Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 125 posts

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#11

Post by LeonM »

My roommate called me recently that the TV was not working at home, because his girlfriend wanted to watch TV.

As it turned out, we never plugged the cable into the TV, we have lived in the same house for 3 years and neither of us ever watched cable TV during that time. (we do have a cable subscription because where we live you can't get cable internet without the TV and radio part attached...)

I never understood why someone would pay a ridiculous amount of money (compared to say netflix) for a cable subscription and still think it's OK to be watching to ads for 25% of the time...

It's time for cable companies to accept the truth: their technology and business model is old fashioned (a free harddisk record to "pause" TV is a solution to a problem that should not exist!).

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#12

Post by ssharp »

draugadrotten wrote: post #7
raverbashing wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How about ad-free versions of their channels? Apparently that was what cable was all about at the beginning It's hard to lure back people to an inferior product.

The ad-free historiy of cable also tells you the future of Netflix and other streaming services. Bait...and switch!

When I had Hulu Plus, it was actually worse than cable because it forced you to sit through commercials. If I recorded the show on cable, I could fast forward through them at least.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#13

Post by macNchz »

nlawalker wrote: post #8

A question for those who have done more thinking on this than I have: I see cable TV going the way of the dedicated phone line - a bundled benefit you get for a very small fee on top of the primary benefit, which will be the internet connection. The overall cost of a subscription will remain roughly the same, but the cost will be allocated to the internet connection: much like mobile carriers are now basically free v…

I have Time Warner internet-only service in NYC and they are constantly trying to sell me cable as a $10/month addon to my $35 50mbit internet package. I imagine it's a pretty limited set of channels, but they're very much already using that sales tactic.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#14

Post by matwood »

nlawalker wrote: post #8

A question for those who have done more thinking on this than I have: I see cable TV going the way of the dedicated phone line - a bundled benefit you get for a very small fee on top of the primary benefit, which will be the internet connection. The overall cost of a subscription will remain roughly the same, but the cost will be allocated to the internet connection: much like mobile carriers are now basically free v…

It is already like this now. The only way to get the fastest internet speeds with Comcast is to also have TV. The base cable TV is very cheap and you're really buying internet access.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#15

Post by ssharp »

sageabilly wrote: post #6

Even among my less technologically advanced friends and family there's maybe only a handful of people who still watch shows regularly on cable television. My in-laws watch TV shows but they record them and skip over the ads. Pretty much the only thing that I know of that anyone watches on cable and still sits through ads is live sports. Watching cable networks flail around and completely fail to understand that their…

I'd love to "flail around" while still having two billion in annual profits.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#16

Post by Itaxpica »

ssharp wrote: post #12
draugadrotten wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ad-free historiy of cable also tells you the future of Netflix and other streaming services. Bait...and switch!

When I had Hulu Plus, it was actually worse than cable because it forced you to sit through commercials. If I recorded the show on cable, I could fast forward through them at least.

Hulu Plus recently added an option where you can pay a bit extra (like two bucks a month) to make it ad free. It makes it a way more pleasant experience.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#17

Post by jimmar »

I can count on one hand the number of times my children have sat down and watched network TV. They are 4 and 7 years old. With ~15 minutes of commercials per hour, I've probably saved them from watching thousands of commercials, which I think is a good thing.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#18

Post by narrowrail »

raverbashing wrote: post #4
jakozaur wrote: post #3

15:38 per hour of showtime + 2 minute of re-runs in some programs. Netflix got zero, just enjoy your movie. Looks like cable companies are still in denial phase. How about ad-free versions of their channels?

> How about ad-free versions of their channels? Apparently that was what cable was all about at the beginning It's hard to lure back people to an inferior product.

> > How about ad-free versions of their channels?

>Apparently that was what cable was all about at the beginning

I wish people would stop saying this, as it was much more about difficulty in receiving OTA signals[0]. HBO is and always has been ad-free, however.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television_in_the_United...

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#19

Post by dudul »

nlawalker wrote: post #8

A question for those who have done more thinking on this than I have: I see cable TV going the way of the dedicated phone line - a bundled benefit you get for a very small fee on top of the primary benefit, which will be the internet connection. The overall cost of a subscription will remain roughly the same, but the cost will be allocated to the internet connection: much like mobile carriers are now basically free v…

Already very much the case. All discounts and special offers always apply only to "triple-play" packages. Want Internet only? You end up paying a premium.

I think you're right with one potential exception: sports. And it's hard for me to have a lot of visibility on that because I don't personally follow sports, but sport dedicated networks are probably one of the main reasons people go with more expensive cable packages - at least that's my feeling when I compare line ups, the main difference is always sport networks. As long as some networks manage to keep monopoly on sport broadcasting cable can remain a first citizen.

Post reply on HN