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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com either everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren voc Obama, and today

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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about something that is an interesting topic.

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Speaker 1: It's really about cable and cord cutting and what is

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Speaker 1: the deal there, what's going on with cable. We're not

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Speaker 1: going to dive into the technical side of how cable

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Speaker 1: TV works, because that's really its own episode all by itself.

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Speaker 1: We're talking more about the business side, right right, because

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Speaker 1: this is a really rapidly developing industry and and a

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Speaker 1: lot of it's kind of freaking out right now. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because of the changes that have gone on in in

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Speaker 1: the way that people are consuming content with greater broadband access.

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Speaker 1: And actually before before we got started too far into this,

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Speaker 1: we we did want to mention that, yes, How Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works is owned by Discovery Corporation, which is a cable

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Speaker 1: co intent provider. Yeah, it's a company that owns several

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Speaker 1: cable channels. So, uh that that is a good point.

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Speaker 1: That's something that we definitely need to get out of

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Speaker 1: the way. And now it's out of the way. In

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Speaker 1: the beginning, there was broadcast TV, and it was okay,

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Speaker 1: So broadcast TV. Yeah, we're talking about you know, you

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Speaker 1: had you had stations that could broadcast over the air

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Speaker 1: as in there they are broadcasting radio waves. They would

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Speaker 1: have a transmission antenna that would shoot out broadcast waves

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Speaker 1: of TV, and you would have your little reception antenna,

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Speaker 1: your little rabbit ears and you would have to tell

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Speaker 1: your your your kid brother, no, no, it's still just snow.

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Speaker 1: Turn it to the left, No, my left, not your left,

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Speaker 1: until you could finally be able to watch all in

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Speaker 1: the family or something so um the weird dated references

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Speaker 1: that I don't even get anyway, the idea was that

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Speaker 1: you would send this all through radio signals, but it

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Speaker 1: did mean that, you know, you had a lot of

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Speaker 1: different factors that could impact the quality or even the

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Speaker 1: ability to receive television. It was pretty limited in power

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Speaker 1: and scope. Yeah, you had a certain number of stations

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Speaker 1: that you could receive, and they were all regionally based.

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Speaker 1: You know. There weren't really any national channels other than

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Speaker 1: stuff that could be rebroadcast from one from one tower

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Speaker 1: to another. And um and and really, I mean, the

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Speaker 1: thing about the electromagnetic spectrum is that it's not infinite

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Speaker 1: I mean it's it's you know, it's pretty wide, but

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Speaker 1: there's only so many radio channels that you can broadcast

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Speaker 1: on right exactly, And it's different in different countries, like

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Speaker 1: in the United States. If you look at the spectrum

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Speaker 1: from a transmission standpoint, you'll see that there are entire

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Speaker 1: bandwidths that are set aside specifically for things like television broadcast,

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Speaker 1: radio broadcast, and then there's a whole bunch of government ones. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: you know, you have to play within that and you

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Speaker 1: can't play within the same space that someone else is

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Speaker 1: playing with within that area, or else you get a

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Speaker 1: signal confusion. So h There were other problems with this approach,

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Speaker 1: and one of them was that people who lived in

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Speaker 1: remote areas often could not receive any sort of television programming,

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Speaker 1: which can be a problem if you want to use

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Speaker 1: TV to communicate something widely, or you just want to

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Speaker 1: try and reach as many potential customers. If you are

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Speaker 1: someone who's creating ads on this television platform. U So,

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Speaker 1: what could you do? While in nineteen which this actually

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Speaker 1: surprised me that was this early n you actually had

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Speaker 1: a few companies begin to experiment with delivering broadcast channels

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Speaker 1: with cable. They were using the instead of using it

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Speaker 1: as a broadcast radio signal, they were putting these signals

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Speaker 1: through copper wires essentially. And this was just a few

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Speaker 1: small communities out in Oregon, Arkansas and Pennsylvania. Yeah, Pennsylvania

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Speaker 1: I think might have even been the very first one.

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Speaker 1: So you start seeing this experiment. Now, in this case,

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Speaker 1: it's really the broadcast channels that are being put over

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Speaker 1: the cable. It's not like suddenly everybody had HBO right

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Speaker 1: right now, know, um, And you know that television production

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Speaker 1: to begin with was very small at this point, and

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Speaker 1: it was not twenty four hours of content. It was

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Speaker 1: just a few shows that would air at peak times.

