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How much longer does traditional TV have left?

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Hollywood Duo said:
It's a huge amount. Give this a read, Basically every Sunday (during the season) 40 million plus people watch football games and ratings are going up.
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I guess the question is less if sports are still drawing in the numbers (which they clearly are), but if that's enough to keep a network afloat. I assume that 40 million is divided across at least three networks, correct? And that's limited to football being in season. Is there enough sports rest the year to keep those channels on-air? Or are the other productions they show doing as well too. I haven't watched TV in nearly 4 years, so I really don't even know what's on these days. It was all reality TV and Cop shows then.

Edit: I somehow misread 'every sunday' as 'every week'. But if I recall only one network has the rights to any night's coverage.
 
It depends on how long it takes for the on-demand business model to make sense to content producers and rights holders. If they were making a lot more money in the on-demand market and the average consumer understood how to use their DVR, appointment television viewing of recorded content would already be dead.

It's not that cord-cutters don't want to watch TV content, they just want more control over how and when they watch it. Even with live events, some people don't like to be tied to their living room couch to watch them.

DiipuSurotu said:
Just like radio died right?
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Podcasts & streaming music services = modern radio.
 
NoblesseOblige said:
I guess the question is less if sports are still drawing in the numbers (which they clearly are), but if that's enough to keep a network afloat. I assume that 40 million is divided across at least three networks, correct? And that's limited to football being in season. Is there enough sports rest the year to keep those channels on-air? Or are the other productions they show doing as well too. I haven't watched TV in nearly 4 years, so I really don't even know what's on these days. It was all reality TV and Cop shows then.
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still nothing but reality TV and Cop shows so you haven't missed anything
 
KevinCow said:
Care to elaborate? I don't follow sports, so I don't know anything about the recent rights fees renewals.

I guess if sports are going to continue to stay behind the times, then they'll be the only thing keeping traditional TV alive.
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Sports still keep radio alive too so to expecting them to keep TV alive is a no brainier.
 
In 50 years time people will be spending a quarter of their time watching ads and paying $50+ on their streaming services.
 
Game of Thrones is quite literally the only reason I and a lot of my college-age friends haven't cut the cord yet.

Woe to HBO and a lot of cable companies when that series ends.
 
Not anytime soon. Just my own experience but I was a cord cutter until last week when att started inforcing their data caps. I had no choice but to go back to them for cable to avoid the caps altogether. Slimy fuckers. Still pissed.
 
The only thing I hate is that the longer you are with a particular provider, the more expensive it gets. In my case, I have been with Directv since 2005 and they still charge me for HD every month and my bill has inflated on the whole. Once my contract is up I will likely drop them and go with Dish or something in order to get one of those sweet new customer deals.
 
Er - probably a generation at least.

Most of Netflix/Amazon prime's output is collections of TV shows paid for by 'traditional' TV. Netflix has more original content these days but the bulk is still old stuff.
 
Regarding live sports, it's already incredibly easy to stream professional baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer without any cable subscription. Granted, if you want everything, cable or satellite is probably cheaper than purchasing all these steaming packages separately. But in my case, I pay $65 for the Royals and am good. I cold easily add on other stuff if I felt the need.

You can watch the bar majority of football games (college and NFL) for free with rabbit ears. Unless you're not living in your teams local area, there's little reason to buy cable for that. And even then, you'll still need to drop another $300+ on Sunday Ticket to watch out of area games. The pricing is absurd. I'll stick with my free 4-5 broadcast NFL games per week, as well as all the playoff games.

Bottom line is you aren't cut off from live sports. There are some games you'll miss, but you'll have more than enough options available.
 
The enforcement of data caps is another problem that will stop people from cutting the cord. I am amazed that my provider has not started doing it yet, but there is still no way in hell that I would cut the cord to go with streaming, regardless. I love my TV packages and channel surfing too much.
 
IvanJ said:
I have not watched TV programs for about 5-6 years.
My ISP gives me some 40-50 channels for free (as a part of the internet package along with a landline - everything for 40€) but I never even turn the box on.
Everything I need to watch is on the internet.



