The End of Cable? (ESPN's streaming plan)

[Firefighter4Cy]

The only thing stopping me from cutting cable is sports. I'm a dish subscriber and have no data cap on my internet. If I can stream live games then I will cut the cord very quickly and just pay internet/fee.

My wife and I have this discussion about cancelling cable every month when the bill arrives. This might finally solve it.

 

[cowgirl836]

And buy more lobbyists/politicians to write Net Neutrality legislation that's favorable to them.

adding in the fact that Google is now saying hey, if we had access to the lines under Title II....we'd be rolling out Google Fiber to a lot more places........yeah, the telecoms are going to spend their last dime fighting net neutrality off. Reducing the "need" for traditional cable packages + faster/cheaper internet........they can fight it but I'm certainly hopeful they'll be left in the dust for refusing to innovate and compete.

 

[Clonefan94]

I really am not a big fan of ESPN. $20/month seems pricy. But, I think I might go ahead and sign up. Seems worth the $20/month now, just to start proving to cable companies that their model is ******** and they need to start adapting to, not controlling the internet.

 

[cowgirl836]

I really am not a big fan of ESPN. $20/month seems pricy. But, I think I might go ahead and sign up. Seems worth the $20/month now, just to start proving to cable companies that their model is ******** and they need to start adapting to, not controlling the internet.

It would also include channels like HGTV, Food Network, CNN, Travel Channel, Disney - basically most of the decent channels that you can't get until you go to the third tier of cable packages. Doesn't have Viacom stuff like Comedy Central but hey, now that Colbert is gone, wouldn't be as big of a deal. So yeah, pricey if you only want ESPN, but for the average family that has a wife who loves HGTV and Food Network, and kids that want ABC Family and Cartoon Network......that's a great deal.

 

[Cycsk]

Sure seems like this is the direction things are going. However, they still need to work out the kinks. My son gave me Apple TV for Christmas and we haven't been able to watch a game yet without significant glitches.

 

[cowgirl836]

I guess for those paying for Netflix, Hulu, and other stuff like that, will quickly get back to the price range of a cable package anyway (and no DVR), but someone like me, who doesn't get DVR anyway and just has cable.....I'll keep getting my network shows sans Netflix/Hulu and pay $20 to get sports/stuff to cross stitch to most months of the year without having to venture to pop-up happy websites. And save $50 a month or more if we skip a month.

 

[CycoCyclone]

Disney owns ESPN

 

[tejasclone]

$20 seems a little high, as there's not much on HGTV, Food Network, or Disney that I care about, but if it means avoiding all those virulent UK streams that fail to load 80% of the time, I'd sign up for it.

Then we just need a Fox Sports streaming service for football season and we'd have 95% of Cyclone MBB and football games covered.

 

[kingcy]

So I have to pay $20 a month for that channel package, $20 a month for the Fox package, $20 a month for the NBC channel package, $20 a month for a converter box , $20 for the kids channels, and $20 a month for something else. Makes cable look cheap.

 

[DSMCy]

So I have to pay $20 a month for that channel package, $20 a month for the Fox package, $20 a month for the NBC channel package, $20 a month for a converter box , $20 for the kids channels, and $20 a month for something else. Makes cable look cheap.

Not sure what you need a converter box for?
You can pull in local channels (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox) in for free over the air.

I always laugh at the people that "complain" about new offerings like this. If you don't like it, keep your cable.
Cable cutters will like this. If it doesn't make sense for you, keep your 2 year contract.

 

[cowgirl836]

Not sure what you need a converter box for?
You can pull in local channels (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox) in for free over the air.

I always laugh at the people that "complain" about new offerings like this. If you don't like it, keep your cable.
Cable cutters will like this. If it doesn't make sense for you, keep your 2 year contract.

and if you feel you need the Fox, Disney, NBC, kid's channel, and other packages.............then this isn't for you. You are not the target demographic for this. Keep your regular cable package. This is for people who would be happy with just certain ones.

 

[jbhtexas]

and if you feel you need the Fox, Disney, NBC, kid's channel, and other packages.............then this isn't for you. You are not the target demographic for this. Keep your regular cable package. This is for people who would be happy with just certain ones.

Precisely.

 

[kingcy]

Not sure what you need a converter box for?
You can pull in local channels (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox) in for free over the air.

I always laugh at the people that "complain" about new offerings like this. If you don't like it, keep your cable.
Cable cutters will like this. If it doesn't make sense for you, keep your 2 year contract.

My point is in the end it may not be saving you as much in the end. I'm not complaining I think it is great, but in the end you may not be any better off.

 

[kingcy]

and if you feel you need the Fox, Disney, NBC, kid's channel, and other packages.............then this isn't for you. You are not the target demographic for this. Keep your regular cable package. This is for people who would be happy with just certain ones.

Depends on how many games you want to watch and how they tie everything together. By NBC I was meaning NBC sports and their pile of channels, and the same for FOX and their pile of channels.

 

[NorthCyd]

Interesting, but with just ESPN and ESPN2 in the base package you will still be missing a lot of ISU and Big XII sports.

 

[cowgirl836]

Depends on how many games you want to watch and how they tie everything together. By NBC I was meaning NBC sports and their pile of channels, and the same for FOX and their pile of channels.

right, I understood what you meant. I'm saying you'd have to decide which grouping is the one you want (though there's only one right now) or stay with the entire package. I would bet that if Fox/NBC come out with their own, it will start to drive that $20/month down or it's like you said, suddenly you're back to $60/month and what's the point?

 

[ianoconnor]

For current cord cutters, this is perfect. I already don't have cable, so to be able to add ESPN, ESPN2, HGTV, etc for only $20 -- no brainer. No more sketch streams & less trips to the bar for a game watch.

 

[huntt26]

Interesting, but with just ESPN and ESPN2 in the base package you will still be missing a lot of ISU and Big XII sports.

If they added ESPNU at some point, a combination of this and Cyclones.tv would cover most of it for basketball season.

Fox Sports 1 is the big one missing for football. Again, I fully expect them to add that in a Fox add-on eventually.

This is a start - it has its kinks, but exciting for many people.

 

[kingcy]

True, plus the whole Net Neutrality limbo...

...though if things like these were widely adopted, it'd provide more pressure on telecom providers to raise or eliminate their data caps. I mean, eventually someone would out-compete those who don't.

They would all look for ways to raise their rates also. This would cause a huge demand on their networks, costing them money to update.

 

[NorthCyd]

If they added ESPNU at some point, a combination of this and Cyclones.tv would cover most of it for basketball season.

Fox Sports 1 is the big one missing for football. Again, I fully expect them to add that in a Fox add-on eventually.

This is a start - it has its kinks, but exciting for many people.

It may be exciting, but it's not true a la carte programming. Once you start adding those other channels you talk about the price starts to look more and more like any other provider. Maybe a step in the right direction, maybe not. Time will tell.