My plan to cut the cable

[Darrell KSR]

I hope this works. I think I have to work up to it.

I think that my ultimate plan would be as follows:

A) DroidTV. Has Primetime TV, no commercials. Downloads to phone or tablet, then casts to TV, no buffering. I have one lifetime subscription on a device, need 1-2 more. Probably get 3 more, since the cost is $120 for one, $40 for the next two (each). $200 sunk cost and no more fees to pay, ever, for that service.

B) SlingTV. I'm not very familiar with this, but I understand that for $20 a month you get live ESPN, ESPN 2, AMC, Food Network, A&E, History, TNT, El Rey, HGTV, IFC, The Disney Channel, Polaris+, Maker, TBS, Travel Channel, Adult Swim, CNN, Bloomberg Television, History Channel 2, Cartoon Network, ABC Family, Lifetime and Galavision.

Downside - can only be streamed live on one TV in a house at a time.

Note--I have the WatchESPN app, so I can live stream that separate and apart from SlingTV. Works fine.

C) Amazon or Netflix? I have Amazon Prime, and I think it has tv like DroidTV does, but not sure. Not sure if this is needed or not. Amazon would be free; Netflix about $10 a month, I guess.

What else do I need? Obviously, the idea here is not to spend $100+ a month, or else you're defeating the purpose.

[PedroDaGr8]

I hope this works. I think I have to work up to it.

I think that my ultimate plan would be as follows:

A) DroidTV. Has Primetime TV, no commercials. Downloads to phone or tablet, then casts to TV, no buffering. I have one lifetime subscription on a device, need 1-2 more. Probably get 3 more, since the cost is $120 for one, $40 for the next two (each). $200 sunk cost and no more fees to pay, ever, for that service.

B) SlingTV. I'm not very familiar with this, but I understand that for $20 a month you get live ESPN, ESPN 2, AMC, Food Network, A&E, History, TNT, El Rey, HGTV, IFC, The Disney Channel, Polaris+, Maker, TBS, Travel Channel, Adult Swim, CNN, Bloomberg Television, History Channel 2, Cartoon Network, ABC Family, Lifetime and Galavision.

Downside - can only be streamed live on one TV in a house at a time.

Note--I have the WatchESPN app, so I can live stream that separate and apart from SlingTV. Works fine.

C) Amazon or Netflix? I have Amazon Prime, and I think it has tv like DroidTV does, but not sure. Not sure if this is needed or not. Amazon would be free; Netflix about $10 a month, I guess.

What else do I need? Obviously, the idea here is not to spend $100+ a month, or else you're defeating the purpose.

For five dollars more on SlingTV you can get the sports pack which adds ESPNU, SEC Network, plus some other sports channels.

[Catonahottinroof]

I have Sling TV. Have had it about 8 months. I stream it to my Apple TV to see UK games on the ESPN networks or SEC Network.
We cut the cable 6 month ago and haven't looked back.

[Darrell KSR]

That gives me a bigger comfort level. I would love to save $100 or so per month and not miss anything.

[KentuckyWildcat]

A) DroidTV. Has Primetime TV, no commercials. Downloads to phone or tablet, then casts to TV, no buffering. I have one lifetime subscription on a device, need 1-2 more. Probably get 3 more, since the cost is $120 for one, $40 for the next two (each). $200 sunk cost and no more fees to pay, ever, for that service.

Does this allow you to watch the new shows? Or is it more like Netflix?

[KentuckyWildcat]

I've heard of Aereo and TiVo Bolt (I think that is what it is called) that allows you to live stream locals to some extent. I won't claim to know the details but it might be something to at least look at it.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Looks like Aereo is currently losing a court battle.

[Darrell KSR]

Does this allow you to watch the new shows? Or is it more like Netflix?

Yes, it is a "primetime" service. It is far superior to Netflix (in my view).

a) It offers current TV shows. My favorites that I watch are Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, Mythbusters, Law & Order-SVU, Bones, Cops (sense a theme here), Fargo, NCIS-New Orleans (love the New Orleans references), Elementary, The Middle, The Big Bang Theory, Sherlock and several others.

b) It also offers "Classics." For example, you can get the entire series of "Breaking Bad" on it. I caught up on the show after several seasons had already past. My wife has never seen it; I will start casting it to TV to allow her to watch it, too. I downloaded the series, "Roots," as I'd like to watch that again. Unfortunately, they lost their HBO ability, so no "Band of Brothers," etc. anymore. It also allows us to go back, say, to Season 1 of Criminal Minds, since neither my wife nor I ever saw it way back when and re-watch (or for us, watch the first time) the shows to get a sense of how the characters developed over time. We're doing that now, almost finished with the first year.