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Speaker 1: And uh yeah, we're talking like the same source stuff

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Speaker 1: you would be able to see if you had an

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Speaker 1: antenna and could pick up the local stations. So nothing

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Speaker 1: beyond that. In nineteen sixty we started to see cable

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Speaker 1: began to enter major metropolitan area markets. So now it's

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Speaker 1: no longer just a tool to get television out to

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Speaker 1: remote areas. Now it's an alternative to broadcast TV, but

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Speaker 1: it's still at this point was mostly covered carrying the

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Speaker 1: local area networks. It wasn't like again, there weren't like

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Speaker 1: these big national UH companies that spread from coast to

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Speaker 1: coast right It in fact wouldn't be until an entire

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Speaker 1: decade later in nineteen seventy that the first UH cable

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Speaker 1: programming networks would begin to launch. Right now, this is

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Speaker 1: where we start seeing. We have the big broadcast companies

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Speaker 1: still like ABC, NBCCB, Yes those were those were well established.

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Speaker 1: But this is when we start seeing the smaller cable

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Speaker 1: companies that were independent of these big broadcast companies become

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Speaker 1: an actual thing and be able to get a national reach.

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Speaker 1: Now before, if you were to create your own channel,

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Speaker 1: you would have to be able to muscle in on

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Speaker 1: that broadcast spectrum we were talking about. UH. This way

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Speaker 1: you could suddenly have lots more bandwidth to play with

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Speaker 1: and you could create, you know, your crazy wacky channel company.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of people tried it, and so nine two,

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Speaker 1: one of the biggest ones debuted that would be HBO.

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Speaker 1: There was no UM and it's a it was a

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Speaker 1: subsidiary still is of of Time now it's Time Warner,

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Speaker 1: but it's just Time Incorporated. Yep. And they purchased it

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Speaker 1: might sel familiar what they would do. They would purchase

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Speaker 1: rights to recent movies, and they would also purchase the

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Speaker 1: right the broadcast rights to sporting events, and that was

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Speaker 1: how they made their name. Back in nineteen seventy two, Uh,

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six saw another interesting development in cable. That

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Speaker 1: was when TBS became a superstation. TBS ends for Turner

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Speaker 1: Broadcast Station and uh after Ted Turner, who is, Hey,

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Speaker 1: he's a neighbor of ours here in Atlanta. I mean

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Speaker 1: not not a direct neighbor. I mean he doesn't live

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Speaker 1: in my neighborhood. No, no, no, he could own my neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: Several times over. His restaurant is right down the street

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Speaker 1: from where I live, one of them, Ted's Montana Grill. Anyway, Um, Turner,

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Speaker 1: he had this idea. He had this station that he

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Speaker 1: had he was producing that was mainly for the Atlanta area,

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Speaker 1: the Turner Broadcast Station, and he thought, well, with cable,

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Speaker 1: I could turn this local station into a national station.

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Speaker 1: I could distribute this local programming across the entire United States.

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Speaker 1: And this was the first time anyone had had tried this,

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Speaker 1: and it was a big success. Turner had had seen

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Speaker 1: great success with the Turner Broadcast Station and many other

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Speaker 1: channels followed suit. In fact, I remember as a kid

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Speaker 1: growing up being completely flabbergasted that we were getting a

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Speaker 1: station out of Chicago and it was Chicago programming and

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Speaker 1: everything was an hour off. And also I remember being

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Speaker 1: very confused about that. As a child, I had never

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Speaker 1: seen Bozo the Clown until we got that channel. And

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Speaker 1: then I became a big fan of the Grand Prize Game.

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Speaker 1: Uh so lots of stations started experimenting with that. By

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Speaker 1: cable television had exploded. In fact, that's right about when

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Speaker 1: my family got cable TV would have been nineteen eighty UM,

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Speaker 1: and dozens and dozens of channels began to join this,

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Speaker 1: this new revolution in entertainment and and delivery. So this

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Speaker 1: is when you started getting things like m MTV. First

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Speaker 1: video on MTV, of course, video Killed the Radio Star

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Speaker 1: by the Buggles, um, and then um after let's go

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Speaker 1: forward in a full decade. Cable through this decade does

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Speaker 1: really really well. Ah yeah, seven percent of households in

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Speaker 1: the US are subscribed to some kind of cable video service.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And keep in mind that when we're talking

