Could these be the first steps in the decline of traditional "cable" television?

Could these be the first steps in the decline of traditional "cable" television? DishNetwork lost AMC, but DirecTV is losing more than 15 channels. All of this over pricing negotiations. Greedy people being greedy. Isn't this how Wall Street destroyed the world, by encouraging greedy people to be greedier?

And what's left? Hosts of channels no one actually wants. QVC? Who watches that? Ten channels in Spanish? I don't speak Spanish. Thirty channels of sports? Oh my gods, I could care less about sports.

Originally shared by Chicago Tribune

DirecTV, the largest U.S. satellite TV provider with nearly 20 million subscribers, said its executives had approached Viacom with a new proposal and a request to continue broadcasting the channels as talks proceeded, but received no response.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-directvbre86a05c-20120710,0,4762221.story

Comments

Reese Raymond said…
I cut the cord a few years back as well and every time I get the opportunity to watch some TV (at friends house, hotel) I realize that I'm not missing out on anything.
Neil Lund said…
I'm still waiting for a company to get real and only charge us for what we actually watch. No more channel packages needed. Service should have an awesome On Demand menu and a play button. We don't need to have to wait til 9pm on Friday nights to watch or record a show. So much money is wasted in home programming services by both the providers and the consumers.
The beginning of the end, right here....
Lorie Johnson said…
I watch fewer than a dozen channels on Cable. And I only have the TV on when I am actually watching something. Otherwise, it's off.
Tim Bond said…
With Netflix and HuluPlus both $8/month and a 1-time $99 investment in a Roku2 (or the AppleTV device), I have WAY more entertainment available to me than I would ever have time to watch.  If I watched sports (I don't), I think there are some streaming services for those, too.  And RedBox (about $1.50/movie) and the public library (free) usually have recent DVDs if I just have to see the latest movies. I also have a $25 antenna that lets me get local channels if I bother to switch over to the TV tuner.

The streaming service do, of course, require a broadband internet connection for about $70/month since I don't bundle with phone or cable. Even without streaming television, though, I'd want broadband for personal stuff and classwork, so I just count that as another utility like electricity.
Blake G. said…
2 years no cable just Hulu and Netflix...with kids we can never keep up with shows as they air
thats fine - ill stream everything from Amazon - screw the cable/Dish/DirectTVs of the world - unfortunately in all my rant i still need cable to provide fast enough bandwidth to stream said shows from Amazon :D
Neil Lund God, I've been saying that for YEARS!!! just give me what i want and get rid of the BS!
Tim Bond said…
Yeah, Richard, the broadband offerings will save the cable industry as streaming takes over.  Here in Denver we have at least two broadband providers, so there's the benefit of competition.
Tim Bond well from what my boss said (insert rumor mill here) Comcast is going to start either throttling download speeds or going to a pay-per-gig fee. thats gonna mess up streaming!
Tim Bond said…
Which is one reason I use CenturyLink :)
if thats available to you - Comcast owns Middle TN unfortunately :(

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