Cord cutter here, and I have a question..

#76
#76
I think there is a real opportunity for you entrepreneurs out there: a business in which you consult about the best options on all this -- actually go in and set it up for Luddites like me.

The key is that you have no business ties whatsoever to any of the providers or equipment sellers. Your fiduciary responsibility is strictly to your paying customer. And part of your business is that you keep current with constantly changing rates and best options, which enables you to contact your past customers and offer to update your services for them -- for a fee of course. Or maybe your service menu includes a higher priced option in which you charge a fee that includes the initial set up and updates as needed for one year or two years. Or something like that.

Take it and run with it. (I'll rely on your integrity to send me my royalty checks for the patented idea.)
 
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#77
#77
WoodsmanVol said:
Bait and switch is what it is. Doing the same that cable and satellite Tv vendors have been doing. I'm an OTA guy. I subscribe to what I want/need then unsubscribe when it's no longer relevant. These services are motivated by greed, not fair pricing. If they were smart, they'd institute decent prices to not only promote customer loyalty but draw in increasing new customers. Happy people talk to friends, acquaintances, co-workers, family and others. Who often become subscribers too. Unhappy people, leave, look for alternate access, if that's available they look for bootleg access, or do without. But greed is the order of the day and it's going to bite them in booty.
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This is you and me and I agree as well. I consider myself an OTA guy. Recently as an example I picked up Starz for a month and binged on the 50 Cent series Power, thne dropped them. Did the same thing for Game of Thrones on HBO their final season. I refuse to bundle anything with an ISP. Get whatever is best for your specific location and uses and then stream whatever you want for when you want it, then dump them and move on to something else you want to watch. It is MUCH cheaper than cable tv for sure. YTTV sounds like many like it and onboard and can honestly say I've yet to try it, but may for a month on down the line. Here's a Bloomberg Financial article how the cable pie keeps shrinking. Their model will not work long term, as a matter of fact look to the long distance telephone market as an example. What used to very good money, long distance telephone, is now a giveaway feature on your mobilephone. That's where Comcast and other cable companies are headed IMO. Content will or must end up being a giveaway feature for them to keep or entice ANY customers at all to stay on their coax network. 5G start a slow death for the cable tv companies IMO. Comcast Faces Fights on Multiple Fronts as Cable Pie Shrinks
 
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#78
#78
illvol said:
Does anyone have YouTube tv that can share their experience? I have HULU live which I love but they keep increasing the price so exploring other options.
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I have Youtube TV and it's great....used to have Playstation Vu but it got to where it would freeze up more than it worked.
 
#79
#79
GTBATV said:
I finally bit the bullet and purchased a shield. Was expensive but an upgrade over the cheap boxes. Had a roku for a while, but the interface is horrible.
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Well you bought the best thing out there, there's nothing better. Ive had a shield for two years now and couldnt do without it. With a good iptv service and all the free movie apps, i dont know why anyone would want a $50 a month tv service.
 
#80
#80
ESPN+ has some games others you need to have the, what ever cable company you have, app to watch the rest.
 
#81
#81
GTBATV said:
I finally bit the bullet and purchased a shield. Was expensive but an upgrade over the cheap boxes. Had a roku for a while, but the interface is horrible.
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Off and on I have read in different forums negative comments about ROKU. I know not everybody's experience with a device is the same for a wide variety of reasons so just sharing my experience here. I started out with a ROKU, no issues. Decided on a whim to get a ROKU 2 after 2.5 years of using the original device. Had freezes from and slo-mo display time to time. Damned the ROKU every time. Later found out Time Warner/Spectrum was throttling down bandwidth intentionally. Thought it to handle excessive use but some tech guy out of state went to court. Came out that the throttling due to heavy use was partially true but also to push customers to move to higher bandwidth $ervice$. Freezes stopped and ROKU 2 was fine. Last year, vanity motivated me to get a ROKU Ultra 3. Only issue is one that very recently appears only when doing catchup viewing of CW TV shows like Flash, Supergirl (mostly dropped now due to the increasing gay love scenes) and other CW shows. Periodically, a black screen with mostly white text shows up claiming HDMI connection failure and bandwidth issues. This screen vanishes after about 3-5 seconds and things continue as normal. It only happens with CW. All the other free and paid channels normal. Oh yeah, lately HULU ads forces its way into interrupting my viewing of Netflix and other channels. I resent this to the point if I see just once again, I will remove HULU from my channels selection.
 
