If there were BBC 1-4, Discovery, Crime and investigation, National Geographic etc channels on Yo...

[G+_George Kozi]

If there were BBC 1-4, Discovery, Crime and investigation, National Geographic etc channels on Youtube, for a buck a month each, I'd cut the cord.

 

Yes, one buck a month. That's not too little, because they can still put ads on programing, and they would have subscription revenue coming in from all over the world.

[G+_David Pick]

Seeing how Patreon bosses emailed Brian and Tom from around the globe on their entertainment(cable) bill in episode 59 of Cordkillers.

 

And your not in the U.S.A. What is your cable provider and rough estimate of your bill in U.S. dollars if I may ask?

 

Just curious what maybe keeping you from going internet only? I'd say cut the cord, but you maybe wireless connection to begin with.

[G+_Dave Trautman]

David Pick, I think George was showing us the fibre line to his apartment recently. It's about 50 US$ if I remember correctly.

 

I also think he makes a good point about the per-unit cost of delivering shows over the stream. The kind of money which has been changing hands for programming on cable channels is unsustainable in an open market with user choice in the equation. Users will vote with their dollars and pick the winners. I see the business of cable TV being upended by the threat of streaming. It will be hard to pass along those big fees for individual channels when streaming takes over.

 

George lives in a fairly regulated communications environment and might actually see these low cost channels sooner than people in North America. We've been suckered by cable TV by allowing them to provide the streams too. If those can be unchained then I see competition for eyeballs driving the process. If they remain chained together then the cable and stream providers will still dictate terms to the content creators.

 

More broadband is needed, and net neutrality is required in order for a marketplace to emerge for future streaming content. I know at least two producers of quality programming who can't get a meeting because of the control the cable providers have regarding what's trending in TV. IF they could offer their stuff directly for a low fee I think their work would end up being quite popular.

 

George's costs are lower because he's in a more regulated environment where the government is not the enemy of the people.

[G+_George Kozi]

I rarely watch TV, and when I do, I tend to stick to about 5 channels. But I love having the option to do that. At the moment, that means a bundle with a lot of crap in it.

 

Right now I'm hooked up to cable , and besides that, a company over here just brought fiber into the house for free. They are hooking up 5 million households, and they are about half way through it. This means that I have a choice of several dozen ISP's.

 

All this is possible because of regulation. The rules of the game are made in such a way as to protect the consumer. The government did that. In fact, several of them, left, right and center.

 

we have a coalition government tradition, and that means that at the beginning of each administration a program is negotiated between the parties that will form the administration. That means two things:

 

1) they keep each other inn check.

2) sometimes things are slow to get done, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. society has to move with the policies, and society moves slow.

 

As a rule of thumb, I trust my government. I may not like what they do all the time, but I know that fundamentally, they are out to do the right thing for everybody, as much as possible. 

[G+_David Pick]

George Kozi That would be awesome to have a choice of 12 ISPs to choose from here in the U.S.A.

[G+_George Kozi]

actually, theres about 36 of them.