Leaving cable TV behind (discussion for Sling TV, Playstation Vue, HBO Go, etc)

MDawg

Nerfariously planning
Joined
Aug 26, 2001
Messages
16,564
Location
Not of your damn business

MDawg

Nerfariously planning
Joined
Aug 26, 2001
Messages
16,564
Location
Not of your damn business
It's still only in beta in five markets, but YouTube TV added seven additional channels to their lineup.
AMC and BBC America are major additions, with NBC Universal further expanding their existing offerings on the service by adding Telmundo and Universo. Other new channels include cable networks Sundance TV, We TV, and IFC, also owned by AMC.
Still for $35 as well. If they keep expanding the lineup for that cost it'll still feel like a better deal that Hulu's live TV offerings given the other perks offered. The paltry DVR functionality with Hulu's base price just seems incredibly overpriced if you want more.
 

Red Arrow

ça va nog wel
Joined
Oct 22, 2012
Messages
16,823
Location
Belgium
Does anyone know if Europe+Russia is considered an important market for American entertainment? Does it matter at all if something does well outside the States?

(Please not that this will be a general opinion. This is not my own opinion as I'm not someone who watches lots of TV series and I'm perfectly fine with waiting several months or even several years)

Let me start of with the 'good' news. American entertainment is still doing great in the 'dub' part of Europe. (the Spanish/French/Italian/German/Czech part of Europe) Most people stick to legal ways because they want to see it in their local language.

In countries that 'lector' (Russia and Poland) or 'sub' (all other countries), however, legal ways to watch TV series and movies are doomed. Piracy is taking over in all of those countries. I don't know anyone who's into TV series and still watches them legally. Most people watch them without subs, but there are also many fansubs.

In Russia, there is an insane amount of websites with unofficial lectored dubs. Sometimes these dubs are more popular than the official one. People stick to those illegal dubs because they are released first. Viacom Russia stopped dubbing The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother and now broadcasts the previously-illegal dub.

The cinema and DVDs are getting more expensive each year, it's absurd. Television channels stopped bothering about airing episodes right after the US premiere (They still have to premiere Arrow S4 and Gotham S2) and Netflix in Europe in super lame compared to the rest of the world.

Let's compare the USA with the Dutch-speaking countries. The USA has got more than 5000 movies and series. Suriname has got almost 4000, the Netherlands doesn't reach 2000 and Belgium has got even less. We don't have Hulu in Europe and pay tv is just dying a slow death in many (but not all!) European countries. Just non-stop repeats and you have to buy them together in groups of 5 channels or even more, at least in Belgium. (Wanna see anime in French? Then you'll also have to pay for Nick Junior! Do you like History Channel? Then don't forget to pay for FOX, SciFi and Nat Geo Wild too!) I don't know anyone who has ever even considered pay tv. It's considered a joke. There was a time I wanted the kids package during summer months, but it was just too expensive so I never did. And nowadays all of those channels are terrible.

In other words: all legal services are going back in time. People want to see more and right after the American premiere and instead we get less and it takes way more time than it should :sweat:

I think the popularity of anime started all of this. You can't watch anime legally, but teenagers get interest so have no choice : / After they get tired of anime, they keep on watching online.

And it turns out that people in France are also switching to piracy, so who knows : / Maybe we can expect a doom scenario in the Spanish/French/Italian/German/Czech countries as well.
 
Last edited:

Peter Paltridge

RUN!
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Sep 24, 2003
Messages
38,230
Location
Stars Hollow
Earlier this week I booted up Playstation Vue to find Fox On Demand had been replaced with a direct feed from my Fox affiliate. Up to this point the only way to get local channels on Vue was to live in one of the three to five major cities that had such a deal. The price is also $10 higher in those areas, for that reason.

So I thought "wow, I get local feeds now but I pay the same price? Cool." I spoke too soon: a letter arrived in my inbox today that says "Effective today, PlayStation Vue is transitioning Access Slim plans to a nationwide price of $39.99/mo for new customers."

