Cable Companies Want Bigger Share of Online TV Market 175
commodore64_love writes with news that a number of cable companies, such as Time-Warner, Comcast, and Cox, are trying to establish themselves as content providers on the web in addition to television. They are currently negotiating with HBO, TNT, CNN, and a number of other channels to bring their programming online exclusively for cable TV subscribers. They say they're not trying to develop "some enormous new revenue opportunity," but rather trying to compete with sites like Hulu, which provide shows for free.
"They pay networks a per-subscriber fee each month for the right to carry channels. But the cable companies have groused that they are paying for content that programmers are giving away for free on the Web. ... People aren't yet cutting the cord en masse - the Leichtman survey found that people who watch recent TV shows online every week are not more likely to give up TV service than other people. But the industry is heading off what could end up as a troubling trend. After all, the availability of free content online has befuddled other media industries, from music to newspapers. ... The cable companies and others involved in the talks for a TV service said their goal isn't to kill the online video goose, but to work out a plan that keeps everyone's business intact."
This was my first submission to slashdot (Score:5, Informative)
I don't recognize a single word. Nice editing. LOL. :-) - The key point of my submission is that YOU WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO WATCH SHOWS FOR FREE on sites like tnt.com, abcfamily.com, et cetera because the shows will be placed behind a wall, and only cable subscribers will be able to access them. Non-cable homes (such as myself) will no longer be able to watch ad-supported online shows like the Closer, Kyle XY, or Monk.
The cable companies argue that, because they pay subscriber fees (25-90 cents per home per channel), they should be able to control who does, and does not, have access to online TV shows.
Aside -
Frankly, when I read this in my hometown paper, it made me rather angry. It's bad enough Comcast has a monopoly over cable lines, but now they want a monopoly over internet TV watching too? I've been watching Monk and Kyle XY on usanetwork.com and abcfamily.com for awhile now, but it appears I won't be doing that after Fall 2009 arrives. They will be sealed behind subscriber-only access.
Re:Good luck! Meanwhile enjoy some real competitio (Score:5, Informative)
today popular shows have 6 minutes of commercials for every 5 minutes of content.
That is bullshit. The typical prime-time hour long show has 39-42 minutes of content,leaving only 18-21 minutes for commercials. That is a ratio of 1 minute commercial for every 2 minutes of content. I know this because I edit the commercials out before watching and I use the "time remaining" counter in my video editor as a sanity check that I got all of the commercials.
Re:Time Warner is horrible.... (Score:3, Informative)
One of the biggest problems with TWC - at least in the NYC area - is line degradation. Customer service will insist that the box is malfunctioning, but if you do some basic line noise tests you'll probably notice a significant noise problem.
TWC won't do a damn thing about it. They'll claim to the heavens that it's Scientific Atlanta's problem, or that your house wiring needs to be replaced. You have to twist a managers arms for months before they admit that they don't see the need to replace/maintain the copper connection from their fiber loop to the home. I know that in my area, the same copper has been in use since the 1970's and the lack of maintenance shows: digital artifacts abound, some channels just don't come in, and two-way communication with the headend is fucked beyond belief (we had a month where we were charged over $200 for "on demand" movies - it was a backlog of all the on demand movies we had ordered over the past year, apparently the box was unable to communicate with TWC for the longest time, and was able to do so one day by some miracle).
Of course, if you have the Scientific Atlanta HD DVR, you're fucked. The software on the box has so many bugs it's completely unacceptable. They pass the box off as retail ready, but after 3 years on the market, it's STILL an alpha product at best.
Every few months there's talk of Time Warner as a whole going under, and it's with good reason: the entire company from the jackass that calls himself a CEO, to the child companies of AOL and Scientific Atlanta, down to some stupid CSR cunt in Wisconsin is incompetent.
Switched to Netflix and will never go back (Score:5, Informative)
My wife and I recently bought our first HD flat screen TV. We were about to call Comcast to add HD to our cable plan. Then we stopped and asked ourselves a question, "How much more enjoyment will we get from watching shows we already watch but now in HD?" The answer, for us, turned out to be almost nothing. So now we were stuck with stretched and obviously pixelated non HD programming on our new HD TV.
So we asked ourselves another question, "How many of the shows that we watch aren't available online as full episodes (many in HD)?" The answer again, for us, turned out to be almost none.
So we dropped all cable TV (cable package, DVR, and on-demand) and only kept internet. We then signed up for Netflix 3 DVDs with Blu-Ray and on-demand for only $17 a month. We then bought an LG Blu-Ray player that hooks into your Netflix account and allows you to stream any Netflix on-demand show to your TV. LG even recently released an upgrade where now we can browse YouTube and watch any video.
Looking back, we would never go back to cable. We're perfectly happy with the selection of entertainment Netflix and online sites give us and very much enjoy watching TV on our terms with almost no commercials (most network TV websites use commercials... though Netflix doesn't, of course). Plus, we went from almost paying ~$80 for HD cable with a DVR and an on-demand box to only $17 a month (plus the Blu-Ray player we bought) and are much happier with our TV.
What's poetic justice in all this is that Comcast is providing the bandwidth for us to stream all of their competitor's content. Makes me realize why cable companies are vehemently against net neutrality. I hope they never win that battle.
Re:Good luck! Meanwhile enjoy some real competitio (Score:3, Informative)
For me it is very interesting though to see how they foist more and more commercials over time. I'd like to have that 50 minutes of show per hour back!
Re:Switched to Netflix and will never go back (Score:3, Informative)
It will get more expensive when you hit Comcast's 250 GB/Month cap, then your rates increase $10 for each 15GB you go over the limit.
Netflix (Score:3, Informative)
I don't use Netflix just for streaming, but I moved my plan up a notch just to have access to it.
I can't say I'm burning up the tubes streaming stuff, but I like it when I do.
I feel the price I pay is a fair price, so I can see a business model that does charge for a connection to content.
What isn't going to happen is someone paying 69.95 a month for low quality video just to stream it to a laptop.
This is where they will miss the boat. It doesn't have to be free. People will pay for things if the price is right. I'm on a fairly tight budget but I've been a Netflix customer for well over a year now.
transporter_ii
So now the truth comes out (Score:4, Informative)
Now they're finally admitting the real reason for the bandwidth caps: they do not want to lose their cable TV monopolies.
Re:Time Warner is horrible.... (Score:3, Informative)
Worked for me. In the last few months, I cut my cable bill quite dramatically.
By dropping the television and phone service, my bill went from $180 to $50.
I don't miss TV at all. What little I watch tends to be baseball, and I can get every MLB game legally on my computer through a paid service offered by the league.
Additionally, Netflix's streaming and DVD-by-mail service fill in the remainder of what time I have to watch TV.
I can't believe that I was paying $1560 per year for cable TV. What a waste.