Largest-ever quarterly loss of Pay TV Customers

[ncted]

There sure is as I reported for 2018 it went up $4.99 a month more,but as you and harkness said"There is no free lunch" and I believe that also.
I don't remember where I heard this but I remember hearing that cable's TV service is just an extra offering,that the cable company wants the customer to be paying for their internet most of all,I believe that quote was in a magazine article.
And not to put anyone down because all the TV service providers are not for everybody,but I have always thought that both satellite and cable providers charge way too many little extra fees,even when I had them.
So for lunch I am going to buy a sandwich from my OTT provider and I will pay their price for the sandwich which seems like a decent price.Then for lunch I will buy a sandwich from a cable and or satellite provider,now the charge looks to be a little higher for their sandwich,so I examine their bill and with the price of sandwich,there is a mayo fee,kethup fee,mustard fee,tomato fee,onion fee,pickle fee,ect.ect.

Good analogy aside from the fact that your sandwich doesn't come with any bread from the OTT provider. You have to bake your own bread (streaming device), and you have to have an oven for each way you want to eat your sandwich. With cable/satellite, you pay monthly for your fresh bread supplies, one for each way you want to eat your sandwich. With OTT, if one or more of your ovens break (and won't work with the new OTT service you want to use), you have to buy one or more new ovens. Is the cable/satellite model of bread supply more costly in the long run? Yes, but you don't have to have the up-front capital costs of one or more ovens.

I am not saying one is better than the other, BTW - Just expanding the analogy. Also, this really reminds me of "sandwiches" on How I Met Your Mother, if anyone else watched that.

 

[Ronnie-]

Good analogy aside from the fact that your sandwich doesn't come with any bread from the OTT provider. You have to bake your own bread (streaming device), and you have to have an oven for each way you want to eat your sandwich. With cable/satellite, you pay monthly for your fresh bread supplies, one for each way you want to eat your sandwich. With OTT, if one or more of your ovens break (and won't work with the new OTT service you want to use), you have to buy one or more new ovens. Is the cable/satellite model of bread supply more costly in the long run? Yes, but you don't have to have the up-front capital costs of one or more ovens.

I am not saying one is better than the other, BTW - Just expanding the analogy. Also, this really reminds me of "sandwiches" on How I Met Your Mother, if anyone else watched that.

This is true, however your upfront costs for the streaming devices (which many already have) is offset for most in a few months vs the extra box fees that traditional providers use. Thats where cable/sat becomes so expensive for multi tv users, not in the rate for the programming.

 

[Zookster]

More and more people are getting their OTT service apps "baked in" to their smart TVs. No need for even one of those pricey $40 streaming sticks.

 

[ncted]

More and more people are getting their OTT service apps "baked in" to their smart TVs. No need for even one of those pricey $40 streaming sticks.

In my experience, the baked in apps suck. I honestly don't know how people are surviving on that. Then again, people still use cable DVRs. I suppose ignorance is bliss.

 

[Ronnie-]

In my experience, the baked in apps suck. I honestly don't know how people are surviving on that. Then again, people still use cable DVRs. I suppose ignorance is bliss.

I do have to agree. And when they are decent, they are the first left behind when it comes to updates. I much prefer a small investment in a streaming device that will more often than not be updated for a few years.

 

[TheKrell]

How about the cheap TVs with Roku built in?

 

[Ronnie-]

How about the cheap TVs with Roku built in?

Those are updated as they run the roku software itself. Or so I think anyway.

Its really no different than using a roku device itself on any random tv. The update would come from roku for the apps and OS rather than the tv maker.

 

[navychop]

I bought a small cheapie Insignia ROKU TV for my exercise room. It’s been updated at least once, and I understand I can expect more updates straight from Roku.


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[Bruce]

How about the cheap TVs with Roku built in?

I have one of the better versions of those ( TCL P SERIES) Televisions, it basically is a Roku Ultra built in but better since it does Dolby Vision and HDR and the Ultras only do HDR.

By the way, the new Roku Ultra will be on sale for $49 this Black Friday at Best Buy and others, the Stick $29 if anyone needs to upgrade.

 

[Zookster]

In my experience, the baked in apps suck. I honestly don't know how people are surviving on that. Then again, people still use cable DVRs. I suppose ignorance is bliss.

I used a cable DVR for 12 years, which may be why I was so amenable to switching entirely to OTT live TV services the minute some of the better services with included DVR functionality (PS Vue and YouTube TV) became available nationwide. People would complain about glitches as part of these OTT live TV service growing pains, but I can't say my experience with cable was any better. If a recording failed to happen as scheduled or was glitched, rendering it unwatchable, on cable, I was SoL, and best case scenario was an on demand version was available (albeit with forced commercials) or I could watch it online. If I have a problem playing back a cloud-based DVR recording on the new services (which is rare), it's always temporary and I can watch without any problem a day later if not within the hour. I also endured for most of my 12 years with a cable DVR a hard drive size that only allowed 20 hours worth of HD content. So PS Vue's restriction of watching any recorded content within 28 days posed zero issue for me as I was already in the habit of watching everything I recorded within a week.

