Appearing on stage at a New Republic event, Mr. Plepler was asked by a young woman who described herself as a member of the Lena Dunham, Millennial generation how HBO would reach people who, like many of her friends, dont have televisions or pay-TV subscriptions but want to watch Ms. Dunhams Girls, one of HBOs hottest new shows, legally.
We are going to get you a little raise where you work so that you can afford the product, Mr. Plepler joked.
"joking" but serious. He doesn't get it's not just the $15 for HBO that's the impediment. It's The $60 for cable subscription, the $5+ for the STB rental fee, plus others taxes/fees that make HBO close to $100 a month. Plus dealing with a lot of BS one doesn't want to just to have HBO. Maybe people don't want a big, clunky STB or 5 bagillion other channels they'll never watch.
Pretty much. I don't think they really care though. They have a lot of subscribers anyway. If they did care they wouldn't take nearly a year to release their shows on DVD/BD. That's just begging for people to pirate their shows.
I think once cord cutting reaches critical mass and they see more consumers are opting to not pay $120/mo for 500 junk channels+hbo then they'll really considering appealing to us cord cutters. Unfortunately that hasn't happened yet, it's coming, slowly but surely.
Convinced my family to ditch our pricey satellite bundle (and HBO) in favour of a Netflix/Hulu/OTA HD antenna and never been happier.
If it wasn't for my roommate stuck on TV (with all those crappy channels), I would've pared it down to just the U-200 U-Verse. All I care about is the Internet as I always on it watching movies and such.
I think once cord cutting reaches critical mass and they see more consumers are opting to not pay $120/mo for 500 junk channels+hbo then they'll really considering appealing to us cord cutters. Unfortunately that hasn't happened yet, it's coming, slowly but surely.
Convinced my family to ditch our pricey satellite bundle (and HBO) in favour of a Netflix/Hulu/OTA HD antenna and never been happier.
*waits for everyone else to get on the bandwagon*
Cord-cutting isn't going to "reach critical mass". It isn't coming, slowly or surely.
I hope we are adults enough to not start character assassinations like MSM. This documentary has the support of some 9/11 Family members & is not meant as a disrespect to the loved ones that died that day. Full documentary is on online as well.
I think once cord cutting reaches critical mass and they see more consumers are opting to not pay $120/mo for 500 junk channels+hbo then they'll really considering appealing to us cord cutters. Unfortunately that hasn't happened yet, it's coming, slowly but surely.
Convinced my family to ditch our pricey satellite bundle (and HBO) in favour of a Netflix/Hulu/OTA HD antenna and never been happier.
*waits for everyone else to get on the bandwagon*
I think they'll just push the caps + overage models to "strongly discourage" all those thieving pirates Internet video users.
If the price and quality remained the same I would agree... problem is, price is going up while quality (of the programming) is coming down. As more and more shows become available online, more and more people WILL cancel their bloated, expensive cable packages in favor of Internet only connections to watch only what they want to watch.
Sure there are always going to be people that are willing to pay $250/mo for 600+ channels because there are actually people who think the most important thing in life is how many channels you have. Cable companies, being publicly owned in today's ickonomy, will suffer greatly as continuous growth slows... stops... then reverses itself. It doesn't take everyone cutting the cord to reach critical mass... just enough that the number exceeds the number of new subscribers every month. Shareholders will not stand for it.
If the people's only other option was an OTA antenna then I would say it isn't going to happen... but with the growth of streaming, cable companies are in imminent danger. Unless, of course, they jump on the bandwagon... make deals with the content provides who they already have relationships with, and offer ala-carte channel streaming packages; and I don't see that happening anytime soon. IOW, sell your stocks NOW.
I think once cord cutting reaches critical mass and they see more consumers are opting to not pay $120/mo for 500 junk channels+hbo then they'll really considering appealing to us cord cutters. Unfortunately that hasn't happened yet, it's coming, slowly but surely.
Convinced my family to ditch our pricey satellite bundle (and HBO) in favour of a Netflix/Hulu/OTA HD antenna and never been happier.
*waits for everyone else to get on the bandwagon*
Took the plunge of dumping pay tv earlier this month, worked out better then I thought it would! Youtube, ota, and anything that was missed you can usually go to the official channel website.
I could be wrong - one would have never believed that a generation would trade car ownership for massive smartphone payments, a bus pass, a bicycle and car-sharing, but Detroit is very worried based on the sales data showing a massive decline in "Generation Walk"'s new-car purchasing.
But absent an alternative service with the same content, I don't see today's singles going cord-cut when they "settle down", couple-up, reproduce, buy a house and fight over the remote. And while we stupidly promote single-parentism, we haven't yet eliminated the couch-potato gene.
I would agree that economically-challenged folks are wise to choose to cord-cut, but for nearly 90% of households, those are still choices made with discretionary income - people choose what they can "afford".
Young/singles make these decisions more often because they're often the sole bill-payer, and there is no one to compromise with. But multiperson households do not cord-cut so easily.
If the price and quality remained the same I would agree... problem is, price is going up while quality (of the programming) is coming down. As more and more shows become available online, more and more people WILL cancel their bloated, expensive cable packages in favor of Internet only connections to watch only what they want to watch. ... If the people's only other option was an OTA antenna then I would say it isn't going to happen... but with the growth of streaming, cable companies are in imminent danger. Unless, of course, they jump on the bandwagon... make deals with the content provides who they already have relationships with, and offer ala-carte channel streaming packages; and I don't see that happening anytime soon. IOW, sell your stocks NOW.
You can bash the industry all you like. I'm not a fan either.
But they own the content that people want to watch, regardless of how one critiques the "quality". And they're not going to change the delivery model only to make less money - they already learned that with Netflix. While it has few technical obstacles, streaming ala-carte is dead-on-arrival without content.