Why I had my Cable TV cut off?

uhm..your statement that Debate is one of your major motivation that made you a cable subscriber, uhm.. have it crossed your mind that it is available for free even without cable tv, and yeah, unfortunately its off the air now..

My thoughts exactly. I moved to my new home in Bulacan last November 1st. Our old TV in the US was old and I gave it to charity figuring I’d buy some new technology after I got to the Philippines. Well prices and selection don’t seem too bad, and cable is cheap here in the province … but neither my wife nor I have any interest … haven’t even bought a replacement TV yet and cable … well, don’t hold your breath.
A media friend who works in radio promotion in Manila commented recently that radio is “dead”. Don’t know how accurate her assessment is, but TV doesn’t seem that healthy either.

Probably the last 100 gasps of cable TV, but not the death of TV.

Afterall, there are more Filipinos who know what boom tarat tarat means compared to those who read blogs.

I won’t unsub from cable, though, because my kids will miss High Five. Besides, there’s only one PC at home. :-)

So Abe disconnects his cable and people start thinking it’s the end of TV. Funny.

The end of TV will not happen because the primary outlet for these TV shows we watch on the Web is television, not the Internet. I doubt that TV stations will create shows “direct to YouTube” anytime soon.

More people are watching TV now than ever before — I’m surprised that some of you have come to the conclusion that TV is dead — it’s the motion picture industry that is dying.

I don’t know about the kids watching anime on a 320×240 screen, but given a choice, I would rather watch on a bigger screen — which is a TV.

The cable selection in the Philippines probably sucks, so you think its not worth it. There are still a lot of standard cable stations here in the U.S. which are worth the subscription (Bravo, FX, etc.) And please, watching a live sports game on TV (if you can’t be in the arena) is the way to go. Nobody “chooses” to go to the Web to watch a game when you can watch it on TV.

Ah, less money for greedy TV executives. Excellent. :)

@ Rickey.. Are you speaking from any experience regarding Philippine cable? There are more channels available on the basic service at my father-in-law’s house than on basic service in Colorado Springs, for about 1/10th the price … so I don’t think it has to do with variety or quality.

Actually, to me the quality is better here because there are shows from Australia, Europe and the rest of Asia and US as well as Philippine produced programming. I just have no time for it.

An American would no doubt miss US sports … but then I never watched any in the US either so it’s not a factor to me, but I have acquaintances who won’t leave their games for any temptation so that is a factor.

I have no idea if you are right when you say more people than ever before are watching TV, but I do know that several studies in the US in 2006 indicated overall hours per viewer per week are down significantly, especially in the very important 17-25 year group.

US networks are jumping all over themselves to re-market by making shows available for replay on their websites, so this is no secret to those in the industry.
So TV may not be dead … but I think it’s hurting and I think the trend is down, not up.

Did a search and broadcast TV ratings are UP, while cable ratings are DOWN in the US. Although again, it doesn’t mean cable is dying. There are cable networks that are still experiencing growth. Cable news and ESPN are particularly weak — and that’s obvious since the type of information they deliver has moved to the Internet — and not because of YouTube. But just because a segment is getting hammered doesn’t mean “TV is dead.”

Also, what is killing cable is not the Internet… it’s broadcast TV. The must-see shows (which used to be Sex in the City, Sopranos, etc.) have now moved to broadcast with Grey Anatomy, American Idol, etc. However, the type of shows on cable will always find their market. Declaring the end of TV is just outrageous.

Finally, two letters: HD

TV won’t die anytime soon. As a matter of fact, I predict NEVER. Though ratings are down, nothing can replace TV. I sometimes watch TV while I surf the net on one monitor. I have a big enough computer monitor to do that and I also have a TV card in my PC. There are Hi-Def LCD TV that can be used as computer monitors AND as TV and it is possible to have a split screen to watch TV and view online contents, do your email & other internet tasks.

YouTube not directly showing TV shows? It already happened both legally and illegally. But the trend now is TV networks wants to set up their own video service. In most of the official websites of the major networks, you can watch whole episodes of their current shows. Unfortunately, these shows cannot be accessed outside of the US. Similar great free audio streaming services are also unavailable to us.

HDTV (hi-def TV) such as Plasma and LCD TVs make watching TV & DVD videos a joy. I think modern technology will enhance TV and keep it alive. As for contents, that would be up to the TV execs. We can only hope that they create more interesting shows such as the Heroes TV series. I can’t see myself watching that series on a small screen PC monitor. It has to be on my 40-inch LCD TV. :)

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