TV and Movies

[Spurt]

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@icezeus wrote:

I cut the cord  alittle over three years ago and I have not looked back. 

Frontier (High Speed Internet Svc) $75.00 per month.

Hulu $5.99 per month.

Netflix $8.99 per month it use to be $5.99.

Sling TV $30.00 per month it use to be $25.00

Since I subscribe to Amazon Prime. I have shows available through them as well. 

My streaming expenses in conjunction with my Internet bill is still less money then when I had Direct TV. 

I watch the majority of my entertainment when it's convenient for me. i am not locked into a time frame or have to DVR something, although I do have 50 hours of recording time available via SLING. 

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But dont forget the cost for Amazon Prime too....that also factors into the expense....$119 a year...

[Sooner]

With us it is about the convenience.  As long as there are a few local channels I doubt very much we would discontinue cable.  I don't think either of us is that interested in any shows out there.

Where we live, local stations are a must for weather warnings.  And really that is our primary concern.  TV is rapidly becoming a thing of the past in our house. 

Especially I don't care about anything from the last century to watch.  I am not into old tv shows or old movies--the black and white stuff. 

[Still Raining]

Cut the cord a few years ago when I moved and do not miss it.  Cable is going the way of landlines.  Should be gone soon.

I am rural and get WiFi via satellite and local via antenna.

[geezerette]

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@webbgarner1 wrote:

@On It  I have had dish satellite for several years now. We have similar problems . Dish removed our local tv stations that are NBC and FOX. Dish refuses top pay whatevewr fees these local stations charge to carry their prgramming.  This has been for over 6 months now and does not look like it is going to be resolved so we can not see our local news and other events and shows. This is not the first time this has happened.  I have been thinking about going back to cable or giving an antenna a whirl.

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@webbgarner1 

The same thing happened to me some months ago since our local NBC and FOX stations are owned by the same company.  They were off DISH for a few months before finally coming to an agreement.  But the FOX station was off even longer since it had yet another company that couldn't come to a contract agreement with DISH.  Finally even that was resolved and the station returned.

[stevieb]

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@Spurt wrote:

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@icezeus wrote:

I cut the cord  alittle over three years ago and I have not looked back. 

Frontier (High Speed Internet Svc) $75.00 per month.

Hulu $5.99 per month.

Netflix $8.99 per month it use to be $5.99.

Sling TV $30.00 per month it use to be $25.00

Since I subscribe to Amazon Prime. I have shows available through them as well. 

My streaming expenses in conjunction with my Internet bill is still less money then when I had Direct TV. 

I watch the majority of my entertainment when it's convenient for me. i am not locked into a time frame or have to DVR something, although I do have 50 hours of recording time available via SLING. 

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But dont forget the cost for Amazon Prime too....that also factors into the expense....$119 a year...

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@Spurt I don't avail myself of most prime viewing options but at least I have them, and while I'm increasingly no champion of Amazon, at least for the price of Prime, I so also get a few other perks. That price you quote for a year of Prime is a little less than a third of my cable bill and I get to pay for that every blasted month...

[Spurt]

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@stevieb wrote:

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@Spurt wrote:

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@icezeus wrote:

I cut the cord  alittle over three years ago and I have not looked back. 

Frontier (High Speed Internet Svc) $75.00 per month.

Hulu $5.99 per month.

Netflix $8.99 per month it use to be $5.99.

Sling TV $30.00 per month it use to be $25.00

Since I subscribe to Amazon Prime. I have shows available through them as well. 

My streaming expenses in conjunction with my Internet bill is still less money then when I had Direct TV. 

I watch the majority of my entertainment when it's convenient for me. i am not locked into a time frame or have to DVR something, although I do have 50 hours of recording time available via SLING. 

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But dont forget the cost for Amazon Prime too....that also factors into the expense....$119 a year...

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@Spurt I don't avail myself of most prime viewing options but at least I have them, and while I'm increasingly no champion of Amazon, at least for the price of Prime, I so also get a few other perks. That price you quote for a year of Prime is a little less than a third of my cable bill and I get to pay for that every blasted month...

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@stevieb 

All these different forms of "entertainment" include a price and it's incorporated somewhere in that $12 a month Prime bill. It cost money for Amazon to include these "perks" and they pass that expense on to their customers and it impacts the cost of their Amazon Prime (Bezos isnt going to give anything away for free) ..I wonder what it would cost for just speedy delivery without the movies, music and other extras 🤔???? 

And this is also how all these streaming services also get you and lure you in---just $4.99 for this streaming service, and this one is only $6, add in $8.99 you wouldnt want to miss out on this new series, and what a bargain this one is at $5.....It's spread out in little bits so the consumer doesn't realize the cost, it's not like just one enormous cable bill staring at you in the face....but these costs do add up ....

Now cable certainly isn't cheap, I don't know about your bill but my cable bill is $174 a month, but only $94 is for cable/internet (with bundle discount)---the rest is fees, surcharges, taxes, and the local municipality has to get their couple bucks too...Without these extra costs cable would actually be pretty reasonable....But all these greedy people along the way put out their hands to grab some dough, but in the long run, it may bite them in the rear end and actually put them out of business...

