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Columnist Mocks The Case Against Cord-Cutting As 'Too Many Choices' (techhive.com)
An anonymous reader quote TechHive:
The cord-cutting naysayers are trotting out a new argument in favor of cable, and it's even more absurd than the old ones: Having too many high-quality, standalone streaming services, they say, is actually bad for consumers, who are apparently helpless at using technology or making sound purchase decisions... The New York Post's Johnny Oleksinski concluded that all those sneering hipsters who've had the nerve to ditch cable are about to get their comeuppance -- in the form of additional services to choose from... By now, anyone who's actually cut the cable cord should be screaming out in unison: No one's making you subscribe to all these services! You can pick the ones you care about most, rotate between services, or occupy your screen time with a growing number of other digital distractions...
I will concede that if you want to use multiple streaming services, trying to sift through them all can be confusing. But even this concern is blown entirely out of proportion by naysaying pundits, who seem to ignore solutions that already exist. Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV all offer universal search across services like Netflix and Hulu, while features like Roku Feed and the Apple TV TV app demonstrate how system-wide browsing is getting easier. Besides, using a handful of apps to get what you want isn't that burdensome -- especially for the growing audience of people who've been raised on smartphones... consumers are smarter than they're getting credit for. That's why cable subscriptions continue to plunge, even as these bogus stories keep popping up like clockwork.
I will concede that if you want to use multiple streaming services, trying to sift through them all can be confusing. But even this concern is blown entirely out of proportion by naysaying pundits, who seem to ignore solutions that already exist. Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV all offer universal search across services like Netflix and Hulu, while features like Roku Feed and the Apple TV TV app demonstrate how system-wide browsing is getting easier. Besides, using a handful of apps to get what you want isn't that burdensome -- especially for the growing audience of people who've been raised on smartphones... consumers are smarter than they're getting credit for. That's why cable subscriptions continue to plunge, even as these bogus stories keep popping up like clockwork.
It's 2017 and those are 90's arguments.
They're not wrong about that part. The REASON monopolies that fail us exist? We allow it. We pay them to. Consumerism as we know it marches us into bondage.
"who are apparently helpless at using technology or making sound purchase decisions"
The fragmentation of services like HBO and the new Disney service will lead to a case against cord cutting, but the same can be said for piracy. A legit case against cord cutting is also a case that can be made for piracy.
You would have thought they learned their lesson.
Make SELinux enforcing again!
... you could, you know, just go outside and have a life away from screens.
Age 51, computer geek since 1977. My dad began with RCA in 1947 installing television sets. We never had cable or satellite, the concept of paying for television being bonkers, so what's there to miss? Movies and CDs I can check out from the library. Seriously, paying for television?
Too many choices? If you say so. I think people can handle having choices. I personally choose not to participate.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
It's absolutely a viable option. There is more produced every day than you could ever hope to consume in a lifetime. "Cord cutting" is mainly a matter of getting over your current addiction, and acquiring a new one.
Whatever it is that you 'want' to watch on cable, there's another option online that will entertain you just as much.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Having too many streaming services isn't "too many choices" it's "too many bills."
Other than Jeopardy, Masterpiece Theatre, Nova, and Nature, there hasn't been a show on television I care to watch since Cosby and Frasier. All the new stuff is full of swear words and sex, bleh, not in my living room.
Also there is a huge logical fallacy in the articles argument, which is that you will subscribe full-time to these services instead of switching every few months.
When I first used Netflix streaming, I held the plan for about a year. Since then I subscribe for ~2 months per year because I've already exhausted their core catalog. They have some content I am not getting elsewhere, but I dont need a 24/7/365 plan to consume it.
Amazons non-prime model is pay as you go, while their prime model is tied to more than just streaming video. Disney can do the first and that would be great, but they cant do the second at all. They are going for the Netflix model and that just isnt going to land 24/7/365 business.
"His name was James Damore."
My own cure for the problem of that interesting show being on the streaming service I don't have is to wait for the end of the season, which means only about 10 episodes these days anyhow, and then view it on Netflix DVD.
The streaming market is now in that phase after a new tech becomes popular when there are large numbers of brands on the market. It was this way with cars in the 1920s. After the forthcoming big wave of consolidation, it won't be so much of a problem.
The key issue people have had with the subscription service we call "cable TV" is their (former) monopoly status.
"Former"? In many areas, the incumbent cable ISP retains a monopoly on home Internet access with a data transfer quota exceeding 100 GB/mo. This lets the cable ISP dump TV service on its Internet subscribers by pricing a bundle of Internet access and basic TV the same as Internet alone, leaving the subscriber to pay only the local network affiliate retransmission consent royalty and the regional sports royalty. The competing ISPs would charge several times more for the same cap, as they're limited by their satellite or cellular last mile.