Are we overpaying for internet?

Quote: Pacomartin

There is a service in New York city (that may roll out to the rest of the country). For $80 a year you get two dime sized antennas and 40 hour DVR. You control your TV antennas and DVR, and view your service via the internet. There is no company equipment installed in your home.

Yeah, I remember you posting about this over at WoV a few months ago. Not sure if I would have any interest in it...we get very good DTV reception over the air and don't need anything from the NY area that isn't here.

Quote: AcesAndEights

Yeah, I remember you posting about this over at WoV a few months ago. Not sure if I would have any interest in it...we get very good DTV reception over the air and don't need anything from the NY area that isn't here.

Some analysts questioned whether there would ever be a large market for this service. But some people (like myself) are geographically positioned that there is almost zero possibility of getting a signal on an antenna. Many more require a 30' antenna.

But if you think about it, $6.67 / month is pretty cheap just to get DVR service. It's only 40 hours (presumably HD), but for many people, just the possibility of being able to pause a game while you make a sandwich, or time shifting a couple of programs until later in the night or the next day is all they want. While many TV shows are available on line, sometimes the networks wait anywhere from 24 hours to 8 days, to post them.

Another possibility with only 30 channels, you could make all of them available for the last hour and it wouldn't require that much disk space. So if you sit down to watch a show, and it looks interesting, you could go back to the beginning and watch it from there.

My cable company charges $14.95/mo for a DVR Converter box for up to 90 hours of standard programming and 20 hours of HD programming.They charge $24.95/mo for a TIVO box that provides hundreds of hours of record time, and four tuners.

I think that TV's should have some chips that allow up to a 15 minute pause. You shouldn't have to require a hard disk for a relatively small time interval.

Quote: Pacomartin

Some analysts questioned whether there would ever be a large market for this service. But some people (like myself) are geographically positioned that there is almost zero possibility of getting a signal on an antenna. Many more require a 30' antenna.

But if you think about it, $6.67 / month is pretty cheap just to get DVR service. It's only 40 hours (presumably HD), but for many people, just the possibility of being able to pause a game while you make a sandwich, or time shifting a couple of programs until later in the night or the next day is all they want. While many TV shows are available on line, sometimes the networks wait anywhere from 24 hours to 8 days, to post them.

Another possibility with only 30 channels, you could make all of them available for the last hour and it wouldn't require that much disk space. So if you sit down to watch a show, and it looks interesting, you could go back to the beginning and watch it from there.

My cable company charges $14.95/mo for a DVR Converter box for up to 90 hours of standard programming and 20 hours of HD programming.They charge $24.95/mo for a TIVO box that provides hundreds of hours of record time, and four tuners.

I think that TV's should have some chips that allow up to a 15 minute pause. You shouldn't have to require a hard disk for a relatively small time interval.

Yeah the cheap DVR is a selling point. Also, even for someone with good local DTV reception, the ability to watch on a mobile Internet device is also a selling point. Not really for me, but it could be for someone else.

I live in Ohio and have Comcast.

I pay about $136/month (including taxes and fees) for the wireless Internet (best speed they have), Cable TV and Home Phone w/ Unlimited Long-Distance and Wire Service Plan. I have a shitload of channels (though I'd prefer a la carte, but AT&T's U-Verse is not here yet) including NFL, Starz, HBO, Cinemax and Showtime. This also includes DVR.

I don't need all of these channels for anything, (except NFL) but they're part of the package which was the cheapest Triple-Play available at the time.

The thing that you want to do is, when your, "Introductory Offer," expires, cancel everything except phone and Internet (which was a combined $103/month after taxes and fees) and just live with Netflix and Internet for a month, then they will call again and give you another Introductory Offer with all of the additional channels and bullshit for only $25 more per month.

Most of this stuff may not last for long. The FCC is trying to develop a standard called AllVid where they will eliminate coaxial cable all together and go with an ethernet delivery system.

There is a real possibility that once this NFL football contract expires, that the business model of network TV will not be able to sustain another round of negotiations. The end of football on networks could also signal the end of broadcast TV. The pressure to use the frequencies for cellular service is very high. Broadcast TV may be reduced to public television, local news stations, religious programming, college stations, federal government (NASA & CSPAN) and foreign language TV.

Well, the inevitable happened. Univision beat NBC for sweeps month of February.

During the February sweeps period, NBC has averaged a 1.2 rating in the key 18-49 advertising demographic, while Univision has brought in a 1.5 rating. It's a far cry from NBC's reign at the top in November, which was the network's first time in the lead since 2003. AMC's Talking Dead, a talk show companion to their smash hit "The Walking Dead," did better in the key 18-49 demo than many of NBC's programs.

I wonder if NFL is permitted to take their football games at some point in the next 10 years to cable.