I watch NFL, they have an awesome package (it is a bit expensive $200 per year), which allows me to stream any game live or on demand, as well as download them all.
NBA, NCAA, NHL and MLB have similar apps and all for much cheaper (about $100 per year).
And you can watch them all on your phone, tablet, PC, PS4...whenever you want.
Even though you might get some of those games for free on TV, it is worth spending money if you are a fan, the convenience and choice is well worth it.
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I take it you aren't from America. Watching live nationally broadcast games is 100% locked out on all those apps in America due to the tv deals the sports have.

None of those apps let you watch live games that are part of the national tv packages. The games are blacked out. There is no way to get around that till the tv deals expire. Which is decades and decades away.
 
Cheebo said:
None of those apps let you watch live games that are part of the national tv packages. The games are blacked out. There is no way to get around that till the tv deals expire. Which is decades and decades away.
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Nothing is blacked out, I am not in the US.
 
IvanJ said:
Nothing is blacked out, I am not in the US.
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Yep, exactly. Because the tv deals are not for overseas markets. The primary market for these sports is here in America, which is where the tv deals are. You can't watch those games on those apps in America due to the tv deals that for many of the sports are locked in till the 2020s and 2030s in some cases.
 
I think traditional TV will be with us for a very very long time. Outside of sports, streaming services cant match current affairs, news, weather, the majority of live TV and surprisingly enough, the majority of daytime TV.

Cable subscriptions in their current form however, are under threat.
Streaming services are going to force a la carte subs.
 
Cheebo said:
Yep, exactly. Because the tv deals are not for overseas markets. The primary market for these sports is here in America, which is where the tv deals are. You can't watch those games on those apps in America due to the tv deals that for many of the sports are locked in till the 2020s and 2030s in some cases.
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Another reason why I'm glad I don't live in the US
jk :-)
 
Tragicomedy said:
Regarding live sports, it's already incredibly easy to stream professional baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer without any cable subscription.
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NO as far as I know all the major sports black out streaming if you are in the city of the team you want to watch. I would say that's a huge percentage of sports fans. It's nice for football to use my antenna but I can't get hockey or baseball.

But it's true that if you add up the cost of streaming 3-4 Pro sports seasons and potentially playoffs, you might as well just get cable.

and can't you get like... one college football game with an antenna? That's kinda far from the majority. I don't watch college football, but wouldn't it only be on NBC or CBS or something?
 
NoblesseOblige said:
And that's limited to football being in season. Is there enough sports rest the year to keep those channels on-air?
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Of course. NFL season turns into NBA and MLB season then back into NFL season (with the college basketball tournaments in march which are a massive draw).

Millions and millions of Americans watch live sports all year round. Week in week out. People you work with may not be talking about it but statistically most of them are watching football, basketball, or baseball regularly.
 
Cheebo said:
Of course. NFL season turns into NBA and MLB season then back into NFL season (with the college basketball tournaments in march which are a massive draw).

Millions and millions of Americans watch live sports all year round. Week in week out.
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College football with the NFL season as well. Even hockey is big.
 
Hopefully not for a while. I've already transitioned over several years ago and never watch tv through traditional means. But once tv starts dying companies will probably panic and ruin streaming services by increasing license costs and the selection of shows/movies will probably diminish. Also things like unblockers stopped working due to companies finally pushing Netflix to block those services.

I'm already saving hundreds of dollars and time. I can watch pretty much whatever I want when I want to. I don't care if other people continue to waste their money.
 
It'll outlast video game consoles. I'd be more worried about streamers going out of business than traditional TV especially since cable companies have a vested interest
 
TV isn't going away.

What will happen is there will be more streaming services... and to get evt you'll subscribe to multiple ones... thusly you'll be paying cable prices again.
 
Traditional Live TV will always be around for sports and news but I think it's pretty obvious that innovative comedies, dramas, and action shows will be moving more to streaming services in comparison to airing on major networks since major networks are playing it far too safe as these years go by with constant remakes and/or shows that are rip-offs of other shows.

I think this transition will be very evident by 2020.
 
In my anecdotal experience cord cutters aren't anywhere as frequent as people seem to make them out to be. I know a ton of people who still watch cable TV.
 
I don't own a TV set.

I hardly watch conventional TV on my computer either.

But I have several friends who still watch a lot of TV so I think even a few generations from now it will exist.
 