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Speaker 1: about cable here will also later be talking about things

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Speaker 1: like satellite television. Uh, cable almost becomes like a just

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Speaker 1: kind of a general term meaning right right, it's a

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Speaker 1: weirdly antiquated in some ways. Uh yeah, umbrella term I

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Speaker 1: think for for media. At this point, we're going to

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Speaker 1: be using it mostly as shorthand meaning both cable and

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Speaker 1: satellite when we get toward the discussion of cord cutting,

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Speaker 1: just because saying cable and satellite over and over it

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Speaker 1: gets a little tedious. Yeah, it would make our episode

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Speaker 1: even longer. Yeah, and we heard your cries people two

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Speaker 1: thousand one, actually mostly I hear our producer cry. In

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Speaker 1: two thousand one, the average pay TV cable monthly bill

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Speaker 1: in the United States was forty dollars sots. Yeah, we'll

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Speaker 1: get into why that sounds lovely and a little bit.

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Speaker 1: For those of you who actually are in charge of

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Speaker 1: your cable bill, you already know why forty dollars a

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Speaker 1: month sounds lovely. Uh. From two thousand and eight through

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Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, this is a period that I wanted

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Speaker 1: to talk about because, according to the Convergence Consulting Group,

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Speaker 1: around two point six five million people in the United

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Speaker 1: States dropped cable TV entirely. They just they stopped subscribing.

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Speaker 1: They canceled their subscriptions, meaning that they also didn't go

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Speaker 1: to satellite. They got rid of any sort of provider

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Speaker 1: from that side. And we call this cutting the chord.

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Speaker 1: Chord cutting where you're you're no longer getting your entertainment

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Speaker 1: through these channels or these platforms is so confusing. The

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Speaker 1: terminology here, by the way, is pretty tough because a

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Speaker 1: lot of the words we want to use mean multiple

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Speaker 1: multiple things. But anyway, the idea is that they go

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Speaker 1: mainly either to the Internet for all their entertainment, or

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Speaker 1: they don't know, go outside or something. I don't understand

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Speaker 1: these people, honestly, But two point six five million people

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Speaker 1: and now that might sound like a lot, but you're

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Speaker 1: talking about lots and lots and lots of customers. Now.

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Speaker 1: According to Nielsen, one point five million customers dropped multi

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Speaker 1: channel subscriptions in twenty eleven alone. So if you think

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Speaker 1: two thousand and eight to two thousand eleven, two point

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Speaker 1: six five million of them dropped cable. If two thousand

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Speaker 1: eleven one point five million of them did, that means

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Speaker 1: more than half of that number dropped in twenty eleven,

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Speaker 1: which could possibly mean we're seeing a trend that is

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Speaker 1: on a very rapid climb right right. According to the

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Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal, um was the peak of cable subscription

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Speaker 1: cable subscribers actual the United States, and since since then

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Speaker 1: it has been in in even more steep decline than

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Speaker 1: this initial period of broadband affecting things right, right, And

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Speaker 1: we should point out that if you look at the numbers,

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Speaker 1: if you look at the full numbers of cable subscription,

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Speaker 1: which is tough to do, by the way, you have

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Speaker 1: to rely on a lot of different consulting groups doing

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Speaker 1: their own work, because uh, it's it's not easy to

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Speaker 1: get all these numbers and make them meaningful. But in general,

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Speaker 1: it looks like satellite has had modest growth, and by

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Speaker 1: modest I mean like one point six percent growth, cable

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Speaker 1: has suffered a minor decline like three point one percent,

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Speaker 1: and Internet provided TV or Internet I p t V.

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Speaker 1: I should say UH has had a significant increase at

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Speaker 1: for over a two year period. But while that sounds big,

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Speaker 1: the numbers themselves are actually small. It's it's big growth,

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Speaker 1: but it's like a small group of users into a

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Speaker 1: slightly less small group of users, right, So if you

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Speaker 1: if you go from five people to ten people, that's

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Speaker 1: huge growth. That's right. But if another company loses five

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Speaker 1: customers when it has millions, like they're like, what, I

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Speaker 1: did not notice that buzzing little sound in my ear?

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Speaker 1: So anyway, complicated issue. We'll get more into that in

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Speaker 1: the second half. Now, in at that peak of able subscription,

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Speaker 1: when we're seeing all this stuff happen, the average pay

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Speaker 1: TV cable monthly bill is now eighty six dollars per month.

