Comments
faryl
4/27/2016 4:24:56 PM
User Rank Platinum
Xfinity
Their xfinity products are pretty good, actually.
It's one of the few services that rarely seems buggy online (with respect to playback), it plays nicely with its stand-alone iOS apps, gives the option of viewing content through different provider apps (FX, for example) and has a decent library of content.
The big issue with cable providers (to me) is that they're so restricted by location - your choices are pretty much determined by your zip code (or even street address).
Ariella
4/27/2016 8:04:58 PM
User Rank Author
Re: Xfinity
<The big issue with cable providers (to me) is that they're so restricted by location - your choices are pretty much determined by your zip code (or even street address). >
@faryl Tell me about it! It also applies to internet providers, and they don't even get these things straight in their targeted marketing. I stopped calling to inquire about offers I got in my mail box for deals after hearing each time that it was not for my area.
dlr5288
4/27/2016 8:57:34 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Xfinity
Yes, I can't stand this!
I feel like in today's world we should be able to pick cable provider that we like...not one that we are forced to use because of where we live. With all of the tech transformation there should be an easier solution to this.
Ariella
4/27/2016 9:00:28 PM
User Rank Author
Re: Xfinity
@dlr5288 that would be nice, but I think they would give up on their near monopolies all that easily.
dcawrey
4/29/2016 4:03:10 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Xfinity
What's really missing from OTT services is discovery. Yes, Netflix is able to reccomend certain things after you've watched content. And there is also search. But I don't think this has been developed enough. While on cable systems you're dealing with channels and grids to find something, I don't think either cable or OTT has really innovated the discovery of video content. At least not yet.
faryl
4/29/2016 11:37:42 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Xfinity
I think Roku has started working towards this. They let you search for titles across all their "channels", I believe.
(Netflix's recommendations always just has stuff already in my queue. Plus my viewing history got mucked up when my mom and her boyfriend watched a bunch of cheesy kid movies with his grandkids!)
faryl
4/29/2016 11:42:17 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Xfinity
Exactly!
I think I've mentioned before, I use AT&T Uverse, just because it was the only internet option offered other than the one through my area's cable company.
I'm not even sure that it's any cheaper or better, I just didn't like feeling like I have to give one cable company my money - even if I choose to be a cord-cutter!
Re: Xfinity
Same here, I use AT & T. Couple of times when i visited their store the sales guy trirted promoting their Direct TV all-in-one package. I didn't really think more about that. No specifc reason. I use Verizon FIOS for my internet and TV. I didn't even do a comparision at the time.
Ariella
5/1/2016 10:53:21 AM
User Rank Author
Re: Xfinity
@faryl So your area has even less choice than mine. We have only two companies to choose from, which keeps prices on the high side.
faryl
5/29/2016 1:35:53 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Xfinity
Prices are really high here too. I'm not sure how/if they drop a bit when bundled in with a TV subscription or other services.
afwriter
4/27/2016 10:30:38 PM
User Rank Platinum
Cord Cutter Statistics
I would be more interested to see how many subscriptions they were losing and how long these new subscriptions lasted. I would bet that the start about the time that "The Walking Dead" premieres and end the day after the season finale.
I know that I am personally a cord cutter who went back to cable because I was promised a sweetheart deal which never came about. As soon as I catch up on everything that I have DVRed they can come get their box because I am done with cable for good.
Michelle
4/27/2016 10:47:08 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Cord Cutter Statistics
@af I'm really interested in the same data and how it relates to the rest of the market. I wonder how many others like you are out there. They're ready to move on from cable -- as soon as they catch up on DVR content.
JohnBarnes
4/28/2016 7:55:30 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Cord Cutter Statistics
@af&Michelle which really argues that cable itself is in a kind of dead-cat bounce: as soon as fast enough content-creator-cloud to user-cloud download is available, with some kind of secure billing, cable will plummet into being old-people tech, with a few million people keeping it in the US at most.
Michelle
4/29/2016 1:45:56 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Cord Cutter Statistics
@John you're probably right about that. I hadn't thought of the implications of smaller creator content finding the right billing method/service. That could be a major disruption.
Michelle
4/29/2016 1:45:56 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Cord Cutter Statistics
@John you're probably right about that. I hadn't thought of the implications of smaller creator content finding the right billing method/service. That could be a major disruption.
JohnBarnes
4/30/2016 12:16:01 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Cord Cutter Statistics
@michelle,
without committing to anything more than idle speculation here: probably any sector of the economy that gets rich enough stops being a viable place for either command/socialist or market/capitalist models. Going back to the 1950s it was pointed out that both command economies and market economies are ways to reduce the immense complexity of economic life to something simple enough for individual players to respond to -- orders or prices. Both are basically one-dimensional and much too simple to reflect reality, but they can be arrived at in short periods of time and people respond to them predictably (even if sometimes undesirably or perversely).
With enough data and enough speed, you don't have to go down to one dimension; many of the innovations we're seeing around telcos -- which, note, deal almost entirely in data and speed -- look like ways to use more information rather than simplifying it away. Might be a generation or two before some new theory grows that allows us to understand how our economy works, at least in the current high-innovation areas.
(This has happened before; see Polanyi's Trade and Market in the Early Empires for a really good argument that premodern civilizations had economies but didn't know they had them; I'm guessing that today's data/communications economy is probably a prototype of something for which we don't yet have a name. The present disruptions just seem like an unusually clear case).
freehe
4/30/2016 7:56:45 PM
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Re: Cord Cutter Statistics
@JohnBarnes, I agree.
faryl
4/29/2016 11:39:45 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Cord Cutter Statistics
I bet it's similar with Game of Thrones for HBO as well!
