I've recently I stopped subscribing to cable services about a year ago for several reasons:
1) Poor User Experience
2) Too much mind numbing content
3) Price
4) Ad(s)
Poor User Experience
While this isn’t true across the entire industry the few places I’ve lived have had terrible set-top-boxes. It has never made since to me that I am forced to use an interface that looks like it was designed in the late 90s. The guide is slow and has very few customization options.
Direct TV did have a pretty good guide when I briefly had satellite which isn’t available in my apartment.
Past Cable Companies: Longview Cable TV, Suddenlink, Grande Communications
Link to horrid cable box that most of the providers I’ve subscribed to use. http://telecomlead.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/motorola-s...
Mind Numbing Content
I really don’t need to catch up on “Storage Wars: Texas”. After a long day, I found myself mindlessly scrolling through the guide and selecting some mindless show. I realize this there is other content available and I made the choice to watch the show. The point I am trying to make is that TV wasn’t contributing anything to my wellbeing. I’d much rather fire up a PC game and at least engage my brain while blowing off some steam. It feels wasteful to me to pay for 200+ channels and only utilize 3-5
I found myself watching less and less TV. I thought I would miss sports(ESPN) but I’ve found that I really don’t. It turns out that was just something I did to kill time. When I turn ESPN news is on @ a coffee shop, I realize how similar it is to CNN headline news. The newscaster regurgitates the same information in a new wrapper and explains why this is supposed to be “important”.
Price - Ads
Advertising was really the kicker. Commercials are so terrible. At the risk of sounding like a tinfoil hippie, I got tired of having the messages massaged into my head about why I need X new product to be a real man. Ford, lay off, I don’t care it is “Truck Month” again.
The experience of sitting down and watching TV has really gone downhill. I pay to use a poorly designed user interface which has the audacity to display Advertising on the guide. For me, I’ve never felt valued as a cable TV subscriber. So, I decided to cut it. Ad on the guide: http://imgur.com/wIctmj1
I still watch Comedy’s like New Girl, Mindy Project and The Big Bang Theory. I’ve purchased all three seasons of “The Walking Dead”. I purchase season passes via iTunes. Who cares if I don’t see it the day it comes out?
The great thing is, I get to keep these shows and I watch them Ad free. That is a BIG plus in my book. I haven’t done the math to see if I am saving money but I feel that I am getting what I want with the money I do spend. I can take my apple TV to any house with internet an instantly access all of the media I’ve purchased. That is awesome. To me, it is worth it to pay a bit more to strip out all the ads and have the convenience of watching it on a ton of devices.
My point is I want to “reward” a company with money if they provide the features I am looking for, in this case Apple + the Studios. I want the cable industry to change into something that belongs in this decade, so I give them less money. (I say less because they do provide me cable internet which isn’t bad.)
The end of the ramblings
I am not sure if there is “theme” or point I was trying to make here. I am an ex-unhappy cable customer. I love consuming media, the distribution methods just need to be tweaked to something that makes more sense in this day and age. I understand the author is trying to say it isn’t economically viable to cut the cord because the current system is the best for everyone but I just don’t buy that. I refuse to believe that.
At any rate, thanks for writing the article, I enjoyed reading it but I hope you are wrong.
