More Cuts at ESPN

Oh, I dunno that it's a really a business model if you can't buy a channel ala carte.

 

HGTV does just fine, thank you. Justglad is ignoring the main issue. As the most expensive cable network (since it's the biggest), ESPN is most subject to downturns in the overall cable market, and most vulnerable to demands from cable providers. You don't think the four pro league networks aren't undercutting ESPN and coming in with lowball carriage fees to their cable carriers? Everybody understands. It's two monopolies dealing with each other. Consumers get no choice as to their cable provider (except in very rare cases like Lexington, Ma.) and cable networks and providers have no sources of live pro sports except the four leagues.

 

I watch Flip or Flop. Completely devastated that Tareek and Christina are getting divorced.

 

They are the two-headed beast.

 

This is absolutely the truth. There's not one person who has, or ever would, cut out their cable because of issues of content or product. It's always, always about the outrageous cost, and the fact that people have little choice in the matter in most areas if they want to have much TV access at all. Which they do, because, let's face it, for a lot of people, TV is their lone, or main, entertainment/relaxation provider. So, even as ultimately disposable as it, people are loath to cut the cord. It takes a long time, and a lot, for it to happen. But it's getting talked about, and happening, more and more now, because prices have reached that point.

I consider cable companies right up there, almost, with medical insurance companies when it comes to the almost-criminal, uncontained price-gouging. And, when you consider the comparisons of need/importance of those two things, that's saying something.

 

Far from correct. People who cut the cord do so to drop what they say they don't watch. They are willing to go to more effort to watch other things.

Except others in this thread and others claim cord-cutting is an epidemic.

I'll continue to stick with the sane point of view: Product quality often plays a role in purchasing a product. Cable is delivered in a different fashion, but that method is changing.

 

I consider cable companies as the prime example of the negative effects of deregulating a utility. But there was a technological change. One can access programming from sources such as Netflix, Apple TV, etc. You pay a fee for the shows but can watch them at your convenience. Fifteen years ago this technology did not exist.

 

LOL.

 

Except for a 3-month trial in 2012, I have not had cable for nearly seven years. Haven't missed it for a second.