I scare broadcasters

[Scout26]

http://news.yahoo.com/broadcasters-worry-zero-tv-homes-154357101--finance.html

Good, simply because it keeps some of the trash and filth out of my house, and diminishes their perceived power and influence.  Between the MSM and Hollyweird, whatever I can do to weaken their hold on the reins of power, I will do.

[AZRedhawk44]

Count me among the cord-cutters.

Never been more happy with my electronic entertainment than when I abandoned cable/satellite/DVR and just went on-demand, online, and said "screw it" to the rest.

Once sports are available live online, conventional TV is dead.

[Fitz]

This


Cable free for nearly two years

[lee n. field]

Lets see.  They hate me, they hate and mock my beliefs and way of life at every chance.  Hmmm.

Winning back the Zero TV crowd will be one of the many issues broadcasters discuss at their national meeting, called the NAB Show, taking place this week in Las Vegas.

They wouldn't like my suggestions.

[Nick1911]

Roommate still has a TV, but we don't get cable service.  Haven't for three years.

Your environment influences you.  People are malleable by external stimuli by varying degrees; it's important keep tabs on what you let in and for what duration.

[roo_ster]

It has been so long, I can not remember the number of years.

[kgbsquirrel]

No T.V. here since *looks at calendar* June 2005. Not missing it a whit.

[SADShooter]

I am seriously considering taking this plunge. Already streaming Netflix. Just trying to decide if I can get past doing without some of the stuff/shows I'm habituated to.

[French G.]

No cable service regularly since 1999. Had dish for 3 months when i came home from the .mil, cancelled due to paying $$$ to watch maybe 30 min a day. Have a TV now for DVDs, mainly Looney Tunes. I recently made my first foray into online watching, trialed a subscription site I didn't like, but watched Zulu all the same while I was there. Found a foreign live stream of the F1 race since NBC sports sucks giant balls and was not carried by the cable provider where I was, or most any cable provider without extra cost. I may never buy TV service again.

[Jamisjockey]

Count me among the cord-cutters.

Never been more happy with my electronic entertainment than when I abandoned cable/satellite/DVR and just went on-demand, online, and said "screw it" to the rest.

Once sports are available live online, conventional TV is dead.

QFT. 

[drewtam]

ESPN3 is already starting to do that. I stream some of the American LeMans races from ESPN3 on my XBox. Works pretty well when ESPN has the distribution contract, not so well when Nascar channel Speed channel has it.

[Viking]

Left my tiny tv at my parents' place when I moved out 7 years ago. In the years before I moved out, I didn't watch much tv either. I can hardly watch movies or tv shows nowadays. Mind wanders off to things I'd rather do, usually reading. Have Netflix though, ususally use it to watch Mythbusters. Those kind of shows are about the only thing I can stand watching. I wonder if Top Gear is available...

[AZRedhawk44]

ESPN3 is already starting to do that. I stream some of the American LeMans races from ESPN3 on my XBox. Works pretty well when ESPN has the distribution contract, not so well when Nascar channel Speed channel has it.

"The Ocho" may be streaming squirrel-skiing and subregional Dodgeball qualifier matches, but your typical NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL stuff isn't streaming.

The only one I marginally follow is the NHL, and I've given up on the other pro sports... the NHL has a Roku channel and also shows up on Blu-ray internet enabled consoles, and it's a pay subscription basis... but it does regional blackouts just like broadcast or even cable.

I believe the regional blackout is based upon your billing information, so you can't bounce your IP address off of the TOR network or something and appear to be coming from 1000 miles away to catch your home team from your living room.  The blackouts are more restrictive on the web app than if you have Dish/DirectTV and their umpteen billion channels, and just flip over to the "other team's" feed from their metro area.  That'll work sometimes.

I think the NFL and NBA will be the pivot leagues.  MLB and NHL not so much.  Once the blackout issue can be dodged, or someone figures out a convenient way to resell an NFL/NBA package while offering "bandwidth buffering" from Bumbleskank, South Dakota, so that the leagues cannot perform IP geolocation detection and block out local viewers to boost ticket sales... TV will die in a matter of months.  It'll take 1 Superbowl.

[TechMan]

Left my tiny tv at my parents' place when I moved out 7 years ago. In the years before I moved out, I didn't watch much tv either. I can hardly watch movies or tv shows nowadays. Mind wanders off to things I'd rather do, usually reading. Have Netflix though, ususally use it to watch Mythbusters. Those kind of shows are about the only thing I can stand watching. I wonder if Top Gear is available...

Yes, Top Gear UK is available seasons 2-18, at least here in the US.

[BlueStarLizzard]

I seem to be the only one here that *hearts* my tv.

But I can (often do) go without.

Although, I've never lived in a house that pays for tv. I had an ex with On Demand cable which makes me think, should I ever have the means, I'm totally going with netflix and hulu instead of any cable.
Anytime I have unfettered access to cable I get more annoyed then entertained. I usually just end up watching channels that play reruns rather then even trying to find something new to watch. If you can miss a half an hour program, because that's how long it takes to get through the guide, you have too many channels.

[bedlamite]

I still have an antenna hooked up, but since they switched to digital I get 2 or 3 channels. Every once in a while I'll go through them and remember why I usually don't bother.

[Tallpine]

Except for a few months in 1991*, I haven't had a TV since I left home about 40 years ago.

