Why do we still have to sit through commercials?

[sedated]

The DirecTV/Viacom thread got me thinking.

Commercials were developed as a way for free channels to get the revenue necessary to operate, the same as radio and newspapers. Regular radio stations and many newspapers are still free to this day, so advertising is just the cost of doing business. However, most cable packages cost between $50-$80, just for “standard cable” (not including HBO, etc). My current DTV bill is $85, and I don’t have any movie channels.

We are all paying a premium for these channels, and yet 1/3 of the content is advertising. What is the difference between paying for HBO (commercial-free and unregulated language/nudity) versus (unwillingly) paying for the Viacom package of channels (commercials and FCC-regulated)?

[R8RFAN]

Originally Posted by PGM

You need to watch better shows. Watch AMC this Sunday for a "great" show. Not that network garbage.

Yea, I watched Rambo III last night on that channel

[kaplin42]

I didn't read this whole thread. But if you want to lower you Cable/Sat bills you can always go this route:

1. Cancel your Cable/Sat.
2. Invest in rabbit ears for your TV, I'm guessing ~$20. Free channels are still free, and everything is digital now.
3. Netflix steaming $8.99/Mo.
4. Amazon Prime ~$80/yr. (around the cost of Netflix per month)
5. Hulu is fail since they still have commercials, and you have to pay for it. Basicaly cable TV on the internet.
6. ???
7. Profit

Downside: You miss current shows as they air.

Upside: Watch what you want, when you want. That show that you love will be on Netflix soon, and you can watch the whole season at your pace, not once a week for 5 weeks, then a 2 month break, then 2 more episodes, then a 3 week break... No commercials. Save shit tons of money.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by kaplin42

I didn't read this whole thread. But if you want to lower you Cable/Sat bills you can always go this route:

1. Cancel your Cable/Sat.
2. Invest in rabbit ears for your TV, I'm guessing ~$20. Free channels are still free, and everything is digital now.
3. Netflix steaming $8.99/Mo.
4. Amazon Prime ~$80/yr. (around the cost of Netflix per month)
5. Hulu is fail since they still have commercials, and you have to pay for it. Basicaly cable TV on the internet.
6. ???
7. Profit

Downside: You miss current shows as they air.

Upside: Watch what you want, when you want. That show that you love will be on Netflix soon, and you can watch the whole season at your pace, not once a week for 5 weeks, then a 2 month break, then 2 more episodes, then a 3 week break... No commercials. Save shit tons of money.

Sports are curiously being forgotten.... I know I can get NHL GameCenter on my ps3, but they don't show the playoffs and several games are blacked out. I can get Sunday Ticket, but I assume Chiefs games would be blacked out, and I don't know if they show the playoffs. There are online streams, which I used for a couple of years, but they aren't reliable (especially the NFL, since they're pretty aggressive about getting them taken down).

Watching pretty much every game I want to see >>>> online streaming

If I could pay $200 for NHL GameCenter (and get the playoffs), $10-15/month for the basic channels in HD, and get espn3 separate from cable, I could pay $20/month just for espn3 and still come in way under what I'm paying now for all the crap I could do without.

[frankotank]

Originally Posted by BossChief

Just get a ****ing dvr.

Problem solved.

no doubt. I NEVER watch commercials anymore. NEVER. if I wanna watch something that is starting live, I pause the damn thing and go do something else until it gets ahead enough that I can skip commercials.

technology. awesome.

[chasedude]

Originally Posted by frankotank

no doubt. I NEVER watch commercials anymore. NEVER. if I wanna watch something that is starting live, I pause the damn thing and go do something else until it gets ahead enough that I can skip commercials.

technology. awesome.

Yup commercials are time to drain the last few beers, maybe take a dump and grab something from the fridge just in time to see the commercials ending

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by sedated

They are in the ENTERTAINMENT business, and getting pissed off while trying to use a product isnt very entertaining.

The TV viewer isn't the consumer, they're actually the product being sold.

[kaplin42]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Sports are curiously being forgotten.... I know I can get NHL GameCenter on my ps3, but they don't show the playoffs and several games are blacked out. I can get Sunday Ticket, but I assume Chiefs games would be blacked out, and I don't know if they show the playoffs. There are online streams, which I used for a couple of years, but they aren't reliable (especially the NFL, since they're pretty aggressive about getting them taken down).

Watching pretty much every game I want to see >>>> online streaming

If I could pay $200 for NHL GameCenter (and get the playoffs), $10-15/month for the basic channels in HD, and get espn3 separate from cable, I could pay $20/month just for espn3 and still come in way under what I'm paying now for all the crap I could do without.

I really only watch football, and NFL at that. I have to pay for sunday ticket since I live in Los Angeles just to see the Chiefs.

However, with all the money one could save each month on cable bills, you could easily go to a sportsbar and watch the game. But it sounds like you like all sports, so that might not be as cost effective to you.

Really my plan depends on your viewing habbits, if you must have ESPN all day everyday, or you can't stand missing the latest episode of what ever show, then probably not for you.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Sports are curiously being forgotten.... I know I can get NHL GameCenter on my ps3, but they don't show the playoffs and several games are blacked out. I can get Sunday Ticket, but I assume Chiefs games would be blacked out, and I don't know if they show the playoffs. There are online streams, which I used for a couple of years, but they aren't reliable (especially the NFL, since they're pretty aggressive about getting them taken down).

