Sling TV & Cord Cutting

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Is cable TV now on its death bed with Apple launching a streaming service?

 

Has been for awhile. People are cutting the cord, and instead of cutting costs, cable companies are raising rates and reducing customer service on remaining customers. I got rid of my satellite service early last spring, and I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. It was an enormous waste of money.

[jerichoholicninja]

Is cable TV now on its death bed with Apple launching a streaming service?

 

People still don't get all the channels or shows they want with any one streaming service and have to pick and choose. So while cable may be close to death its major flaws have just been shifted to another platform.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Disney+ will be the death knell to cable. They will eventually acquire so many properties that they'll be basically unstoppable. The only real competitor I see is Netflix continuing to create popular original content. It will take a couple of years, but I hope Netflix keeps it interesting. Disney+ is also the one least likely to price gouge because it can just keep it affordable and use it as leverage to get people to their movies and parks.

[Samurai Bucky]

I am in the southwest side of Milwaukee and still like getting some channels OTA. They are going to be going to 4K OTA in the next year or so. I have a flat antenna upstairs with a booster, but it doesn't pull in some channels (58 for example). I'm debating about getting a small external antenna and use the cables left behind from the dish. Any suggestions for small, external, non-powered antennas that I could mount to my dish?

[igor67]

I'm actually rooting against Disney, if they kill Netflix they would be very monopolistic or possibly worse having to shell out $5 for every channel I might want to randomly watch here or there.

[pacopete4]

My wife and I bought a house in Thiensville and we are now trying to decide what internet/tv deal to do. What a pain. Just seems like every option has crappy cons to it.

[RobertR]

I'm not that worried about Disney+. They'll never have a show on it like Game of Thrones or any one of HBO's big hits for adults. Chernobyl was by all accounts a pretty sizable hit. Adults may not be going out to the movies, but they certainly still do watch shows geared for adults. And adults pay the bills

 

Disney+ will likely have a big launch, but their selection announced to date is fairly limited, especially compared to what it could be, and we'll see how invested people actually are in the World of Star Wars as opposed to specific characters, around episode 5 of The Mandalorian.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Disney owns Hulu which does and will have those kinds of shows. See Handmaid's Tale. They have created Disney content that's exclusive to Hulu and are pretty obviously using that avenue for adult-centric content, so that won't be any kind of hurdle for them. It's not going to happen overnight but they have resources that nobody else does. Disney+ could lose money for years and they could still keep it going as long as they need to.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Disney+ launched around 2am I guess. I checked it out briefly this morning, and holy content. It will definitely become the primary option for families. Really a great deal if you were able to lock in the 3-yr contract for $3.90 a month. There is just so much stuff, some of which I didn't even know they owned. Oddly looking forward to the World According to Jeff Goldblum.

[Outlander]

Yeah, we locked into that three year deal late August. Sometimes tough to wake up the kids but woke up right away to watch the Mandalorian, episode 1 which was around 35 minutes. Unlike Netflix they will not be releasing new series all at once which I won't mind so I don't get spoiled.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Yeah, I think that would have been a mistake. They pushed Mandalorian hard so letting everybody kill it on the first day didn't make a lot of sense.

 

I always feel dirty saying this but I never liked Star Wars. I found it really hard to get into and just kind of boring. But now my 6 y/o loves it so I'm trying again. I plan to start from scratch and watch all of the original trilogy and then the modern ones before the new ones comes out.

[Outlander]

Based on the first episode you don't really have to know or care much about what happened in any of the other movies/shows so the Mandalorian may be the way go.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Thought the first episode was pretty good, kept me interested.

[FVBrewerFan]

I've had You Tube TV for 2 weeks now, can't believe I didn't ditch cable a long time ago. $50 gets me almost all the channels I had with Spectrum. I did a lot of research on all the streaming services, and YTTV seemed to be the best choice.

[MrTPlush]

I wonder how Netflix has done since all these TV options have popped up. I knew many people had Netflix to have something to watch instead of paying cable. Just for times when you were bored and desperate to watch something.

 

Wonder if many of those people have shifted to a different platform and left Netflix.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I've had You Tube TV for 2 weeks now, can't believe I didn't ditch cable a long time ago. $50 gets me almost all the channels I had with Spectrum. I did a lot of research on all the streaming services, and YTTV seemed to be the best choice.

 

 

I just switched to Youtube TV from PSVue, and it's pretty good. Get a good selection of live channgels, all the live sports I could possibly want, and a pretty nice catalog of backlogged shows and movies. Couple that with Disney+ and Netflix and I'm STILL way under any kind of cable package or (barf) directv.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I wonder how Netflix has done since all these TV options have popped up. I knew many people had Netflix to have something to watch instead of paying cable. Just for times when you were bored and desperate to watch something.

 

Wonder if many of those people have shifted to a different platform and left Netflix.

 

 

I think that Netflix stays relevant by producing a decent amount of their own interesting content. Price point is going to start to be a problem though. Disney+ has a lot of content for 7 bucks a month and Netflix is double that.