But it probably wont be long before these "regulators" will realize they have an untapped cash cow sitting there and all these streaming services and alternatives will eventually find themselves forced to pay "the piper" too, with fees and surcharges (look at TCM with complaints about the rising costs for the leasing or purchase of movies) and everything gets passed on to the customer. Its already started with sales tax added to some internet services in some states. And some streaming services have started price increases too...Consumers just cant win........😡

[stevieb]

@Spurt  It's agreed, consumers will never win any of these battles. Never. I remember growing up we had essentially maybe a dozen stations and still almost always found something worthwhile to watch. Of course, both network and local programs were of a higher quality, as were most movies. Programming was not agenda driven or message oriented and advertising was not yet completely idiotic, out of control or oh so 'correct'. Rather, programming was offered for its entertainment value. Now, with ostensibly hundreds of stations to watch on cable, most times there is literally nothing I want to see that I haven't seen before. While reruns of old shows might often be a default, their entertainment value only goes so far after the umpteenth viewing. I'm not convinced all these streaming shows being raved about are honestly all that good, but by comparison to the network bilge, they likely seem to be. And to be sure, eventually fees, taxes and surcharges will eventually rear their repugnant heads just as soon as the powers that be figure out how to apply them.

[Spurt]

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@stevieb wrote:

@Spurt  It's agreed, consumers will never win any of these battles. Never. I remember growing up we had essentially maybe a dozen stations and still almost always found something worthwhile to watch. Of course, both network and local programs were of a higher quality, as were most movies. Programming was not agenda driven or message oriented and advertising was not yet completely idiotic, out of control or oh so 'correct'. Rather, programming was offered for its entertainment value. Now, with ostensibly hundreds of stations to watch on cable, most times there is literally nothing I want to see that I haven't seen before. While reruns of old shows might often be a default, their entertainment value only goes so far after the umpteenth viewing. I'm not convinced all these streaming shows being raved about are honestly all that good, but by comparison to the network bilge, they likely seem to be. And to be sure, eventually fees, taxes and surcharges will eventually rear their repugnant heads just as soon as the powers that be figure out how to apply them.

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@stevieb 

Very well said!!!!  Yep, I remember those days when the entertainment industry was all about their actual craft and bringing QUALITY programming to television---great writers and shows---no agendas were shoved down peoples throats....You stated it so elegantly---I totally agree sadly what we are left with is either classic TV reruns or water downed-diluted "entertainment" (Hallmark movies anyone???) or whether watching a sitcom or drama viewers are now "lectured" on a variety of topics....  And I agree having seen a few of these so called original streaming service "masterpieces" ---they aren't all that...  

What I find interesting while sports athletes get lampooned for their outrageous salaries little seems to be said about the equally outrageous salaries paid to actors and others employed by the so called "entertainment" industry...I thought it was supposed to be you get what you pay for and we arent getting our money's worth...😉😣

[stevieb]

@Spurt  Just like when they broke up 'Ma Bell', creating dozens of phone service providers, none of them doing the job as well, eventually something will undo 'streaming'... Regardless, network, prime time television has become a travesty... Along with the over abundance of bad ads, the message driven dramas, including the latest incarnation of police procedurals, medical dramas and so on, and the un-funny comedies, we also have the competition shows, the game shows, the reality shows, the dating shows and the amateur hour shows... I guess many folks watch them because, well, they're there... A sad testament to the state of our society and the state of the entertainment industry... Athlete salaries are ridiculous but I never fail also to rail against what 'celebrities' are being paid, and in most instances, not because of their talent, but merely because they're 'celebrities'. These ludicrous compensation packages have gone far to further creating the great divide between the haves and the have nots... 

[Spurt]

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@stevieb wrote:

@Spurt  Just like when they broke up 'Ma Bell', creating dozens of phone service providers, none of them doing the job as well, eventually something will undo 'streaming'... Regardless, network, prime time television has become a travesty... Along with the over abundance of bad ads, the message driven dramas, including the latest incarnation of police procedurals, medical dramas and so on, and the un-funny comedies, we also have the competition shows, the game shows, the reality shows, the dating shows and the amateur hour shows... I guess many folks watch them because, well, they're there... A sad testament to the state of our society and the state of the entertainment industry... Athlete salaries are ridiculous but I never fail also to rail against what 'celebrities' are being paid, and in most instances, not because of their talent, but merely because they're 'celebrities'. These ludicrous compensation packages have gone far to further creating the great divide between the haves and the have nots... 

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@stevieb 

👍 👍👍 👏👏👏---Well said my friend!

You've made another great point--cheap production costs have given way to a plethora of talent contests and reality shows..sorry networks not interested!!!..SMH....

Awhile back there was an amusing article in our local paper talking about where has all the good television gone, (are we watching more and enjoying it less) He gave a similar commentary to what we have stated.... To show how bad TV has gotten he mentioned that 47% of the Sponge Bob Cartoon audience were ADULTS--😄😄😄-As funny as that sounds, it's also a SAD SAD commentary on today's programming.....😪 It's a TRAVESTY indeed!