Americans Ditching Cable Television

[fireweaver]

According to this Reuters dispatch, more and more Americans are giving up cable television on account of the lousy economy.

* DirecTV makes first customer loss of 52,000
* Time Warner Cable loses 169,000 video customers
* TWC looks to Internet for growth

Reuters 1.


* Second-quarter revenue up 9 pct
* DirecTV lost more subscribers than Dish in quarter
* First ever quarterly loss of U.S. customers

Reuters 2


Personally, I've never had cable and don't really miss it. Almost everything on TV is crap these days, there are just do many better ways to spend one's time.

[david1987]

When we got Sky in after a period of Virgin, I sat for weeks watching nothing but Diagnosis Murder.

[McGarrett .]

I am considering it..

I have hundreds of channels of nothing..

And I can watch most of my stuff I like online...

I have season tix for my favorite football team and can go watch away games at the local pub...

But yet it is comforting that it is there so I just keep it...

[summerinohio]

Comcast screwed me over. I wanted to drop a bunch of stuff to lower my monthly bill, which they did but I ended up with a 400 dollar bill.

[Pamela Barnes]

I am considering it..

I have hundreds of channels of nothing..

And I can watch most of my stuff I like online...

I have season tix for my favorite football team and can go watch away games at the local pub...

But yet it is comforting that it is there so I just keep it...

I really don't know how some of these channels stay on the air. I come across channels I didn't even know existed and I can't imagine more than a handfull of people watching them. Our main channels only get a max of 9 million viewers so god knows what these unknown hidden away channels get.

I seem to spend more time flicking though channels than I do watching them.

[PT Freakin' G]

I haven't had cable this summer and have gotten along perfectly fine. I'm never behind on shows - I livestream Dallas and watch other cable shows via torrents or streaming sites like tv-links.eu and sidereel.com the next day. Everyone TiVo's now so even my friends with cable still watch the next day too.

[Scarlett]

I use sidereel a lot too, but only off my home computer (i.e. go the library) because I have been hit more than once with a virus from that site.

Cable TV/Satellite is cracking down on streaming (at least on network websites). FOX imposed a seven day lock on all of their shows (meaning you can't stream on their site till the eppy is 7 days old). I'm sure other networks will follow in suite to boast live TV viewing or cable/satellite purchasing.

I still need my cable, even if I don't watch a lot of shows. There are some shows that I watch and tape on VHS for keeping purposes - can't get that with streaming.

[PT Freakin' G]

There are some shows that I watch and tape on VHS for keeping purposes - can't get that with streaming.

There's a free firefox add-on called Download Helper that will rip a video off nearly any site and save it to your computer forever. Plus there's torrents on piratebay that just need converted with BitTorrent and they're on your computer forever too.

[CarlD]

I am considering it..

I have hundreds of channels of nothing..

And I can watch most of my stuff I like online...

I have season tix for my favorite football team and can go watch away games at the local pub...

But yet it is comforting that it is there so I just keep it...

Same here, but I enjoy the many channels that only cable offers. Also fortunate not to be one of the millions hurting from our lousy economy.

Am still thinking about cancelling HBO, etc. Pay a lot for the movie channels, many times they show movies from 1988 !!!

[fireweaver]

There's a free firefox add-on called Download Helper that will rip a video off nearly any site and save it to your computer forever. Plus there's torrents on piratebay that just need converted with BitTorrent and they're on your computer forever too.

Pirate Bay is still in business?

[PT Freakin' G]

Yeah, and as good as ever. I downloaded The Dark Knight this morning and will watch it soon.

[Scarlett]

Same here, but I enjoy the many channels that only cable offers. Also fortunate not to be one of the millions hurting from our lousy economy.

Am still thinking about cancelling HBO, etc. Pay a lot for the movie channels, many times they show movies from 1988 !!!

Out of curiousity, what cable carrier do you have? What extra channels do you have?

[CarlD]

Out of curiousity, what cable carrier do you have? What extra channels do you have?

Have ATT U-Verse, have the highest package, get all sports and movie channels.