We are blinded by the hate towards cable companies. Many don’t understand that cable companies were all forced to pay more by the providers. Now, if we want to watch a show we have to pay the provider directly. We see where that’s going.
For decades cable companies lobbied congress to put a halt to the exorbitant price hikes to no avail. And year after year cable companies were forced to pass on a small portion of that cost to the subscriber.
Sinclair Broadcasting raised their prices every year. ESPN raised their prices every year. Disney TNT HBO And the list goes on.
So then cable companies figured out how to pay less. They used to pay per receiver at their headend site. Cable companies figured out that if they collapse all their headends and feed everyone from one central location they could get away with paying for just one receiver. Providers then changed their billing to subscriber count. Effectively killing the video side of the industry.
I know I’m going to get excoriated, but look around, how much are you paying for just one subscription service? How many times have the providers raised their prices? And lastly, do you think their prices will go down or up in the future?
Linear TV might be dead but the alternative we built for ourselves became much worse. Anyways, that’s just like my opinion.
It’s an interesting opinion. Personally I think we let the media merge too much. Cable and broadcast are in a rut because they are owned by the studios. As are the streaming channels. There’s no competition. Studios are currently allowed to own the content, the production houses, the broadcast channels, the cable channels, the streaming channels, the set top boxes, and even the wiring that carries programming to your home.
I do think it’s smart of Frontier to shift to Internet-only. I actually prefer the “a la carte” streaming model of buying one channel a month or so. It’s just like what HBO and other premium channels have always done, even on cable. It’s easy to supplement them with the ad-supported streaming channels like Tubi that are free. Ad-supported channels on cable are not free. Cable even makes you pay for over the air broadcasts.