Cord Cutters Aren't Deadbeats

[totodeinhere]

Last year around this time cable executives and their favorite Wall Street analysts were busy arguing that cord cutters are simply fringe weirdos, living in their parent's basement, too cheap to pony up for regular cable, and part of a movement that can more or less be ignored. After first insisting cord cutters didn't exist, Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett insisted the average cord cutter is "someone who's 40 years old and poor and settling for a dog's breakfast of Netflix and short-form video."


Strategy Analytics has been one of several firms debunking that belief, frequently noting cord cutters are usually young, well educated, and employed. Not only that, there were more of them than ever before last quarter, with 400,000 users cutting the cord in favor of Internet video.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Cord-Cutters-Arent-Deadbeats-116235

I cut the cord some time ago and I'm not looking back. I can get everything I need on the Internet including live streams of Current TV and MSNBC, and much more. Plus I get 30 free digital broadcast TV channels with my antenna, most of them in HD.

Cable and satellite fees keep going up and there is no relief in sight. Heck, I spent more time on DU and other websites even before I cut the cord.

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. I didn't have cable for years. n/t

[Denninmi]

2. I've never had cable.

It just looks like many more channels of junk to me.

[murielm99]

8. I've never had it, either.

I have all the network channels and sub-channels with an antenna. I have TIVo, and Netflix. Everything else we need is on the Internet.

When I go to the gym, I watch the TV while I am on the bike or treadmill. That is cable. So I see about three hours of cable a week, depending on how much cardio I do. I don't see anything I want to pay for.

[Occulus]

28. Your gym shows things that appeal to broad ranges of people

It has to, to keep complaints down.

I myself am thinking of cutting cable entirely, but using what's shown in a gym really isn't a good measure of what's being presented on cable TV. I doubt they'd allow, for example, "Torchwood: Miracle Day" or even "Haven" on their screens.

[Historic NY]

3. We pay for crap with Time Warner...basic HD is now up to $120

with broadband its a racket. If you take their phone it will go do to $99, a phone that useless when the cable goes out.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

9. I have Time Warner too... but I only use the internet and get the basic tier.

It's like $60 or something with 19 channels (not HD) and fast internet (fast enough for gaming & netflix).

[iris27]

4. Our viewing habits just never corresponded well to cable - we watched maybe 3 channels regularly.

Netflix and our own DVD collection served us well enough in 2004, and availability of free internet content (Hulu, etc) has grown exponentially since then. I just have never seen a need for cable.

When we visit his parents or mine, both of whom have giant cable packages, they almost always have it turned to reruns of shows that we have seen through Netflix. "It's the only thing on worth watching right now," they say -- yet "right now" seems to be *all the time*.

Of course, Netflix has just taken a giant dump on their customer base, so I'm researching our options once again. The current leader is Roku, which has lots and lots of free content available.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

5. My only real entertainment is Red Box & Netflix & the Internet.

I work 40hrs a week so why would I need to pay another $50-$100 for a gazillion HD channels when I can watch what I want when I want via the internet/netflix/redbox for a fraction of the price? It's not cause I'm poor or live in my mothers basement... I have a good job and my own house and I'm relatievly young. It's because it's intelligent and don't spend more than 1-2hrs a day watching teevee.

My favorite is netflix because I can watch TV series uninterupted without commercials.
I'm on Season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer... f-ing awesome TV show. :) Poor Tara/Willow. :(
I also got to watch all of the Lost too earlier this year.

[Proud Public Servant]

6. Cable only costs me 30 cents/month

Seriously. Comcast provides both our internet and my cable, and offers discounts when we get more than one service. Price of internet: $69.95. Price of internet + basic cable bundle: $70.25. So, yeah, we pay that extra $0.30/month for cable, even though 99.5% of my veiwing is Netflix.

[efhmc]

24. Interesting way to look at it. If you first had cable and then

added the internet, would the cost of cable then be $69.95? Perhaps the cost is really half and half.

[silverweb]

7. Ah, the "smear the opposition" tactic!

The cable companies have to insult non-customers (aka cord cutters) and paint them as defective. How else will they keep their customers willing to continue paying outrageous amounts for a deficient product.

I "cut the cord" and gave away my TV more than 4-1/2 years ago. Now I watch everything I want on line, which is perfectly adequate.

Yes, I'm sure there are people who consider me "simply fringe" and a little weird, but I don't live anywhere near my parents or their basement.

And yes, I'm "too cheap to pony up for regular cable." I see no point in throwing money away on a product I don't need or want, pushed by people who sneer down on and insult me just because I don't need or want the crap they're selling.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. Yes, because what sane person wouldn't spend $100/month to see Kardashians,

Bridezillas, and a whole smorgasbord of cable "Newz" prison lockup shows? :shrug:

[Exilednight]

11. My biggest problem with cable is that I'm paying $60.00 a month to watch more commercials. When I

was a kid, and cable was still a relatively new thing and channels like USA, MTv, and CNN were still start-ups, I remember there being no commercials.

