It's clear that streaming services are the present and future of video distribution. But that doesn't mean that cable companies are ready to give up on your monthly dollars.
A sign of this is Comcast, the US' second-biggest cable company, debuting a new streaming service today. Comcast already had an offering that let subscribers stream its Xfinity cable live channels and access some titles on demand. NOW TV Latino differs in being a separate, additional streaming service that people can subscribe to independently of Xfinity cable for $10 per month.
However, unlike streaming services like Netflix or Max, you can only subscribe to NOW TV Latino if Xfinity is sold in your area. NOW TV Latino subscriptions include the ability to stream live TV from Spanish-language channels that Xfinity offers, like Sony Cine and ViendoMovies. And because Comcast owns NBCUniversal, people who subscribe to NOW TV Latino get a free subscription to Peacock with commercials, which usually costs $6/month.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Ox0000 on Tuesday July 02 2024, @12:15PM
So... not free then. You're taking my attention and peace of mind. It'd been better if that wasn't included in the "package". Then again, given the name of the channel, I guess they feel free to just ram it wherever they please...
Ain't no such thing an MBA cannot fuck up
(Score: 3, Touché) by hendrikboom on Tuesday July 02 2024, @01:56PM
Sounds like a restricted, paid-for version of a technology that would already have been available now that cable-TV providers have become internet service providers.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2024, @02:02PM
Comcast is desperate to keep you locked in.
No one wants to stay with a shitty, bureaucratic company with phone systems designed to prevent customers from talking to a human.
Ever wonder why your internet is cheaper when bundled with TV service you don't need and a phone line you don't use?
Comcast needs to be able to beat their chest and say "We have 100,000,000 users with TV and Phones" to the FCC and for negotiating better rates for cable packages from 3rd-party providers.
The next time Comcast gets in a fight with some cable network, remember that. I manage ~75 Comcast connections at businesses in the pacific northwest. Not a single one uses the single phone number attached to their account, and they don't have TV playing in the lobby....but the internet service would have cost $250/mo. With a phone number and CATV attached it drops down to ~$200/mo.
Fuck Comcast
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday July 02 2024, @07:49PM (2 children)
I gave up on cable in 2013.
This year I gave up on streaming.
I have Prime and YouTube Premium. But even those may go one day. Prime is about saving on shipping. YouTube is because I don't have time to watch long excessively drawn out cable tv programs. And I often play YouTube videos as 1.25x speed because some people can't just get to the point.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by owl on Tuesday July 02 2024, @10:32PM
Gave up on cable at about the same time.
Did not ever bother to "go streaming".
Do not (and have not ever) had Prime -- but always get free shipping.
Do not, and will never, pay youtube a cent.
Still watch whatever I want, because I use the more convent method [dslreports.com].
(Score: 2) by ledow on Wednesday July 03 2024, @01:09PM
I gave up on TV about 20 years ago. I only owned a TV for half of those 20 years, and I don't own a TV now.
I gave up on streaming (Netflix, Amazon Prime, TVPlayer) when I found myself moving house to live on my own for a while and was desperate for entertainment, but potless, and got all the free trials I could get my hands on.
I have my content on my network. I add to it by setting a record schedule on a tvHeadend box, which pulls very specific programmes off the free-to-air channels (less than an hour of content a week at the moment!). I edit out the adverts and that takes about a minute, tops. Sometimes I buy DVDs cheap and rip them to it.
I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. Occasionally I get another free trial or Prime or whatever and see what's on there and there's usually almost nothing that I'd be interested in. Certainly nothing I'd paid a subscription to rent. Maybe if i could buy a whole series for a decent price and own it outright in a portable format, I'd consider it. But that just doesn't exist online as an option, as far as I can tell.
I've never bothered with YouTube but I have youtube-dl and get_iplayer for the very occasional times I feel the need to watch something on those services (iPlayer usually only for catchup if I missed a recording). I can describe all the YouTube content I consume: Primitive Technology, and XKCD. That's it. Each release a few new minutes of content every month or so.
I don't understand broadcast television, I don't understand streaming services, and I don't understand why I can't pay the content providers directly for a file that I can then keep (like we did for decades with MP3).
When the new Wallace & Gromit (or whatever) movie comes out... can't I just pay Aardman Animations £10 and get an MP4? Why not? Surely with all the middle-men that cuts out it would be a good source of income (even if it upsets those middlemen)?
Instead, I just don't consume the content because it's not anywhere I would choose to consume it.
And I can't really say that I care all that much about what I might be missing out on.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday July 02 2024, @10:37PM
Ok...People are jumping ship.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/consumer/article-13588863/cable-phone-company-price-bill-increase.html?ico=related-replace [dailymail.co.uk]
Uh huh. Just as taught in Business School.
Choose only customers who will pay premium price.
California Insurance companies are hiking rates big time too as Californians have become so obsessed with increasing property values and new expensive to fix cars.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]