Broadcasters Worry About 'Zero TV' Homes

[Purveyor]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some people have had it with TV. They've had enough of the 100-plus channel universe. They don't like timing their lives around network show schedules. They're tired of $100-plus monthly bills.

A growing number of them have stopped paying for cable and satellite TV service, and don't even use an antenna to get free signals over the air. These people are watching shows and movies on the Internet, sometimes via cellphone connections. Last month, the Nielsen Co. started labeling people in this group "Zero TV" households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a TV home. There are 5 million of these residences in the U.S., up from 2 million in 2007.

Winning back the Zero TV crowd will be one of the many issues broadcasters discuss at their national meeting, called the NAB Show, taking place this week in Las Vegas.
While show creators and networks make money from this group's viewing habits through deals with online video providers and from advertising on their own websites and apps, broadcasters only get paid when they relay such programming in traditional ways. Unless broadcasters can adapt to modern platforms, their revenue from Zero TV viewers will be zero.

While show creators and networks make money from this group's viewing habits through deals with online video providers and from advertising on their own websites and apps, broadcasters only get paid when they relay such programming in traditional ways. Unless broadcasters can adapt to modern platforms, their revenue from Zero TV viewers will be zero.

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http://news.yahoo.com/broadcasters-worry-zero-tv-homes-154357101--finance.html

[LiberalEsto]

1. They would have to create a Democratic Underground channel

if they wanted me to watch.

[HughBeaumont]

2. Well, let's see . . .

. . . aside from 3-5 shows, the programming is garbage, reality TV is saturated, completely unwatchable and played out, your channels aren't doing what they say they're doing (The LEARNING Channel . . . MUSIC Television, par example), your news is nothing but shiny-object tossing, corporate-fluffing right-wing crap, the cartoons get lamer and lamer every year, even your fucking cooking shows . . . something as routine as COOKING or making cupcakes or crafts . . . are "WARS", we don't need 6 religious channels and you still won't embrace a la carte.

Gee, why WOULDN'T we abandon the idiot box?

[Kurska]

5. +1 the race to the bottom for programming is turning people off n/t

[msanthrope]

11. 200 channels and nothing on but infomercials....screw the cable companies. nt

[Marr]

17. Oh man, if the The Learning Channel broadcast BBC documentaries all day, I'd be a couch potato.

Have you seen their History of Britain series? I really enjoyed that on You Tube. And they have a whole collection of series like that. Wonderful television.

Documentaries on our domestic outlets are all tabloid nonsense. It's all pseudo-science and quack archaeology. People talking about aliens in ancient Egypt, or claiming certain sites are locations from the Bible, based on no real evidence whatsoever. Even the astronomy shows are always so rudimentary they'd be of little use to anyone out of grade school.

It's pathetic.

[customerserviceguy]

38. Remember when The Learning Channel

was actually about things that mattered, instead of Honey Boo Boo, the overbreeding Duggar family, and turning toddlers into wannabe slut look-alikes?

Antenna TV for me, no fees for crap programming. Every once in awhile, I find something great on the three PBS channels that I can get when the wind isn't blowing too hard.

[Marr]

43. Oh, god, I know. Honey Boo Boo.

That says it all, right there. Honey Boo Boo is on the Learning Channel here. What else can be said.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

40. I'm embarrassed when I see a Discovery "documentary" up next to a BBC documentary

They'll say something "scientific-sounding", like, 'the molecules get very excited after heat and pressure is applied'. Then they'll follow up with something like 'some scientists believe this could be the final battle between God and Satan'.

Useless, embarrassing garbage designed for people the network clearly thinks are from the set of Idiocracy.

[Marr]

42. lol, yeah. Watching US documentaries, I can almost feel the producers editing the copy

so as not to offend religious zealots. Everything is couched in this ambiguous sort of, 'maybe God did it' way. It doesn't matter if the subject is biology or astronomy or ancient history. If they're talking about the solar system, they always say things like, 'the earth is perfectly situated for life... any closer or further from the sun and we would not exist... what are the odds of such a thing...'

I saw one the other day that was about ancient Egypt. They spent most of their time on a couple of natural disasters, and heavily suggested that the Christian god was displeased with their rituals. No shit.

It's so stupid.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

45. The subthread wouldn't be complete without this guy.

I borrowed him from the History Channel, which is on par with Discovery for this sort of idiocy.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

30. Could not have expressed it better

I love movies and have the America's Everything package from Dish Network. Well most evenings lately I'm reading because of the crappy choice of movies they offer and it seems to get worse all the time.

[tabasco]

41. Turn that crap off

and get Netflix for $8/month.

[KT2000]

3. TV - advertising delivery medium

There may be 100 channels but they are owned by just a few corporations that repeat the same shows on different channels. The number of commercials are ever increasing.
They are killing the golden goose.