c) It is able to get most of the shows from the following networks: ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC. It is able to get only selected shows from the following networks: CW, TNT, USA and SyFy.

d) HUGE PLUS HERE -- it downloads the phones to a virtual DVR, and/or to your phone or tablet for streaming. What does this mean? It means that the show can be watched anywhere, even without a wifi connection or data connection. Go on a camping trip in the middle of nowhere--fine, you can still watch TV shows. What else does this mean? It means NO BUFFERING. It will always be a smooth play on your phone, tablet, or TV if you are casting to TV. Very nice.

e) ANOTHER HUGE PLUS -- no commercials. I watch hour-long TV shows in 41 minutes. I typically binge watch shows. I am always behind because there are so many, but even for a current show, I'll typically wait until there are two shows downloaded to watch. In about 82-84 minutes, I watch 2 hour-long episodes of my favorite show, no commercials. Of course, you can pause it, rewind it, etc. as needed.

If I find the list of TV shows they have, I'll post it. There are some "tricks" to this little app. The first one is, you have to get used to waiting a day or so (usually) before the show can be downloaded. They get the shows from distributors, and typically it's a day or two after the show normally airs. Every once in awhile, it is before the TV show airs, which is kinda cool. You could watch the show, and win a bar bet with somebody about what was going to happen in the "current" show.

Second trick is, download the show. Then delete it to your personal DVR. That's their servers. Downloaded the show may take hours before it starts. It is not an instant gratification kinda thing. That's why you stockpile. I have a 64gb sd card, so I can literally store dozens and dozens of TV shows, many, many hours of video, but I have about 40gb free. You never know. Anyway, if you delete the show to your virtual DVR, the beauty is, it takes up 0 space on your phone or tablet, AND it usually can be downloaded to your phone or tablet within a couple of minutes from the virtual DVR. It keeps it in a "ready" state. They joke about it--there is a limit to how many shows you can keep on your virtual DVR. They limit you to 512,000 shows at a time. In other words, it's unlimited.

Now, the bad news. I understand that, occasionally, there will be a "problem episode," or one will go missing. It's so rare to me as to be a complete non-issue, but of the thousands and thousands of shows, a handful might fall into that category. The people that work for them who provide outstanding customer service do a superb job of working to fix anything, but occasionally it can't be remedied.

They have a Closed Group on Facebook for DroidTVPrimetime Users (kind of a bizarre way to market, if you ask me), but it has a lot of helpful information, from administrators Larry and Terri.

That's my sales pitch. They offer a handful (very few, maybe 20) shows that are completely free if you want to download the app (which is free) and try it out. They offer various subscriptions--monthly, quarterly, annually, and lifetime. I got in on the previous deal, where a lifetime subscription was $49.99. Best $50 I ever spent.

Will post the show list if I find it.

[Darrell KSR]

