Spectrum & Disney

[MillauFr]

That would definitely be a fast way to kill off what's left of cable. I have news for Disney. I'm not subscribing to Hulu if they yank ABC from my cable.

Disney and Hulu will eventually be one in the same. You should just be able to pick and choose what you want included in your bundle. Everything will be ala cart.

 

[sam_gordon]

Well it is pretty obvious that Cable TV is equivalent to Video Rental Stores. They were relevant until they were not. Cable TV won't be dead tomorrow but the die is cast and there is no changing that it will be dead in a few years. Why not be ahead of the curve rather than behind?

People have been saying the same about newspapers, terrestrial radio, and local broadcasters for decades. They're all still around.

Disney and Hulu will eventually be one in the same. You should just be able to pick and choose what you want included in your bundle. Everything will be ala cart.

There's a thought that the ala cart costs will be more than a bundle of channels.

 

[longboard55]

Lots of ways to get your shows now. But only so much content and Disney controls the biggest part. My cable bill is $270 and Disney is getting maybe $30. That will change.

 

[mom2rtk]

Disney and Hulu will eventually be one in the same. You should just be able to pick and choose what you want included in your bundle. Everything will be ala cart.

Well, ideally. But I don't think that's how these companies like to roll. They always like to make you buy the things you don't want to get the few things you do.

 

[tvguy]

In an odd coincidence, YouTube TV told me that my local CW station would be disappearing today. Some kind of shift-of-affiliation thing or something, not sure, not interested enough to look it up. I will need to do something if this is still going on when Superman & Lois comes back next year (sorry to mention DC characters on a Disney forum, but hey, my tastes are eclectic). In a way I miss the old days when TV stations did not vanish for days or weeks at a time without warning.

You likely won't need to do anything. CW dropped a bunch of local stations and moved to other stations. Unless no other station in your area wanted CW, it may be as simple as just watching another local channel to see CW programming.

 

[tvguy]

Disney and Hulu will eventually be one in the same. You should just be able to pick and choose what you want included in your bundle. Everything will be ala cart.

Except that some streaming services have entered into exclusive agreements with some channel providers. And that can change from year to year. I had my favorite sports channel on Dish, but then NBC Sports dropped Dish. I signed up for YouTube TV to get my favorite sports channel and then NBC Sports dropped YouTube TV too.

 

[tvguy]

The rep was pretty tight-lipped about a resolution. From what I've read, it sounds like Spectrum is trying to make a stand.

I can't imagine it's going to be a good weekend for them with folks not being able to watch college football and the US Open.

Fubo is offering a free trial. And a discount to Spectrum customers who switch. We're considering it.

Having worked at a local station in that situation, we could have been fired for saying anything about the negotiations. Not that corporate told us what was going on. Those negotiations are very sensitive, and neither side wants any incidents. We were only allowed to refer viewers to called to a website where a HEAVILY lawyered statement was posted.

 

[Stratman50th]

Spectrum is the only provider available in our neighborhood. I used to have cable, WiFi and phone bundled. We cut out cable going on three years ago. I still have the WiFi and phone as I work from home. We have Amazon prime and a couple of free streaming channels. We mostly watch YouTube. Not the paid YouTube channel. We just added Paramount+ a week ago because my wife wanted to watch Tulsa King. We don't watch anything else bundled on that channel. I'm thinking of canceling now as the commercials make it almost unwatchable. Oh yeah, almost forgot. We also have Discovery+. I got that when I cut the cable as there were a couple of shows I enjoyed. I'm dropping them as I found almost none of the shows were not current. Some haven't been updated for a couple of years. I would keep it if they provided the same programming as their cable channels but I guess there's some exclusivity agreement. All that did for me is prove I really didn't need the current stuff as much as I thought.

 

[longboard55]

That is the issue, the cable companies had monopolies for many years and still think they can charge $250 a month for shows loaded with commercials. Those days are numbered. We can get a verizon internet box for $25 a month. Netflix is free with our T mobile

 

[MillauFr]

That is the issue, the cable companies had monopolies for many years and still think they can charge $250 a month for shows loaded with commercials. Those days are numbered. We can get a verizon internet box for $25 a month. Netflix is free with our T mobile

Exactly. I am spoiled as I pay $12 a month for YouTube and never have to watch commercials

 

[sam_gordon]

Exactly. I am spoiled as I pay $12 a month for YouTube and never have to watch commercials

How? I thought YTTV was around $80+... At least it was when I priced them in December.

 

[sam_gordon]

That is the issue, the cable companies had monopolies for many years and still think they can charge $250 a month for shows loaded with commercials. Those days are numbered. We can get a verizon internet box for $25 a month. Netflix is free with our T mobile

Thanks to Satellite, cable ops HAVEN'T had monopolies in 15-20 years

We had Dish network for 20 years and never paid over $100.