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Speaker 1: So in two thousand one it was forty, it's eighty six.

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Speaker 1: So and to be fair, there has been a pretty

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Speaker 1: steep inflation rate over that period of time. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's not it's not just that the prices doubled or

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Speaker 1: more than doubled. It's also inflation which caused caused however,

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Speaker 1: that's that's I mean, it's you know, the inflation rates

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Speaker 1: certainly didn't go up that much, right, that was still

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Speaker 1: a pretty pretty sharp And two thousand and twelve, the

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Speaker 1: National Cable and Telecommunications Association estimated that there fifty seven

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Speaker 1: point nine million customers for cable video and forty six

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Speaker 1: point four million for digital video, So cord cutters are

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Speaker 1: about two point five percent of the entire TV viewing population,

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Speaker 1: So two and a half a percent of your population

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Speaker 1: decides to stop using the product. That's not that big

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Speaker 1: a number in the grand scheme of things, or it's

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Speaker 1: not that big of a person synage, I should say.

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Speaker 1: But another survey found that nine of cable company customers

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Speaker 1: had canceled service within the that previous year. So nine

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Speaker 1: percent of the people they surveyed said that they had

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Speaker 1: canceled their service. So so again the numbers are are

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Speaker 1: kind of squiggly and complicated. In twelve, New York Times

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Speaker 1: reported that there had been about a three percent per

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Speaker 1: year decline and cable subscriptions for a while, right, And

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Speaker 1: you know, some of that might mean that it's not

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Speaker 1: just people canceling, but we'll we'll explain that in the

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Speaker 1: second half. So twenty thirteen, that's this year we're recording this.

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Speaker 1: In August two thousand thirteen, um Nielsen reported that in

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Speaker 1: its fourth quarter two thousand twelve cross Platform report that

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Speaker 1: there were more than five million households in the United

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Speaker 1: States that fit its zero TV definition, which that definition

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Speaker 1: meant that the households got entertainment not through television but

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Speaker 1: through computers, smartphones, and tablets, and that in two thousand

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Speaker 1: seven it was sorts of two million, so more than

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Speaker 1: doubled within six years. Now. We should also point out

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Speaker 1: that this is kind of a weird definition to say

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Speaker 1: zero TV and that they only get their their their

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Speaker 1: entertainment through computers, smartphones, and tablets, because there are lots

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Speaker 1: of different solutions out there, set top boxes, for example,

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Speaker 1: that are not getting cable or satellite. They're getting Internet content,

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Speaker 1: but they are streaming television. Yeah, they're streaming to a

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Speaker 1: television set. So I don't know if the zero TV

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Speaker 1: definition takes into account those people. See I'm one of

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Speaker 1: those people. I have, like you know, I have an

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Speaker 1: Xbox three six which pulls in content. I've got a

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Speaker 1: PlayStation three which pulls in content. I've got a Chrome

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Speaker 1: cast that pulls in content. I've got Roku that pulls

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Speaker 1: in content. Um, I got a lot of these devices, right, So,

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Speaker 1: but I do watch the content on the television. So

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Speaker 1: I don't know that, you know, if that definition doesn't uh,

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Speaker 1: if I don't fall under the zero TV definition, there

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Speaker 1: may be even more people than we're in this report

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Speaker 1: that do not get their content through a cable or

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Speaker 1: satellite provider. Other than they're the ones who provide the

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Speaker 1: actual pipes that get the data there or tubes if

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Speaker 1: you prefer, since that's what the and in two thousand fifteen,

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Speaker 1: and I think, I know you're thinking, wait, whoa what

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Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen, But it's not even yet there. There

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Speaker 1: is an estimate, Yes, there's a prediction. The mp D

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Speaker 1: group estimates that the average pay TV cable bill in

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Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen will be and prepare yourselves for some

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Speaker 1: sticker shock, a hundred and twenty three dollars per month.

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Speaker 1: That's average, meaning that they're gonna be other packages out

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Speaker 1: there that are going to be significantly more than that,

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Speaker 1: and some that will be less than that three bucks

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Speaker 1: per month. Yeah, so that's our timeline. But we've got

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Speaker 1: a full discussion about cord cutting coming up, and before

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Speaker 1: we do that, let's take a quick break to our sponsor. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so we've covered kind of the timeline of cable and

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Speaker 1: what's going on with this chord cutting trend. We should

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Speaker 1: stress again this trend, if it is in fact a trend,

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Speaker 1: is still in its earliest days, and in fact, there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of factors that complicate the decision to

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Speaker 1: just cut the chord, and it all will depend upon

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Speaker 1: the individuals preferences like what what do they like to watch?

