Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) 2017 - 2020

[audreyh1]

Interesting New York Times article from 1981 wondering whether Cable TV will be invaded by commercials.......

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-invaded-by-commercials.html

Interesting quote from then programming HBO VP explaining that advertisers try to influence programming which is a reason why HBO avoids them.

''The floodgates for advertising on cable are down,'' says Michael Dann, a leading consultant on cable television. Indeed, even pay television, once assumed to be secure from commercial interests, is attracting some attention as a potential vehicle for advertising. Admittedly, such leading pay cable services as Home Box Office and Showtime, whose programming consists primarily of theatrically released films, staunchly maintain that they will never accept advertising.

''We've seen that advertisers are not passive,'' says Michael Fuchs, senior vice president of programming for Home Box Office. ''Creatively, once you have advertisers in there, they think they have a voice. We'll stay the way we are.''

 

[Cobra9777]

Which remote are people using with the Fire Stick? I read that you can turn on and off your TV with the fire stick remote if you've got CEC enabled, but I could only get it to turn on, not off. It also lacks a lot of other buttons, like volume. I'm looking at the sideclick, https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01MRFY61G , which basically has a holder for the fire stick remote and a mini remote on the side to control power, channel +-, volume +-, and 2 other buttons you assign as you wish...

Don't get the sideclick. We had one for a while. It works OK but it's not very durable. After a few drops, ours would not stay attached to the Fire TV remote and eventually stopped working. It also completely changes the way the Fire TV remote feels in your hand.

Amazon offers two remotes: 1st Gen and 2nd Gen. The newer one has power, volume up/down, and mute buttons. On mine, when I press power, it simultaneously turns on or off the TV and the AVR. The volume and mute buttons control the AVR as well. It's the only remote we use. With the Fire TV Cube, you can also change inputs and do other tasks with voice commands. It also allows control of older devices without HDMI-CEC.

 

[SoReady]

Dish offers an antenna installation service if you want one at your new home:



https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/tested-dishs-antenna-installation-service-went/

I’ve read about this before. Has anyone used this service? Wondering how the experience was for you.

For the price it seems like a good deal, but I wonder how they string the cable into the house. I don’t want the cable running on the outside of the house if possible.

 

[RunningBum]

Don't get the sideclick. We had one for a while. It works OK but it's not very durable. After a few drops, ours would not stay attached to the Fire TV remote and eventually stopped working. It also completely changes the way the Fire TV remote feels in your hand.

Amazon offers two remotes: 1st Gen and 2nd Gen. The newer one has power, volume up/down, and mute buttons. On mine, when I press power, it simultaneously turns on or off the TV and the AVR. The volume and mute buttons control the AVR as well. It's the only remote we use. With the Fire TV Cube, you can also change inputs and do other tasks with voice commands. It also allows control of older devices without HDMI-CEC.

Thank you. I actually have a second firestick and it's got the 2nd gen remote. I swapped it to the TV I most want to control with a single remote and it seems to work fine. Glad I asked. That's a much better solution. As I get any other fire sticks for the other TVs I'll make sure I get it with that remote.

 

[davidfin]

Using the voice control function, I can control volume with the FireTV Cube and the IR blaster it comes with to control the TV volume.

 

[steelyman]

Although my Hulu subscription is currently paused, I noticed an article this morning on CNBC that describes updates to Hulu in part due to recent ownership changes (Disney). Apparently there will be an increased Marvel presence, among other things.

I'm not too sure what this one means, but it'll be interesting to find out:

The streaming company plans to roll out a “binge advertising” experience, which comes as advertisers are increasingly seeking to reach customers in a way that doesn’t annoy them or disrupt their experience.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/01/hulu-announces-28-million-subscribers-new-marvel-shows.html

 

[Sojourner]

The subscriber losses continue, and they’re accelerating down...

Satellite TV services were hit especially hard. AT&T-owned DirecTV lost 1.24 million subscribers and finished 2018 with 19.2 million subscribers. Meanwhile, Dish lost 1.13 million subscribers and ended 2018 with 9.9 million. The combined DirecTV and Dish losses of 2.36 million customers in 2018 was up from the companies' combined loss of 1.55 million in 2017.

The top cable companies—Comcast, Charter, Cox, Altice, Mediacom, and Cable One—lost a combined 910,000 TV subscribers in 2018, up from a net loss of 660,000 in 2017. The six companies had a total of 47 million TV subscribers at the end of 2018.

