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2016 Cut the Cord Thread

Paulie Walnuts said:
If you threaten to cut the cord they will lower your rate. How much they lower it depends on various factors.
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Yeah we went that route multiple times. Sometimes would get the rate cut by 30% or only get Showtime for 3 months. Seemed to depend on who you got a hold of on the other end of the phone. Eventually you just get sick of it. Especially since 90% of everything we watched on cable can watched for less then the price of a decent meal at a restaurant. The only bummer we have is the Canes home hockey games. But we are surviving... :p

One interesting item to note...all of the people that work for me are mostly millennials. Not a one of them have a subscribe to cable or satellite. They stream everything they watch. It's quite natural to that generation. That's kind of foretelling right there about the future.
 
Another problem for ESPN. The ratings for the New Year's Eve college semi-finals were down significantly from last year. The Orange Bowl was down 45% and the Cotton Bowl was down 34%. As a result, ESPN owes advertisers more than $20 million in "make good" advertising, essentially giving ad time away because they overcharged for ad time for the 2 games based on projected viewership. Advertisers want the games moved away from New Year's Eve, the College Football Playoff committee won't budge and ESPN is caught in the middle as the rights holder.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ne...negotiating-20m-bowl-game-ad-makegoods/146777
 
andyt said:
Another problem for ESPN. The ratings for the New Year's Eve college semi-finals were down significantly from last year. The Orange Bowl was down 45% and the Cotton Bowl was down 34%. As a result, ESPN owes advertisers more than $20 million in "make good" advertising, essentially giving ad time away because they overcharged for ad time for the 2 games based on projected viewership. Advertisers want the games moved away from New Year's Eve, the College Football Playoff committee won't budge and ESPN is caught in the middle as the rights holder.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ne...negotiating-20m-bowl-game-ad-makegoods/146777
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Yes, the New York Times had a good piece on this topic a few days ago...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/s...-playoff-espn-new-years-eve-ratings.html?_r=0
 
andyt said:
Another problem for ESPN. The ratings for the New Year's Eve college semi-finals were down significantly from last year. The Orange Bowl was down 45% and the Cotton Bowl was down 34%. As a result, ESPN owes advertisers more than $20 million in "make good" advertising, essentially giving ad time away because they overcharged for ad time for the 2 games based on projected viewership. Advertisers want the games moved away from New Year's Eve, the College Football Playoff committee won't budge and ESPN is caught in the middle as the rights holder.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ne...negotiating-20m-bowl-game-ad-makegoods/146777
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Apparently, everyone and their mothers, except those who work at the NCAA or ESPN realized that scheduling the games on New Years Eve was a bad idea. There are some traditions that you can change and there are some that you cannot. The NCAA would be well-served to admit that trying to get people to sit home on NYE in order to watch football was a bad idea. Wait? NCAA ... admit mistake ....
 
I have no sympathy for ESPN or the assorted college football groups. They got what they had coming with the ratings. Greed at ESPN, I can understand as it is a corporation. The NCAA as a non-profit is a joke. ESPN and NCAA/CFP are pretty much crooks. Anything that disrupts either is a winning moment in my book.

Tom Brady's agent wrote an interesting piece the other day in the Washington Post calling for the players to boycott the championship game. When you read it, the amount of money is pretty sickening.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/post...black-athletes-but-they-could-force-a-change/
 
andyt said:
Another problem for ESPN. The ratings for the New Year's Eve college semi-finals were down significantly from last year. The Orange Bowl was down 45% and the Cotton Bowl was down 34%. As a result, ESPN owes advertisers more than $20 million in "make good" advertising, essentially giving ad time away because they overcharged for ad time for the 2 games based on projected viewership. Advertisers want the games moved away from New Year's Eve, the College Football Playoff committee won't budge and ESPN is caught in the middle as the rights holder.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ne...negotiating-20m-bowl-game-ad-makegoods/146777
Click to expand...

This little screwup will NOT be popular with their Disney overlords, who from what I've been told have lost all patience with ESPN's complete lack of economic intelligence. They got so fat for so long on jacked up carriage fees that ESPN honestly has no idea how to operate like a fully functioning business. Disney increases their influence corporately a little more each quarter, whereas up until 2014 they allowed ESPN pretty much complete autonomy.
 