They're keeping the price at the same level for existing customers, but only for three more billing cycles. Vue has been good to me; I'm just going to have to eat the cost.
 

dragoonanime

Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2009
Messages
91
Location
Tucson
Now that cable company are adding data caps, it is going to be hard to use streaming services since they probably use a lot of data.
 

Checkerboard

THE HOME OF THE TOP TOON STARS
Joined
May 25, 2010
Messages
8,036
Location
Cartoon Headquarters
It varies country to country, but in the Czech Republic TV isn't going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, @Red Arrow :D, right now it's reaching its peak. Not just FTA, but Pay-TV and VOD as well. Turns out that most people here watch TV 3 hours a day, TV is the primary consumption method for 90% of people and cable has been gaining many new customers in the past year. Not to mention there are more localized channels, both free and encrypted, than ever. Sure, some people have started using on demand services, mainly people between 30-50, and they are becoming more popular and available each day. And the offering is actually quite good. There's enough legal ways finally to watch online a good amount of content. People of course still pirate, but they are having less and less reasons to do so. They are starting to shift slowly from pirating to legal streaming services, because it makes sense. There's also DVD/Blu-Ray as well, which too is fairly widespread. Despite that, though, TV is still prime. You can get 30+ SD channels for free in central Bohemia on a antenna and you can get 100+ channels on satelitte/iptv/cable providers. People pay for it, because they want more variety, more HD and more on demand. For example with UPC, the largest in the country, you can get everything they offer for $80/70Euro per month. That includes over 140 channels, 60 of which are HD,1 week of catch-up TV, a small on demand provider video archive, Live TV Anywhere, HBO GO, set-top-box rent fee, modem rent fee, 300/30 Mb/s internet, unlimited phone calls. Is it bad compared to the US/UK? I don't really think so. I would say that TV in Czechia is where TV in the States/England was maybe 3-5 years ago and on demand services are here where they were in the States/England 5-8 years ago. Despite that we get most of the major content on same time as the US/UK, shortly after or relatively soon down the road - subtitled or dubbed. There's only a limited genre-specific amount of content we're missing. Sure, we're in general kind of behind perhaps. But nothing to be crying about like 5-10 years ago when the situation was much different. I'm personally glad that live TV here is still prospering. Hope this different perspective is useful.
 

Red Arrow

ça va nog wel
Joined
Oct 22, 2012
Messages
16,823
Location
Belgium
@Checkerboard: Do you think that pirating would be more common if Czech television had always subtitled their shows rather than dubbed?

(I personally think it would)
 

Checkerboard

THE HOME OF THE TOP TOON STARS
Joined
May 25, 2010
Messages
8,036
Location
Cartoon Headquarters
That's really hard to answer @Red Arrow :D. Most people prefer and expect shows to be dubbed. It's part of the culture. So that would suggest yes, as you say. But on the other hand those that currently do pirate already watch their shows with subtitles in English. So if Czech channels started airing shows subtitled instead of dubbed, the ones pirating would perhaps start watching TV and those used to dubbing would be turned off and stop, because they know only TV. If they would turn to pirating would depend on if dubbed content they would miss was available that way and on their computer skills since a good amount of people watching tv are seniors. A few channels tried airing subtitled content, like Prima Cool, and it failed. So it's resorted only to ČT2 and ČT Art - the demographic used to watching content subbed. In general, people pirate here (legally by law I might add) just because they want to watch content the moment it's released in the US. It doesn't have to do that much with language preferences, even though there is a small vocal minority that is against dubbing and is pushing subs, as it does with the content itself. That's why many channels started airing here some premieres on same day as the US. To convert these 'pirates' into legal watchers/streamers.
 
Last edited:

Red Arrow

ça va nog wel
Joined
Oct 22, 2012
Messages
16,823
Location
Belgium
I don't think it is directly a language issue, but I feel like in cultures where subtitles are more common, there are more people who want to see shows immediately after the American premiere.