Any theories as to why far more folks are ditching satellite TV than cable? DirecTV lost about 5% of their customer base last year, Dish lost 10%(!), and yet the cable companies lost only about 2%. Maybe satellite subscribers are generally more tech savvy, more price sensitive, and/or more willing to shop around for alternatives? Or maybe it's that cable providers generally have a monopoly for cable TV services in each area, so long-time customers feel they can't "switch"?

 

[RunningBum]

Any theories as to why far more folks are ditching satellite TV than cable? DirecTV lost about 5% of their customer base last year, Dish lost 10%(!), and yet the cable companies lost only about 2%. Maybe satellite subscribers are generally more tech savvy, more price sensitive, and/or more willing to shop around for alternatives? Or maybe it's that cable providers generally have a monopoly for cable TV services in each area, so long-time customers feel they can't "switch"?

Maybe there are better internet/TV packages for cable. I tried internet over satellite 18 years ago and it was horrible. The distance makes for a lag no matter how much it's improved, so I doubt it's really much better.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Any theories as to why far more folks are ditching satellite TV than cable? DirecTV lost about 5% of their customer base last year, Dish lost 10%(!), and yet the cable companies lost only about 2%. Maybe satellite subscribers are generally more tech savvy, more price sensitive, and/or more willing to shop around for alternatives? Or maybe it's that cable providers generally have a monopoly for cable TV services in each area, so long-time customers feel they can't "switch"?

I also wonder if the sat providers offer incentives to current subscribers to shift over the the streaming platforms they own (such as Sling and Directv Now). I would guess that in the near future, they would like to get out of the satellite business all together...I would think launching new satellites would get expensive.

 

[REWahoo]

Any theories as to why far more folks are ditching satellite TV than cable?

Here is one fact that may tilt the numbers in that direction: Unless you live in or very near an urban area cable is probably not available, so they can't lose you as a customer. I know that's the case where we live, less than a dozen miles outside the city limits of one of the ten largest cities in the US. Once we got reliable internet service (finally!) we gladly dropped the satellite service we'd had for almost 20 years.

 

[REWahoo]

I would guess that in the near future, they would like to get out of the satellite business all together...I would think launching new satellites would get expensive.

You see the AT&T links posted a few weeks ago?

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/update-on-cord-cutting-cable-tv-87375-55.html#post2175924

 

[RunningBum]

Here is one fact that may tilt the numbers in that direction: Unless you live in or very near an urban area cable is probably not available, so they can't lose you as a customer. I know that's the case where we live, less than a dozen miles outside the city limits of one of the ten largest cities in the US. Once we got reliable internet service (finally!) we gladly dropped the satellite service we'd had for almost 20 years.

I would guess people outside an urban area are less likely to have high speed internet fast enough to stream. So using that logic that rural people are more likely to have satellite, I'd think they'd be less likely to drop it.

 

[Rustic23]

We live in a satellite only area. We also have limited internet providers, like, one! You have to have both. In my case Dish Network was $120 a month. Youtube TV $35. It makes the decision easy. If your ISP can provide sufficient bandwidth, your savings is obvious. When cable provides both, and they tack a hefty bill on for internet only, there is less incentive. It only takes 6 meg net to stream. Yea, you have to put up with buffering, but lots of rural areas have better than that.

 

[stephenson]

Long way to geosynchronous orbit.

 

[RonBoyd]

Any theories as to why far more folks are ditching satellite TV than cable?

Did I misunderstand the question? Satellite more than Cable. Where is the Internet part in that?

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

You see the AT&T links posted a few weeks ago?

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/update-on-cord-cutting-cable-tv-87375-55.html#post2175924

A few weeks ago? That was back in January and 601 posts ago! So nope...don't remember! But that tends to back up my hypothesis.

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

Any theories as to why far more folks are ditching satellite TV than cable? DirecTV lost about 5% of their customer base last year, Dish lost 10%(!), and yet the cable companies lost only about 2%. Maybe satellite subscribers are generally more tech savvy, more price sensitive, and/or more willing to shop around for alternatives? Or maybe it's that cable providers generally have a monopoly for cable TV services in each area, so long-time customers feel they can't "switch"?

I have Cable TV and the reason I don't switch is really very simple. I can't find a cost effective replacement for what I have and what I pay for it. Yes, I feel it is expensive, but when I compare the prices for Satellite TV against the cable TV that I have, it's just about the same. So why should I switch?

