Hating on DirecTV right now

[Rick Lee]

Well, I might be able to live with it until contract end, but I will let them know very soon there's no chance they'll get me to renew without really sweetening the deal.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

(Leave this duty to your spouse...lol).

I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy. Hell hath no fury like a Chinese woman trying to get a price concession out of a vendor. I'd end up driving down there to tip the guy after she got done with him. When you're with a Mainland Chinese woman, there's no better friend......and no worse enemy.

[pitargue]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

TV networks are not worth paying for.

100% pay-per-view here. Apple TV in my place and Roku at a friends' place are all I bother watching these days. The way the networks/channels bundle this stuff is just garbage and not worth a red cent to me. I walked away from subscription TV a while ago and haven't missed it one bit.

This is the future of TV. Set Top Boxes (STB) are going to go away, like POTS phones. With all the kids growing up w/ youtube, hula, et.al, they are growing up realizing that programming dictated by someone else is crap. Watch what you want, when you want. Even on your smart phone.

Hence, AppleTV, GoogleTV, Roku, etc. And notice that all tv's sold today are internet ready, i.e., have a wifi interface.

Want an idea to start a business? Figure out a way to package stuff for the content providers so they can offer programming all by themselves and don't have to rely on these providers to get the content to you. Of course the plumbing is the internet. How to get it to the consumer in a simple, neat way is the key. Steve Jobs died too soon.

Market reports say that DirecTV, cable, UVerse, etc will steadily decline. I tend to agree.

[sammyg2]

If it were me (and it's not) I'd contact viacom and beotch them out before I blamed it on the provider.
They're the ones that jacked up the cost to make it prohibitive.

[john70t]

Somewhere on the internet there's a chart of channel-by-channel breakdown.

A large percentage of subscription costs is from the sports and movie channels, which everyone pays for. I remember hearing a major income source for GE is from pay-porn from one of their hotel subsidiaries. There was a push to break up the networks a while back, but I think it fell through.

[WolfeMacleod]

Caught this on the Viacom facebook page today. Classy thing for them to post, eh?



Yeah? Well..

[biosurfer1]

The problem for Directv is while it may be Viacom jacking up the price and mostly at fault for the channels being yanked, Directv is the last man holding the cable as it enters the house so they will take the heat for it.

This is getting real old though. Its not just Directv, its comcast, Dish, everyone. It seems like every couple months there is another banner or commercial with one of the providers feuding with one of the channel providers.

[Brando]

Viacom to DirecTV -> Pay us 30% more or you don't get our content when our contract is up.
DirecTV to Viacom -> No, that's too much.
... Contract Expires ...
Spongebob fans -> DAMN YOU DIRECTV! YOU SUCK!

Sounds like what happened with NetFlix and some of the studios content was leased from. A large selection of their inventory disappeared from streaming when those contracts expired.

[911pcars]

Slowly but surely, phone and subscription TV rates have increased, not unlike gasoline prices, except prices just increase instead of fluctuating upward. I don't know what the average satellite or cable bill is currently, but I bet it's over $100/month.

Average cell phone bill? Probably the same.

If subscribers begin to opt out, only then will fees decrease.

S

[john70t]

Just stop buying it.
Give your kids a book and a stick to dig in the dirt.

[red-beard]

Dish has been holding the prices down.