[Kurska]

4. I wouldn't have TV if not for the fact I live in dorms.

I barely watch it as is. The only thing I'll watch on TV is sports and there are alternatives ways to watch that online.

In this day and age where it is completely possible to deliver content on demand, it is ridiculous to be locked into a single persons "playlist" of what tv plays when.

[monmouth3]

6. "Reality" shows and all of those commercials turned me right off...n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

7. We ditched our TV service

last year but kept Netflix w/2 DVD's. No commercials, I get to watch good programs on MY schedule and all for a fraction of what cable was charging us. I'll never go back.

[Floyd_Gondolli]

20. I've thought of doing that as well

I enjoy Netflix (it is a tremendous value) but the only problem with it is timeliness. For example, I love Breaking Bad and the Walking Dead. Both are on Netflix, only they are about 2 seasons behind so I wouldn't expect this year's seasons to be on Netflix until late next year at the earliest. Not the worst of problems, but if you're considering cutting the cord like I am it gives me pause.

Also, I enjoy Game of Thrones and HBO programs are not available on Netflix or Hulu at all. There is talk HBO will ultimately move to a similar model as Netflix however.

All that being said it's easy to see that if you don't have a particular attachment to a show cutting the cord would be a no brainer.

[Le Taz Hot]

34. Wellllllll,

we've been known to obtain an episode or two of "Game of Thrones" and "Sons of Anarchy" and some others that I enjoy with the help of friends in low places.

Other than those few exceptions, we don't really have attachments to episodic TV so it's no biggie. Besides, a lot of that stuff is available on Hulu (the free version) and even on the network's website a few days later. I thought for sure I'd go through some major withdrawals after pulling the plug but I really didn't. Anyway, something to consider.

[we can do it]

8. You can count me as one. Don't miss the damn thing a bit.

[msanthrope]

9. I cut the cord last year. I stream from Amazon or Netflix...and between the two, I have plenty

of content to choose from. I bought a digital antenna for 16 bucks, so I can get broadcast if I need it.

[Purveyor]

14. Same here and I use Roku to stream and they just keep adding more and more channels. Hooked

back up the antenna we had from years back just to watch the local news and a couple of network shows/pbs.

Love having an extra $80mo to spend after we told comcast to 'piss off'.

[Orrex]

10. If they offered a la carte programming, this would be much less of an issue

We don't have cable. If we did, we might watch four channels, tops. In order to get those channels from Comcast, we have to buy a service plan that runs $189 per month, including about 300 channels, 260 sports channels that we would never, ever watch in a million years.

I know the sales pitch--the cable provider can't offer Popular Channel A unless it offers it bundled with a few dozen shitty channels that make money for the network. And the cable provider is only too happy to pass this cost onto its customers.


Networks and cable providers have driven the public to this course of action, and they have no one to blame except themselves.

[Skidmore]

15. There should be a central bundle of major channels

and all those pesky smaller channels should be a la carte. It would probably put a lot of those reality show channels out of business and save our nation.

[Berlum]

12. Cut the cable: Starve the Beast (R)

save money.
save your soul.

[MADem]

26. I HATE that picture!!! Just unscrew the damn thing--you might need that coax cable for something!!

[MadrasT]

13. That's me!!!

No paid teevee for over 8 years now. Once in a blue moon, I watch NBC over the air. (Last time was last fall to watch the presidential debates.)

I watch stuff on DVDs and download some new TV shows from iTunes (and then connect my iPod to my teevee for viewing).

[RainDog]

16. I'm a zero tv household

even tho I actually have a tv. I save it b/c I also still have VHS tapes and could not afford to replace them all.

I dropped cable b/c it was too expensive for the amount of programming I wanted to see. I've had to drastically cut my costs as my financial situation got worse and worse because of health issues.

Now I will buy a show from Amazon and pay 7.00 a month, if I buy a program at all, or I'll wait until something is on DVD.

[RockaFowler]

18. It's a bleak world out there for the TV industry

Look at the networks right now. They keep ordering the same shows, same reality shows, same game shows over and over again and think they will get better results. Look at NBC tonight for instance - The Voice (a little different, but basically American Idol with better judges) and Ready for Love (it's the Bachelor Eva Longoria - you may think it's new, but it's The Bachelor). Netowrk TV is always looking for the next "Lost" or "Friends" instead of trying to find the next great show that is different than these shows. Lost was one of those shows that all of a sudden everyone wanted to recreate. Look at Once Upon a Time, I love that show, but next season there were will be 2 copycats of that show - NBC has an Alice in Wonderland and so does ABC. Or Mad Men - 2 years ago there were 2 "period" shows on the air to try and capture the Mad Men audience - Playboy Club (failed) and Pan Am (also failed). When the nets think outside the box they score hits. Since I work at a NBC affiliate I will bitch about them the most. Over the past 4 years we have had the same show in 3 different variations - My Own Worst Enemy, Awake & Do No Harm (2 episodes and it was gone this year). So you made a terrible Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde show in 2008 and thought hey why not make 2 more. It boggles the mind sometimes!

