(01-16-2016 11:00 AM)Eagle in the gym Wrote:  If someone drops ESPN, how do you then watch MNF and college bowls? There's not much else I ever watch on ESPN unless the Braves are the Sunday night game, but those are biggies.

That's the point. Cable isn't going to die. There is only a finite group that's willing to cut the cord. To cord cut, you need to not be very picky. If you can live with your OTA choices and a few streaming services--then you can cut the cord and be fine with the result. It's more popular with young people and those with limited funds.

Also, understand that streaming is early in its development and the cost of those services are going to rise. Despite its hefty stock price, Nedlix is barely even making a profit (unlike ESPN that's making an obscene amount of money). Eventually those stock holders will expect bigger profits and the cheap offers designed to attract new users to the streaming service will not be so cheap.

Another issue for cord cutting is digital HD over the air signals. In the old analog days, as you moved farther from the broadcast tower and recited a weaker lsignal, the picture quality would degrade. You'd see more snow and the picture would be less sharp---but you still were able to watch. With HD digital signals, you get a picture and then you don't. It's all or nothing. The effective size of the broadcast area is smaller in the digital age. In other words, lots of people that used to receive OTA signals in the past, don't anymore. Thus, many are unlikely candidates for cord cutting. Frankly, I think cord cutting is overblown and has limited appeal. As the prices for the streaming options begin to rise, as internet providers (strained to capacity) raise prices and begin to meter Internet service, and as cable companies react to the trend by developing methods of cutting consumer costs (a la carte and different more economical bundles) the trend will reach its limited zenith fairly quickly.

(01-17-2016 11:55 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 11:00 AM)Eagle in the gym Wrote:  If someone drops ESPN, how do you then watch MNF and college bowls? There's not much else I ever watch on ESPN unless the Braves are the Sunday night game, but those are biggies.

That's the point. Cable isn't going to die. There is only a finite group that's willing to cut the cord. To cord cut, you need to not be very picky. If you can live with your OTA choices and a few streaming services--then you can cut the cord and be fine with the result. It's more popular with young people and those with limited funds.

Also, understand that streaming is early in its development and the cost of those services are going to rise. Despite its hefty stock price, Nedlix is barely even making a profit (unlike ESPN that's making an obscene amount of money). Eventually those stock holders will expect bigger profits and the cheap offers designed to attract new users to the streaming service will not be so cheap.

Another issue for cord cutting is digital HD over the air signals. In the old analog days, as you moved farther from the broadcast tower and recited a weaker lsignal, the picture quality would degrade. You'd see more snow and the picture would be less sharp---but you still were able to watch. With HD digital signals, you get a picture and then you don't. It's all or nothing. The effective size of the broadcast area is smaller in the digital age. In other words, lots of people that used to receive OTA signals in the past, don't anymore. Thus, many are unlikely candidates for cord cutting. Frankly, I think cord cutting is overblown and has limited appeal. As the prices for the streaming options begin to rise, as internet providers (strained to capacity) raise prices and begin to meter Internet service, and as cable companies react to the trend by developing methods of cutting consumer costs (a la carte and different more economical bundles) the trend will reach its limited zenith fairly quickly.

nobody has stated cable is going to die.....it's the other options that are now available that makes these options intriguing....

(01-17-2016 08:48 AM)UofMemphis Wrote:  

(01-17-2016 08:07 AM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(01-15-2016 08:24 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  E$PN's biggest problem is that there's too many espn channels & they have a hard time filling all the slots so much so that they're filling it with crappy made up sports that end up costing them more money than they make plus putting off subscribers having to watch it. If they shrunk down their channels & got rid of the whacky nonsensical "sports" they might actually start to turn things around

Or... broadcast some of the good CUSA games every week that are not on TV. I love watching my conference mates when possible. Football and basketball.

don't you bring logic into this ESPN bashing fest...of course, if ESPN had the CUSA deal, they would be the best thing since sliced bread...

you're going to tell us about all your awesome teevees again, aren't you?

I would drop it today to save 8 bucks a month. Hell I would drop it today even if it didn't save me money, just to say screw you to ESPN. But since it's part of basic direct tv package, that's not an option.

Now having said that, if CUSA had a TV contract with ESPN, and had football and bball games on the stations, I would never drop it and actually do whatever I had to do to get all their channels.