 

[MillauFr]

How? I thought YTTV was around $80+... At least it was when I priced them in December.

How can they get people to pay $80 a month for a product that has tons of commercials when YouTube is $12 a month with no commercials. I refuse to pay and then still have to watch commercials.

 

[Nayan]

How? I thought YTTV was around $80+... At least it was when I priced them in December.

YTTV is $73/month. You can get a regular YouTube subscription for around $12/month and have no ads.

I need my sports so I pay the $73 .

 

[Imzadi]

You should just be able to pick and choose what you want included in your bundle. Everything will be ala cart.

Well, ideally. But I don't think that's how these companies like to roll. They always like to make you buy the things you don't want to get the few things you do.

@mom2rtk is right. It really doesn't work that way in reality. I went from one of Spectrum's higher tiered packages with over 200 channels to their 15 ala carte channel package called Spectrum Choice TV. I didn't even know they had this package. I was calling to suspend my cable for a few months as I try different streaming services. That's when the rep told me they have a package in which I could pick 15 channels I wanted from their list and they would lop off about $50/month. About another $12 off if I turned in my cable box.

In the 200 channel tier package, I had all the channels I usually watch programmed in my "Favorites" button on my remote. It's roughly about 12 channels. Every once in a while I'll scroll through to see if anything else is on. But, I usually end up watching one of my favorited channels anyway.

So I looked at the list they gave me and it's quite a meager list. Sure, it's got range and variety - so everyone gets a FEW channels they want. But many of them aren't the top channels that would go on my "top 15 list." I'm missing about 5 other channels I would have chosen if I had a chance. In fact, I almost couldn't choose the last two channels for my 15 choices, they were so meager. I was almost going to pick the Weather Channel just to fill out my list, even though I only check it during a blizzard.

So, even though there may be 200+ channels out there, you really won't get to CHOOSE from any or all of the 200+ channels for an ala carte menu. As we are seeing now from this Disney outage, each company makes deals with each other and get included or not in different packages.

I went down from paying $210 to around $160. (My Internet is $85.)

These were the choices given to me in the Metro NYC area:

A&E
Animal Planet
BBC America
BET
CNBC
CNN
Cartoon Network
Comedy Central
Discovery Channel
Disney Channel
E!
ESPN
FOX
FX
FX Movie Channel
FXX
Food Network
Freeform
HGTV
HISTORY
HLN News
Hallmark Channel
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
LMN
Lifetime
MTV
Nickelodeon
OWN
Oxygen
Paramount Network
Syfy
TNT
Telemundo
The Weather Channel
USA Network

Included on top of the 15 channels chosen from above are the 3 broadcast network channels: NBC, CBS & ABC, (Oops! Not during the Disney outage here,) and local PBS stations and a few free local over-the-air TV channels that play oldies that can be gotten off an antenna are tossed in.

A recent Spectrum email I received just before the Disney outage said they are now allowing us to swap out channels once every 30 days. I have a feeling they did this as they knew some of us may have chosen Freeform & FX. Instead of giving us some money for the outage of the Disney channels, we can simply "swap" to another channel. But, as I said, I could barely pick out channels 14 & 15 to begin with.

I went with the deal as it saved me the $50 per month and I could then choose a streaming service instead with the savings, and swap it out as I run out of things on that service to watch. That would make up for the meager selection of channels I got to choose from.

But, if I lose ABC more or less permanently, that's a real deal-breaker for me. Hello Streaming!

 

[MillauFr]

YTTV is $73/month. You can get a regular YouTube subscription for around $12/month and have no ads.

I need my sports so I pay the $73 .

The problem I have with sports is for a football game you have to watch 2 hours of commercials to see 10 minutes of action

 

[sam_gordon]

The problem I have with sports is for a football game you have to watch 2 hours of commercials to see 10 minutes of action

That really has nothing to do with your comment about YT for $12. That doesn't provide LIVE programming from the Big 4,, ESPN, Disney, etc. People want those, so they're willing to pat.

You don't, so $80 isn't worth it to you.

 

[MillauFr]

That really has nothing to do with your comment about YT for $12. That doesn't provide LIVE programming from the Big 4,, ESPN, Disney, etc. People want those, so they're willing to pat.

You don't, so $80 isn't worth it to you.

In 2023 the Big 4 are X, Facebook, Google, and YouTube.

 

[sam_gordon]

In 2023 the Big 4 are X, Facebook, Google, and YouTube.

Try again. Google owns YT

 

[focusondisney]

In 2023 the Big 4 are X, Facebook, Google, and YouTube.

For you maybe, not for everyone. Personally, I use Google & I check Twitter once in awhile. I’ve never been on Facebook & never will be, never check YouTube either. Most people I know, including my kids in their 30s & 40s rarely check Facebook or YouTube either. My 70 year old sister lives by Facebook tho. Not exactly the sought after demographic.