Primetime Classic

100, The ~10ThingsIHateAboutYou
12 Monkeys ~1600Penn
2 Broke Girls ~30Rock
24: Live Another Day ~3rdRockFromtheSun
A to Z ~666ParkAvenue
About a Boy ~90210
Agent X ~AGiftedMan
Allegiance ~Alcatraz
Almost Human ~Ally McBeal
Amazing Race, The ~Alphas
American Crime ~AmericanChopper
American Dad "Angel"
American Horror Story ~AreYouThere,Chelsea?
American Idol ~ArmyWives
American Oddysey ~Awake
America's Got Talent ~BachelorPad
America's Next Top Model ~BackintheGame
Anger Management ~BadTeacher
Aquarius ~Batman
Archer ~BattlestarGalactica
Arrow ~BenandKate
Ascension ~Bent
Ash vs Evil Dead ~BestFriendsForever
Astronaut Wives Club ~Betrayal
Bachelor, The ~BigC,The
Bachelorette, The ~BodyofProof
Backstrom ~Borgias,The
Bad Judge ~Boston Legal
Bastard Executioner, The ~BreakingBad
Bates Motel ~BreakingIn
Battle Creek "Breakout Kings"
Beauty and the Beast ~Brothers&Sisters
Being Human ~BuffytheVampireSlayer
Believe ~BurnNotice
Benched ~CelebrityApprentice
Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris ~CHAOS
Better Call Saul ~Charlie'sAngels
Big Bang Theory, The ~Charmed
Big Brother ~Chase
Biggest Loser, The ~Cheers
Bitten ~ChicagoCode,The
Black Box ~Chuck
Black Sails ~ClientList,The
Black-ish ~Closer,The
Blacklist, The ~CommonLaw
Blindspot ~Coupling
Blood & Oil ~CSI:Miami
Blue Bloods ~CSI:NewYork
Blunt Talk "Dawson's Creek"
~Deception
Bob's Burgers ~DesperateHousewives
Bones ~DestinationTruth
Bridge, The ~Detroit1-8-7
Broadchurch ~Dollhouse
Brooklyn Nine-Nine ~Don'tTrusttheB---inApt23
Californication "Early Edition"
Carmichael Show, The ~ER
Carrie Diaries, The ~Eureka
Castle ~Event,The
Cedar Cove ~EverybodyLovesRaymond
Chasing Life ~ExtremeMakeover:HomeEdition
Chicago Fire ~FactorFaked:ParanormalFiles
Chicago Med ~FairlyLegal
Chicago PD ~Farscape
Childhood's End ~Finder,The
Cleveland Show, The ~Firm,The
Code Black ~FlashForward
Colbert Report, The ~Frasier
Comedians, The ~FreshPrinceofBel-Air,The
Community ~FridayNightLights
Complications ~Friends
Constantine ~Fringe
Continuum ~Futurama
Copper ~GCB
Cops ~GhostHuntersInternational
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey ~Ghost Whisperer
Cougar Town ~Gilmore Girls
Covert Affairs ~GoOn
Cracked ~GoldenBoy
Crazy Ex Girlfriend ~GossipGirl
Crazy Ones, The ~Greek
Criminal Minds ~HappyTown
Crisis ~Harry'sLaw
Cristella ~HawthoRNe
Crossbones "Heroes"
Crossing Lines "Hogan's Heroes"
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ~House
CSI: Cyber "How the Earth was Made"
Curiosity ~HowtobeaGentleman
Da Vinci's Demons ~Huge
Dads ~HumanTarget
Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The "I Dream of Jeannie"
Dallas ~InPlainSight
Dancing with the Stars ~Inbetweeners,The
Dark Matter ~Ironside
Defiance ~ITCrowd,The
Devious Maids "Jag"
Dexter ~JerseyShore
Dig "Joan of Arcadia"
Doctor Who "Just Shoot Me"
Dominion ~KillerWomen
Downton Abbey ~King&Maxwell
Dracula ~Leverage
Dr. Ken ~LieToMe
Drop Dead Diva ~M*A*S*H
Duck Dynasty ~MacGyver
Elementary ~MadLove
Empire ~MadeinJersey
Enlisted "Magnum P.I."
The Expanse ~ManUp
Extant ~Married..withChildren
Falling Skies ~Mercy
Family Guy ~Merlin
Fargo ~MindGames
Fashion Star "Misfits"
Firefly ~Missing
Flash, The ~MobCity
Following, The ~MobDoctor,The
Forever ~Monk
The Fosters ~Monty Python's Flying Circus
Franklin & Bash ~MuppetShow,The
Fresh Off the Boat ~MyGeneration
Friends with Better Lives "My Name is Earl"
Galavant ~NewNormal,The
Gang Related ~Nikita
Ghost Hunters ~Numb3ers
Glee ~NYC22
Goldbergs, The ~OfftheMap
Good Wife, The ~Office,The
Gotham ~OneTreeHill
Graceland ~Outlaw