NCAA gets about 95% of their entire budget from BB tourney TV rights money. That 3 weeks funds the rest of the other 49 weeks for BB and every other sport.

College sports is like the Olympics prior to 1992. As bad as the IOC is, at least they finally dropped the whole amateur farce in 92 and let anyone in the Olympics. Maybe the NCAA will eventually do the same.
 
Paulie Walnuts said:
NCAA gets about 95% of their entire budget from BB tourney TV rights money. That 3 weeks funds the rest of the other 49 weeks for BB and every other sport.
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True, except for football. The CFA runs football under the NCAA's enforcement umbrella and distributes the revenues directly to the member conferences and independent schools.
 
jeffbear said:
This little screwup will NOT be popular with their Disney overlords, who from what I've been told have lost all patience with ESPN's complete lack of economic intelligence. They got so fat for so long on jacked up carriage fees that ESPN honestly has no idea how to operate like a fully functioning business. Disney increases their influence corporately a little more each quarter, whereas up until 2014 they allowed ESPN pretty much complete autonomy.
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Didn't ESPN want the games moved but the NCAA or tournament committee wouldn't allow it? Other than signing the agreement in the first place what was their mistake on this?
 
cmon3 said:
Didn't ESPN want the games moved but the NCAA or tournament committee wouldn't allow it? Other than signing the agreement in the first place what was their mistake on this?
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They knew the games weren't going to be moved and would be played on New Year's Eve. They overestimated the total viewership when they sold ad time and that's what the rates are based on.

Everyone wants the games moved. Everyone except the only group that matters, the College Football Playoff committee. Their contract with ESPN runs until 2025 and is worth about $475 million per year. One other thing I heard, and the playoff schedule shows this; the ESPN contract with the Rose Bowl prohibits them from broadcasting any other bowl game opposite it. For ESPN to broadcast the semi-finals on New Year's Day, they'd have to have an early game, a 1:00 kickoff and a post 8:00 kickoff to not compete with the Rose Bowl. Every 3rd year when the Rose Bowl hosts a semi-final, the games will be played on New Year's Day, the next time on January 1, 2018.

http://www.collegefootballplayoff.com/future-sites-and-schedules
 
Hey Guys new poster, but wanted to chime in as I cut the cord a few months ago after Time Warner screwed me one too many times. I wound up going with Earthlink 50-5 package (Time Warner reseller) for $29 for 6 months since U-Verse service in my 'hood is only 18mb down. On the hardware side I picked up a Mohu Antenna ($60) for broadcast tv (get about 20 channels), a roku 3 ($99) to stream, and a nice logitech harmony remote ($200) to seamlessly switch between everything (for my wife's sanity). For streaming software, I have the following, Sling TV ($15 a month T-Mobile Special), Netflix, Amazon Prime, Plex, and NHL Game Center using unblock-us ($50 a year) to get all the Canes games. The unblock-us also allows me to also get live streaming BBC channels and I can watch things like live rugby.

It's been great so far and we have not missed cable one bit.
 
The biggest difficulty I have with cord cutting is that we have 5 TVs connected, 4 of which could be in use at any one time watching 4 different things (ie I'm watching NFL Red Zone, my wife is watching Bravo, one daughter is watching Disney channel and the other daughter is watching something else), meanwhile 3 other shows are recording on DVR at the same time. For those of you effectively cord cutting do you have one primary TV that everyone watches? I have one BlueRay player that allows us access to Netflix and Amazon Prime (which we use on occasion) along with an XBOX One that also allows that type of streaming (no smart TVs).

If 4 people are actively watching live TV (all "cable" channels) and other stuff is recording how exactly would you cut the cord in a situation like I have?
 
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As you switch to the other services (like Netflix, or Amazon Prime for example) that content is not watched live. So, there's probably less need to record things on DVR because you just go watch what you want when you want. If you want to watch on 5 different TVs, you'd need to have multiple devices like roku or Amazon Fire TV, or use the smart tv apps if you have a smart tv, or your blueray or Xbox. But you now have a device anyway for all those TVs with cable or satellite.

I found that we were no longer recording very much and watching it later.
 
Biggest deal being the need to transition from watching network shows live or recording them live to watching them later ... sometimes much later. Cutting the cord isn't for everybody, but neither is network TV and mainstream cable.