What people love about television is its premieres. You're seeing something for the first time together with several others. This is completely gone in "subtitle" countries. Premieres aren't actually premieres. The episode has been online for months, just without subtitles.

In "dub" countries, the magic feeling of a premiere is still there. The dub is new. You're the first to watch it in Czech, together with many other people.

I think TV channels here are noticing this too, and they start focussing on local content. "The Mole" (Dutch: De mol) got revived recently and everyone was talking about it. Suddenly television was epic again. It suddenly felt like 2003 again :)
 

DarkAngel

Lord Vader
Joined
May 1, 2001
Messages
6,140
Location
Ohio
Earlier this week I booted up Playstation Vue to find Fox On Demand had been replaced with a direct feed from my Fox affiliate. Up to this point the only way to get local channels on Vue was to live in one of the three to five major cities that had such a deal. The price is also $10 higher in those areas, for that reason.

So I thought "wow, I get local feeds now but I pay the same price? Cool." I spoke too soon: a letter arrived in my inbox today that says "Effective today, PlayStation Vue is transitioning Access Slim plans to a nationwide price of $39.99/mo for new customers."

They're keeping the price at the same level for existing customers, but only for three more billing cycles. Vue has been good to me; I'm just going to have to eat the cost.
I'm cancelling and returning to Sling TV. Big reason is NFL Redzone. Last year with Vue, getting it required bumping up my plan to the $35/month option and then paying onetime $40 for Redzone for season. I was okay with that.

But this year, I needed core or higher. They'd given me elite for free through January, but since it's a trial, that didn't allow me to add the sports package. So I'd have to upgrade to at least $45/month and then add sports package, I think for additional $10 per month. No thanks.

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

the greenman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
18,983
Location
the point of no return
Seeing how it's become a hot topic, I think it would be good if everyone had one thread to discuss these new online digital services. We can collect the advantages and differences of everything from
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO NOW and HBO GO, CW Seed, and CBS All Access. We also have the upcoming channels the DC Digital Service, and the all Disney digital service.
This article is here for inspiration:
https://www.themarysue.com/dc-entertainment-to-launch-new-digital-service/

Sent from my LGMS428 using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

SuperFan2024

Shoo fly.
Joined
Jun 10, 2016
Messages
656
Cable and satellite TV providers are losing more and more subscribers as the days pass:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/12/the...viders-drop-as-att-warns-of-video-losses.html

Fortunately, Live TV streaming services are growing even more subs than before.

Give it about a decade or two, and then cable/satellite will soon start to disappear as a whole.

And @Checkerboard, it's interesting to hear that international countries are still growing with the typical cable/satellite getup, while here in the U.S. and Canada, cable/satellite is decreasing at an alarming rate, with streaming services now growing faster than before.
 

Checkerboard

THE HOME OF THE TOP TOON STARS
Joined
May 25, 2010
Messages
8,036
Location
Cartoon Headquarters
Well, you could say that some regions are behind for various reasons. It can be infrastructure with bad access to high speed internet or not having fast connections at all, it can be a question of habits and demographics, it can be lack of proper online streaming services and alternatives to begin with along with their lack of dubbed content - or the combination of all four. Each market is different, but it doesn't surprise me the US/CA/UK/AU are one of the first to abandon the linear TV model - they can share services and content with covering large markets since they all are at a similar level influencing each other and share the same language. @SuperFan2024
 

Spotlight

Staff online

Who's on Discord?

Latest profile posts

Remember back when people were saying that "Streaming is the (bright) future"?
"I can't wait to eat this baby" - Paramount, presumably looking for tax write-offs
Happy Baseball Opening Day
"I'm probably going to watch Nymphomaniac Part II on Disney+ this weekend" isn't something I didn't think I'd ever say, but here we are.

Featured Posts

Top