We do have a machine that can play vhs/dvd, and quite a collection by now.

I did watch it quite a bit when stuck in a hotel room far from home. 


* Somebody gave us one, and I got pretty wrapped up in the gulf war coverage.  The killer was when we and the kids were watching Sound of Music one Sunday afternoon, and they started showing very explicit and violent previews of the late night movies 

[charby]

Once sports are available live online, conventional TV is dead.

Some sports are available live online but the visual quality sucks, that is mainly the reason we have Directv. Most of the college teams I like to follow are on one of the sports networks.

Wife and I have talked about killing everything but local on the air channels, doing netflicks/hulu/etc, but that would mean spending every Saturday in a bar watching football or at a friend's game day party or buying season tickets. Probably save more money in the long run keeping Directv.

[Lee]

If my kids didn't watch a few shows, our TV would be on maybe an hour a day for morning and evening news.
It's pretty sad when shows about storage wars, pawn shops, under water logging, logging, and duck callers  are the cream of the TV crop.

[cosine]

Never had cable/satellite tv. All the tv gets used for is sports (Packers - never blacked out) and movies on dvd. I just upgraded my Amazon membership to Prime for the on-demand Star Trek and 24. Between dvd movies and what I now have available on Amazon I have more tv than I have time to watch.

[Perd Hapley]

Winning back the Zero TV crowd will be one of the many issues broadcasters discuss at their national meeting, called the NAB Show, taking place this week in Las Vegas.

Let's see.

Stop streaming stuff for free on the internets?

Stop canceling good shows.

Quit thinking it's smart and sophisticated to have your sitcom characters talk about genitalia. Think about this logically. How many people do you think are going to tune out, because Zooey Deschanel did NOT say "penis"?

Try making fewer sitcoms about young people in New York City.

Try making fewer police dramas where everyone says everything in the most totally hippest way.

Kill the laugh track. Kill it in the face.

[AJ Dual]

Let's see.

Stop streaming stuff for free on the internets?

Stop canceling good shows.

Quit thinking it's smart and sophisticated to have your sitcom characters talk about genitalia. Think about this logically. How many people do you think are going to tune out, because Zooey Deschanel did NOT say "penis"?

Try making fewer sitcoms about young people in New York City.

Try making fewer police dramas where everyone says everything in the most totally hippest way.

Kill the laugh track. Kill it in the face.

Keep it to yourself.

I WANT them to die.

[AZRedhawk44]

Let's see.

Stop streaming stuff for free on the internets?

Stop canceling good shows.

Quit thinking it's smart and sophisticated to have your sitcom characters talk about genitalia. Think about this logically. How many people do you think are going to tune out, because Zooey Deschanel did NOT say "penis"?

Try making fewer sitcoms about young people in New York City.

Try making fewer police dramas where everyone says everything in the most totally hippest way.

Kill the laugh track. Kill it in the face.

Make a sitcom about people that constantly rag on New York City.

Make a police drama about cops that aren't statist doooshbags focused on lawnorder and instead on peace and justice. 

Firefly season 2.  Yes, Wash and Book are dead.  It's okay.

Knock off the gorram spot placement advertisements.  "24" started the new era of it with Cisco, and it all snowballed from there.  "Top Shot" was effing awful at it.  "BAYASSSSS PROw SHAWP."   All the crap reality shows are overladen with it, but it's even in "The Office" and other sitcoms.  Even "Big Bang Theory."

And frankly... just make good TV that I'm willing to buy a la carte, either as a full season in a box at a store, or on a per-episode basis online.  But eff your commercials, and eff your product placement, and eff your 4321 channels of nothing on.

[AJ Dual]

Knock off the gorram spot placement advertisements.  "24" started the new era of it with Cisco, and it all snowballed from there.  "Top Shot" was effing awful at it.  "BAYASSSSS PROw SHAWP."   All the crap reality shows are overladen with it, but it's even in "The Office" and other sitcoms.  Even "Big Bang Theory."

This actually is one of the few things I LOVE.

1. Because it's direct evidence that shows they're desperate, and technology/DVR's, cable/satellite/streaming "narrowcasting" is indeed slowly killing the MSM and their traditional revenue streams. 

2. There's a teeny kernel of nostalgia involved. It harkens back to the day when it was "THIS IS YOUR LIFE BROUGHT TO YOU BY VITALIS POMADE CREAM!" in the 1950's when they were still trying to figure out the profit model for broadcast TV.

The thing that DOES irritate me are the mini commercials they now do to try and trip up DVR users who are fast-forwarding. Getting funky commerical timings, or actually doing commercials with the actors in the show you're watching to trick you into stopping, and interrupt your skipping.

However, even that makes me grin a bit, because it goes back to #1 above.  Desperation.

[LadySmith]

I cut the TV cord in 2004.
I had satellite, the only thing that worked way out in the boonies.
First, all my favorite TV shows came to an end (Buffy, Angel).
Next, I refused to pay for junk I didn't want, like MTV.
Finally, I figured if the show was any good, it would come out on DVD. I'm fine with this.

I used to think that if they came out with a way for me to pick & choose what channels I wanted, I'd be willing to pay for TV again. But now, nope. No longer interested.

Now all I have to do is avoid the temptation to read any Walking Dead threads until season 3 comes out on DVD.