I considered un-cordcutting so I could get BBC America and watch Doctor Who, but it ends up being less money to just buy full seasons on iTunes in the long run.
elizabethv
4/28/2016 8:39:15 AM
User Rank Platinum
Smart
I hate Comcast. But you can't blame them for not jumping on the OTT bandwagon if they don't need to. It sounds like they have pretty viable alternatives for their customers (definitely more than DirecTv had when I was looking at leaving them. Now that I'm gone, I have to tell them I don't want to come back every 3 months or so when they call me with some new "offer." You have to try to appeal to the demographic that wants to be able to watch their TV when it's convenient. If Comcast is already doing that, why bother with a true OTT?
clrmoney
4/28/2016 11:45:33 AM
User Rank Platinum
comcast hunt
Maybe comcast need to step their game up to another level of advancement so they can see how they gan get the OTT services etc.
Re: comcast hunt
@clrmoney Comcast is saying that from technology and content rights perspectives, it could offer a nationwide OTT service, but the point is it chooses not to go out of its footprint at this time.
mpouraryan
4/28/2016 4:28:19 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
From a content perspective, they are somewhat in the drivers' seat especially as they pull off the proposed Dreamworks Animation acquisition. That would be quite a feat in my view.
freehe
4/30/2016 8:00:55 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
Comcast should consider using OTT. I am a customer and their On Demand service is nothing to brag about. Yes you can watch lots of movies but many are older movies and you have to wait too long to view the latest movies. I think Netflix provides a better selection of recent movies.
Also, On Demand doesn't allow easy searching capabilities, it takes too long to find a movie. Custeomers should be able to find a movie by title, genre and release year for all premium channels and tv channels. Higher premium channels such as HBO and Showtime has slightly better search features but lower channels like Starz and Encore has worse search features.
Re: comcast hunt
Happy May Day!!!
One thing we have to embrace--as i see it--is this notion of Patience. I have had my frustration with the search feature on Amazon FireTV--but it is in retrospective no different that the search capabilities on Google, Bing or for that matter the newest entrant--Jelly. I have not had a chance, for instance, to see whether those who have Google Chromecast have been able to see more robust results in search & how the content providers would somehow work to tie in their services to the search engine.
Just some "food 4 thought" to reflect upon which I hope will be taken under advisement by the TT council.
:)
faryl
4/30/2016 11:48:16 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
I'm curious to see how the Dreamcast acquisition plays out - since Comcast is only available in certain geographic locations, it seems like they'd have a broader market licensing out their content vs. limiting it to their subscribers.
Re: comcast hunt
Welcome to May!!
They can and will press their content beyond their areas as they can (and I suppose will) use the "on demand" initiative (something we've deliberated here) to push the content side.
faryl
5/29/2016 1:25:28 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
Thank you! ( A bit belated! So... early Welcome to June!)
The EU looking into requiring Netflix, etc. to have a certain percentage of their catalog offered to European subscribers and Netflix getting exclusive rights to Disney's catalog are a couple of other interesting factors playing into the scheme of things.
mpouraryan
5/29/2016 8:39:06 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
You Welcome--What I would only note this as we bid farewell to May and embrace June: Netflix has continued to innovate--and will innovate--The newest with Lilly Tomlin and Jane Fonda and Martin Sheen looks to be really funny.
Wishing all in the US a fab rest of the long weekend as I look forward to continuing this deliberative process--Fun to be witness to history.
faryl
5/30/2016 1:43:12 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
My mom keeps telling me to watch that show; she says it's really funny!
I liked the series "Love" that is Netflix only.
And House of Cards (though I've yet to watch the Britsh version!)
mpouraryan
5/30/2016 7:40:50 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
On this Memorial Day 2016, I have been seeing reports that there has been major outages by Comcast throughout the day (today) which is striking--I am sure as I am making the brief rounds today that all is well. But such does not help reputations--does it?
faryl
5/30/2016 8:14:59 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
"major outrages"
I'm not usually the type to point out typos, but this one made me smile. Freudian slip, perhaps? :-)
mpouraryan
5/30/2016 8:18:37 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
In the midst of the profound matters we deliberate, glad to see I could make you smile :) But on a more serious note, Thank you for this--I did correct it--as the saying goes, haste makes waste..
Onward to June :))
faryl
5/30/2016 8:36:28 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
I just read some articles about the outtage - sounds like a router failed. I'm surprised they don't have more redundancy built in.
There are so many tools available these days for quick detection, diagnostics and deployment, it seems like a pretty long time for that outtage to last to me - no?
(And it impacted the Chicago-White Sox game! I'm guessing LOTS of unhappy customers!)
Re: comcast hunt
As I was reflecting upon this, I could not help but wonder whether their time, in fact, had passed--It struck a cord for me as I read a story in the Wall Street Journal about how the CEO of Time Warner was being harassed (figuratively) by a disgruntled customer of time warner cable (even though time warner got rid of it with a spin-off and now Charter has eaten up Time Warner Cable)....
Interesting times indeed...
JohnBarnes
5/31/2016 7:23:46 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
mpouraryan, faryl,
Haste makes waste ...
But he who hesitates is lost ...
But look before you leap ...
But strike while the iron is hot ...
"For every proverb there is an equal and opposite converb" -- John Keasler.
Michelle
5/31/2016 11:27:27 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: comcast hunt
@John thanks for sharing. I never tire of this sort of thing.
Re: comcast hunt
@John: It is true--however, in the rush to "Transform", we have to always make sure we contemplate as best as we can in order to anticipate potential challenges--while maintaining a sense of balance to ensure success.
:)
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