Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) 2017 - 2020

[Chuckanut]

A 100% off topic here but how does watching TV help you fall asleep, that's contrary to everything I've read about good sleep habits..

EZ Peazy.

Just watch celebrity interviews.

 

[beowulf]

DW's favorite sleep aid is late night TV. I can't fall asleep to TV in bed, but put me in an easy chair and I'm gone in 5 minutes .

 

[Midpack]

I can't fall asleep to TV in bed, but put me in an easy chair and I'm gone in 5 minutes .

I’ve noticed that too, wonder why?

 

[beowulf]

Because we’re not supposed to?

 

[ivinsfan]

As you quoted my post I'll weigh in that these particular shows (old B/W game shows from the 50's and 60's) just seem to have a rhythm to them that lulls, even though they're interesting. Now, we used to fall asleep to the Tonight Show, etc., but as the late-night talk shows have taken a very political turn in the past few years, they don't lull.

And as for being contrary, that's interesting as most people I know fall asleep to TV. In any event, as the TV is on a timer (usually 30 minutes) I drop off pretty quickly (versus having my brain running if there's silence), and I get a good night's sleep.

YMMV.

It's the no blue light, quiet room without distraction standard advice..but BW games shows, I can see where they might be soothing. It feels like the rapid fire noisy commercials could be distracting. I usually turn on my sound machine and read until I start to feel sleepy.

 

[camfused]

I don't know about you guys, but today our area had to do a rescan because of the FCC frequency auction. My TiVo is hosed up now, in that I cannot get some of the channels any more, and the guide data is missing. I followed a procedure to get new guide data, and even to do a TiVo set up from scratch, but no go, so far.

Did anyone else have this problem with their TiVo?

BTW, on the upstairs TV (no TiVo), I had to move the cheapo flat antenna to a new location, in order to get all the channels again after the rescan. The frequency shifts make a difference on your antenna orientation and placement.

 

[Midpack]

It’ll get squashed quickly, but it’s nice to dream about a la carte TV. We’d be perfectly fine with our favorite 20 channels, without all the others (40-100 channels) cluttering up our guide no matter how little they may be costing us. Let the low demand networks fall by the wayside if they can’t attract and keep viewers. Why should we all be forced to subsidize networks few people want?

Recently, the state of Maine passed a law requiring that cable operators offer an à la carte TV option. The new law says that “a cable system operator shall offer subscribers the option of purchasing access to cable channels, or programs on cable channels, individually.” This would bring à la carte TV, which many have hoped for, to the state of Maine.

Now Comcast, Fox, CBS, and Disney are suing saying that federal law supersedes the state law when it comes to TV services.

Their fear is understandable as many have predicted that a lot of cable TV channels would not survive à la carte TV. The possibility of many profitable channels shutting down because most cable TV subscribers don’t watch them has prevented any hope of à la carte TV in the past.

This will be a major landmark case for both cord cutting and cable TV. If Comcast, Fox, CBS, and Disney win, it will set back hopes for à la carte TV. If Maine wins, it could open the floodgates for other states to require a true à la carte TV option.

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/comcast-fox-cbs-disney-sue-to-block-a-la-carte-tv/

 

[ziggy29]

I don't know about you guys, but today our area had to do a rescan because of the FCC frequency auction. My TiVo is hosed up now, in that I cannot get some of the channels any more, and the guide data is missing. I followed a procedure to get new guide data, and even to do a TiVo set up from scratch, but no go, so far.

Did anyone else have this problem with their TiVo?

It can happen with some devices if they don't support a full channel rescan. Some devices take your zip code as input, figure out where it thinks the frequencies of your local channels are, and looks for them. If they can't scan all the frequencies from 2-51 or 2-69 or whatever, they may not find them until databases are updated. I know a lot of satellite boxes that took additional OTA inputs did this.

 

[ziggy29]

It’ll get squashed quickly, but it’s nice to dream about a la carte TV. We’d be perfectly fine with our favorite 20 channels, without all the others cluttering up our guide. Let the low demand networks fall by the wayside if they can’t attract and keep viewers.

I don't think this will get crushed -- not with streaming. There are plenty of potential operators in the market with multiple ways to deliver content. If a la carte or "select any 10/20/30 channels" has a market, and it can be delivered for less than 100 channels to everyone, it will happen.

Of course, some channels (koff koff ESPN) cost a lot more than others, and that may be reflected in the price, but I don't think a la carte is all that far off IF it makes financial sense. Keep in mind that shopping channels and some religious channels PAY to be included, so taking them may subsidize the bill for people who don't go a la carte.

 

[Midpack]

I don't think this will get crushed -- not with streaming. There are plenty of potential operators in the market with multiple ways to deliver content. If a la carte or "select any 10/20/30 channels" has a market, and it can be delivered for less than 100 channels to everyone, it will happen.

Of course, some channels (koff koff ESPN) cost a lot more than others, and that may be reflected in the price, but I don't think a la carte is all that far off IF it makes financial sense. Keep in mind that shopping channels and some religious channels PAY to be included, so taking them may subsidize the bill for people who don't go a la carte.

I hope you’re right, but I wouldn’t bet on it with the consolidation that’s taken place. Doesn’t Comcast, Disney, CBS, Viacom and a couple others own/control 90% of the popular channels?

 

[steelyman]

Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV)

I don't know about you guys, but today our area had to do a rescan because of the FCC frequency auction. My TiVo is hosed up now, in that I cannot get some of the channels any more, and the guide data is missing. I followed a procedure to get new guide data, and even to do a TiVo set up from scratch, but no go, so far.