I think if you give the marketplace another 3-4 years, it'll all sort itself out. Advertisers generate the cash, and they will eventually figure out that their viewership numbers aren't tied directly to the networks. That will cause a paradigm shift in the dollars, and in who actually funds creative projects. We're already seeing it with Netflix and Amazon ... but others will follow eventually. The biggest issue is sports ... and that's a HUGE issue. Fans can't time shift live sporting events and so long as the networks keep their stranglehold on providing live games, it's going to be a hitch in the giddyup.
 
Sports is a huge issue - but one that will resolve itself. The source of the money is ultimately the viewer.

Content producers across the board will adapt to the new delivery options or they will lose consumers. There's really not a lot outside of contracts that the cable and satellite companies or even the networks have as leverage. If the NFL sees that it's leaving money on the table because of the current arrangement with broadcasters it will change. That is the beauty of capitalism.

Same thing with the NHL. They want to maximize their fan base which is the total source of their revenue in one way or another.

I think their answer is the NHL Game Center and allowing more options there. No reason they can't handle their own blackouts if they need to do that. The reason in market games aren't available is because they have a contract with a local network to carry the games. The value to the NHL of the local networks is it gives them a way to distribute their product, and converts fan money into league/team money through advertising. If the league can easily get the fan money directly from the fans, then

My Money = Fan Money > Spent on Cable Fees and purchasing advertised products > Contracts the network pays the teams/league = League Revenue

Why not - My Money - Spent directly with the league or team - League Revenue?

They gotta be thinking outside of the (cable)box. They now have an easier home delivery option for their product. It's just another ticket package.

Why not offer Season Ticket Holders for any NHL team the perk of NHL Game Center at no additional cost for example? Offer games on a game by game basis - you can buy the season of Game of Thrones or you can buy single episodes. Package up ticket packages to attend games with digital content.
 
Hate to admit it but I went backwards this year. I had been doing the NHL GameCenter Center Ice package watching through google TV Chrome and had cut the cord for three years. I was going to do that again this year but the platform has not improved enough yet and I got tired of jumping through hoops to watch the games with decent quality. In came Direct TV on opening day. There is a two year contract so I will have to bite the bullet for at least that amount of time. They gave me three months of the premium channels and NFL Sunday ticket but I have no interest in either. The only time the dish is on is when there is a Canes game and my bill is $55 a month plus the package. I will be looking again when the 2017/18 season arrives.
 
KTown11 said:
Hate to admit it but I went backwards this year. I had been doing the NHL GameCenter Center Ice package watching through google TV Chrome and had cut the cord for three years. I was going to do that again this year but the platform has not improved enough yet and I got tired of jumping through hoops to watch the games with decent quality. In came Direct TV on opening day. There is a two year contract so I will have to bite the bullet for at least that amount of time. They gave me three months of the premium channels and NFL Sunday ticket but I have no interest in either. The only time the dish is on is when there is a Canes game and my bill is $55 a month plus the package. I will be looking again when the 2017/18 season arrives.
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After a lot of experimenting with all the different Game Center apps and streaming methods, I found that using the Roku3 with a smart dns and either a strong wireless signal or wired connection works without any issues. Picture is same if not slightly better than what I got with Time Warner and it rarely ever lags (twice briefly in the 40 plus games I've watched this year). I tried using Chromecast, the Xboxone, but they never performed as well as the Roku.
 
HeyKurtz said:
Welcome. This has nothing to do with the topic of this thread...I just want to say you win the award for the best screen name I've seen around these parts in a long time!
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Thanks for the welcome, have lurked for ages, figured it was time to join in.
 
Trace Trippy said:
After a lot of experimenting with all the different Game Center apps and streaming methods, I found that using the Roku3 with a smart dns and either a strong wireless signal or wired connection works without any issues. Picture is same if not slightly better than what I got with Time Warner and it rarely ever lags (twice briefly in the 40 plus games I've watched this year). I tried using Chromecast, the Xboxone, but they never performed as well as the Roku.
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Wish I had of taken the Roku 3 route now. DNS not an issue because I live in north FL. Where were you in early Oct? :facepalm

Thanks for the information and welcome!
 
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