Gracepoint ~Outsourced
Grandfathered ~PanAm
Grey's Anatomy ~Partners
Grinder, The ~PoliticalAnimals
Grimm ~PrimeSuspect
Halt and Catch Fire ~PrivatePractice
Hannibal ~Psych
Happy Endings ~RedDwarf
Hart of Dixie ~Ringer
Haven ~River,The
Hawaii Five-0 ~Rob!
Helix "Roots"
Hell on Wheels ~RulesofEngagement
Hell's Kitchen ~RunningWilde
Heroes Reborn ~Scrubs
Hiding ~SeanSavestheWorld
Homeland ~SecretCircle,The
Hostages ~SecretLifeoftheAmericanTeenager,The
Hot in Cleveland ~Seinfeld
How I Met Your Mother ~Smallville
How to Get Away With Murder ~Smash
How to Live With Your Parents ~Spartacus
Intelligence ~StarTrek
The Interceptor ~Star Trekeep Space Nine
Into the Badlands ~StarTrek:TheNextGeneration
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ~StargateSG-1
iZombie ~StargateUniverse
Jane the Virgin ~Star Trek:Voyager
Justified ~SURVIVOR:RedemptionIsland
Kevin from Work ~TerraNova
Killjoys ~That70sShow
Killing, The ~TheLastResort
Kitchen Inferno ~Torchwood
Kitchen Nightmares ~Touch
Knick, The ~UglyBetty
Last Kingdom, The ~Undercovers
Last Man on Earth ~UpAllNight
Last Man Standing ~Vegas
Last Ship, The ~Weeds
Late Show with Stephen Colbert ~West Wing
Law & Order: SVU ~Whitney
League, The ~ZeroHour
Legends
Legit
Librarian, The
Life in Pieces
Longmire
Lost Girl
Louie
Lucky 7
Lucky Bastards
Luther
Madame Secretary
Mad Men
Major Crimes
Manhattan
Manhattan Love Story
Married
Marry Me
Marvel's Agent Carter
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
MasterChef
MasterChef Junior
Masters of Sex
The McCarthy's
Melissa & Joey
Men at Work
Mentalist, The
Messengers, The
Michael J. Fox Show, The
Middle, The
Mike & Molly
Millers, The
Mindy Project, The
Minority Report
Mistresses
Mixology
Modern Family
Mom
Moonbeam City
Motive
Mr. Robinson
Mr. Robot
Mulaney
Murder in the First
Mysteries of Laura, The
Mystery Girls
Mythbusters
Nashville
NCIS
NCIS: Los Angeles
NCIS:New Orleans
Necessary Roughness
Neighbors, The
New Girl
Night Shift, The
Nurse Jackie
Odd Couple
Odd Mom Out
Olympus
One Big Happy
Once Upon a Time
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
Originals, The
Orphan Black
Outlander
Paranormal Witness
Parenthood
Parks and Recreation
Penny Dreadful
Perception
Person of Interest
Player, The
Playing House
Power
Pretty Little Liars
Proof
Quantico
Raising Hope
Rake
Ravenswood
Ray Donovan
Real Housewives of New Jersey, The
Reckless
Red Band Society
Reign
Resurrecton
Returned, The
Revenge
Revolution
Rizzoli & Isles
Rookie Blue
Rosewood
Royal Pains
Rush
Salem
Satisfaction
Saving Hope
Scandal
Scorpion
Secrets & Lies
Selfie
Shameless
Shark Tank
Sherlock
Significant Mother
Simpsons, The
Sing Your Face Off
The Slap
Sleepy Hollow
So You Think You Can Dance
Sons of Anarchy
South Park
Stalker
Stargate Atlantis
Star Wars: Clone Wars
State of Affairs
Stitchers
Storage Wars
Storage Wars: New York
Storage Wars: Texas
Strain, The
Suburgatory
Suits
Super Fun Night
Supergirl
Supernatural
Survivor
Survivor's Remorse
Switched at Birth
Talia in the Kitchen
Teen Wolf
The Americans
Through the Wormhole
Tomorrow People, The
Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The
Tosh.0
Trophy Wife
Truth Be Told
Twisted
Two and a Half Men
Tyrant
Undateable
Under the Dome
Undercover Boss
Unforgettable
UnREAL
Vampire Diaries, The
Vikings
Voice, The
Walking Dead, The
Warehouse 13
Wayward Pines
Welcome to the Family
White Collar
Who Do You Think You Are?
Weird Loners
Whispers, The
Wicked City
Wilfred
Wipeout
Witches of East End
X Factor, The
You, Me and the Apocalypse
Young and Hungry
You're the Worst
Your Family or Mine
Z Nation
Zoo,The

