One thing there are still many rural parts of the country where satellite is the only way they get their TV as some are too far from transmission towers.
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How much longer will cable last?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
The fact that such areas exist shows that there's no God-given or Constitution-given right to television reception, which means that market forces could drive satellite TV into permanent shutdown with no legal repercussions. The few people in those remote locations would simply be without TV.
Not only market forces, but the fact that the satellites will eventually stop working on their own, dying of old age. If that happens, and high-speed internet just isn't practical/economical in small towns, more translators would be answer, maybe with several stations piggybacked on one translator and the cost split between them.
About 5 years ago my parents, who've always had a proper hard-wired copper landline phone contacted AT&T and asked for faster internet at their home. What the phone company did was to install a new modem in their house with 2 different jacks on it. 1 of those jacks now feeds their phones and the other feeds their internet service. When they had a power failure shortly after that modem had been installed and they lost power, their hard-wired phones went out as well. When they called AT&T to complain and explain they wanted a hard-wired landline phone that was always live and they didn't want their phones running through a modem, they were told it was too late, they could not go back to a hard-wired copper system even if they cancelled their internet service, that AT&T was removing copper systems and as a consolation, AT&T sent over a service tech with a small UPS to power the modem for a bit after their power fails...But once the UPS dies, so do their "landline" phones.
Here is an interesting article from a year ago, saying you are right (I thought it was still around 70-75%). That is bad news for local stations and the networks, because they are losing subscriber fees big-time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but local stations have had to have those fees for many years to survive with their overbloated news departments and associated payrolls.
As I said earlier, they can't make OTA viewers pay. Nor do they charge for their own Roku, Apple, etc. apps. If stations have to survive on advertising and rent from diginets, I can see a lot of them going off the air.
The main reason to keep landline service in the past was guaranteed availability. Its power came from the Central Office, not the local electric company.
My internet service is via CenturyLink, where the copper goes from my phone jack to its interface with the fiber outside, about 50 feet max. But the phone service (which I don't use, and haven't since 2008) is still via copper all the way to the CO. I didn't think that was allowed to go away.
That's reason enough to never bother with landline phones ever again. Get an inexpensive UPS to power the modem, then use free IP phone software on your PC or cellphone.
When I worked in the office phone systems business, not only did our Central Office interface systems have to work with twisted pair, but they also had to work with dial phones and pulse-dialed phones with keypads. I guess that's changed in the last 7 years since I retired.
When I worked in the office phone systems business, not only did our Central Office interface systems have to work with twisted pair, but they also had to work with dial phones and pulse-dialed phones with keypads. I guess that's changed in the last 7 years since I retired.
My 'landline' is actually a digital VOIP device so it runs off the internet and not the phone company central office. When our power goes out or the nearby T-Mobile tower goes down we do not have a backup. Fortunately, we live in an area with very reliable power and very rare bad weather takedowns so it is a minimum of inconvenience. A much greater inconvenience was paying $35/mo for many fewer services than its internet equivalent at $6/mo.
I don't really need the VOIP service at all but it is much easier to block the garbage calls than with Ma Bell and her Do Not Call fiasco.
I think cable and streaming services can co-exist.
Major streaming services can make deals with cable operators to have their services available as extra cost add-ons to cable service, much like HBO and Showtime today are available at additional cost.
In fact, I think this will be the future.
Major streaming services can make deals with cable operators to have their services available as extra cost add-ons to cable service, much like HBO and Showtime today are available at additional cost.
In fact, I think this will be the future.
right....Discovery+ is available on DirecTV now. I just added it to my channel lineup as an on-demand channel.
Spectrum has HBO Max available.
Mgomrjsurf
Banned
Netflix and YouTube to.
Are you sure about Netflix?
I know Comcast has Peacock, Tubi and Pluto content free through their On-Demand menu (though you must also have Comcast internet service to watch a good amount of it), but we need to carry a separate Netflix subscription.
Comcast customers also get Peacock Plus for free and also can log on to the Bally Sports app and website to watch content there as well.
And then when the Senators of those states all band together to fix the problem, what might we end up with? We're talking quite a few states here especially the mountain states of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Colorado. If they have constituents that can't watch TV reliably, they'll try to do something about it.
My family will then do without TV under these scenarios, as we get our locals via Dish. Unless TV stations stream 24/7, we will be forced to pursue other entertainment options. We cannot get any OTA signals where we live.
My family counts among those people. Please define ‘few’. In the meantime, perhaps buying DVD’s of favorite shows, along with frequent library visits, just might be the way to go.
Such services are offered by YouTubeTV, SlingTV, and several other competitors.
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