I come home from a weekend of trying to stay warm while camping with a group of cub scouts and find HBO is gone from Dish Network. From what I found, it boils down to AT&T taking over HBO and jacking the prices up on other carriers to offer the network. I hate AT&T

So first AT&T ruins DirecTV and now they are working on ruining other companies too?

Yep. What I didn’t realize at first is, AT&T merged/took over TimeWarner media. So they actually have control of all the Time Warner networks. This could get worse. One article said this is the first time ever since HBO came out that they have had a pricing dispute with a carrier.

Being able to ruin something you own is as American as apple pie.

I still can’t believe that acquisition was approved. AT&T has been pushing the line into antitrust territory with almost every move since.

Remember the crazy people in the sixties who shouted and carried on about Pay TV?

Remember the crazy people in the fifties and sixties who railed about how screwed up the US would become if there was socialized medicine?

They were right.

I love capitalism, until I don't.... As long as it only negatively affects other people and not me, it's great.....

The fundamental “sweetner” used by bureaucrats of all stripes to sell their program. If this fails, then finance with debt — then nobody seems to pay.

No, can’t say that I do.

You watch HBO? Well, used to.....

Why? Programming has been crap for a very long time, most of it is available on VHS...LOL

Cord cutters... “we cut the cord because the prices of cable and satellite is too much.”

Cable/satellite subscribers... “everything WAS fine until these companies decided to have a pricing war that was started by you cord cutters. Now cord cutters are getting just as pricey as subscribers.”

[Link: mashable.com]

KOT

Personally, I'm not a TV watcher. I don't care what they charge. As an outside observer it seems like everyone is gauging everyone down stream. The content owners are gauging the distribution network which passes these costs through to their customers after tacking on their margin. The sports franchises are a large component of this. Sports is a big draw for the cable companies, but an outsized component of their media costs. The cable companies are spreading the cost of sports to all of their users. Now that the cable companies are becoming the content providers, they can gauge other cable companies.

Of course, as I install things I see a sample of the content. It seems to me that, in addition to the increasing raw distribution and premium content fees, the density of commercials is rising and there is an increasing level of "targeting".

I stopped using cable or satellite because I don't watch so many channels that I need them, so I bought a Roku. Tons of apps that I don't need and I still don't watch many channels. I recently signed up for the Spectrum Choice app for Roku so I could watch the Brewers playoff games since they weren't broadcast locally and I haven't used it in more than two weeks because A) it's buggy and B) it's easier to navigate with the TV tuner and remote that has numeric keys. I have a couple of subscriptions, neither of which offers anything that can be seen on terrestrial TV but if anyone thinks that saving money is what they'll do by signing up for Netflix, Amazon prime, HBO and other providers, they're wrong. Then, they also lose the cost savings that comes with bundling services.

My DirecTV bill got to the point where I called to stop the service and the guy asked if there was something he could do to keep me as a subscriber. I said that it's too expensive for 20 channels and then, I added "It's just TV, it's not a life-altering event". He said "Hang on" and when he came back, he offered to cut my bill in half. I did that for a while and when they raised the price, they did it again. Eventually, I lost interest in using them at all.

Two things I have done recently that have infinitely improved my life on multiple levels.

1. Turned off the damn TV closed out cable account. When my TV is on its what I want to watch and it does not involve commercials, don't give a rats ass about sports anymore, plenty of places to go watch a game if need be. Antenna going back up on roof for those rare moments.
2. Disabled my Facebook account/STOP staring at my phone.

So many more constructive activities are being accomplished.

Bought PS4 for one damn game and about 15 minutes in my mind is telling me there are better things I could be doing, most of which vastly improve my chances of getting laid!

Speaking of cutting the cord, anyone a Hulu fan?... I copied this from a power point I did at my BNI chapter a couple weeks back (cord cut comparison)...

$40 per month (to start)
Has most locals and good on sports (ESPN, FSN etc.)
Streaming library? $6
HBO? $15
Showtime? $11
DVR? $15
Limited to 2 screens. Unlimited screens? $15

Total potential spend = $87 per month

I was pretty surprised when I put this slide together!

I'm still paying for cable and Netflix, so whatever. Gun to my head, if I was as broke as I felt when my business was new, I would do YouTubeTV and Netflix.

And as for Dish and HBO, one can blame ATT, but it sounds to me like another run of the mill Dish carriage rights issue, running for 20 years strong.