You Decide

The cost is ridiculous.

Thanks Sully. Yes it is.

I've been screaming for ala carte programming for years and the last straw was the local cable company bragging about all the channels they provided. Sheesh, there were a half dozen shopping channels- free to the cable co.- and after doing some research, I found other "minor" channels that only charged a few cents per subscriber.

And, the plethora of sports channels was just too much, too.   One ESPN channel would have been nearly one too many for me and I probably would not pay an ala carte price for Fox News, much less CNN, MSNBC, etc.   While there were a *few* programs on the major TV networks I would have watched, I wasn't for sure the price per subscriber they charged....billed to me w/ a hefty markup...was worth it.

Plus, there's always some dispute between some network and the cable companies and losing that channel until they worked out a new contract.   Plus, I never could understand why we actually had to pay all that much for cable anyway...I mean, aren't we having to sit though adverts anyway? I thought that was how the networks paid the bill long before cable.   I can understand having to pay a bill to help keep up the cable company's infrastructure, but pay extra for the channels when that's basically getting charged double, counting the commercials?

It will be a slow death, but cable TV is dying. There is some great quality programming from the streaming services like Netflix and other outfits like YouTube are offering reasonable subscriptions for premium content. Even the major networks are either letting people watch for free on their websites or are also offering subscriptions.   

That said, I do not feel like subsidizing ANY company that either insults me with their programming, allows someone who works for them to insult me or allows ads for companies that like to insult me. I can watch ANYTHING I want to watch online. It might not be legal, but it's a crime for the networks to slander me or overcharge for mostly an inferior product.

Thanks Mike. I guess the networks are suffering because they're running out of ideas for entertaining non-social-engineering programming so have resorted to forcing things on us.