#83
#83
WoodsmanVol said:
Off and on I have read in different forums negative comments about ROKU. I know not everybody's experience with a device is the same for a wide variety of reasons so just sharing my experience here. I started out with a ROKU, no issues. Decided on a whim to get a ROKU 2 after 2.5 years of using the original device. Had freezes from and slo-mo display time to time. Damned the ROKU every time. Later found out Time Warner/Spectrum was throttling down bandwidth intentionally. Thought it to handle excessive use but some tech guy out of state went to court. Came out that the throttling due to heavy use was partially true but also to push customers to move to higher bandwidth $ervice$. Freezes stopped and ROKU 2 was fine. Last year, vanity motivated me to get a ROKU Ultra 3. Only issue is one that very recently appears only when doing catchup viewing of CW TV shows like Flash, Supergirl (mostly dropped now due to the increasing gay love scenes) and other CW shows. Periodically, a black screen with mostly white text shows up claiming HDMI connection failure and bandwidth issues. This screen vanishes after about 3-5 seconds and things continue as normal. It only happens with CW. All the other free and paid channels normal. Oh yeah, lately HULU ads forces its way into interrupting my viewing of Netflix and other channels. I resent this to the point if I see just once again, I will remove HULU from my channels selection.
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So I have a roku ultra. And the interface is just ok to me. My biggest complaint is the lack of functions on most of the apps. Including the fact that you can't use a keyboard. I am too slow and impatient with typing in a word with the remote. I have a few keyboards and the remote app on my phone, but none of them work in most of the apps.

Like you, I had hulu for live tv. And I get ads popping in on occasion on all channels. What is frustrating is it will give you the 60 second clock or whatever in the upper corner. I can switch to another channel, come back to the same channel, and the timer starts over. So I made the switch to youtube tv. And they still have ads as well. Just the nature of the way things are now I suppose. My boys nerd out on Star Wars, so we got the Disney bundle. So I don't have hulu live any longer, but get the on demand stuff.
 
#84
#84
randyd said:
Well you bought the best thing out there, there's nothing better. Ive had a shield for two years now and couldnt do without it. With a good iptv service and all the free movie apps, i dont know why anyone would want a $50 a month tv service.
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IPTV and free movie apps are firmly in a grey area. I am not necessarily against it...heck I used to program DirecTV H cards back in the day but some people do care about that. There's also the reliability to consider. I know recently nearly every iptv provider was knocked off line. I have tried several and while they are "ok" the reliability and consistency of YTTV is worth $50/month.
 
#85
#85
FBtime said:
IPTV and free movie apps are firmly in a grey area. I am not necessarily against it...heck I used to program DirecTV H cards back in the day but some people do care about that. There's also the reliability to consider. I know recently nearly every iptv provider was knocked off line. I have tried several and while they are "ok" the reliability and consistency of YTTV is worth $50/month.
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Like i said earlier, streaming is not illegal in the United states, as long as your not downloading. The instance your talking about originated in Brazil, and most everyone was connected to that format.
 
#86
#86
GTBATV said:
So I have a roku ultra. And the interface is just ok to me. My biggest complaint is the lack of functions on most of the apps. Including the fact that you can't use a keyboard. I am too slow and impatient with typing in a word with the remote. I have a few keyboards and the remote app on my phone, but none of them work in most of the apps.

Like you, I had hulu for live tv. And I get ads popping in on occasion on all channels. What is frustrating is it will give you the 60 second clock or whatever in the upper corner. I can switch to another channel, come back to the same channel, and the timer starts over. So I made the switch to youtube tv. And they still have ads as well. Just the nature of the way things are now I suppose. My boys nerd out on Star Wars, so we got the Disney bundle. So I don't have hulu live any longer, but get the on demand stuff.
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Not sure I can be of any or much help so will just share what little I know.

