The Changing Landscape of Television Entertainment

[FieldingMellish]

I see that point, but the problem becomes having more coke on hand than you can drink. Or would you even want to feel compelled to drink that much coke to enjoy the implied savings.

That is a reason I cut cable. Too much unused product for the price. A large percentage of the unused product I found unwatchable. I played the cable game for years and felt overcharged in a monopoly and now there are alternatives.

 

[LethalWolfe]

I see that point, but the problem becomes having more coke on hand than you can drink. Or would you even want to feel compelled to drink that much coke to enjoy the implied savings.

That is a reason I cut cable. Too much unused product for the price. A large percentage of the unused product I found unwatchable. I played the cable game for years and felt overcharged in a monopoly and now there are alternatives.

Thankfully unwatched TV shows, unlike unopened cans of Coke, don't start taking up space.

I'm feel like a bit of an odd duck because I cut the cord for about 6yrs and really didn't miss it (I used Netflix, Amazon, OTA etc.,) for my viewing habits. Recently I started up with cable again and I'm watching a much wider variety of content than I did before. I really like shows like Air Disasters and How it's Made but they aren't on Netflix and I would never pay $2.99 ($1.99 for SD) to per episode to buy them from Amazon streaming. I'm certainly paying more per month for my visual entertainment with cable (and I may not keep it after the introductory pricing runs out) but overall it is a nicer experience because of all the viewing options (including the On Demand and DVR).

As more OTT streaming services appear more people are going to be in the gray zone of, Do I pay $8 for the 8 cans of Coke I want or do I pay $9 and get the 12 pack?

 

[mscriv]

Except it did happen. Dish Network had exactly that, where you could pick 10 channels and pay $15/month. (Naturally, the premium channels such as HBO were excluded.) I had that for years, but eventually most of the shows I was watching ended, with few new shows of interest to replace them, so I dropped TV entirely. This was somewhere around 10 years ago.

--Eric

Thanks for the info Eric. Does Dish Network still offer this package? You said that premium channels were excluded, were there other limits on the channel selection as well? I can only assume that certain channels were excluded from this offer and that's the point I was trying to make. At this point no provider that I know of has offered a true a la carte menu where you could pick just the channels you wanted and pay for each of them individually with no restrictions. For example, the cost of ESPN has been mentioned in this thread. A channel like that or HBO would carry a higher a la carte price than a relatively smaller channel like say DIY network.

 

[MacNut]

MLB has an over the top service, but I'm not a baseball fan so I've never used. The NFL experiments here and there with going over the top but they are taking in billions a year in TV contracts so they don't have much incentive to stray from their solid-gold, diamond-encrusted path. I think DirecTV is offering its NFL Sunday Ticket package as a streaming-only option.

Local games are blocked out, the ones I want to see. So it isn't truly over the top yet. The MLB model is not complete until I can watch a local game on any device. I am not paying for out of market games that I could care less about.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Local games are blocked out, the ones I want to see. So it isn't truly over the top yet. The MLB model is not complete until I can watch a local game on any device. I am not paying for out of market games that I could care less about.

Ah, I see.

The NFL is suspending it's black rules this season as a test. Hopefully it's the beginning of the end for all local blackouts.

 

[Eric5h5]

Thanks for the info Eric. Does Dish Network still offer this package?

No idea.

You said that premium channels were excluded, were there other limits on the channel selection as well? I can only assume that certain channels were excluded from this offer and that's the point I was trying to make. At this point no provider that I know of has offered a true a la carte menu where you could pick just the channels you wanted and pay for each of them individually with no restrictions. For example, the cost of ESPN has been mentioned in this thread. A channel like that or HBO would carry a higher a la carte price than a relatively smaller channel like say DIY network.

ESPN isn't something I was interested in anyway, so I don't remember if that was excluded.

--Eric

 

[MICHAELSD]

Once live TV goes the way of the dinosaur, most worthwhile content will be pay-exclusive. Will be interesting if the major networks do this.