When will it end?

[Jillian]

Big problem with that. The whole idea of having a dvr is to save programs for latter viewing or repeat viewing. Change providers and you've lost anything that you've recorded. Unless you've purchased your dvr you have to send it back to the provider and anything stored on a ehd is lost since the ehd is keyed to the account number. If that secenerio works for you, go ahead. You'll be a drop in the ocean. For me it doesn't. With 2 HWS's and 5 ehd's, I have to much recorded to think about changing.
Besides, the wife has figured out, for the most part, how to use the dvr's. If the wife is happy, I'm happy.

For me personally , I don't care to record programs and watch them over and over. Once I see a program , I am finished with it. No desire to keep it indefinitely. I realize that other people do though.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Unfortunately I think that will be the decision that most people will make in the future. Priority 1 for most people is you have to have internet access and are willing to pay for it. Tv will fall by the wayside due to higher and higher costs. But of course once everyone is willing to pay for internet in the $50.00 - $70.00 a month range , you will see the internet companies start going up on the costs and we will soon be paying what we pay for tv for just internet. They are going to get paid anyway they can. Pay tv might change it's delivery mode, but the cost will always go up . The only time tv was FREE was when we had 3 or 4 ota tv stations . Now with tv you have 100s of channels with nothing on, more than what used to be on those 3 or 4 ota stations, and it is now FEE not Free.

I'm afraid that if the big TV companies don't do something, then what you say might happen will happen. And as long as sports channels (especially regional sports channels) are tied to huge salaries for players, the provider's hands are tied too. It's a giant, ridiculous mess. The whole thing needs to be blown up and rebooted!!

 

[Mariah2014]

It won't reboot, it would just disappear.

I'm afraid that if the big TV companies don't do something, then what you say might happen will happen. And as long as sports channels (especially regional sports channels) are tied to huge salaries for players, the provider's hands are tied too. It's a giant, ridiculous mess. The whole thing needs to be blown up and rebooted!!

 

[slocoma]

I think the end will come in the next 10-20 years, 30 at the most.

My kids don't watch conventional TV anymore. They have access to it, but they would rather binge on Netflix or watch Youtube. My oldest is 11. I doubt he'll have conventional television when he sets out on his own in about 10 years.

 

[dare2be]

I think the end will come in the next 10-20 years, 30 at the most.

My kids don't watch conventional TV anymore. They have access to it, but they would rather binge on Netflix or watch Youtube. My oldest is 11. I doubt he'll have conventional television when he sets out on his own in about 10 years.

Don't worry, by then one of the conglomerate content owners will buy Youtube and make it a PPV/VOD site.

 

[Yespage]

The writing is on the wall... it isn't going to get much cheaper in the future. The owners of the content will see to it.

I think Dish may be looking to preempt the system for the future, by developing enough OTA bandwidth for the future of IP delivery (the only future there is for programming). Nothing beats cabled for speed, but nothing beats versatility like wireless! If you aren't tapped into the Broadband market, you aren't going to exist in a couple of decades when it comes to broadcasting content.

I do ponder a hybridized broadcasting system, where local channels are broadcasted locally via Cell, which would free up lots of space in the Sats. This would limit how much he'd need to cram over the airwaves.

Don't worry, by then one of the conglomerate content owners will buy Youtube and make it a PPV/VOD site.

Doesn't Google own YouTube already?

 

[king3pj]

Don't worry, by then one of the conglomerate content owners will buy Youtube and make it a PPV/VOD site.

A pretty big fish already owns YouTube (google). Even if free access to YouTube ever does go away another outlet for user generated content will spring up. The floodgates have already opened for free content in the form of podcasts and videos on the internet. The younger generation is getting more and more of their entertainment this way and I don't see that changing.

My age group (26) seems to be somewhere in the middle. Some of my friends have traditional pay TV and some of us rely on streaming services like Netflix for most of our entertainment. It seems to be a pretty even split.

 

[jrbdmb]

My age group (26) seems to be somewhere in the middle. Some of my friends have traditional pay TV and some of us rely on streaming services like Netflix for most of our entertainment. It seems to be a pretty even split.

If the cable companies really start to lose revenue from their pay TV services, they will simply adjust the price of internet services to compensate. Cord cutters may someday pay $0 for TV, but that internet will cost them $150 a month.

 

[king3pj]

If the cable companies really start to lose revenue from their pay TV services, they will simply adjust the price of internet services to compensate. Cord cutters may someday pay $0 for TV, but that internet will cost them $150 a month.

If the price of Internet from TV providers gets to out of hand cheaper alternatives will spring up. Look at the cell phone industry. There used to be just a few huge providers. Now there are tons of small providers and MVNOs for a fraction of the cost. Some of us already have alternatives that aren't tied to TV providers. As Internet continues to become the preferred method of communication more of these alternatives will continue to enter the market.

There is another angle to this too. Internet is too essential to every day life for it to be limited to only the rich. It's almost impossible to get through school these days with no internet access. I don't think the government will allow ISPs to price it out of the range an average person can afford. They won't allow us to fall that far behind the rest of the civilized world.

 

[comfortably_numb]

If the price of Internet from TV providers gets to out of hand cheaper alternatives will spring up. Look at the cell phone industry. There used to be just a few huge providers. Now there are tons of small providers and MVNOs for a fraction of the cost. Some of us already have alternatives that aren't tied to TV providers. As Internet continues to become the preferred method of communication more of these alternatives will continue to enter the market.

There is another angle to this too. Internet is too essential to every day life for it to be limited to only the rich. It's almost impossible to get through school these days with no internet access. I don't think the government will allow ISPs to price it out of the range an average person can afford. They won't allow us to fall that far behind the rest of the civilized world.

Or will they? Our public school system is ranked like 14th in the world already..

 

[king3pj]

Or will they? Our public school system is ranked like 14th in the world already..

Even more reason why they shouldn't let the stagnating profits of a few cable companies restrict the access of information to the entire nation.