[Darrell KSR]

Sorry about the formatting. It was from an Excel spreadsheet, and it was two columns of shows--the first column was "Primetime," the second column, "Classic" shows.

As of that date, there were 342 "Current" TV series they carried, and 175 "Classic" TV series they carried.

[Bakert]

Darrell, something else you might want to think about is Hulu. Not sure it would help much given the Droid TV you have, which sounds very cool, btw. I keep thinking about this but everytime I get close my head starts to hurt thinking about it. If I did this I'd probably spring for $15 to get HBO Go, or whatever their standalone site it.

[Darrell KSR]

Hulu is an option, as well. I'm still trying to make the jump, and it hasn't been too high on my priority list, but it should be.

DroidTV suckered me in. They had a pricing plan initially of something like $4.99 for 3 months, or maybe it was as high as $8.99, but no more than that.

At the time my son was on a soccer team that traveled a bunch, and it was not uncommon for us to be in a hotel, where I would want lights out for him by 10. That left 2 or 3 hours for me. It was easy for me to justify the small charge so I could watch TV for 2-3 hours a night with earphones. Once hooked, I was a goner.

[MickintheHam]

From today's WSJ article discussing Cable TV's comeback Comcast added 89,000 customers in Q4 and in all of 2015 Comcast lost but 36,000 video customers. "Amidst pay TV's worst year ever, cable just enjoyed its best year in the past decade'. The strength is described as "real and sustainable". Much of cable's sustained growth is coming at the expense of satellite companies and the phone companies. Fast broadband and new easy to use set top boxes seem to be drivers of cable's continued growth and have so far blunted efforts to cut the cable.

My own take is broadband is the key. The bet on broadband by most cable companies, will allow it many pricing options in the future.

[PedroDaGr8]

From today's WSJ article discussing Cable TV's comeback Comcast added 89,000 customers in Q4 and in all of 2015 Comcast lost but 36,000 video customers. "Amidst pay TV's worst year ever, cable just enjoyed its best year in the past decade'. The strength is described as "real and sustainable". Much of cable's sustained growth is coming at the expense of satellite companies and the phone companies. Fast broadband and new easy to use set top boxes seem to be drivers of cable's continued growth and have so far blunted efforts to cut the cable.

My own take is broadband is the key. The bet on broadband by most cable companies, will allow it many pricing options in the future.

Don't believe the hype, those Comcast numbers are a manipulation of of their sales department . I am one of those 89k and I have turned on my cable box literally a handful of times in four months. The ONLY reason I have it is that I get 75Mbs Internet, basic cable and HBO for$50/mo, box fee included or I get 25Mbs Internet for $60/mo. They are intentionally designed to prop up the subscriber numbers for ad revenue and PR purposes. I have heard the same thing from a variety of locals that their pricing is similar. Cable plus Internet is cheaper than Internet alone.

Yes the box is nice but the quality of programming is still the same old same old. It isn't keeping anyone my age around. The viewership model has fundamentally changed and they know it. Most people like viewing seasons of a show in a short time period, binge watching the show when convenient. Long gone is the model of this show broadcasts at this time on this day of the week and you watch it each week. Combine this with people paying for services which lack ads and the media wings of the cable companies are quite scared for their revenue stream.

This is why they are implementing data caps and this inverted pricing structure. Don't believe the noise about data caps, their network congestion is ENTIRELY for show. This has been shown time and time again based on the fact that the data caps came out of the business division. They induce congestion by limiting certain traffic to specific exit nodes (think doors). Imagine if you had 20 exit doors on a building but the rules said that 70% of the people in the building must exit through doors 1,2 & 3. This would result in a huge backup at those doors and this is basically what many of the service providers are doing. By routing specific high use sites only through a limited number of doors, they induce congestion that otherwise would not be there. Quite simply, bandwidth and routing is cheap and they have the capacity in spades but if they open up the bandwidth they know they will lose cable customers faster. They are petrified of becoming a commodity internet provider(much much lower margins and brand loyalty) but that is what is happening right under their nose. So they create fake congestion and bandwidth caps (in the name of fairness). The goal is to stave off the inevitable. All it will do is hasten regulations which open up the monopolies in cities much like it has in Chattanooga. They are frustrated that they are becoming dumb pipe providers but there isn't much they can do about it other than anticompetitive practices and laws.

In the end, this is all the fallout of mergers which should not have been allowed to happen between content producers and content providers. It is a prime example of how a vertical monopoly hurts customers.

EDIT: Updated with how they induce congestion.

[MickintheHam]

Typically, WSJ doesn't publish hype numbers. In an age where analysis and journalism are fading from the Internet, the WSJ, Barron's and Kiplinger shine through.

[PedroDaGr8]

Typically, WSJ doesn't publish hype numbers. In an age where analysis and journalism are fading from the Internet, the WSJ, Barron's and Kiplinger shine through.

I think in this case, they consider them valid enough to publish (n that YES they did get that many video customers) but it does not make their analysis correct In the past, these numbers WOULD have been valid and many of the old guard do not realize how their viewership has fundamentally changed in the younger demographic. I am in a transitional generation and for the millenial geneation, the percentage of people who have NEVER had a cable account is larger than the percentage that have. . Comcast does not report subscriber usage rates for cable. They have the information, these boxes log EVERYTHING you do. How long you are on a channel, if you switch during a commercial, which commercial is it and when did you switch, how many minutes a day do you watch TV, etc. The fact is, their recent changes to pricing structure, making internet+cable cheaper than internet by itself indicates they are desperate for cable subscribers. They have even implemented rules that a cable box must be active every three months to get the discounted price (they know how often you watch). They know they are hemorrhaging video customers and the data caps/inverted pricing indicate how valuable their video position is to them. If they were not, then these moves make ZERO sense.