Satellite (and cable) death spiral

[LadyStanley]

Starts at 9:20

NBR reports on another DTV - supplier (CBS this time) expiration and threat of black screens.

The death spiral comes from cord cutters resulting in lower subscribers, but fixed costs (mainly sports; but also production costs of your favorite dramas, non-scripted shows, etc.) increasing, causing raising prices of satellite/cable services .....

Click to read more...

 

[Chileiceman]

It absolutely is a death spiral, even in the literal sense. I saw somewhere that the average primetime TV watcher is something like 58 years old. Sports leagues need to smarten up and realize that cord cutting is not the future its the present amongst the younger demographics. I hope the NHL will do something like the NFL did in Canada with DAZN and provide a streaming option with no local nor national blackouts with its next US rights deal.

 

[Bookie21]

Good riddance. Hopefully the CBC is first to hit the scrap heap

 

[tarheelhockey]

I moved houses last week, and literally JUST had the conversation with my wife about how we're agreed that it's not worth paying for a cable package just to watch Hurricanes away games.

At some point these companies will figure out a way to simply give people what they want for a predictable cost, rather than trying to trick them into wildly overspending on crap they don't want. The current cable business model reminds me of those old "movie club" scams where you get a premium title for 99 cents -- as long as you're willing to buy a bunch of straight-to-video garbage for $50 a month.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

Good riddance as well.

 

[Burke the Legend]

Could come quickly once advertiser support declines too. Will be much more efficient soon to hit people with tailored ads delivered on a digital stream than just general ads put on tv.

 

[cannucky]

The NHL and Rogers just won't give up that model , they keep cutting they're throat with petty black outs , I begged them to sell me a package of all the Leafs games and then the complete playoffs and they flat out refuse because I live in a tiny village on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River I have to watch the Sens and Habs while the Leafs get blacked out here . I told them flat out go take a flying .... I'll watch for free on any of a hundred free streaming sites including the online Bookie who is licensed by the NHL to show games to generate real time prop bets .

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

It's almost comical how adverse cable companies are to offering true a la carte channel selection.

Even in the face of certain death at the hands of streaming.

 

[crobro]

Maybe with cord cutting and and the evolution of over the air TV using Antenna’s,Most NHL teams in Canada at least will require that part of the Sportsnet mega deal to be effective would be to Simulcast the Sportsnet feed to channels on the local Grid.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

It's almost comical how adverse cable companies are to offering true a la carte channel selection.

Even in the face of certain death at the hands of streaming.

Most of them are available to double as your Internet Provider though. So I reckon they figure they'll just offset the cable losses by charging more and more for your premium hi-speed internet connection?

 

[Pure Slaughter Value]

Most of them are available to double as your Internet Provider though. So I reckon they figure they'll just offset the cable losses by charging more and more for your premium hi-speed internet connection?

Pretty much.

Plus, even as cord-cutting proliferates, packages sold a la carte will go up. You'll pay for your ISP, then multiple packages and boom, you're right into paying the same or more for less. It's going to be interesting to see who wins out, though it definitely won't be the consumer...

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

We're in the midst of the reorganization of the TV system, not the death of it.

The victory for the consumer will be more symbolic over time. I'm not paying for channels I don't watch, but I'm paying more for those that I do.

 

[razor ray]

I took down my Direct TV dish 2 years ago and threw it in the trash. Years of paying $150 per month and now I stream everything (and then some) for 1/3rd of the cost.

 

[canuckster19]

The NHL and Rogers just won't give up that model , they keep cutting they're throat with petty black outs , I begged them to sell me a package of all the Leafs games and then the complete playoffs and they flat out refuse because I live in a tiny village on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River I have to watch the Sens and Habs while the Leafs get blacked out here . I told them flat out go take a flying .... I'll watch for free on any of a hundred free streaming sites including the online Bookie who is licensed by the NHL to show games to generate real time prop bets .

Having lived in Europe the past 20 years... is there any way you can see the games you want legally?

 

[Inkling]

Having lived in Europe the past 20 years... is there any way you can see the games you want legally?

Yes, the NHL Centre Ice (on cable) or NHL Live (online streaming) is specifically for out-of-market games (eg Leaf fan living in Quebec). For playoffs, you'd have to get Sportsnet (cable or online). You'd get a subset of the games that are still available over-the-air for free on CBC and a few games on CityTV. You don't need a cable subscription anymore, but the alternatives aren't cheap.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Pretty much.

Plus, even as cord-cutting proliferates, packages sold a la carte will go up. You'll pay for your ISP, then multiple packages and boom, you're right into paying the same or more for less. It's going to be interesting to see who wins out, though it definitely won't be the consumer...

Not if we completely stop watching the content and do other things with our time. A screen and an internet connection can do a lot of things other than stream TV shows.

Part of the issue is that the cable/TV industry treats its product as a utility that people simply must have. But it’s not like that at all. Chase people away from a TV driven lifestyle, and that void gets filled by other entertainment options pretty quickly.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Not if we completely stop watching the content and do other things with our time. A screen and an internet connection can do a lot of things other than stream TV shows.

Part of the issue is that the cable/TV industry treats its product as a utility that people simply must have. But it’s not like that at all. Chase people away from a TV driven lifestyle, and that void gets filled by other entertainment options pretty quickly.