1. Keyboard would be nice but the lack of one doesn't bother me. maybe because I've become so used and skilled in using it.

2. Apps, frankly, I'm a cheapskate. I have Amazon Prime channel but stopped using it about 2yrs ago. They were sneak charging me after changing the original way they listed free and charged movies. When I got a $300 charge on my card one month, it forced me to look closer to find out why. Caught it, paid them and removed the app. The only paid apps I have now are Netflix and HULU (but only seasonally). Everything else is free channels like Filmrise, PBS, 2-3 sci fi channels I rarely use, Crackle, a food channel as my wife and I both like cooking, CWS, Reuters and that's about it.

3. Ads and that darn clock you mentioned. They only appears CWS and I have seen them during some of the other free movie channels. I treat them like TV ads which basically is what they are. I go to the bathroom, or the fridge, or beat up my wife's pesty cats who think I'm their friend, or maybe take the garbage out. In other words, I don't consider it a problem anymore than regular TV watching. Sponsors are what make the service free, so it just doesn't bother me when they interrupt. But when I watch my paid channels, I don't see the ads. If i switch from say, CWS to another free app, I only see ads during their usual intermission, not carryover from another app. Maybe it's your location that makes your experience different. I'm rural.

4. Disney and me. Since the only reason I seasonally subscribe to HULU+ is to watch Vols football, I may or not go Disney. Fandango Vue, and I think one other app is constantly showing up on the home screen wanting me to give them a try. I just ignore them. If there's a movie I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY must see, I go to Redbox and get. Perhaps I a tiny bit more laid back than you.
 
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#87
#87
DeerPark12 said:
They haven't formally announced it yet, but YouTubeTV is going to have a price increase between $15-25/month next year, depending on what channels and DVR capabilities you want. So buyer beware.

The problem with all of the streaming services is that they are all hemorrhaging money. Their programming costs are the same as cable companies, but they can't make money by selling you internet. The business model for them was to build subscribers quickly, then increase the price to less than cable, but still expensive. They're all going up sooner rather than later, or they'll just fold like Playstation Vue is.
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Not that I don't believe you, but that seems odd. YouTubeTV does not have expensive equipment or installation services, and they operate with significantly less employees devoted to its service than DISH Network does. Yet, DISH charges roughly the same amount of money for their "Top 120." I know the packages of content may be slightly different, but it would seem like if the overhead was similar, then the added operating costs DISH requires would make it a slam dunk that YoutubeTV's profit margins are greater (at least on the comparative packages).
 
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#88
#88
MurphyVol said:
I'd you're talking about YouTube TV, no they aren't profitable and they're not even break even.

Basically it's a waiting game to see who the last steaming company is and then the raise prices to cable/Dish levels.
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YouTubeTV and Hulu are both owned by 2 of the most profitable companies in the world: Disney and Google.

They can afford to wait out the market while slowly stealing subscribers from the major platforms. Online Streaming TV is going to be the primary platform within the next 10 years. Cable and Satellite are going to have to adapt or risk going the way of the Dodo, not the other way around.
 
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#89
#89
Carp said:
YouTubeTV and Hulu are both owned. by 2 of the most profitable companies in the world though: Disney and Google.

They can afford to wait out the market while slowly stealing subscribers from the major platforms. Online Streaming TV is going to be the primary platform within the next 10 years. Cable and Dish is going to have to adapt or risk
K going the way of the Dodo, not the other wat around.
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Exactomundo. Think not? Try buying MCI, TCG, or Worldcom long distance service for your landline phone these days.
 
#90
#90
Carp said:
YouTubeTV and Hulu are both owned by 2 of the most profitable companies in the world: Disney and Google.

