Open for discussion. For me personally, it's been the internet for several years now. If it weren't for DVR, I wouldn't watch TV at all except for sports. Besides the occasional special event, sports is the only thing I must watch live. TV shows aren't important enough to set my schedule to. As time goes by, DVRs are becoming less important because of sites like Hulu. This article from zdnet is what prompted me to start the poll/thread. http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=11200 December 11th, 2008 Cable Operator: Internet More Important Than TV, In Downturn Posted by Tom Steinert-Threlkeld @ 9:42 am The tipping point has come, according to the chief operating officer of one of the nation’s most successful cable system operators. The Internet is more important than TV. In a “difficult economic environment,’’ smart people in this downturn are more likely to cut out a subscription to TV service, than Internet service, Tom Rutledge, the chief operating officer of Long Island-based Cablevision Systems Corporation said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York. There, he said: “If you think about the Internet and its utility today, in terms of looking for a job even, it’s really something you have to have. If you ask most sophisticated people, would they rather live their life without television or without the Internet, they’d probably give up television, before they’d give up the Internet.” The logic is clear. Since the dotcom bust in 2000 and 2001, the Internet has greatly increased its utility to users in everything from text communications (instant messaging, Twitter) to voice communications (voice over Internet protocols, Skype) to job searching (Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs) to stuff searching (CraigsList, eBay) to opinion-making (Huffington Post, Politico) to video (YouTube, Hulu, NetFix streaming). By the time the next downturn arrives, seven years hence, it’s conceivable that many of Rutledge’s customers will only want an Internet connection to Cablevision. That one channel will give them all the “Triple Play” of communications they might want: voice calls, data services and video viewing. The fact that the Internet has replaced TV as the most important medium to “sophisticated” people is not reflected yet in many benchmarks. Households now spend 142 hours a month watching TV. That’s up 5 hours from a year ago. By comparison, Nielsen says they only spend 27 hours with the Internet. BTL interpretation: Hours spent on the Internet in the office, in the airport and on the move don’t get counted. And a lot of people want to take a break from the Internet, when they get home at night. Cablevision’s own numbers show the Internet becoming a rival in almost all households to TV. At the end of 2000, the company had only 238,500 cable modem (aka Internet) customers. That amounted to about 11.9% of households served. Now, Rutledge told UBS that Internet penetration essentially half of all households passed. Its TV service, with much longer roots, is taken by 66% of all households passed. (And, don’t look now, but voice services – aka its version of telephony – is now subscribed to by 40% of households that it could possibly serve.) Rutledge does not speak lightly. He is able to think outside the (set-top) box, like Steve Jobs. Rutledge, for instance, is the executive who figured out that it will be smarter for the cable customer and the cable company if the digital recording of TV shows is put inside the network. That way, there are no truck rolls to the home to put boxes in place. And services can be updated, at any time, for all households, without anyone having to waste time waiting for someone to show up at the door. Don’t’ be surprised, for instance, if the TV in your living room learns to stop playing the show in front of you when you hear your cable phone ringing and you pick it up. But picks up right where you left off when you hang up. He also made high-definition TV service free to Cablevision customers and is putting free wifi access to the Internet throughout the Cablevision footprint. So even when you’re not at home, you’re still on his network. With no effort. So to hear a cable operator now say that, after 60 years, the Internet is more important than TV to most intelligent customers makes you sit up and take notice. Yet Rutledge’s basic point is pretty hard to argue: If you are out of work, are you going to turn off the service that provides you all the possible job listings out there that might resuscitate your household income? Or are you going to instead keep the service that brings you “Biggest Loser,” “Kitchen Nightmares” and “Dirty Sexy Money” on a given night? You pick.
Internet hands down for me. It allows me to chat on Clutchfans, connect with old friends/arrange get-togethers, make sports bets, watch other games, read books on Google, get tips for everything in life, be endlessly entertained...it's great. There's maybe 2 shows on TV I like watching, and if I wanted to catch great clips I missed, there's always Hulu...
