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Have you cancelled your cable yet?


blainehodder

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Unfortunately, my family is hooked on shows on channels like HGTV, Food Channel, various sports channels, and Indian programming channels.  Is there any way to get those on AppleTV and Netflix...in Canada?  I want to watch my Canucks, NBA, NFL & Tennis through the year.   

 

And we would still need wifi in the house.  We all have cell phones, I have an office phone and we could probably use Skype for long-distance, so we don't really need a landline.  It's mainly those channels and the wifi that we need.  Cheers! 

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Guest wellmont

hey I saw one! an actual chord cutter is here! John Malone just went out and bought a ton of CHTR at an all time high price.  that should tell you how he sees the "chord cutting" movement.

 

btw how are you getting your Internet? :)

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Unfortunately, my family is hooked on shows on channels like HGTV, Food Channel, various sports channels, and Indian programming channels.  Is there any way to get those on AppleTV and Netflix...in Canada?  I want to watch my Canucks, NBA, NFL & Tennis through the year.   

 

And we would still need wifi in the house.  We all have cell phones, I have an office phone and we could probably use Skype for long-distance, so we don't really need a landline.  It's mainly those channels and the wifi that we need.  Cheers!

 

Parsad, most of these shows are available online on the network websites.  Simple S-video cable solution along with a laptop.  New TV's can even do this on wireless or through the built in browser.

 

EDIT:  Also, you can get American NFLX (bigger selection) by using a VPN, which are only about 5 bucks a month.  I imagine the VPN/Hulu solution is doable as well.

 

Live content like sports is what's missing.  That is the final puzzle piece... but I am confident this will work itself out eventually.

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Unfortunately, my family is hooked on shows on channels like HGTV, Food Channel, various sports channels, and Indian programming channels.  Is there any way to get those on AppleTV and Netflix...in Canada?  I want to watch my Canucks, NBA, NFL & Tennis through the year.   

 

And we would still need wifi in the house.  We all have cell phones, I have an office phone and we could probably use Skype for long-distance, so we don't really need a landline.  It's mainly those channels and the wifi that we need.  Cheers!

 

Parsad, most of these shows are available online now on the network websites.  Simple S-video cable solution along with a laptop.  New TV's can even do this on wireless or through the built in browser.

 

As for the cable internet.  I am still paying them on that.

 

Thanks Blaine!  I'm going to look further into it.  We spend $285 a month on high-speed internet, the full-package of Telus Optik TV & a land-line with free international calling.  I haven't been able to justify it other than my family enjoys it, but I've always been keen on trying to get the cost down or eliminated.  In the past, my only solace was to get Telus to throw in a free laptop and two new PVR's every three years.  My renewal is coming up, and I would like to cut the chord.  Cheers!

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Interesting thread. Just started looking into CHTR after Malones interview the other day on CNBC.

 

Would be interested in seeing a comprehensive poll done on this (on the board here) because I am in the camp that hates not having sports, golf channel and news available at all times on tv. i would think if you could afford it, it would tough to cut the cord....but i Know a decent number of people who are cutting it. I'm at my brothers apartment this week, and all he has is Netflix. Would take awhile to get used to that for me.

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Interesting thread. Just started looking into CHTR after Malones interview the other day on CNBC.

 

Would be interested in seeing a comprehensive poll done on this (on the board here) because I am in the camp that hates not having sports, golf channel and news available at all times on tv. i would think if you could afford it, it would tough to cut the cord....but i Know a decent number of people who are cutting it. I'm at my brothers apartment this week, and all he has is Netflix. Would take awhile to get used to that for me.

 

For sure!  I am super comfortable with getting news from the web. Sports is the big problem.  I can easily see Apple doing a deal for game by game PPV though.  Perhaps the leagues, NFLX or a startup will solve it.  I'm convinced someone will solve it given my willingness to pay for an all you can eat or PPV sports model (assuming a reasonable price).

 

I can afford the cable TV, but I realized I wasn't really watching it this year at all given the other solutions, so I cancelled (Shaw in Canada).  Small data point, but I wasn't the only one in the store cancelling when I was returning the cable box, and the customer service rep expressed, "oh, another cancel".

 

Anyhow, as a value investor, it is an interesting thing to follow... That's why I posted the thread on here!

 

Also an important thing to note is that dying industries can still be great investments assuming distributive dividends, and smart capital allocation!

 

 

 

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"We spend $285 a month on high-speed internet, the full-package of Telus Optik TV & a land-line with free international calling."

 

That sounds like a lot! I get high speed internet and cable (really good package, but not the full package) for $65 a month and that includes additional news channels such as CNBC, BNN, Fox news, CNN and all that. I no longer own any land line since I have my cell and any international phone call would be made through Wi-Fi at home.

 

Cardboard

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I pulled the plug a few months ago.  Using Apple TV or boxee box and NFLX I save a pile of money a month, and the experience is FAR better in my opinion.  The only thing missing is sports.  Most friends/family are considering pulling the plug. What about you?

 

Same here, we cancelled cable before Christmas. I really miss hockey but can stream it online sometimes. We use Netflix instead for shows and it's got plenty to watch.

