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The_VT_Rock

Joined: 10/28/1999 Posts: 1542
Likes: 375


I'm a tweener - so I'm looking at both sides...


Right now, I have the big screen in the living room hooked up to cable & internet. My bedroom TV is only hooked through wifi (a cheap HD TV that came with a Roku stick). I have cable & internet through Comcast (25Mbps internet speed).

If I didn't like sports, I probably wouldn't have cable. There are only a couple of shows I watch not involving sports. In fact, I seem to gravitate to watching YouTube on either TV if I don't have sports on. The only other thing I have is a WWE subscription. I have the two TVs (w/ Roku stick), Blu-ray player, phone, tablet, occasionally a laptop, and my daughter's tablet hooked to internet.

Performance-wise, I can see the internet catching up to cable. The WWE during PPVs runs pretty smooth - I average maybe 1 or two hiccups per PPV. I watched the Pitt-VT game on the bedroom TV over the internet. There wasn't much difference between that and the cable channel except a couple of times where I had to back out and re-select the channel.

For me (38), I could see once I get a house, I would look into an antenna for OTA broadcast channels. Then, if they still offer sling, I would get that and maybe a Hulu subscription (of course, still paying Comcast for internet). In the end, my internet would go up since it wouldn't be bundled, and with the subscription and sling, it would still be close to what I am paying for now.

It will come down to people's preferences and location once streaming gets closer to cable performance. My sister and brother-in-law live between C'ville and Richmond...they have below DSL speed, no cable, and use an antenna to pick up the local channels. I'm not sure if they don't get Dish/Directv due to preference or they are in a wooded area. Then you go to the next generation w/ my daughter (5 year-old). She would rather watch live TV on her tablet than watch it on the TV - I think that may be more of the short-attention span because she watches a couple of minutes of one thing, then watch an episode of one of her Disney shows on demand - that, and she has more control of what she is watching than if it is on the big TV.

Honestly, I don't think there will be much difference in the near future in terms of having to go to big business to get access to your entertainment - the technology will change. I see companies upping the connection speed, but slowly raising the pricing of their internet to offset the losses of the slowly fading cable services. They will probably be fighting phone companies at first once the Verizons of the world bump up the 4G speed and coverage (or whatever term is next). Then, they will merge with one another to where you will mainly only have a couple of choices just like you do with TV.

(In response to this post by Will Stewart)

Posted: 03/09/2016 at 11:48AM



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Current Thread:
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  I tend to agree. -- mancunian 03/09/2016 1:52PM
  I'm a tweener - so I'm looking at both sides... -- The_VT_Rock 03/09/2016 11:48AM
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