TV cord-cutting is not a trend that’s going away

[jeffrey]

If you’ve been keeping track of the drama surrounding cable TV lately, chances are you have a headache. First it was Dish upsetting Breaking Bad fans by dropping AMC ahead of this week’s premiere, then it was DirecTV losing 26 Viacom channels including MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.

The reasoning, of course, is not that these companies like upsetting their customer base, it’s that both AMC and Viacom are demanding rate hikes for access to their channels. They say it’s to keep in line with their other deals, while the cable companies say it’s too huge of an increase that will be forced onto consumers. Because of course, they will be the ones forcing it onto consumers rather than pay it themselves...

Battle Royale Between DirecTV, Viacom, Dish and AMC Pushes TV Closer to Irrelevancy - Forbes

[JoeP]

With the availability of so many options for viewing content, why content providers and delivery companies continue to stick to their antiquated business model is a true head-scratcher for me. Even a DVR is becoming a big question mark to me: you need to have the thing record in real time, and if you miss the window or the device fails, you are out of luck.

[MonkeyMama]

AMC and Viacom *really* need to get with the times. OF course the cable providers dropped them. Ha!

This reminds me of the music industry shake up of the last decade. The industry was so busy fighting the digital age when it would have been a lot easier just to embrace it. In the meantime, people completely stop buying their product because there were so many legal/low-cost alternatives. In the meantime they think that stamping their feet and rising prices is the answer. Deja vu.

To be fair to AMC - at least they sell their content on Amazon. We have been buying "Breaking Bad" - really one of the only shows we buy. It is readily available and low cost. That is all consumers want. AMC *gets it* more than some of the others, and produces the kind of content worth paying for. I can't say there is much worth paying for out there!

HBO? HBO can say all they want, but they seem to be preparing for the future with their HBO GO. Seems to me they are hedging their bets and preparing for the future. BUT, in the meantime all they say is that *non-cable subscribers will NEVER see their content.* Which means though I'd pay for HBO GO today I don't know if I would if they ever sell it directly. By then I will probably be used to many years of just getting their content in other ways. That's the catch-22 of being a hold out.

[disneysteve]

Even a DVR is becoming a big question mark to me

Same here. We have never had one and I see no reason to get one. We watch shows on our computer, our laptop, our iPad and iPod Touch, even our iPhones. Everything we watch is available online and on-demand. Why do we need a recording device when we already have multiple ways to access shows we've missed at our convenience?

[JoeP]

Same here. We have never had one and I see no reason to get one. We watch shows on our computer, our laptop, our iPad and iPod Touch, even our iPhones. Everything we watch is available online and on-demand. Why do we need a recording device when we already have multiple ways to access shows we've missed at our convenience?

Agreed. We have OTA only, and the only uses I can see for a DVR are for recording the local news or a sports event such as football.

[kork13]

Definitely agreed. I've lived quite happily for the last 2 years without cable. Honestly, I don't watch very much TV... For the few shows that I do want to watch, I can stream them online. No reason to do otherwise. I'm moving back to the states this week, and I expect that I'll get just an OTA antenna, maybe a netflix subscription, and call it good.