Spectrum & Disney

[sam_gordon]

Don't all streaming services offer a free seven day trial? That's not much of a "value add" the $20-30/month would be though.

 

[Imzadi]

My dh told me about that yesterday. Ate FUBO and Spectrum connected somehow? I'm trying to figure out why they would advertise another company. - Won't a lot of Spectrum customers just switch (cancel spectrum and go with fubo?)

I've been wondering if they are connected too. If they are, and I do the (temporary) switch, then I'm hoping they don't mess with my Internet, as I mentioned earlier, where Spectrum DID mess with us here and we had a class action lawsuit against them and won.

I think it's harder to prove when one's Internet just randomly freezes A LOT and has outages, versus when one is able to check the upload/download speeds and show Spectrum had consistently throttled back on our bandwidth after we used XXX amount of bytes each day.

 

[Imzadi]

Don't all streaming services offer a free seven day trial? That's not much of a "value add" the $20-30/month would be though.

Yeah, at this point, the extra week is just eeking out extra money before switching to other offers.

And if one hasn't gotten their $15 for the Disney channels outage, CALL. Also according to Reddit, they won't give it to you unless you call.

 

[brockash]

Yeah, at this point, the extra week is just eeking out extra money before switching to other offers.

And if one hasn't gotten their $15 for the Disney channels outage, CALL. They won't give it to you unless you call.

You can also chat on their app. I did this last weekend to get it. Certainly doesn't come close to what we're missing, but it's something. I'm thinking no Disney on Spectrum may be permanent. Honestly Disney probably wants to head that way anyways so we all pay tge directly for their programming.

 

[MillauFr]

This is just another nail in the coffin of Cable TV. Won't be long before they go the way of the video rental stores.

 

[longboard55]

Very hard to understand the Charter strategy, how are they going to charge all this money for cable boxes is they don't have cable.

 

[Imzadi]

You can also chat on their app. I did this last weekend to get it. Certainly doesn't come close to what we're missing, but it's something. I'm thinking no Disney on Spectrum may be permanent. Honestly Disney probably wants to head that way anyways so we all pay tge directly for their programming.

Thanks! I did not want to sit by the phone waiting for 45 minutes or an hour or more listening to that muzak and the automated announcement of how much they appreciate our service.

When this first started, the Spectrum message we had on our TV Disney stations said that the removal was temporary while they try to negotiate with Disney. Then yesterday, the message said that Disney removed their services permanently.

Today, there are about four rotating PSA messages about how Spectrum hopes the Disney channels will return to our packages soon and they are still negotiating. "We are fighting hard to hold the line against increased programming rates that Disney continues to demand."

(I suspect that Disney purposely waited through the weekend, knowing it was a big sports week and weekend, so they'd have more negotiating power as people cancelled Spectrum.)

Spectrum mentions how Disney pulled their programming from YouTube in 2021 and from Dish and Sling in 2022. (I wonder if this is why Spectrum is sending us to Fubo? Maybe those services don't want to get involved in another battle with Disney?

If we wait a few more days we might see the Spectrum message change to a scrolling message like at the beginning of Star Wars, talking about how the evil Disney empire, headed by Lord Iger, are withholding our programming.

 

[Fire14]

It’s not only Spectrum that does this. My sisters have Direct TV. They haven’t had CBS since early summer. They haven’t missed it but now with football season starting, they are getting really annoyed. Another sister has Verizon, they have a dispute with some major network & threaten to pull it every year.

We have Spectrum. It’s a terrible service. Way too expensive, crappy equipment that needs to be replaced frequently & goes out for hours a few times a year. Just told DH it might be time to look into streaming. The only reason we haven’t done it yet is pure laziness on checking out other options.

I have direct Tv and currently don't have NBC, I know there was a piss fight few years back with Direct and CBS, I am not sure when last fight was w abc.

 

[sam_gordon]

I have direct Tv and currently don't have NBC, I know there was a piss fight few years back with Direct and CBS, I am not sure when last fight was w abc.

Its USUALLY not a dispute with the networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX). Its a dispute with the owners of the local affiliates. I believe Direct is currently battling Nexstar.

 

[focusondisney]

I have direct Tv and currently don't have NBC, I know there was a piss fight few years back with Direct and CBS, I am not sure when last fight was w abc.

Weird that you don’t have NBC & here in Western NY it’s CBS that’s off. I guess they must have regional contracts.

 

[Jwaire]

Hulu Live had a dispute with Sinclair this summer that lasted several weeks. Hilarious, if you subscribed to Hulu Live and your ABC station happened to be owned by them, you didn't get ABC.

So Disney/ABC, updated their ABC streaming app to the next nearest affiliate. In our case, we ended up with Memphis news and programming.

 

[longboard55]

ESPN spends billion on broadcast rights and production costs for sports. They are not going to give it away. Everyone loves to bash Disney these days, based on the spectrum numbers Disney controls 20% of the content. Content will win in end.

 

[sam_gordon]

ESPN spends billion on broadcast rights and production costs for sports. They are not going to give it away. Everyone loves to bash Disney these days, based on the spectrum numbers Disney controls 20% of the content. Content will win in end.

Of course, thats their choice to pay that much. Just like customers can choose how much they'll pay for a product.

 

[Mokat76]

There’s nothing on any of those channels that I watch so I hope Spectrum holds out so I don’t have to pay even more for things like ESPN. Selfish, I know, but no more so than two massive companies using us like pawns and jacking rates.

