Cable TV companies

[john welsford]

We don't have "cable" here, there is a lot of free to air, plus a satellite based broadcaster thats gradually losing ground. In fact TV in general is losing ground quite quickly.

I hear a lot of grumbles from my American friends about what a bunch of ( insert your favourite expletive here) the cable companies can be when trying to deal with them.
But I"m wondering how long they'll be a significant force in the media and entertainment world?

Think about the satellite constellations being built, so the same could be said for the current Internet Service Providers.

Any thoughts?

John Welsford

[WI-Tom]

Thoughts? Yep. It's going to get pretty crowded up there in the satellite orbit zone. And I wonder how that's going to affect things.

I've never had cable, never wanted it. Never had a working TV other than a screen to watch DVDs on, until we finally caved and got an Internet TV with satellite service during the Covid lockdown to watch (mostly) English/Scottish mystery dramas where--imagine that!--there's rarely a gun to be seen.

But cable is going to become less and less necessary. Satellite Internet works pretty well, even for streaming.

Tom

[bluedog225]

God meant tv to be free.

[Art Haberland]

I only have cable for the internet. None of us actually watch the Television unless it's hooked up to the internet

[Stiletto]

I very rarely watch broadcast TV these days.

[Jim Bow]

We cut the cable 5 years ago. We have a couple of streaming services plus Amazon Prime.
Seattle’s broadcast towers are 26 miles away line of sight. The picture quality over the air is significantly better than cable. Mainly watch broadcast sports.

[Robbie 2]

I only watch the news these days then the TV goes off.

[Peerie Maa]

We are on a service called Freesat. Paid for by our TV license.
Dramas like Vera have been mentioned on here, and there are a shed load of documentaries, History, Science, genealogy, you name it.

[wizbang 13]

Trumpers are still watching Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud

[Todd D]

We turned our TV on for the first time in years this month to watch the Jan 6 hearings. I was going to watch them on-line but Linda wanted to watch on the TV. We have cable internet but TV is only over the air. We get three channels unless I go outside and physically reorient the antenna to get the fourth.

[Garret]

Cable is the only real option for internet for us. I work remotely (have for the last 40 years) as does my partner - though she "could" go into an office. So - between remote desktop where I am literally on the customer's computer, downloading/uploading large files, & both of us running zoom or teams at the same time, we need high speed/good bandwidth internet. DSL & satellite don't come close to what we need.

We don't watch any cable TV, as we get 17 broadcast channels - including several from Canada. That said, we don't watch much regular TV.

[John Meachen]

I've never had cable as it was never installed on any scale over here but wen I was getting bored with the over the air offerings in the late 1980's I bought a satellite setup.At the time I had to apply for a licence from the Home Office (TVRO and still have it in a drawer somewhere).This allowed me a much greater choice of viewing and introduced me to a whole new world of entertainment.There weren't too many channels on offer compared to now and some of the more interesting stuff was on satellites that my dish wasn't aimed at so a year or so later I added a motorising kit.Which meant I could watch programmes from Germany,France,Italy,Austria and quite a few other places.It gave me the impetus to learn some very basic German and gave an insight into the way others see the UK.

Thirty odd years on and I have a smaller dish and a much greater selection of channels to choose from.The nations from which they are broadcast are many and various and I am glad to have the chance to see the news as presented to other people.

[Breakaway]

I'm too far from any broadcast stations. I do manage to get a snowy image of one network affiliate out of Connecticut. I have not tried satellite TV and or Internet, but friends who have abandoned it for, as Garret stated, lack of bandwidth, and other reasons. So, cable, it is.

Kevin