Maybe -8 years about, when TV on DVD started to surpass TV as the best way to watch TV and catalogue content started to be more appealing than live airing content... then again around -6 years when web streaming of TV started to flare up, and international content came into direct competition with live airing content, and then again a few years ago when networks joined the streaming game in earnest, and then again this year when the last holdouts launched streaming services.

I get cable for free at my house and I rarely hook the box up. Why would I? If my cable company surveyed me, I'd say that their services are worth a little less than $0, because that's my honest opinion. I wish they offered a service where they would pay me to hook up their stupid box so I could have a worse experience watching TV live. Are any providers doing this?
 
The thing is cable subscribers subsidize lot of the cost of online streaming sites. If they left you would pay more and probably have to subscribe to 10 different sites to get similar programming.
 
Some people are simpler folk that want to just turn on the tube and see what's on. They don't have gaf open and multiple monitors rolling at the same time with 20 tabs open.

Streaming boxes need to get even simpler at getting to content and seeing what's new. Live events need to be easily viewable on them as well and not require users to find a web link on forums like these.
 
Renji_11 said:
The thing is cable subscribers subsidize lot of the cost of online streaming sites. If they left you would pay more and probably have to subscribe to 10 different sites to get similar programming.
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I said something similar in another thread.

With the way things are trending I feel like in about 5-10 years we are just going to have a different kind of monster. You will be paying $70+ for an acceptable internet connection while a handful of streaming sites will have the majority of good content that will probably cost you $10-15 a month for. If you want sports you get those packages as well. All in all paying roughly what you used to pay just across different platforms and services.
 
Everyone talks about streaming is the future, but people don't factor in bandwidth caps. Once all isps implement bandwidth caps (in the USA and I'm only talking about the USA) this so called streaming future is dead before it gains traction.
 
Once all my shows appear on a streaming site that are updated weekly and close to the US air time I will make the switch but that will be years off.

I am still waiting for Gotham Season 2 to air of Netflix and shows like Arrow are a full season behind on Netflix.

Movies are the same, my local DVD rental place has gone out of business so I can't rent movies anymore and I can't find anywhere that streams them on release or keep them in their library for more than a week.
 
All depends on the giant media companies (Comcast, etc). They charge outrageous amounts of money for cable--typically disguised in "family bundles" that include phone and internet. They need to find a new cash-cow before the old broadcast model dies off. It may come in the form of tiered service plans (based on bandwidth and speed).

Also, content sites (Hulu, Netflix, Amazon) still rely on the traditional model for the majority of their content. A lot would have to change in how the industry is built and works from the ground up in order to keep providing content sites with enough content. We're a long ways away from that still.

I actually think we'll have to see a new widespread technology in place before traditional TV dies out. Something beyond the current state of mobile and home internet content distribution.
 
Wray said:
You guys do realize that a 30 dollar hd antenna will give you guys nfl every Sunday right?
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Only certain games and not MNF. Sunday Ticket is huge for this reason.

KevinCow said:
Care to elaborate? I don't follow sports, so I don't know anything about the recent rights fees renewals.

I guess if sports are going to continue to stay behind the times, then they'll be the only thing keeping traditional TV alive.
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TV sports contracts just keep getting larger. http://deadspin.com/what-the-nbas-insane-new-tv-deal-means-for-the-league-a-1642926274

9 yrs/$24 billion. No streaming service has the capital to match that. And that's just one league. MLS Live is doing interesting things with their service but soccer is obviously less popular in the States. I recommend reading the entire article because it explains the cable/sports dynamic.
 
Wray said:
You guys do realize that a 30 dollar hd antenna will give you guys nfl every Sunday right?
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You realize there is more to sports than the NFL, right? A lot of regional networks are not covered via Antenna. There's also sports beyond the major 4 in the US. As an F1 and cycling fan I have no (legal) choice other than cable for NBCSN/CNBC and BeIN.

Future said:
Some people are simpler folk that want to just turn on the tube and see what's on. They don't have gaf open and multiple monitors rolling at the same time with 20 tabs open.
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I think people also over look this by a lot. Streaming boxes / networks greatly introduce decision paralysis. There's an ocean of content, but trying to pick one thing to watch out of that ocean is pretty damn tough. When you're presented with content already on and picked for you it removes that decision layer.
 
Don't forget that the expansion potential for streaming services is hampered by the digital infrastructure in a given country. Even in developed nations, many people don't have access to a stable internet connection.
 
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