CableTV’s Funeral Attended by Nobody
TechCrunch’s “2010 year in review” featured CableTV as a “loser.” It had a funeral. Nobody came. Check it out:
Losers: Huzzah! Cable companies are losing more and more subs every month! Victory!
Well, sort of. Sure, pay TV companies are having a hard time holding on to subscribers, but that’s only going to mean prices will probably stagnate or worse, will be raised to compensate for the lose of income. Comcast has to pay the power bill on their massive video wall in their swanky new-ish skyscraper somehow.
But where are these people getting their content? Not one report surfaced that showed the cable cutting movement has any real traction, and big media basically control the future of living room streaming devices anyway. Pay TV needs a savior or a disruptor. Someone will probably have to paint their face blue and white and stand in front of a horde of angry subscribers to really make a difference.
Meanwhile Roku was listed as a “winner,” and Ooyala helps creators make their own channel. I gotta do that.
I have a Roku and a Samsung blueray that does the internets thing and I would have a difficult time turning off standard cable just yet. The channels available on Roku are pretty meh. I ran the Hulu+ trial and promptly turned it off. The resolution sucks and I just can’t pallet being forced to watch commercials on a pay product. I suspect that the content on Hulu+ is limited because of licensing issues, the first time I tried to watch an episode of a show that is available on standard Hulu and was denied access because of the type of device I wanted to use to view it on was the last time I used Hulu+.
I do pay for Netflicks and am mostly happy with the content and selection but would like to see more available online vs “send me a DVD”. Again I think they are having problems with content licensing. When you can pay a comparatively small amount to get the same content that the cable company is trying to sell for $4.99 a view, then something’s got to give. But I’ve always been willing to wait until the theater clears out a little before go to see a movie or I’ll even wait for it to come out on TV. I am of the opinion that there are very few movies that are worth spending money to see on the big screen.
And there lies the problem. When it costs the same “pay per view” to watch something on Blockbuster or iTunes as it does on the standard Brighthouse system (which I almost never use) then what’s the point? Prices have to come down to make me even look at that option seriously.
So I guess my point is the major broadcast and cable networks need to start supplying good hi-def real time feeds as Roku channels where I can chose ala carte what I want to subscribe, for a fair price, before the Roku becomes a viable alternative to the monster mega cable company.
Damn..this just turned into a blog post…sorry.. 🙂
Did the Comcast screen have any scheduled Holiday Shows? Like the Wanamaker Christmas Light show?? Remeber cramming in there with hundreds of other people to watch that??