" the wheels are falling off of satellite TV"

[comfortably_numb]

Tmobile now offers an unlimited hotspot plan. If any of you have a Tmobile tower nearby, and lack DSL or other land-based internet options, it might be the way to go. Hotspot tethered to my PC via USB cable, then bridged to my ethernet port, then out to my router, is my home solution and it works well. Speeds dip a bit during peak hours (7-10 PM) but usually not below 4-5 mbps.

I still have Dish and won’t be dumping it, because I can’t depend on a FAST broadband connection 24/7, but on the whole I get better speeds than what Fairpoint (now Consolidated) offers here (20/1.5)

 

[satjay]

comcast and netflix raising rates

Get ready for home internet prices to double

Netflix raising prices in the U.S. for the first time in two years

It's just a matter of time to when the cord cutting services are not the savings they are now

 

[Scherrman]

It's just a matter of time to when the cord cutting services are not the savings they are now

I said this a few years ago. As more and more people switch to online services you will see their rates increase and as the satellite companies fight to be more competitive you will see them have better prices with better features. This is just business as usual.

 

[dare2be]

Streaming service prices will increase until there is no savings benefit over satellite, that is for sure. But don't confuse "better" prices with satellite as better prices for the consumer. Both will increase past the breaking point.

Plus, media ownership will continue to consolidate, conglomerate, and monopolize until there is even less choice to save money for the consumer.

THAT is business as usual.

 

[Mochuf]

I think you will see DISH and DIRECTV move to offer a higher quality service, offering things that will be hard to get online, such as 4K and higher quality HD.

Ha, you mentioned Dish and higher quality HD in the same sentence.

 

[JSheridan]

It's just a matter of time to when the cord cutting services are not the savings they are now

I remember when everything was free with a big dish and look where the evolution has taken us. Just a matter of time before a similar thing happens with streaming.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Actually they have already started. I think you mentioned this yourself.

 

[dare2be]

A case where the left brain doesn't know what the right brain is doing.

 

[Bruce]

I think you will see DISH and DIRECTV move to offer a higher quality service, offering things that will be hard to get online, such as 4K and higher quality HD.

Where are those things hard to get online, higher quality HD (1080P) and the vast majority of 4K programming are already there.

 

[TalonDancer]

The fundamental difference between satellite and streaming is not the price, it’s the delivery paradigm: Broadcast vs On Demand. Even if the price is identical, On Demand will likely be the entertainment delivery paradigm of choice in the future.

This price parity already exists with HBO. For $15/mo I can get HBO via Dish and have 20ish programs to watch/record tonight during prime time. Or I can have access to these 20ish programs and nearly 500 more movies to chose from via HBO Now. The primary difference is the option to record the 20ish programs via Dish, which costs extra ($15/mo for a Hopper).

Of course, this comparison is not perfect. I would need to factor in the cost of the internet connection. And HBO GO, which is included with the Dish HBO sub, would give me streaming access to the same 500ish movies as HBO NOW. But I already have the internet service and would likely keep it whether or not I streamed any video. And once I start using HBO GO I might as well switch to HBO NOW and gain the flexibility of turning on/off that service with no penalties. And lastly, all of the price details will change in the future.

FWIW I’ve sub’d to HBO via Dish for the last year so that I would have access to HBO GO for only $10/mo though the HBO promotion. We will drop HBO later this month when Dish raises the price to $15/mo.

 

[lparsons21]

Your description holds true for things like Netflix and the various channel oriented apps, but not so true for the streaming services like PSVue and others. With them the experience and interaction is not even close to that provided by cable/sat. Even if they offer some sort of ‘dvr’ service, it is generally not very good and a bit of a PITA to deal with. And trick play just doesn’t work well on any of them.

Oddly as prices of the streamers increases no one seems to notice that their prices are getting close to cable/sat. The only way that using streamers legally saves significant money is if you reduce the number of channels.

 

[satjay]

I remember when everything was free with a big dish and look where the evolution has taken us. Just a matter of time before a similar thing happens with streaming.

