016, 1:05 AM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

Just wait until today's teens grow up. Most of them have never gotten in the linear TV habit, they prefer to watch Youtube and don't have the attention span to sit through a commercial break. 10 years from now, cable TV is d00med.

[deleted]

Re: The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth

#27

Post by dmoy » Thu, Dec 01, 2016, 1:06 AM UTC

tnorthcutt wrote: post #20

dmoy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$30/month on phone is not hard if you don't use an overlarge amount of data (or if you never talk on the phone and use idk about internet, "good bandwidth" in my area is >>$50. Probably depends on where you are and what your definition of good bandwidth is.

"Both get me unlimited Internet" seems to indicate that there's not a cap on transfer for the GP's phone service, which is surprising at $30/month (in the US, anyway).

Ah yea I missed that. Must be talking about the t mobile deal, but not mentioning the massive throttling? Or have some grandfathered plan that isn't relevant to the rest of us?

Re: The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth

#28

Post by RyJones » Thu, Dec 01, 2016, 1:12 AM UTC

bryan11 wrote: post #24

So you cut the cable service and replace it with internet service. The money goes to the same cable company, right? In my area, you have one choice for cable internet service. with the fastest internet plan and largest data cap available in my area, the data caps allow about 120 minutes of HD video daily without incurring extra fees. It seems like the cable companies are moving to a metered service where you pay for…

I suspect the reason Comcast pushes discounted internet with cable is to subsidize the cable subscriber number. I haven't had cable TV since they switched to digital in 2008 or 2009 here in ~Seattle. They can't sell ads against the internet-only customers, so we don't matter.

Re: The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth

#29

Post by ams6110 » Thu, Dec 01, 2016, 1:13 AM UTC

gregmac wrote: post #18

ams6110 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't read the paywalled story but where I live there's really one option for internet: Comcast. So if I literally cut cable, I have nothing (I cut my phone landline years ago, and AT&T has no high-speed internet in my neighborhood anyway). What I do is I have the "basic" TV + internet package, as that's actually cheaper bundled than getting internet by itself. I have no ESPN, HBO, etc. I do miss some sports but I ca…

> What I do is I have the "basic" TV + internet package, as that's actually cheaper bundled than getting internet by itself. I've heard this before, and on the surface seems like it's probably skewing a lot of the numbers (making the number of cable TV subscribers artificially higher than it otherwise would be). At the same time, you, like many others, do have it hooked up to your TV, and you watch it at least occasi…

> is if it wasn't cheaper, would you still have cable TV

For me the answer is no. I do watch TV occasionally (but often go weeks or months without; I think the last "TV" I watched was the World Series) but the vast majority of what I watch is on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or YouTube or other online. If internet-only were cheaper that's what I would get. I might consider getting a rooftop antenna for broadcast network TV, but probably wouldn't bother.

Re: The Cable-Cutting Dream Is Kind of a Myth

#30

Post by Waterluvian » Thu, Dec 01, 2016, 1:13 AM UTC

dmoy wrote: post #27

tnorthcutt wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Both get me unlimited Internet" seems to indicate that there's not a cap on transfer for the GP's phone service, which is surprising at $30/month (in the US, anyway).

Ah yea I missed that. Must be talking about the t mobile deal, but not mentioning the massive throttling? Or have some grandfathered plan that isn't relevant to the rest of us?

Canada. Wind Mobile and Teksavvy with a grandfathered plan and 6 $1 off referrals.

To be fair mobile is unlimited up to 6GB then throttled back to what seems to be about 4 or 5mbit download. I hit that cap only once when I was away from home for a week and used it as a constant hotspot.