[seabeyond]

12. if i lived alone, i would, too. i dont watch tv anyway. and when there is something i want to see

du is almost always the provider

[tsuki]

13. I cut the cable cord when motorola shut off big dish. Got a Roku. Should

have done it sooner. 11 channels over the air and streaming Netflix, plus other free podcasts. $8.55 a month, incl. tax.

[Nickster]

17. LOVE my Roku box. I'm learning the ins and outs and adding the additional

private channels so that I get more live channels and stuff. I've got Netflix and Hulu Plus, but I'm thinking of just shifting to HuluPlus since that seems to have the better content.

[tsuki]

33. I love AJ English and RT. Tom Hartmann is great. I am trying to

convince Current, even if it is pay, to come to Roku.

[MADem]

14. I pay TWO cable bills, and hardly watch at all.

I'm good to my aged relatives...who watch a LOT.

[rudyb]

15. Not much there...

I stopped cable in the early 80's. There was just too much crap, I couldn't justify the cost of this drivel. To think that people still pay for reality TV is just beyond my comprehension!

[Bonhomme Richard]

16. I'm in CT and I can't even get the local networks thru antenna.

I am stuck but I only have the basic, basic cable.

[totodeinhere]

19. Have you checked Antennaweb to see if there are any translators in your area?

http://www.antennaweb.org/

If not this information might be useful to someone else.

[Shandris]

18. 'A Dog's Breakfast'?

Go fuck yourself, Craig Moffett.

I've had cable for several periods of time, and in the end the only thing that comes on it is a little MSNBC, the rare History Channel segment in the background, and South Park/American Dad. For $80/month, you can take your 'gourmet' breakfast of 'entertainment', turn it sideways, and shove it straight up your ass. :nuke:

[Pab Sungenis]

20. I've thought about cutting the cable.

Upstairs in our office I have a cheap little twin-wire FM antenna plugged into our TiVo. Just that little piece of wire is good enough to get most of the Philadelphia stations 70 miles away.

For the cost of two months of cable service I could put a super-deluxe antenna array on my house and get all the Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and Delaware stations. With an extra antenna pointing at the ESB and a powerful enough antenna I might even be able to pick up some New York stations on a good day.

That will cover 99% of what I watch on regular TV. For everything else there's the internet.

[sofa king]

21. I hate television.

And I'll bet the reason I offer is the same reason others will offer: television is a one-way communication device that rarely if ever rose above the lowest common denominator.

Entertainment on the Internet is driven by the creativity and decisions of the participant. Add in the fact that the Hitler and Lizard Channels are now all about UFOs, truck driving, and eating bugs, and it's a no-brainer for everyone who wishes to more fully control how they are entertained.

[KG]

22. i haven't even owned a TV since '97

although cable is my ISP.

[mistertrickster]

23. Another good reason to cut the cord--Cox Communication (a major midwest cable company)

is run by right-wing bastards.

[Shagbark Hickory]

25. There's more networks than ever. And more expensive production costs than ever.

It's no wonder the costs of programming is going up.

But the fact is, it's still one of the less expensive forms of entertainment.
Unless you like to sit around and watch paint dry or -ugh- read books.

It's cheaper than going to the Opera.

[Occulus]

26. First it was people who "take bandwidth away from other people"

by using internet video, now the people who do so are "deadbeats"?

I used to think this was strange, but now I just find it disturbing.

Maybe, if technology and communications companies spent more on infrastructure instead of lawsuits against each other, our internet would be more like that of Europe or Japan.

[hunter]

27. I tell them their $69 a month (or whatever) sounds like a good deal...

... and they can connect their cable to my house as soon as they send me the first check.

If they actually want me to watch television my rate is $100 an hour and I refuse to watch Fox News for any price.

[SpiralHawk]

29. Cut the cord and STARVE THE BEAST

The money people send each month to cable corportions basically amounts -- in the end -- to a generous donation to RepubliCorp, Inc. (R).

The corporate media is the RepubliCon Borg. They love having Americans pay good money for the propaganda they spew 24/7.

[backscatter712]

30. We don't have cable TV in my new place.

I spent a couple weeks at my folks, and watched their cable, and savory FSM, there was nothing but oceans of crap on TV! My folks were into the crime shows. Let's see... Law & Order, Law & Order LA, Law & Order Special Victims, then there's CSI, CSI New York, CSI Miami.... :puke:

That's all my folks watch. That and football.

As for me, when I flipped around on the dial, the History Channel has turned into the Hitler and Apocalypse Channel, Discovery has crap, Sci-Fi has crap. The number of shows I actually want to watch I can count on one hand, and I can get them off of Netflix or by torrenting.

The cable companies want me to pay a hundred bucks a month for an avalanche of shit? No.

[BiggJawn]

31. I don't live in mom's basement.

In fact, I keep her in a box on top of the bookcase at my house.
And if Netflix and on-line video is a "dog's breakfast", then what does that make your average cable line up, what comes out the OTHER end of the dog?

The cable companies are sweating bullets. They can't resist gouging the masses, but they're starting to realize that some folks just can't afford the great Opiate of the Masses anymore.

[nomb]

32. There is nothing broadcast on earth that can't be found free on the internet in an hour.