Streaming TV, how do you afford bandwidth costs?

[Mark609]

Lot's of folks talking up Dish's NuTV and other streaming video. My question is "fine, but how do you afford bandwidth costs?" I'm rural and the only bandwidth available for internet is via satelite. I don't know how much bandwidth would be needed for say.....15 "cable" channels like Fox News, Food Network, AXS TV etc. but my Viasat provider would empty my bank account.

Thanks

 

[StevenD]

Unfortunately, satellite TV is still your best option.

I have an unlimited bandwidth with my FiOS business account. I was very interested, and still might be, but without the ability to even pause a live stream, I'm less interested than I was.

 

[david_gilbert]

I'm lucky that my home internet is a wireless tie in back to my office in town. So I have unlimited internet and don't have to worry about caps. The bad thing is my kids have gotten so used to Netflix and other streaming methods that when they go to my mom's house they make her hit her cap early in the month since she has residential class cable internet. She upped her plan to increase the cap, but still comes close when they are out of school and there for several days all day.

I know your pain of being rural, we lived 9 years in my house with only a low bandwidth wireless connection. the best it could get was 500k, and usually only about 250-300. That was why last spring I finally put up a tower and had a better wireless installed. You may want to check around and see who is doing wireless in your area, odds are someone is. They may not serve your house currently, but if you let them know the interest is there they just might be able to get something to serve you and any neighbors.

I think as our entertainment models move more towards streaming we will find more and more providers dropping caps completely. It may take a few more years, but it will come just like old analog cell phone plans eventually changed to digital unlimited talk/text of today.

 

[king3pj]

Lot's of folks talking up Dish's NuTV and other streaming video. My question is "fine, but how do you afford bandwidth costs?" I'm rural and the only bandwidth available for internet is via satelite. I don't know how much bandwidth would be needed for say.....15 "cable" channels like Fox News, Food Network, AXS TV etc. but my Viasat provider would empty my bank account.

Thanks

Video streaming isn't built for rural people like you. It's for people in cities and suburbs with better broadband options. I have 60Mbps Charter cable internet for $45 but no traditional pay TV services. I definitely use more than my share of bandwidth. I stream a couple of hours (sometimes much more if I'm binge watching something) of 1080p video just about every day. I also routinely purchase video games on Xbox Live, Playstation Network and Steam. These games are typically between 20GB and 50GB but I recently downloaded one that weighed in at 65GB. I also play games online with voice chat and all my cell phone calls are routed through the internet because I'm in a weak coverage area. I'm not one of the torrent guys who are constantly downloading and uploading pirated content. Everything over my connection is legal but I'm definitely an internet "power user." I have never had my internet throttled or received a notice that I'm using too much bandwidth.

If I was rural enough to require satellite internet I likely wouldn't be able to do any of those things. Luckily I'm in a suburb with real broadband access. The good news for Dish and other people trying to sell video streaming services is that most of the population isn't as rural as you. They don't have to be a good option for everyone. No service is. The fact is that there are enough people with good broadband access to support streaming video businesses.

 

[SatinKzo]

I changed my Comcast 50/10 residential HSI to 75/15 business HSI and dropped all my video services. Saving $70 a month now even after upping Netflix to the $12 plan and adding hulu plus. Have an antenna for a few live events

 

[mike123abc]

Help may be coming for rural areas, but of course since the government is involved it will probably take years. It looks like the FCC is going to define broadband as 25 down 3 mbit up.

http://www.slashgear.com/fcc-wants-broadband-to-be-25mbps-down3mbps-up-07363023/?

In rural areas, the FCC found that 53% (22 million) of US citizens lack access to the 25Mbps/3Mbps speed threshold. Nationwide, 55 million citizens lack access to the service. That’s access, not subscriptions or options to buy.

The FCC also says that rural demand for the 25Mbps data transfer is nearly equal to urban areas. Of those with access, 28% opt for it, compared to 30% in urban settings.

So, all future federal funds to build out rural areas may be a lot better than basic DSL.

 

[Mochuf]

http://www.slashgear.com/fcc-wants-broadband-to-be-25mbps-down3mbps-up-07363023/?



So, all future federal funds to build out rural areas may be a lot better than basic DSL.

Not really, satellite service could reach those speeds. And I wouldn't choose that over DSL.

 

[Mark609]

Thanks for the great info and your time. Makes perfect sense how you city folks can pull this off using broadband.

I hope the FCC increases the speed limits but I doubt if that will help with bandwidth. My Viasat Exede download speeds taken just now using Speak Easy was 17.50 Mbps, DL 17.50 Mbps. $54/mo. for 10 GB is pretty steep.

 

[david_gilbert]

Exede has a night time meter free, so you could always wait until 2AM to stream video. LOL

Seriously though I feel your pain. Until we got the current setup I was seriously considering Exede just because as slow as my connection was even FB would mess up trying to browse it. We had never used Netflix, but now that we have 50/8(actually could handle close to 100 but 50/8 is max speed for business class cable here) we have come to depend on streaming for the majority of our viewing.

If Directv ever allowed a streamed Roku channel I would get rid of all but 1 receiver!

 

[Mochuf]

Exede has a night time meter free, so you could always wait until 2AM to stream video. LOL

Or do what some people who have Dish, dl VOD to their dvr's during the free period. You can dl Amazon, iTune and Vudu purchases too.

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

This reminds me, before the wife and I move to middle-of-nowhere Colorado, I need to fill the hard drives with... well, anything we can think of. I'm in New Britain, CT just outside of Hartford, so 100Mb down is pretty cheap. I'd love to see internet access become a utility the way electricity and landline phone have, at least a minimum 10Mb down. I realized how spoiled I am with my connection when I went to my mother's house, and her husband tried looking at the maps on tvfool.com (on Frontier DSL). It was strange actually waiting for things to load. Here, even HD streaming doesn't need to wait to buffer... It never occurs to us that we might be using too much bandwidth, and we never get close to the data cap of 250GB/mo. We'll definitely have to adjust once we move to a rural area in the summer...