It would be trading one bad but tolerable situation for another.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Just got an email from Amex telling me that holders of the Cash Preferred card can now get 6% cash back for select streaming services.

o earn additional rewards on streaming subscription purchases, the purchase must be made from a provider that is included on our list of Select U.S. Streaming Subscriptions:
• Amazon Music
• Apple Music
• Audible
• CBS All Access
• Direct TV Now
• ESPN+
• Fubo TV
• HBO Now
• Hulu
• iHeartRadio
• Kindle Unlimited
• MLB.TV
• NBA League Pass
• Netflix
• NHL.TV
• Pandora
• Prime Video Unlimited
• Showtime
• Sling TV
• SiriusXM Streaming and Satellite
• Spotify
• YouTube Music Premium
• YouTube Premium
• YouTube TV

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Just got an email from Amex telling me that holders of the Cash Preferred card can now get 6% cash back for select streaming services.

Don't believe them! I got the Amex Blue Preferred card because it offered 6% back on all groceries, and then A MONTH after I got it, they announced they were limiting the 6% to the first $6,000 of spending! We started using it until we hit that limit (usually well before the halfway mark), then switched to our credit union CC for the rest of the year, mostly out of spite, but that got annoying after a couple of years, so we cancelled it.

 

[stephenson]

Here’s an interesting article relating to ROKU streaming approach ... some stats from ROKU and and an analyst that support much of this thread ...

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4262255-roku-targeting-triple-digits-dcf-valuation

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Don't believe them! I got the Amex Blue Preferred card because it offered 6% back on all groceries, and then A MONTH after I got it, they announced they were limiting the 6% to the first $6,000 of spending! We started using it until we hit that limit (usually well before the halfway mark), then switched to our credit union CC for the rest of the year, mostly out of spite, but that got annoying after a couple of years, so we cancelled it.

Why wouldn't I believe them? I feel pretty certain that the $6,000 limit on groceries (has been like that since I got the card back in 2013) was disclosed in the card member agreement you agreed to.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Why wouldn't I believe them? I feel pretty certain that the $6,000 limit on groceries (has been like that since I got the card back in 2013) was disclosed in the card member agreement you agreed to.

I don't know why you are accusing me of lying, but I got the card in 9/2012. I read all the fine print before I signed up (as I usually do), and I specifically checked, there was no limit on that benefit, because I also calculated our grocery spending and the difference between our main CC rate of 1.5% and the ABP rate of 6% on that whole amount for the previous year's grocery spending. We also received one of those addendums about the $6K limit in October 2012, but I'm sorry, I didn't receive it by certified letter or anything, so I guess I can't prove it to you.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I don't know why you are accusing me of lying, but I got the card in 9/2012. I read all the fine print before I signed up (as I usually do), and I specifically checked, there was no limit on that benefit, because I also calculated our grocery spending and the difference between our main CC rate of 1.5% and the ABP rate of 6% on that whole amount for the previous year's grocery spending. We also received one of those addendums about the $6K limit in October 2012, but I'm sorry, I didn't receive it by certified letter or anything, so I guess I can't prove it to you.

I am not going to derail this thread, but I wasn't calling you a liar. As far as I recall, the limit has been there since I got the card and in *my* experience, Amex hasn't pulled a fast one on me. I am sorry about your experience w/ Amex and you did what was right for you and your finances.

Nonetheless, it doesn't appear that there is a limit to the 6% on streaming services and I think it was worthy to point this out to those that might have the Amex Preferred Card.

 

[Cobra9777]

We are grandfathered on the original AMEX Blue Cash card, which pays 5% on gas, groceries, and drug stores, with no annual fee and no spending limits. When the newer version (Blue Cash Preferred) first came out, I thought about switching for the 6%. But I quickly noticed the $75 annual fee plus the $6K cap on grocery spending. So we elected not to switch. I suppose the cap could have been added at some point, but it was clearly there when AMEX first informed me about the new card.

In any case, I got the same email offer, so I guess it works with the original Blue Cash card as well. Unfortunately, the streaming deal does not include PS View, which is what we use.

 

[camfused]

Hi all. Now that leaves have filled in for the summer, I am getting occasional signal drops. The signal strength numbers are the same (from what I can remember), but the picture freezes occasionally. This happened last year too. It was fine during the winter. I have two RCA 70 mile Yagi antennas in the attic, each directional, and pointing about 180 degrees apart. Most of my channels come in from a tower farm to the east (about 18 miles), and 1 channel from a tower to the west (about 20 miles). I have a combiner, and a Winegard LNA-200 amp.

These are as high as I can put them in the attic. Any suggestions on how I can get around this problem?

Thanks