This exactly. I ditched my cable last year for the first time in... forever? And then found free live streams of everything I wanted. It's probably not strictly legal. But it's out there. And even if that went away, I found I'm really just very very comfortable not having the cable anymore. I do not need to see EVERY game of my team, and I do not need to sit on my couch every night throwing my life in the garbage bin. If you give me a reasonable price to do that, well, maybe I'll cave in and succumb. But the current pricetag for it makes it real easy to just walk away and enrich my lifestyle instead.

 

[Chileiceman]

The problem is with content producers continuing create their own subscription streaming services (HBO, CBS and soon Disney and Comcast), weakening content repositories like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in the process, it will soon get to the point where maybe it makes sense to have cable again, especially with on demand and watch from anywhere features continuing to improve.

As it relates to sports, if I want to legally watch all the sports I want without cable I'd be spending $67.50 per month ($20 each for Sportsnet and TSN, $15 for NHL Gaemecentre and $12.50 for DAZN). As it is I just pay for Gamecenter and DAZN and illegally stream anything else I want to watch. Sportsnet and TSN's streaming options are ridiculously expensive. But at least they have the option, unlike ESPN in the US which created ESPN+ that doesn't allow you to watch anything on their TV networks

 

[tarheelhockey]

As it relates to sports, if I want to legally watch all the sports I want without cable I'd be spending $67.50 per month ($20 each for Sportsnet and TSN, $15 for NHL Gaemecentre and $12.50 for DAZN). As it is I just pay for Gamecenter and DAZN and illegally stream anything else I want to watch. Sportsnet and TSN's streaming options are ridiculously expensive. But at least they have the option, unlike ESPN in the US which created ESPN+ that doesn't allow you to watch anything on their TV networks

The problem for me is I can’t get my team’s games on Gamecenter — I can spend the $15 but get blacked out of the local market. So I don’t spend the $15.

And I can’t watch the games directly through Fox because their streaming service requires a cable subscription. And I’m not about to buy an entire cable subscription for about $100 a month, just to watch a few hockey games.

As a result, I stream games illegally all the time. It’s the only market-friendly option on the table.

Here I am with a wad of cash saying “I want that product, please let me buy it”, and the only person who has figured out how to capitalize on this is some Russian nerd making a few pennies off my clicks. It’s absurd.

 

[NCRanger]

The problem for me is I can’t get my team’s games on Gamecenter — I can spend the $15 but get blacked out of the local market. So I don’t spend the $15.

And I can’t watch the games directly through Fox because their streaming service requires a cable subscription. And I’m not about to buy an entire cable subscription for about $100 a month, just to watch a few hockey games.

As a result, I stream games illegally all the time. It’s the only market-friendly option on the table.

Here I am with a wad of cash saying “I want that product, please let me buy it”, and the only person who has figured out how to capitalize on this is some Russian nerd making a few pennies off my clicks. It’s absurd.

Legal streaming is cost prohibitive. It also doesn't make any sense. Why would you stream a Canes game if you HAVE to have a cable or satellite subscription anyway?

To get everything that I'd want to get, which I have through DirecTV currently, it would cost MORE and be so totally inconvenient, that I just pay for DirecTV.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Legal streaming is cost prohibitive. It also doesn't make any sense. Why would you stream a Canes game if you HAVE to have a cable or satellite subscription anyway?

To get everything that I'd want to get, which I have through DirecTV currently, it would cost MORE and be so totally inconvenient, that I just pay for DirecTV.

It definitely still makes sense to pay for cable/satellite if you intend to watch a lot of TV on a lot of different channels.

It’s people like me, who really would only want access to one or two things via TV, who don’t have a reasonable option on the table. It’s either pay several multiples more than what the product is worth, or go underground. And going underground means cutting TV out of my life altogether, so that I no longer want the product at ANY price if they manage to figure it out someday.

 

[NCRanger]

It definitely still makes sense to pay for cable/satellite if you intend to watch a lot of TV on a lot of different channels.

It’s people like me, who really would only want access to one or two things via TV, who don’t have a reasonable option on the table. It’s either pay several multiples more than what the product is worth, or go underground. And going underground means cutting TV out of my life altogether, so that I no longer want the product at ANY price if they manage to figure it out someday.

We watch so little actual TV outside of local news, BUT, we watch a TON of sports, and my daughter watches the food/cooking channels.

Come Saturdays in October, it's Premier League in the morning, (daughter's soccer game somewhere in there), college football in the afternoon/evening, hockey in the evening, probably baseball playoff in the evening.

All done with a large meal cooked out over charcoal...

Trying to find all that over streams and move it to the TV at the push of a remote button...

Sunday is the work outside day. I'll listen to an NFL game on the radio.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

Must be nice living in Germany. They have a ton of access to sports, and even a variety of European football leagues.

I've been hoping that DAZN can take off over here in North America. I would enjoy watching KHL games here in the States

 

[Pure Slaughter Value]

Not if we completely stop watching the content and do other things with our time. A screen and an internet connection can do a lot of things other than stream TV shows.

Part of the issue is that the cable/TV industry treats its product as a utility that people simply must have. But it’s not like that at all. Chase people away from a TV driven lifestyle, and that void gets filled by other entertainment options pretty quickly.

Easier said than done. That being said, I agree!

 

[tony d]

A lot of people cutting cable. I won't but we've discussed it. I like to keep it for the super sports package but even that's not as good as it once was given the only way to get NFL Sunday ticket through our cable now would cost us $200.