Internet, by far. Most of the news is on the internet, before it even reaches the TV, because everything happens in real-time, especially since news has to come from local sources in most matters. I can watch most movies and some TV shows on the internet, while on TV ... you might have to wait 2 weeks up to a good 4 years to watch a certain kind of movie. December 11th, 2008 Cable Operator: Internet More Important Than TV, In Downturn Posted by Tom Steinert-Threlkeld @ 9:42 am The tipping point has come, according to the chief operating officer of one of the nation’s most successful cable system operators. The Internet is more important than TV. In a “difficult economic environment,’’ smart people in this downturn are more likely to cut out a subscription to TV service, than Internet service, Tom Rutledge, the chief operating officer of Long Island-based Cablevision Systems Corporation said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York. There, he said: “If you think about the Internet and its utility today, in terms of looking for a job even, it’s really something you have to have. If you ask most sophisticated people, would they rather live their life without television or without the Internet, they’d probably give up television, before they’d give up the Internet.” The logic is clear. Since the dotcom bust in 2000 and 2001, the Internet has greatly increased its utility to users in everything from text communications (instant messaging, Twitter) to voice communications (voice over Internet protocols, Skype) to job searching (Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs) to stuff searching (CraigsList, eBay) to opinion-making (Huffington Post, Politico) to video (YouTube, Hulu, NetFix streaming). By the time the next downturn arrives, seven years hence, it’s conceivable that many of Rutledge’s customers will only want an Internet connection to Cablevision. That one channel will give them all the “Triple Play” of communications they might want: voice calls, data services and video viewing. The fact that the Internet has replaced TV as the most important medium to “sophisticated” people is not reflected yet in many benchmarks. Households now spend 142 hours a month watching TV. That’s up 5 hours from a year ago. By comparison, Nielsen says they only spend 27 hours with the Internet. BTL interpretation: Hours spent on the Internet in the office, in the airport and on the move don’t get counted. And a lot of people want to take a break from the Internet, when they get home at night. Cablevision’s own numbers show the Internet becoming a rival in almost all households to TV. At the end of 2000, the company had only 238,500 cable modem (aka Internet) customers. That amounted to about 11.9% of households served. Now, Rutledge told UBS that Internet penetration essentially half of all households passed. Its TV service, with much longer roots, is taken by 66% of all households passed. (And, don’t look now, but voice services – aka its version of telephony – is now subscribed to by 40% of households that it could possibly serve.) Rutledge does not speak lightly. He is able to think outside the (set-top) box, like Steve Jobs. Rutledge, for instance, is the executive who figured out that it will be smarter for the cable customer and the cable company if the digital recording of TV shows is put inside the network. That way, there are no truck rolls to the home to put boxes in place. And services can be updated, at any time, for all households, without anyone having to waste time waiting for someone to show up at the door. Don’t’ be surprised, for instance, if the TV in your living room learns to stop playing the show in front of you when you hear your cable phone ringing and you pick it up. But picks up right where you left off when you hang up. He also made high-definition TV service free to Cablevision customers and is putting free wifi access to the Internet throughout the Cablevision footprint. So even when you’re not at home, you’re still on his network. With no effort. So to hear a cable operator now say that, after 60 years, the Internet is more important than TV to most intelligent customers makes you sit up and take notice. Yet Rutledge’s basic point is pretty hard to argue: If you are out of work, are you going to turn off the service that provides you all the possible job listings out there that might resuscitate your household income? Or are you going to instead keep the service that brings you “Biggest Loser,” “Kitchen Nightmares” and “Dirty Sexy Money” on a given night? You pick.[/QUOTE]
Another one for the internet. I even went so far as to cancel my cable tv back in the summer and haven't looked back since. Any show I want to watch I can watch online for the most part, and I have NBA LP Broadband. Say what you will about sitting infront of a computer screen, but at least there is the chance to be doing something productive or at least interacting with someone, something you can't do with a simple TV.
Internet! I watch three shows that I can DVR so TV isn't really important except for watching the Rockets. Internet could do better if they post TV episodes with subtitles. I need captions.
98% of the TV I watch is on my PC. But most of us married guys with children won't be canceling cable anytime soon.
TV is important, but I can watch anything I want on my computer.. all downloadable or hulu or whatever.. so internet..
INTERNET I LOVE YOU. I don't watch tv, except to leave it on in the background. Any shows I really want to catch I watch online at my convenience.
Internet, easy. I'm with the OP that I wouldn't watch anything but sports if it weren't for DVR. And if I had to give up TV, I'd probably just get League Pass and call it even.
Same here. Unless it's one of my sports teams playing, the TV is only on for background noise while I surf the net.
I basically use my TV as a monitor and watch TV through my PC tuner card. Wonder when TV over IP will become a reality like VOIP, so people don't have to use hacks and bad feeds to watch live TV on the internet. edit: I meant cable and internet companies offering it, not things like NBA League pass.
