this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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US pay-TV subscriber base eroding at record pace::undefined

top 43 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net 103 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Have they tried reducing their price or increasing the quality of their product?

No?

[–] ooterness@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 62 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's alright. They're fucking over internet subscribers just as if we still had a cable TV package.

[–] highenergyphysics@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The day they try to bandwidth cap or piecemeal my internet service, I am becoming a Japanese terrorist

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Does that mean you're Japanese, or that you're going to become Japanese?

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

They will create a PMC take over Japan and then do terrorism.

[–] figjam@midwest.social 47 points 10 months ago (2 children)

On a lark I hooked up an antenna to see what was on broadcast TV. There were like 5 pbs channels and a dedicated weather channel. For being free it was pretty good.

[–] Lesrid@lemm.ee 23 points 10 months ago (2 children)

PBS is actually better than ever and I prefer it over most of what gets shoved in my face on my PC.

[–] FinalRemix@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

7 bucks a month for "passport" access, so PBS's streaming platform. It's damn good. NOVA episodes all over the place, news, new shows, etc. I gotta up my contribution.

[–] LazaroFilm@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

PBS kids is awesome. Their shows are well made and educational and available for free on their app!

[–] Roldyclark@literature.cafe 5 points 10 months ago

I love my antenna. I get like 20 channels. Local news, pbs, and old cartoons and sitcoms.

[–] WashedOver@lemmy.ca 40 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Coming up to 16 years since I cut the cord and hardly anyone I know that is younger has cable. It's internet and then streaming.

My father when he passed in 2013 was paying $160/mth for old HD cable for his old 35" RCA tube set before I bought him a LCD TV that required a upgrade to modern HD channels. He didn't have internet with that either. So while they were scamming him for this old 480p HD packages he wasn't alone I'm sure.

I will say at new year's I was at someone's place that only had internet and for the group of us he brought out a HD Amazon antenna to watch the ball drop at midnight on local broadcast TV.

The amount of commercials was jarring. I'm not looking forward to when they bring those to streaming services that are currently hemorrhaging billions.

[–] teamevil@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I watched Fargo last week via broadcast. 5 min to 5 min of commercial time. It's insane.

[–] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 16 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I would watch about 16 minutes before giving up.

In the old days flow TV was max 25-30% ads, how can people live with 50% ads? At that rate it will be "Find the content" so in a few years with 90% ads watching a 45 minute show would take 7.5 hours.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There won't be 45 minute shows. It'll be "Ow, my balls!" and cut to commercial.

[–] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Looking forward to 50 seconds commercials and 10 seconds tik-tok videos, but that's just YouTube.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

Tiktok itself is the worst. I actually like the core of tiktok, but JFC does every other video literally have to be an ad? I actually think it's like 3 out of 5 videos to be honest.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Remember when broadcast TV showed commercials on the 15 minute mark, 2-3 at a time for 30 minutes each, maybe more between shows? Commercials seemed like a reasonable tradeoff, plus were predictable so you could fit it in with other things. They dug their own grave, making commercials more intrusive, harder to skip, more frequent. …. Pepperidge Farms remembers

[–] sronweb@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The problem is that OTT services are going to the adv model too. They expect that we pay a minimum subscription cost and watch advertising.....this is crazy

[–] Restaldt@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

🏴‍☠️

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'd rather do anything else.

[–] Ferris@infosec.pub 1 points 10 months ago

I'd rather pry my eyes out with crayons

[–] crsu@lemmy.world 38 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'd subscribe if there were anything worth watching. Occupational reality shows on every channel. Streaming has gotten so bad lately that I don't think we're going to have a culture in the future just people setting themselves on fire for TikTok clout

[–] vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

We'll line up in the online queue for "Ow My Balls 7" though. And like it.

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why would I pay $120-140 for cable every month and be forced to watch tons of ads when. I can pay <$20 for Hulu or NFLX a month and watch none?

[–] KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Give it time, forced advertising is inevitable.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago

🏴‍☠️

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Because of every asshole I've seen say things like "it's only a couple ads, I don't mind that. Get over yourself."

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 20 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)
[–] spyd3r@sh.itjust.works 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Its currently cheaper for me to collect used laserdiscs, dvds, and blurays.

People are dumping physical media, and its a firesale. For most discs its $1-5 if you know where to look.

[–] Aggravationstation@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

But not as much as the high seas me heartie...

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 19 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Why is cable TV service, and TV streaming different? Can't the cable service providers just be streaming TV providers? And compete globally?

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

The distinction does seem a bit arbitrary, but I think it's the difference between being able to pick what you watch on demand, and having a lot of channels that are just playing whatever.

[–] LazaroFilm@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Actually Disney’s CEO touched about that during that last town hall. They release the shows both on traditional TV and streaming. They realized that the demographics using either platforms don’t overlap so they decided to continue with a parallel release separately to increase their reach. (I was a camera operator filming the event, I’m not a Disney employee, nor do I support any of their opinions)

[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

They mostly are, or owned by the same companies. The consumer cable companies also deliver Internet access for streaming so they're still getting paid.

[–] erwan@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Because content owners don't need cable providers to stream over the internet.

HBO doesn't need Comcast for streaming, they can (and do) stream themselves with HBO Go.

[–] LazaroFilm@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

That’s the main issue here. There used to be a law that studios were not allowed to own movie theaters and so they had to open their movies to be purchased or leased by other distributors. Now, that law is gone and this is why we’re screwed.

[–] glowie@h4x0r.host 16 points 10 months ago

🏴‍☠😎

[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

May it end with a whimper not a shout

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

I feel like I've read this exact headline 20 times over the past couple of years.

[–] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Millennials are killing the pay TV industry.