 

[greeneyedchick]

Very hard to understand the Charter strategy, how are they going to charge all this money for cable boxes is they don't have cable.

They can offer a cheaper bundle of channels if they aren't charging everyone Disney's carriage fees. ESPN's were the highest fees. They will still provide internet and they will keep those people who never wanted sports anyway because the new cheaper bundle will most likely be less than paying for hulu and youtube live and a few other streaming services.

 

[kathyk2]

Thanks! I did not want to sit by the phone waiting for 45 minutes or an hour or more listening to that muzak and the automated announcement of how much they appreciate our service.

When this first started, the Spectrum message we had on our TV Disney stations said that the removal was temporary while they try to negotiate with Disney. Then yesterday, the message said that Disney removed their services permanently.

Today, there are about four rotating PSA messages about how Spectrum hopes the Disney channels will return to our packages soon and they are still negotiating. "We are fighting hard to hold the line against increased programming rates that Disney continues to demand."

(I suspect that Disney purposely waited through the weekend, knowing it was a big sports week and weekend, so they'd have more negotiating power as people cancelled Spectrum.)

Spectrum mentions how Disney pulled their programming from YouTube in 2021 and from Dish and Sling in 2022. (I wonder if this is why Spectrum is sending us to Fubo? Maybe those services don't want to get involved in another battle with Disney?

If we wait a few more days we might see the Spectrum message change to a scrolling message like at the beginning of Star Wars, talking about how the evil Disney empire, headed by Lord Iger, are withholding our programming.

When I called Spectrum to get the credit the representative said that the situation should be temporary. He said we would get the credit until the stations are back on the air.

 

[Jwaire]

There’s nothing on any of those channels that I watch so I hope Spectrum holds out so I don’t have to pay even more for things like ESPN. Selfish, I know, but no more so than two massive companies using us like pawns and jacking rates.

They can offer a cheaper bundle of channels if they aren't charging everyone Disney's carriage fees. ESPN's were the highest fees. They will still provide internet and they will keep those people who never wanted sports anyway because the new cheaper bundle will most likely be less than paying for hulu and youtube live and a few other streaming services.

Despite what they say, they aren't going to lower their average selling price (ASP) of a cable TV/Internet bundle because they lose ESPN and Disney's cable network channels. It may happen temporarily, but they'll just readjust rates (on one side or the other) down the line to accommodate.

It's all a ruse. Spectrum is taking advantage of negative press and financial problems of TWDC and ESPN and using it as a negotiating tactic.

"ESPN aired more than half of the top 100 cable telecasts in Charter homes during the past year, per Nielsen (the leading audience measurement, data and analytics company)."

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/38338794/how-watch-espn-amid-disney-spectrum-blackout

That's interesting.

Part of me wonders if Spectrum isn't trying to weed off their cable tv customers, become a leaner company focusing on broadband/wireless and therefore a future takeover target. They're one of the only few that don't have a media play.

The problem with this idea is the Internet is become a commodity. There's more competition now than ever (5G at Home, Starlink, regional fiber providers, etc.) and pretty soon you aren't going to stuck with just one or two ISPs in your area.

 

[kdonnel]

Then I would add this as another reason there shouldn't be government decided monopolies. Sports content is the primary driver for cable subscriptions at this point. If Charter/Spectrum refuses to do that, I should be able to choose Comcast that does. Not having an option to watch Monday Night Football, the US Open or a multitude of other things is not very good for the consumer either. ESPN should let everyone that has ESPN+ watch the live events broadcast on ESPN Networks, at least those of us in Charter/Spectrum areas.

That is where streaming finally allows that option.

No one wants two or three sets of cable tv equipment in their neighborhoods.



Add a power company transformer and with just one cable tv provider and one phone provider you already have three boxes at every other home.

Add a second and third cable tv provider and you add two more of the light green pedestals in people's yards.

 

[kdonnel]

Very hard to understand the Charter strategy, how are they going to charge all this money for cable boxes is they don't have cable.

The cable companies see the writing on the wall and realize they need to become data companies.

The phone companies have already gone through this transition. 30 years ago the phone companies made their money off POTS (plain old telephone service). It was a cash cow.

The phone companies pivoted into wireless and data. POTS is a tiny fraction of their business now and really only exists because laws on the books say it must continue to exist.

The cable companies are going to need to do the same or they will cease to exist. They are losing about 4-5 million subscribers a year in the US and peaked some time in the early 2000's.

People can stream the content now but they need a high speed data connection. All that coax in the ground that the cable companies own is great for providing high speed data. If they dropped the cable tv portion and used that bandwidth for more data they could bump speeds up even faster, not that anything more than 300Mbps down is really needed by most.

 

[EACarlson]

That is where streaming finally allows that option.

No one wants two or three sets of cable tv equipment in their neighborhoods.

View attachment 792872

Add a power company transformer and with just one cable tv provider and one phone provider you already have three boxes at every other home.

Add a second and third cable tv provider and you add two more of the light green pedestals in people's yards.

Streaming assumes that the consumer already has a compliant high speed internet option. In order to approximate what Spectrum was offering for around $100/month, unless you have fiber in your area, you still have to pay $60 to Charter/Spectrum for the internet access, then another $85 to YTTV or Fubo and still not have everything. Allow the cable companies to compete and I bet this would have been a non-issue, Charter/Spectrum would have lost a large portion of their customers to another provider. Similar to what happened when long distance telephone service was deregulated.