Did anyone else have this problem with their TiVo?

BTW, on the upstairs TV (no TiVo), I had to move the cheapo flat antenna to a new location, in order to get all the channels again after the rescan. The frequency shifts make a difference on your antenna orientation and placement.

I may have been affected by these same changes. It mostly went OK, but one channel I really like (Movies! - classic old movies) disappeared. I’m going to keep rescanning to see if it comes back. No change to antenna positioning so far.

The big rescan date was postponed here due to Dorian.

[ADDED] No Tivo here but my antenna has a direct connection through a splitter. One side goes direct to the TV, the other to a DVR-like device called an iView. Neither picked up the missing channel.

 

[audreyh1]

I was streaming through Apple TV and iPad.

When you quit the app, some are made to continue to stream and some will cut it off entirely.

For instance, the Stream Comcast app. will stream through a minimized window. But now, I have Uverse and their app. when you quit out of it isn't streaming.

We stream through AppleTV directly to our TV/audio system. When we shut down AppleTV via the remote it turns itself and everything else off.

 

[audreyh1]

And as for being contrary, that's interesting as most people I know fall asleep to TV. In any event, as the TV is on a timer (usually 30 minutes) I drop off pretty quickly (versus having my brain running if there's silence), and I get a good night's sleep.

YMMV.

Not us nor any of my family members. We don’t leave the TV on all day for background noise either.

 

[bUU]

I don't think this will get crushed -- not with streaming.

We're already seeing streaming trending back to cable bundles.

If these companies have to, perhaps they'll offer a la carte for a penny less than the corresponding bundle. That'll underscore why this should "get crushed".

If people want a la carte, then they should vote for legislators that will nationalize the industry and make it a public utility with regulated offerings and pricing. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[bUU]

I hope you’re right, but I wouldn’t bet on it with the consolidation that’s taken place. Doesn’t Comcast, Disney, CBS, Viacom and a couple others own/control 90% of the popular channels?

And bundling is actually the only way that the other 10% of the channels have a chance of survival.

 

[bUU]

It can happen with some devices if they don't support a full channel rescan.

TiVo is a premium device that has been on top of the repack every step of the way, so that's almost surely not the issue.

I'd bet that some channels failed to properly change their meta-data.

 

[ncbill]

TiVo is a premium device that has been on top of the repack every step of the way, so that's almost surely not the issue.

I'd bet that some channels failed to properly change their meta-data.

It took Tivo a couple of days to make the channel changes (new frequencies) in my area...so for those couple of days I couldn't record NBC or the CW programs.

 

[ivinsfan]

I'm annoyed today I bought a new Firestick on Prime Days and decided to give Sling Blue a try 3 months for 10 bucks a month. I want Fox sports not ESPN, hold on a minute... Sling is caught in the Dish/Sling/ Fox dispute and no MN Twins baseball, and no estimate as to when this might get resolved. This really devalues Sling IMO, no Twins, TW, or Wild unless this gets fixed... regular price would be 25 a month I wouldn't pay that for no local sports.

 

[Midpack]

And bundling is actually the only way that the other 10% of the channels have a chance of survival.

As far as I’m concerned, 80% of the channels these days could disappear and it wouldn’t bother me. I realize there are viewers for every offbeat channel, but I don’t want to pay for them even if they are relatively cheap. My guide with Dish was 90% clutter, at least with PS Vue it’s only 50% clutter...

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

I have been thinking of setting it up so I can watch Pluto TV on my regular TV. Pluto TV has a lot of channels and is free and as so far as I can tell it is legal. I would just need to run an ethernet cable from my computer to my TV but I just have not done it yet.

I think it would be worth it if I ever got around to it. There are some pretty good channels on there.

 

[Dave J]

I have been thinking of setting it up so I can watch Pluto TV on my regular TV. Pluto TV has a lot of channels and is free and as so far as I can tell it is legal. I would just need to run an ethernet cable from my computer to my TV but I just have not done it yet.

I think it would be worth it if I ever got around to it. There are some pretty good channels on there.

Pluto is available on ROKU. No cable needed. I imagine it is also on other streaming devices. I have it on mine. And it is free and legal.

 

[camfused]

...I would just need to run an ethernet cable from my computer to my TV but I just have not done it yet...

I run HomePlug Powerline AV2 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MTNKNPZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) to my TV equipment cabinet, and other places in my house. No wires.

 

[bUU]

As far as I’m concerned, 80% of the channels these days could disappear and it wouldn’t bother me. I realize there are viewers for every offbeat channel, but I don’t want to pay for them even if they are relatively cheap.

Those channels aren't "offbeat" - they're channels that serve the interests of other people. For those of us for whom the dominant cultural motifs resonate, the degradation of viewing options for others may not be noticeable, but for those others the impact is real.

 

[pb4uski]

As far as I’m concerned, 80% of the channels these days could disappear and it wouldn’t bother me. I realize there are viewers for every offbeat channel, but I don’t want to pay for them even if they are relatively cheap. My guide with Dish was 90% clutter, at least with PS Vue it’s only 50% clutter...

+1 I just scrolled through the channels I get and did a count of those we watch or might watch.... about 25% of the channels that we get.... the rest is junk.

 

[MichaelB]

As far as I’m concerned, 80% of the channels these days could disappear and it wouldn’t bother me. I realize there are viewers for every offbeat channel, but I don’t want to pay for them even if they are relatively cheap. My guide with Dish was 90% clutter, at least with PS Vue it’s only 50% clutter...

Many of those channels are offered only because the content provider and production companies bundle them with the high demand channels. There isn’t otherwise enough demand.