NBC owns the broadcast TV stations in 10 markets which constitute about one quarter of the TV viewing population. They have affiliates for the rest of the country.
City - TV Households
New York - 7,387,810
Los Angeles - 5,569,780
Chicago - 3,493,480
Philadelphia - 2,993,370
Dallas-Ft. Worth - 2,571,310
San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose - 2,506,510
Atlanta - 2,360,180
Miami-Ft.Lauderdale - 1,583,800
San Diego - 1,077,600
Hartford-New Haven - 1,006,280

Quote: Pacomartin

Well, the inevitable happened. Univision beat NBC for sweeps month of February.

During the February sweeps period, NBC has averaged a 1.2 rating in the key 18-49 advertising demographic, while Univision has brought in a 1.5 rating. It's a far cry from NBC's reign at the top in November, which was the network's first time in the lead since 2003. AMC's Talking Dead, a talk show companion to their smash hit "The Walking Dead," did better in the key 18-49 demo than many of NBC's programs.

Not a huge surprise. More and more I see and hear people, usually men over 30, saying something to the effect of, "all I really watch is History, Discover, Nat Geo, and a few others. Surely other groups are doing the same, just with other channels.

NBC rose from being a joke in the mid 1970s to being the king of Networks by the mid 1980s. Their Thursday lineup of Cosby-Family Ties-Cheers-Night Court was so strong you were out of the loop if you didn't watch. And their dramas were no slouch. This ruled even as shows changed, they kept strong until the Friends/Seinfeld era.

But when you are more interested in pushing a message than entertaining, people tune out. When you cast based on "diversity" instead of talent, people will tune out. When you cheapout on production costs, people will tune out. And eventually, people will get tired of the NFL, which has diluted itself to the point you have to be a serious fan to watch every game unless your team is playing or affected.

TV really doesn't seem that hard. The same formulas work year in and year out. But the network execs always want to reinvent the wheel.

Here is a question for all--remember when each network would "theme" the new season and you waited for "premier week?" When was the last time you even remember the term "premier week" being used seriously?

Quote: AZDuffman

Not a huge surprise. More and more I see and hear people, usually men over 30, saying something to the effect of, "all I really watch is History, Discover, Nat Geo, and a few others. Surely other groups are doing the same, just with other channels.

While Spanish language TV viewers are still a minority, they are concentrated on fewer networks. Univision has the lion's share of the market with the 25th anniversary edition of the “Premio Lo Nuestro” Latin Music Awards on Thursday, February 21 being one of the biggest Spanish language TV shows ever in the USA.

NBC has no huge hit scripted TV shows. With 30 Rock and The office getting cancelled they are losing even the cult favorites. Law & Order: SVU is the only long standing show in their schedule.

Do No Harm* canceled
Animal Practice* canceled

Likely to be Canceled
Up All Night
Smash
The New Normal
Guys With Kids
1600 Penn
Whitney

Decent Ratings
Deception
Go On
Community
Parenthood
Parks & Recreation
Law & Order: SVU
Chicago Fire
Grimm (F)
Revolution

Quote: Pacomartin

While Spanish language TV viewers are still a minority, they are concentrated on fewer networks. Univision has the lion's share of the market with the 25th anniversary edition of the “Premio Lo Nuestro” Latin Music Awards on Thursday, February 21 being one of the biggest Spanish language TV shows ever in the USA.

NBC has no huge hit scripted TV shows. With 30 Rock and The office getting cancelled they are losing even the cult favorites. Law & Order: SVU is the only long standing show in their schedule.

Do No Harm* canceled
Animal Practice* canceled

Likely to be Canceled
Up All Night
Smash
The New Normal
Guys With Kids
1600 Penn
Whitney

Decent Ratings
Deception
Go On
Community
Parenthood
Parks & Recreation
Law & Order: SVU
Chicago Fire
Grimm (F)
Revolution

OK, this is the scary part. The only shows here I have ever seen are "The Office" just a handful of times and "LO SVU" again a handful (I liked the first one, didn't do the spinoffs much.) Saw and know nothing or near nothing about the rest. I am more out of the popular culture than most (I don't know why Kardashian is famous) but I can't be the only near-total network dropout.

Quote: AZDuffman

but I can't be the only near-total network dropout.

Grimm is a friday night tv series that average 4-6 million viewers, and Revolution is a new show that averages 7-8 million viewers. And those are the top scripted shows on NBC. I remember when a TV series was cancelled if it couldn't get 10 million viewers.

I wonder if NBC is going to dump it's affiliates. They could broadcast over the owned and operated stations in big cities (25% of TV household), and over COMCAST cable who bought the network. I don't know what they would do about football. I am not sure if they can move it to cable,


Currently, the terrestrial television networks CBS ($3.73B), NBC ($3.6B) and Fox ($4.27B) — as well as cable television's ESPN ($8.8B) — are paying a combined total of US$20.4 billion to broadcast NFL games as per the current contract that ends in 2013.

From 2014 to 2022, the same networks will pay $39.6 billion for the same broadcast rights.