Watching pretty much every game I want to see >>>> online streaming

If I could pay $200 for NHL GameCenter (and get the playoffs), $10-15/month for the basic channels in HD, and get espn3 separate from cable, I could pay $20/month just for espn3 and still come in way under what I'm paying now for all the crap I could do without.

Sports is the only tricky part about cutting cable. I cut cable about 2 years ago, and I've been pretty happy with it, outside of live sports. In my experience the last few years, NFL has been the easiest to find good online streams. Followed by hockey(especially playoffs). College football is tough to find online, but most of the popular games are on OTA stations or ESPN, which there's always a stream for. Baseball is tough, outside of the most popular teams.

All movies/TV though, is very easily found after cutting cable. From multiple sources. Every TV show or available movie I ever want to watch is available for streaming in 720p 1-2 days after airing. I've never had an issue watching anything I want, with no need to even download anything to my hard drives.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

Sports is the only tricky part about cutting cable. I cut cable about 2 years ago, and I've been pretty happy with it, outside of live sports. In my experience the last few years, NFL has been the easiest to find good online streams. Followed by hockey(especially playoffs). College football is tough to find online, but most of the popular games are on OTA stations or ESPN, which there's always a stream for. Baseball is tough, outside of the most popular teams.

All movies/TV though, is very easily found after cutting cable. From multiple sources. Every TV show or available movie I ever want to watch is available for streaming in 720p 1-2 days after airing. I've never had an issue watching anything I want, with no need to even download anything to my hard drives.

I respect your position but honestly it seems like a lot of work to save a hundred bucks a month.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by vailpass

I respect your position but honestly it seems like a lot of work to save a hundred bucks a month.

I'm not sure what you mean by a lot of work? It doesn't require any work at all. I simply launch a sports plugin and see if there's an existing stream for the game I want to watch. It will either be there or it won't. There's no work required in the process other than a few remote clicks. The unreliability of whether it will be there is the only concern.

And doing the math, I'm saving just over $850 per year, compared to when I had cable. I've found lots of other things to spend that amount on, that have turned out to be much better than television...

[R8RFAN]

Why don't you trailer park trash just pay for what the hell you get and quit trying to always **** somebody out of some money..

Quit buying stupid shit you can't afford and you would have plenty of money to pay for it.

Cheap bastards

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

Sports is the only tricky part about cutting cable. I cut cable about 2 years ago, and I've been pretty happy with it, outside of live sports. In my experience the last few years, NFL has been the easiest to find good online streams. Followed by hockey(especially playoffs). College football is tough to find online, but most of the popular games are on OTA stations or ESPN, which there's always a stream for. Baseball is tough, outside of the most popular teams.

All movies/TV though, is very easily found after cutting cable. From multiple sources. Every TV show or available movie I ever want to watch is available for streaming in 720p 1-2 days after airing. I've never had an issue watching anything I want, with no need to even download anything to my hard drives.

I'm surprised the NFL has been the easiest, but I didn't know about firstrow (or is it frontrow...) a few years ago and I know a couple of sites have moved outside of the US since I relied on the online streams. A lot of the NFL streams I used a few years ago would get whacked by halftime, so I'd end up spending $25+ at Buffalo Wild Wings (since then, I've cut way back on sports bars, which practically pays for cable during football and CBB season).

On one hand, I've gone without it before and could cope. OTOH, I love all of the choices... being able to watch one of 20 CFB games on TV or up to 4 on ESPN3, getting college hockey games, CBB, etc. I hardly watch anything else on TV, so it's nice to pretty much always have a game on when I'm home or have several options on a Saturday afternoon and avoid a lot of commercials.

Like I've said before, between saving money not going to sports bars and all of the choices in glorious HD, I think it's mostly worth it... but, there are definitely annoyances (commercials, raising rates by as much as 10% at a time, and oh yeah.. I don't have ABC through TWC at the moment ), and simply being able to get espn3 without paying for ESPN would be the perfect solution and save some money.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by R8ers

Why don't you trailer park trash just pay for what the hell you get and quit trying to always **** somebody out of some money..

Quit buying stupid shit you can't afford and you would have plenty of money to pay for it.

Cheap bastards

[007]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Sports are curiously being forgotten.... I know I can get NHL GameCenter on my ps3, but they don't show the playoffs and several games are blacked out. I can get Sunday Ticket, but I assume Chiefs games would be blacked out, and I don't know if they show the playoffs. There are online streams, which I used for a couple of years, but they aren't reliable (especially the NFL, since they're pretty aggressive about getting them taken down).

Watching pretty much every game I want to see >>>> online streaming

If I could pay $200 for NHL GameCenter (and get the playoffs), $10-15/month for the basic channels in HD, and get espn3 separate from cable, I could pay $20/month just for espn3 and still come in way under what I'm paying now for all the crap I could do without.

I love how they just assume everyone has access to all those sports channels when the playoffs start. Blackout rules need to be blacked out.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Perhaps, but I don't really disagree with him. It's not like there's a lack of affordable entertainment these days. If people want to pirate, then by all means go for it, but let's not pretend like we're being forced to steal these days because everything's so expensive.