Cord cutting

[billybob476]

Maybe I am a minority here, but what do you do regarding sports? Is there other methods to get that if you would want? I trimmed back my cable bill quite a bit as I was paying more then you were Joe, but I don't think I could ever drop it all together.

Yeah, no F1?!

Over here in North America F1 is pretty much an all cable affair, not going to see any races without it, and then I would not get my Lewis Hamilton fix. I seem to have out grown being a fan of a particular athlete, but for some reason I am a fan of his. Joe Mentioned he can watch Hockey over there air waves, but for me, most of our NHL teams games are on cable, but the way they have played the last 5 years or so, I might be better off missing them...

Living within 10 km of the CN Tower transmitter gives me some good OTA options :)

Also for NHL it looks like you can get an NHL season pass for 50 USD/year and get acces to live streams of games plus local feeds of your home team. I assume the same thing applies for MLB and NFL. I suspect that cable is still the more affordable way to get that content though.

http://gamecenter.nhl.com/nhlgc/cdsignup.jsp?cmpid=gcl-devices-van-url

[Bromptonboy]

More on Aero:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TEC_TV_ON_THE_INTERNET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-14-10-04-15

NEW YORK (AP) -- Aereo, the startup that offers television stations over the Internet starting at $8 a month, says it will start service in Atlanta on June 17.

That follows Aereo's expansion to Boston on Wednesday. Until this week, the service had been available only in the New York City area.

Aereo will offer 27 Atlanta-area broadcast channels, plus the cable channel Bloomberg TV. Service will be limited to 55 counties in Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina.

Other markets expected in the coming months include Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington.

Aereo converts television signals into computer data and sends them over the Internet to subscribers' computers and mobile devices. Subscribers can watch channels live or record them with an Internet-based digital video recorder. They can pause and rewind live television, just like a DVR.

[Rico]

I got a Beta invite to Aereo for 3 months of use.  Looks interesting so far.

http://www.aereo.com

[billybob476]

Yup, if they ever come into Canada I'll jump on that bandwagon quick.

As a followup, it's been a few months since we cancelled cable and I haven't felt deprived for a second.

[Bromptonboy]

The only thing keeping me from cutting is HBO...and that is from Game Of Thrones..

[WillEagle]

We dropped basic cable over the summer months and we were not sure if we wanted to get it back. Well 2 weeks into football season I wanted it back! So we are back to basic and we even pick up some HD channels of Fox, CBS, & ABC. So I can watch my Ohio State Buckeyes and pro football in HD. And with Netflix and Hulu I don't think I'll ever need anything more.

[Bromptonboy]

Just ordered this device:  Alldaymall® Mini PC MXII Android 4.2 Mini PC Cortex A9 2G/8G Jelly Bean Quad Core RK3188 Cortex A9 XBMC Streaming Mini HTPC TV Box Player - this along with some plugins will get me closer to cutting the cord.  I plan to do so after this season of Game of Thrones ends.

[billybob476]

Yeah, HBO is still the sticking point for a lot of people.

[Dangelus]

Just ordered this device:  Alldaymall® Mini PC MXII Android 4.2 Mini PC Cortex A9 2G/8G Jelly Bean Quad Core RK3188 Cortex A9 XBMC Streaming Mini HTPC TV Box Player - this along with some plugins will get me closer to cutting the cord.  I plan to do so after this season of Game of Thrones ends.

Nice! Absolutely love XBMC, used in since the original Xbox days!

[Bromptonboy]

Looks like you can get plug-ins for XBMC to watch almost anything out there.

[Dangelus]

Looks like you can get plug-ins for XBMC to watch almost anything out there.

Yep. Hulu (with no ads if you so wish) YouTube, Vimeo, plus most networks streaming services are available.

[Bromptonboy]

I haven't had too much time to play with this unit yet.  One thing I have noticed is that it is painful to enter text!  I ended up plugging a USB keyboard into the unit for the present.

[Dangelus]

I haven't had too much time to play with this unit yet.  One thing I have noticed is that it is painful to enter text!  I ended up plugging a USB keyboard into the unit for the present.

I use my phone or tablet as a keyboard. Works great.

[Bromptonboy]

Looks like Aereo was just dealt a blow by the supreme court:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101781340

The Supreme Court delivered a major setback to online TV startup Aereo but a win for the media business, industry watchers said Wednesday.

David Bank, a media analyst at RBC Capital Markets, called the court's ruling that the startup violated copyright law a win for consumers.

Launched in 2012, Aereo sought to revolutionize the TV industry. The service enabled customers in several cities to watch TV online via a remote antenna controlled over the web.

"Had Aereo been victorious, the risk would have been the broadcasters would have been forced to become cable channels to prevent Aereo and other technologies from monetizing its content without being paid," Bank said.

"Today that risk is gone," he said. "So the consumer wins because there's still a viable broadcast system."

Janney Montgomery Scott senior media and entertainment analyst Tony Wible described mixed outcomes of the decision.

Now that the TV system is sustained, peoples' "cable bills will likely move higher" due in part to the rising price of sports content.

Read MoreAereo CEO: We're disappointed in the outcome

Overall though, he said the ruling produced a "status quo" for TV viewers and "that if Aereo had won, the programming on broadcast would have gotten worse."


"Inevitably, I've always seen Aereo as a vampire that would have killed its host," Wible added.

While BTIG media analyst Richard Greenfield said the decision "feels like a near-term loss for the consumer," it "is clearly a big win for media."

The service, which cost as little as $8 per month, had many in the cable and broadcasting industry up in arms by threatening lucrative network retransmission fees. These fees totaled roughly $3.3 billion last year, according to a report from SNL Kagan.

Following the ruling, broadcasters' shares rose in midday trade. (Click here to track media stocks after the ruling.)

While Aereo simplified access to broadcast, Greenfield pointed out that consumers can still access it themselves.

"It means that nothing will change in terms of your access to broadcast TV," Greenfield added. "Essentially you can lease an antenna but not in the cloud."

This decision is good from an investor perspective, said Bill Smead, CEO and CIO of Smead Capital Management, whose Smead Value Fund invests in Gannett, Disney and Comcast.

"The toll bridge is reestablished," said Smead.

As for pricing, Smead said TV's still an affordable form of entertainment.

"You might not be able to afford to go to Disney World, but you can afford to have your kids to go to the Disney Channel," he added.

[sheldor]

sucks...but no way are going back to cable.  We'll have 2mip internet ($30), DTV, trying Amazon Prime($8)  and Netflix streaming($8) - total monthly bill still about $45.