[MADem]

28. Playboy and Pan Am both failed because they were too "racy" for the networks.

I think the cables (Premium and "Expanded Basic&quot passed on them so they had no choice but to fiddle with the scripts and the essential elements just couldn't carry them forward. PLAYBOY caught some heat from Italian American Pride groups for some Mafia stereotyping, IIRC.

Vegas is another show that evokes that sixties vibe. Funny thing is, if you've lived it, it wasn't all that glamorous. It was a racist, sexist, troubling and angst-laden time.

[hunter]

19. We're a zero TV home. Not even internet or phone TV.

Our television is for DVDs, videotapes, and games.

We do have an antenna, but haven't watched any broadcast television this year. No Superbowl, no Oscars, nothing. I took Adobe Flash off my computer too. The only internet television I can watch are lower resolution HTML5 compatible videos, like most of the youtube videos embedded here on DU and a few other sites I visit.

Occasionally there's a video posted here on DU I can't watch, it will say I need Adobe Flash, but it's almost always a commercial video using Flash to track viewers.

[pstokely]

21. Do you even need cable if you don't can't care about sports?

Sports is probably a reason why there aren't more cord cutters, unless you can use someone else's user name for watchESPN

[LongTomH]

22. I may cut the cable if I can get streaming BBC programs somewhere on the net!

[Purveyor]

24. There are several options on Roku to pickup the BBC. You need broadband internet access though. eom

[bobduca]

44. Buy a witopia.net vpn account, and tunnel to the UK

$80 / year gets you BBC1,2,3 ITV, and many many more, commercial free. Been very happy with this service, and watching BBC for 2 years with it.

[Initech]

23. I have not watched regularly scheduled programming for 10 years.

First run shows I record on DVR. If I want to watch an entire season of a show I wait for the DVD. Never miss an episode that way but I don't miss the advertising bombardment.

[L0oniX]

25. Over the air digital and Netflix. Fuck cable and sat tv. Ripoffs! n/t

[ananda]

27. They're about to lose me too.

In July I go to internet only.

[idwiyo]

29. 15 years without TV or me. Two or three times a year I might look at something on

IPlayer (that's BBC programs he in UK) over the Internet and that's about it. I don't even stream much from Netflix because when I read the short description it usually bores me to tears.

Cool stuff like David Attenborough programs I own on DVDs. Documentaries are available for download or on DVDs. Most of my free time I spend going for long walks, reading books, surfing Internet and playing PS3 and Nintendo. Can't think about one single thing TV companies can offer me that will make me watch TV again.

[TroglodyteScholar]

31. A la carte programming is the future.

Cable and satellite TV providers' failure to recognize this will be their downfall, but they cling to their ridiculous packages of 100s of channels that nobody wants because all of the dreck they provide couldn't go on being produced if they actually just gave us what we want.

[Exultant Democracy]

32. The shear volume of media available over the internet

was always going to kill the traditional broadcast model. It isn't like the middle class is getting richer, when it comes down to a choice between tv and internet people will always choose the internet.

[Skink]

33. What is cool about networks is that they broadcast football.

I have the government set top box and get this free including the local Fox station. That is how television started. The cable companies are the villains.

[politicat]

35. Ditched the box in 2002.

We have a very few programs that have ever caught our attention, and all are usually available within 24 hours of broadcast via iTunes. Dr. Who is the only one where timeliness really matters to us now, but we've also been trained by decades of PBS delays to just avoid spoilers.

Cable is a dying model. If they'd let us go a la carte, we'd consider having a box in the house, but I don't want to spend $100 a month for 20 channels I consider a violation by the FCC of the First Amendment, 70 channels I could not possibly care less about, 90 channels that have perhaps an hour of programming a week I might find interesting while recovering from flu, and two I'm willing to pay to watch, and all of them on a schedule inconvenient with mine.

I have no need in my life for endless repetition of Law & Order and long-form advertising (aka cooking, home improvement and fashion programming).

[Warren DeMontague]

36. There's really good stuff on TV, if you know where to look.

Mad Men. Breaking Bad. The Walking Dead. Archer.

Game of Thrones, Girls.

Okay, yeah, I could probably survive with just AMC, HBO, PBS and The Science Channel.

[byeya]

37. 12 years we've been a zero tv home - I doubt if we will ever own another tv

[freshwest]

39. I forced my broadband carrier to cut mine to TWC and SCAN. And don't watch it anymore, either.