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Still have it. Comcast is the fastest bandwidth in town at the moment so I decided to pay the additional for cable TV. I use Apple TV for movie rentals though vs renting them through comcast because I don't pay comcast the extra $$ for an HDTV subscription and they don't seem to allow on demand movies in HDTV unless you pay for the HDTV package. With AppleTV I usually pay the extra $1 for the HD version. I end up renting from Apple on average once a month. 

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I pulled the plug a few months ago.  Using Apple TV or boxee box and NFLX I save a pile of money a month, and the experience is FAR better in my opinion.  The only thing missing is sports.  Most friends/family are considering pulling the plug. What about you?

 

Same here, we cancelled cable before Christmas. I really miss hockey but can stream it online sometimes. We use Netflix instead for shows and it's got plenty to watch.

 

Yeah, see that's the problem.  I cannot forgo my Canucks games.  I watch every single one...whether live or PVR'ed.  I watch alot of NFL too and a fair amount of basketball.  I also watch all the majors in Tennis usually from when they start.  $125 for the full cable package (including the Indian channels and specialty sport channels) each month just to get that stuff is worth it for me!  Then add high speed internet...$40...and the landline...$45...taxes...comes to about $235 per month.  Sorry, the $285 number was incorrect...it's about $235...still alot in my opinion.  Cheers! 

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HGTV, BNN both have a ton of shows online through their websites.

 

CBC is great for live streaming games.  Not sure on SportsNet or TSN alternatives.

 

You can buy a package through NHL.com.  But when I looked into that a couple years ago it was too expensive.  May be worth it now.

 

I found the same thing with other sports too.  EPL and Rugby would have cost ~$30/month on their own. 

 

For now I get by with http://atdhe.eu/ for streaming sports and acrossthetasman.com for torrenting rugby games.  Had a great stream from Sky Sports for the Masters, the British commercials were hilariously bad.

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Internet only, w/ Netflix subscription.  For 5 years now.  I don't have time to watch more than 15-30 minutes a day, so cable tv is just a waste.  I will say that now that I have been conditioned to expect to start/pause something when I feel like and never watch adds, I can no longer deal with regular television.  A whole generation of younger consumers are being trained the same way, and I cannot imagine "old TV" penetration among millenials being very high at all going forward. 

 

Plus I don't watch sports.  I think TV keeps the sports market for now, providing a streaming outfit doesn't come in and disrupt the market by bidding for streaming rights.  That would really accelerate "old TV's" decline.

 

I think you see the smart gurus ahead of this trend - Malone and Ergen, etc.

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I think "old TV" actually has a nice future as an additional distribution channel for content beyond the current level of network content.  I think you you will see the cable cos buy OTA companies to expand distribution of the content into different channels.  You have already seen the consolidation in Alaska with GNMCA buying 2 OTA players.

 

Packer

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Cut it eight years ago.  Made a deal with my wife at the time that if we absolutely couldn't stand it we'd sign up for cable, no cable in sight.  We have Netflix which has any kids show we'd want, and enough to keep us entertained.  We're not big TV watchers so Netflix works.

 

As for sports, since the Steelers are never blacked out we can always watch them OTA.  For hockey and baseball fans there are apps that allow all the games to be streamed.  One other point on games, if it's not on that's a great excuse to go to a bar and hang out with other fans to watch the game.  Bars always have the games and it's a lot more fun to watch with a bunch of fans verse at home (unless you're throwing a party).

 

Our cable bill was creeping towards $100 a month at the time.  Just thinking about the savings from not having cable for that time means we're $9600 richer.  Granted this is a bit of a strawman because the same could be said about any expense.  If you can afford it I don't see the problem.

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btw how are you getting your Internet? :)

unbundled.

 

I have Comcast again, but for years I had direct TV and used Comcast for internet.  At the time Comcast's high speed internet was something like $60/mo, but it was $40/mo if you were a cable subscriber.  So I subscribed to the smallest cable package they had, which was basically the local channels only for $8/month.  So I got the Internet and local channels(which I didn't need or use) for $48/month rather than $60/month for internet only.  You may want to look at your options to see if you can save some money.

 

The only reason I have pay TV at all is because of my wife.  I never watch TV other than a Netflix movie once in a while.  I'd be perfectly happy without a TV at all.  I hate paying Comcast what I pay them.

 

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I've invested so much time in teaching my wife to use the the remotes I can't possibly change now.

 

I have a Tivo I bought about ten years ago that complicates things slightly.

 

I pay $208 for triple play phone cable internet. I do get free movie Tuesday thrown in which gives us two free movie tix every Tues at Clearview Cinemas.  I never use use them but my kids do occasionally and I know people who go every week. Cablevision is unfortunately looking to sell Clearview cinemas though.

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I cut Rogers cable two months ago. My solution was netflix and a raspberry pi running raspmbc. For netflix, our Sony TV has it integrated and it works great. There is even a red netflix button on the remote control that my 3 year old has figured out.

 

The raspberry pi works well to access a network drive and stream videos. It also can access the TV's remote control thru the HDMI passthru CEC controls, making it really easy to control. But the real big win for my wife was the Canada On Demand add-in -- http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?pid=1303314  which gives FoodTV, HGTV (the big two) and most Canadian broadcaster's web streams direct access through the TV and TV's remote control.

 

Kids happy = Netflix. Wife happy = Canada on Demand. So far I haven't heard any talk of bringing back the Cable bill = Me happy.

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