[FVBrewerFan]

Original content is only thing keeping Netflix alive. Very forward thinking of them, but I doubt it will be enough long term. They should buy/ merge with Hulu, but that may be just delaying their demise.

 

You have Google (yttv), Amazon, and Disney. They want Netflix to die on its own, if they lose patience one of them will just buy it. Why even have Netflix? They offer me a free 30 day trial all the time. So I do that once or twice a year to binge their shows I want to see.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I don't think Netflix has anything to worry about just yet. It has much more mature content than Disney+, and the basic plan that I use is only $9 or something, not double Disney's $7. I got the 3-yr Disney+ deal for $3.90. Disney does own Hulu and their ESPN+, Hulu package is $12.99.

 

But, Disney+ and Netflix are not really competing for the same viewership exactly. The problem is down the line where original content won't be able to keep Netflix growing, there is just no way. It's close to plateauing if it hasn't already, the growth rate was already stalling last year. But Disney's library and its many avenues to offer original content IS enough to keep growing.

 

I don't think Disney will be $7 for long. They had to come in there to undercut the market. But there's a chance it does if they use it to get people hooked on the movies, the parks, the merchandise, etc.

[TURBO]

No way Disney holds that price longer than 2 years. I'd guess you will see $9.99 in 2021. Prices start out low, and once people buy in, they go up. Disney is a money sucker, they will raise that price sooner rather than later.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'm not so sure it will be that fast. People are extremely sensitive to price increases, even $1. Netflix had a lot of backlash when they did it, and existing subscribers were grandfathered in incredibly slowly. The one they announced in 2015 didn't hit my account until earlier this year. Plus they offered 3-yr contracts so if anyone got those they're paying the $3.90 rate for at least that long.

 

There are still a lot of unanswered questions. A ton of people are getting it "free" right now (laughable with the prices those carriers charge) with Verizon, and the 10 million subscribers included those who signed up for free trials.

 

Netflix has nowhere to funnel business. While I think the price will obviously increase over time, they have much less incentive to do so with their movies grossing $1B and their theme parks booming. Disney could simply look at the streaming service as a means of hooking every household on to Disney which is more valuable to them than streaming revenue alone.

 

Imagine some series about the "magic" of a Disney vacation, where they take you behind the scenes, etc...I just wouldn't be surprised if they undercut everyone for an extended period of time simply because they can. Not sure they need to risk a price hike any time soon.

[MrTPlush]

When you think about why people are going to these services (to save money) carrying a live TV subscription and Netflix just seems way less attractive. I don't know that Netflix is really worth the $15 price tag they have made themselves.

 

I guess I am shocked Netflix didn't and hasn't jumped in on the live TV thing. Netflix Originals was forward thinking, but I don't think it is going to lead to long term success and growth. Forward thinking would have been to be a live TV subscription on top of their already superior movie/original content. They could have been the WalMart of the segment in my opinion.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

You can still have a Netflix account for $8.99, it just isn't broadcast in 4k. That is not really worth it at all to me, so I am still on that one. I haven't had a live TV subscription for years. Once we're into $10+ I just lose interest. When I see people happy about $50 for YouTube, that's just far above what I'd ever consider. I had Sling for $25 a few months and just never used it enough to justify it.

[KeithStone53151]

I wonder how Netflix has done since all these TV options have popped up. I knew many people had Netflix to have something to watch instead of paying cable. Just for times when you were bored and desperate to watch something.

 

Wonder if many of those people have shifted to a different platform and left Netflix.

 

I kind of doubt it as well. Netflix has so much content they create themselves along with all the other shows/movies they get rights to. And the price point is so low. As long as you watch a handful of times per month, or you're hooked on one or two shows that are Netflix originals...it's easy to justify keeping at the price point. At the end of the day, it's great for us consumers if Netflix feels pressure from Disney+ and lowers their price or improves their offerings or does something to try and compete.

[KeithStone53151]

You can still have a Netflix account for $8.99, it just isn't broadcast in 4k. That is not really worth it at all to me, so I am still on that one. I haven't had a live TV subscription for years. Once we're into $10+ I just lose interest. When I see people happy about $50 for YouTube, that's just far above what I'd ever consider. I had Sling for $25 a few months and just never used it enough to justify it.

 

I feel like I followed almost the exact same pattern. I cut cable with the plan to get antennas for football, netflix and hulu was I think $20ish/month combined, and sling for $20/month(which included a free roku upon subscribing at the time). This was way way cheaper than cable. After I think 5-6 months, I realized we simply didn't watch sling much at all...were almost always watching netflix or hulu. So we cut Sling and are extremely content with hulu/netflix. Fortunately for me, I'm able to stream brewer games using parents credentials on foxsportsgo. It's frankly amazing how easy it is to move away from cable if you just don't have it. We did recently add the bundle for espn+ and disney+, so our cost went up a few bucks per month. She seems incredibly happy with the disney+ offering...and still way way cheaper than cable at the end of the day.