They can afford to wait out the market while slowly stealing subscribers from the major platforms. Online Streaming TV is going to be the primary platform within the next 10 years. Cable and Satellite are going to have to adapt or risk going the way of the Dodo, not the other way around.
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I don't disagree at all. My point is that 5 years from now You Tube TV will probably cost the same as people are paying for DirecTV today.

The streaming revolution will just be a cheaper way to get content out. No buying dishes, launching satellites or paying installers. But the content costs what the content costs and in the long run we won't really see any savings.
 
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#91
#91
MurphyVol said:
I don't disagree at all. My point is that 5 years from now You Tube TV will probably cost the same as people are paying for DirecTV today.

The streaming revolution will just be a cheaper way to get content out. No buying dishes, launching satellites or paying installers. But the content costs what the content costs and in the long run we won't really see any savings.
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I fear you are going to be correct. I got the PS Vue Core package in mid-2016 for $35. It is now $50 and will shut down in two months.
 
#92
#92
MurphyVol said:
I don't disagree at all. My point is that 5 years from now You Tube TV will probably cost the same as people are paying for DirecTV today.

The streaming revolution will just be a cheaper way to get content out. No buying dishes, launching satellites or paying installers. But the content costs what the content costs and in the long run we won't really see any savings.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Content costs initially will go up but there will be winners and losers. Right now, investors are throwing money at people to produce content flooding the pipes, see the amount of money Netflix is spending on their p[ersonal content is yanked out from under them back to their originators who stream now. Most of the content out there sucks and is unwatched for example how many people have their own "youtube channels?" Millions of them, how many people watch them comparatively? Vsry few because most channels like that are boring. The law of supply and demand will eventually kick in and rule with a vengeance, its always does. There is and will be a ballooning content bubble, it will burst, and content will be had much like MCI long distance service for pennies on the dollar. End of the day, content will be much much cheaper, and there will be very many fewer people able to make money with it as only the good stuff will be streamed. The people that will make the most money will be the folks who have content pipes and the meter running running on the bits and bytes being counted through the air on a monthly bill.
 
#93
#93
Remy said:
This is you and me and I agree as well. I consider myself an OTA guy. Recently as an example I picked up Starz for a month and binged on the 50 Cent series Power, thne dropped them. Did the same thing for Game of Thrones on HBO their final season. I refuse to bundle anything with an ISP. Get whatever is best for your specific location and uses and then stream whatever you want for when you want it, then dump them and move on to something else you want to watch. It is MUCH cheaper than cable tv for sure. YTTV sounds like many like it and onboard and can honestly say I've yet to try it, but may for a month on down the line. Here's a Bloomberg Financial article how the cable pie keeps shrinking. Their model will not work long term, as a matter of fact look to the long distance telephone market as an example. What used to very good money, long distance telephone, is now a giveaway feature on your mobilephone. That's where Comcast and other cable companies are headed IMO. Content will or must end up being a giveaway feature for them to keep or entice ANY customers at all to stay on their coax network. 5G start a slow death for the cable tv companies IMO. Comcast Faces Fights on Multiple Fronts as Cable Pie Shrinks
Click to expand...

Comcast and the other cable companies don’t own the content, they have to pay companies like ABC, Fox, CNN, etc for access to their content. Those companies know the value of their content and continue to raise the rates they charge cable companies to air it. Unless the content providers decide to charge less the prices will stay high.
 
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#94
#94
Just get a Amazon firestick and do a youtube search on how to hack it and get every thing free.
 
#97
#97
I have spectrum select. 20.00 a month for all of my locals (12-15 chann) and 10 network channels. Internet plus that is 45.00 a month.
I also have Prime and use Rokus free channels. I use a log in for the ESPN app for Vols stuff and will likely get the Disney + for the daughter. I just cant imagine paying 50.00 a money for TV anymore.
 
#100
#100
Just a heads up that Amazon has their Firestick on sale for $19.99 (39.99) and the Firestick 4 K for $24.99 (49.99). Must have if you have Amazon Prime. Easy to jailbreak (takes 3 minutes) and download free apps. Great gift idea. No, I don't work for Amazon!
 
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