US pay-TV subscriber base eroding at record pace::undefined

  • WashedOver@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    Coming up to 16 years since I cut the cord and hardly anyone I know that is younger has cable. It’s internet and then streaming.

    My father when he passed in 2013 was paying $160/mth for old HD cable for his old 35" RCA tube set before I bought him a LCD TV that required a upgrade to modern HD channels. He didn’t have internet with that either. So while they were scamming him for this old 480p HD packages he wasn’t alone I’m sure.

    I will say at new year’s I was at someone’s place that only had internet and for the group of us he brought out a HD Amazon antenna to watch the ball drop at midnight on local broadcast TV.

    The amount of commercials was jarring. I’m not looking forward to when they bring those to streaming services that are currently hemorrhaging billions.

    • teamevil@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I watched Fargo last week via broadcast. 5 min to 5 min of commercial time. It’s insane.

      • BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        I would watch about 16 minutes before giving up.

        In the old days flow TV was max 25-30% ads, how can people live with 50% ads? At that rate it will be “Find the content” so in a few years with 90% ads watching a 45 minute show would take 7.5 hours.

        • Peppycito
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          11 months ago

          There won’t be 45 minute shows. It’ll be “Ow, my balls!” and cut to commercial.

          • BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca
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            11 months ago

            Looking forward to 50 seconds commercials and 10 seconds tik-tok videos, but that’s just YouTube.

            • Corkyskog
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              11 months ago

              Tiktok itself is the worst. I actually like the core of tiktok, but JFC does every other video literally have to be an ad? I actually think it’s like 3 out of 5 videos to be honest.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Remember when broadcast TV showed commercials on the 15 minute mark, 2-3 at a time for 30 minutes each, maybe more between shows? Commercials seemed like a reasonable tradeoff, plus were predictable so you could fit it in with other things. They dug their own grave, making commercials more intrusive, harder to skip, more frequent. …. Pepperidge Farms remembers

      • sronweb@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The problem is that OTT services are going to the adv model too. They expect that we pay a minimum subscription cost and watch advertising…this is crazy