 

[Jhon69]

Good analogy aside from the fact that your sandwich doesn't come with any bread from the OTT provider. You have to bake your own bread (streaming device), and you have to have an oven for each way you want to eat your sandwich. With cable/satellite, you pay monthly for your fresh bread supplies, one for each way you want to eat your sandwich. With OTT, if one or more of your ovens break (and won't work with the new OTT service you want to use), you have to buy one or more new ovens. Is the cable/satellite model of bread supply more costly in the long run? Yes, but you don't have to have the up-front capital costs of one or more ovens.

I am not saying one is better than the other, BTW - Just expanding the analogy. Also, this really reminds me of "sandwiches" on How I Met Your Mother, if anyone else watched that.

The one thing I know for sure is.....I like sandwiches!

 

[navychop]

White bread is bad for you. Using whole wheat?



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[Jhon69]

White bread is bad for you. Using whole wheat?



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Sourdough.....whole wheat is good too!

 

[ncted]

How about the cheap TVs with Roku built in?

I guess those are better than the proprietary devices, at least at first. I've had several Roku devices over the years which would not work with newer apps, so I was forced to upgrade. I guess you can just add a device later when your TV will no longer run the newest apps.

 

[harshness]

I guess you can just add a device later when your TV will no longer run the newest apps.

Why set yourself up to learn one system now only to have to learn another in a few years?

 

[Ronnie-]

I guess those are better than the proprietary devices, at least at first. I've had several Roku devices over the years which would not work with newer apps, so I was forced to upgrade. I guess you can just add a device later when your TV will no longer run the newest apps.

What rokus and what apps ? I've upgraded all of mine as time passes and features improved, but I can't remember any that didn't have the same apps on them. Biggest gap between any I used was a Roku 3 to stick +, and then only for a short time.

Unless maybe when it was a major os update that the olderr device couldn't support. Which would be common no matter what device you use. Streamer or DVR from the cable company or tivo.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[ncted]

What rokus and what apps ? I've upgraded all of mine as time passes and features improved, but I can't remember any that didn't have the same apps on them. Biggest gap between any I used was a Roku 3 to stick +, and then only for a short time.

Unless maybe when it was a major os update that the olderr device couldn't support. Which would be common no matter what device you use. Streamer or DVR from the cable company or tivo.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

I had an original Roku DVP and then a HD-XR. I had an original Streaming Stick 3400 as well, which never supported the newer versions of Netflix. I have a slightly newer Stick (3500 I think) which I just keep as a spare. I know it won't work with DirecTVNow and some other apps. DNow also won't work (or doesn't advertise it) with first generation Fire TV devices.

I also had an original AppleTV, which stopped supporting a variety of apps, as did the 2nd and 3rd generation AppleTVs I owned.

Today, I own a Roku Premier+ (4360), a Roku Streaming Stick+(3810), a Roku Streaming Stick (3600R), and an Amazon Fire TV Stick (2016). I am tempted by the 4th Gen AppleTV since it is the only device that has support for (almost) everything, but the price is high, and it has been out for a while, so I am waiting to see if they come out with a newer one.

I seem to have to replace these devices pretty regularly to be able to have a usable interface that works with all the apps I want to use. Is it cheaper than what I pay monthly for my Dish devices? Yes, but it isn't nothing at the end of the day. Also, I do not find them as reliable as my Dish STBs. I regularly have to perform a reset on all of my Roku devices to get them to work reliably. Also, switching from one app to another will cause them to reboot unexpectedly, especially the Premier+. The Fire TV Stick has been far more reliable, but it lacks certain apps. I expect the newest AppleTV is more reliable, but I don't know that for sure.

 

[harshness]

The latest Apple TV 4K was released last year so there's likely at least ten months to go before they release a newer model.

How popular the Apple TVs are is largely unknown as Apple doesn't talk about sales figures anymore and even when they did, they globbed the Apple TV in with the watches and Beats products as a dollar figure. It seems likely that the price will remain almost double the wildly popular competition and as always, discounts will be scarce to none.

I'm still waiting to see which HDR format prevails between Dolby Vision and HLG as I see licensing cost as a roadblock to Dolby Vision's long-term success and I dismiss HDR10+ and Technicolor as too little too late.

The odd part of all of this OTT activity is that more than a few aren't really committed to it and eventually return to some more conventional form of pay TV. If the OTT services are only able to build 10-20% per year, it is going to take a rather long time and all the while, the pressure to become profitable grows. New services popping up with their "introductory pricing" are only going to subtract from the existing services' ability to make that profit.