perhaps. but, for instance, if you watch the history channel, lots of those shows are available through netflix. like i am watching a history channel series right now on netflix. and hulu of course has lots of your network shows, and so does OTA broadcast (which is better quality than cable). and the other shows you want you can steal.
Took you long enough.. I've not had cable for almost 9 years now, so I guess I'm impossibly classier than you.. I use Netflix as a reasonable substitute just because I like the whole "watch what ya want to watch, when you want to watch it" thing, and it's much cheaper. I rarely think about cable tv anymore.
That is what I suspect. They are not going to reduce their income. But martin may be right. The streaming option may force cable and satellite TV to change their "packages". I would pay for 3 or 4 college football channels, but I don't give a chit about 150 hockey, major league baseball and NFL channels in a sports package. I'm afraid that the minor documentary channels that I like are subsidized by the expensive movie channels and would disappear if not bundled. But I really, really hate being forced to pay for religious, shopping, and reality networks in those same packages.
i think in the future, tv shows will be independently subscription based. like you have a box, like my roku box, and it will try to sell you tv shows via free previews. if you like the show, you subscribe and watch them as they are released. that model will last a while, then the ease of stealing will push the shows toward a revenue model driven by advertising product placement. like all the guys on CSI will drive fords and occasionally say how they love their awesome ford trucks. roku has "channels" that i can buy individually. many more things should be pay per view, but the price should be way cheaper. and free shows will always exist supported by ads. there is no reason we should be stuck with this monopoly that providers use to shove literally 800 channels down our throats. this was a technological monopoly based on the fact that it was hard to distribute content. but that isnt true anymore. soon enough it will be really really cheap to distribute things to everyone's apple tv or roku or whatever. goodbye cable companies.
1) Hulu 2) Netflix 3) Bittorrent 4) Old laptop I pay less than $10 a month and I miss nothing. Suck it, Cox, Comcast and TimeWarner.
the new roku boxen have games, which seems kinda cool. i do love my roku box and heartily endorse it as part of the cable-cutting procedure. i also got a newer xbox 360 because it is quieter and better for watching tv. i watch lots of NFL so i need the xbox ready as a media extender to watch my OTA broadcasts with DVR function. so again, the only real stumbling block is lack of espn. the solution to that is my local bar, which can get expensive. i am saving 100 a month on cable, but a trip to the bar usually costs me 40 or so. the ideal would be that the roku starts selling me more individual channels. like right now they have the UFC channel, and that is cool, but i want to buy espn. or even PPV monday night football for 3$ an episode.
theres still sites like justin.tv and channelsurfing.net that stream all these things which you could use.
currently sitting here in a nice new flannel, pbr in hand, streaming som television via my roku. only thing better would be a nice bike ride if it wasnt so hot.
<--- Is an A/V enthusiast <--- Has DirecTv with 5 receivers and a dvr <--- Suscribes to all DirecTv high def channels, NFL Sunday ticket, and 3D channels <--- Has basic cable for all TVs as well (wife and daughter seem to prefer this over DirecTv) <--- Has Netflix and uses Vudu for movies not owned on BluRay or older DVDs <--- Can stream internet for other things on our 3 desktops and 6 laptops in our wired network with 3 access points. <--- Unfortunately, has not time to watch a lot of TV. Go figure.