Great point, I remember myself those days with the big dish at my parents house. As technology changes so do the $$$

 

[comfortably_numb]

Great point, I remember myself those days with the big dish at my parents house. As technology changes so do the $$$

Those were good times. Lots of free TV channels, audio feeds, "wild feeds" from news channels, etc.

 

[TalonDancer]

“Oddly as prices of the streamers increases no one seems to notice that their prices are getting close to cable/sat. The only way that using streamers legally saves significant money is if you reduce the number of channels.”

I see the reduction in the number of channels as a bonus Even the Welcome pack has more channels than we ever wanted.

My wife and I watch somewhere between 3-4 hours of TV every evening. Almost all of it is “streamed”. We keep the cost of down by only having one or two streaming services active in any given month.

Our base streaming service is Amazon Prime, then we add on “channels”/services, but only for a few months each. For the last few months we’ve had Amazon Prime with the add-on Acorn TV channel. When we run out of interesting programs on Acorn TV, we will drop it and add a different “channel” Like HBO, Starz, Showtime, Cinemax,etc. (sound familiar?) for a month or two. Or we may subscribe to Hulu OR Netflix, etc. for a month or two. This fits our viewing style, where we prefer to view a whole season of a program over several days. Then pick another show to “binge watch”.

Maybe the streaming services will make this less attractive in the future. Or maybe Dish will change their package structure. But until then this suits us pretty well.

 

[patmurphey]

An example of the greed and potential high cost of streaming is CBS's new Star Trek Discovery. You have to subscribe to CBS All Access to see it even though you are paying for CBS on Dish.

 

[Bruce]

Oddly as prices of the streamers increases no one seems to notice that their prices are getting close to cable/sat. The only way that using streamers legally saves significant money is if you reduce the number of channels.

While I have noticed that certain programming packages prices from streamers are close to cable/sat, the biggest savings is no fees, Comcast for example ( who we were with until we switched to Vue) charges a broadcast channel fee and a local sports fee, and then we would have box fees ( everyone charges those fees), we would need 5 so that is basically another $50 a month, Core Slim package on Vue is $34.99 a month ( sooner or later it is going to $44.99 a month but they delayed the increase for existing customers), so to get the same channels that we get with Vue, with fees ( DVR, box fees, channel fees ( depending on the provider) we would have to pay $90 to $120 a month.

While prices are going up with streamers they are still going up with cable/sat providers also.

 

[JSheridan]

An example of the greed and potential high cost of streaming is CBS's new Star Trek Discovery. You have to subscribe to CBS All Access to see it even though you are paying for CBS on Dish.

And for that reason this is the first Star Trek series since the beginning that I won't be watching. CBS and Les Moonves' greed has gotten way out of control.

 

[JSheridan]

Those were good times. Lots of free TV channels, audio feeds, "wild feeds" from news channels, etc.

In the beginning everything was free. As an example every football game was there for free for the watching. Now they collect billions of dollars for the same content with the 'Sunday Ticket' and the rest of the ESPN and broadcast games. Not that it matters anymore as football isn't being watched around here this year.

 

[JSheridan]

While I have noticed that certain programming packages prices from streamers are close to cable/sat, the biggest savings is no fees, Comcast for example ( who we were with until we switched to Vue) charges a broadcast channel fee and a local sports fee, and then we would have box fees ( everyone charges those fees), we would need 5 so that is basically another $50 a month, Core Slim package on Vue is $34.99 a month ( sooner or later it is going to $44.99 a month but they delayed the increase for existing customers), so to get the same channels that we get with Vue, with fees ( DVR, box fees, channel fees ( depending on the provider) we would have to pay $90 to $120 a month.

While prices are going up with streamers they are still going up with cable/sat providers also.

And what about the rising cost and the lower caps of the internet connection itself? Don't forget to factor that in.

 

[Bruce]

And what about the rising cost and the lower caps of the internet connection itself? Don't forget to factor that in.

Don't have a data cap(part of my contract) and everyone will have rising costs if you have broadband and have cable/sat/streaming service.