I open this thread with I have not been a TV watcher since the 90s and I only had OTA for most of the 2000s and 2010s. I have subscribed to streaming cable over the last year since the pandemic started (Google, Hulu, Philo) but I always end up letting it lapse. What I have noticed is a few annoying trends: Network TV is cop dramas and reality shows. I miss being able to watch a Simpsons block from 5-6. There is no more Saturday morning cartoons. Cable TV is now just marathons. Instead of different show at different times, it's typically just one show on a marathon. Example is The Office over and over again on Comedy Central. What happened? I recognize that these are probably reactions to streaming services. And I recognize on-demand streaming and streaming originals is both the present and the future. However, I miss the days when shows were regularly scheduled and you had a big variety to channel surf through. Is this just the end of Cable? (I am just trying to rationalize subscribing to a streaming cable package to watch Rockets this season and have no real fixes )
Do you remember AOL and dialup? Then the ISDN line which was quickly followed up with the blazing aDSL? Cable TV is like DSL lines ... its only there because the infrastructure was built out 30 years ago and the revenue generated outpaces service and maintenance.... for now. But yes, cable tv is a corpse.
Cable and dish only exist because old people living in rural areas don’t have fast enough internet to illegally stream sports like the rest of us.
Shifting demographics. Old people still watch cable. Younger and more educated viewers don't want to wait for a show and watch commercials to boot. With on-demand, it's just weird to tune in at a certain time outside of sporting events to watch anything now. I'm getting ready to drop-kick my Comcast TV package because it's steadily gone up. At one point the TV portion was less than $10 more a month over the cable internet so it was a good deal. Now it's $70. I like the cable box app integration and voice control but I can get a Roku with all of that for less than a month of the cable cost. I'm not the sports fanatic like I used to be and I do have an antenna that I can watch OTA stuff on. I guess there's the MLB and NBA streaming packages if I want to watch the local teams. For viewing needs, I have YouTube Premium, Disney+, Amazon Prime (I pay for the free shipping so this is free to me), HBO Max (free w/ ATT Phone), and Netflix. I could see myself upgrading the Disney+ package to get ad-free Hulu in the future for a few shows, but there's always borrowing from the internet. Ironically, I just got a new neighbor who works for Comcast, I'll pick his brain on the numbers and see what he says.
Even old cable/dish customers know how to work a DVR, dude. That kills the commercial-watching hassle too.
It’s imperfect. You have to time it and then you still either get to watch commercials or miss some of the program. I will say that the Comcast DVR will auto-stop after commercials so it’s only one button press.
I hope sometime in your lifetime they perfect the neural link that allows you to control your world by thinking (a la Eastwood in Firefox) while attached to a feeding tube, permanently ensconced in your variable auto-recliner/bed/toilet/shower. You'll never have to move! (of course you won't be able to because your muscles will be atrophied beyond use) But think of the savings in time and effort!
Neural link, HUD, teleportation. Of course, teleportation is time travel by jumping FTL to point A in the universe then back to point B here. I could then set up my own immortal reign complete with replacement clone bodies to transfer my consciousness and memories into. With genetic modifications I could fly, too.