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Speaker 1: Because some things, if you like certain things, you know,

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Speaker 1: you need to have cable, you know, certain sporting events.

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Speaker 1: That's a big one. Sports is like the biggest one

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Speaker 1: because sports companies have very complicated television deals. And anyone

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Speaker 1: who's tried to follow sports and has also looked at

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Speaker 1: cutting the cable or cutting the chord has found out

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Speaker 1: that this can get pretty complicated. Yeah. I've had a few,

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Speaker 1: um international football fans who who soccer fans for US folks,

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Speaker 1: um that that you have to gote like like, well,

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Speaker 1: I can't I can't do this because this, Yeah, because

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Speaker 1: then I can't see anything or you know, I I

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Speaker 1: am a casual baseball fan. But the way that baseball

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Speaker 1: agreements work on television and cable means that if I

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Speaker 1: were to go with an online solution, like I I

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Speaker 1: subscribe to Major League Baseball and get get games through there,

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Speaker 1: there's still some agreements that say that if a game

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Speaker 1: was to be shown in my local area, it cannot

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Speaker 1: be shown on the internet, which means that if I

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Speaker 1: don't have that access, then I don't see that game.

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Speaker 1: So clearly sports is one of those things that if

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Speaker 1: you're a big sports fan, there are really very few

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Speaker 1: options that will satisfy you entirely. Not that there aren't

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Speaker 1: options out there. There are a lot of them. They're

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Speaker 1: just not gonna necessarily meet your needs. So let's talk

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Speaker 1: more about this whole cord cutting cable subscription problem. So

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Speaker 1: cable subscription growth has kind of wobbled, like we had said,

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Speaker 1: it dips a couple of times, it's kind of held

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Speaker 1: steady more less in about totally. If you're talking about

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Speaker 1: pay TV subscriptions, not just cable, but pay TV subscriptions

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Speaker 1: across all the providers are about a hundred point eight

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Speaker 1: million customers. But the number of occupied households grew. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so you get one point to five million more households,

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Speaker 1: but the actual subscription numbers stay steady. This tells you

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Speaker 1: a couple of things. It tells you there's some combination

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Speaker 1: of new households that are not subscribing to cable, or

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Speaker 1: if all one point to five million people are subscribing

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Speaker 1: to cable, that means you lost one point to five

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Speaker 1: million existing customers because your numbers stayed the same. So

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Speaker 1: there's some and there's it's more likely a combination right,

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Speaker 1: there's some people who just said I don't need it,

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Speaker 1: so I'm never going to get it, and there's some

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Speaker 1: people who are like, I want it, and then some

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Speaker 1: existing customers saying I am not doing this anymore. So

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Speaker 1: the with the numbers staying steady, that's you know, everyone

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Speaker 1: wants to see growth when they're in a business. They

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Speaker 1: want growth year over year, and they want that rate

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Speaker 1: of growth to grow in turned. So, now, according to

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Speaker 1: the Multi Media Research Group, there are about eighty four

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Speaker 1: point five million pay TV subscribers in the United States

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Speaker 1: in and cable accounts for forty eight point seven of

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Speaker 1: that number. Satellite was another forty point four percent, and

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Speaker 1: then you have I p t V, which was ten

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Speaker 1: pot nine. Now, like we said, out of all of

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Speaker 1: those three, ib TV had the biggest amount of growth,

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Speaker 1: but it was also the smallest number of customers. Right,

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Speaker 1: So really, you know, a significant growth for ip TV

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Speaker 1: would be insignificant for cable or satellite, is what we're saying,

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Speaker 1: because just because of the numbers game and boy aren't

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Speaker 1: percentages fun And we don't really know a lot about

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Speaker 1: people who just don't ever subscribe to cable, Like there

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Speaker 1: there's a generation now that's entering into their first living

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Speaker 1: away from home. That ver so the millennia alls and younger. Yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Charlie Organ, who's the chairman co founder of the Dish Network.

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Speaker 1: At UM the Dive into Media conference, which is a

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Speaker 1: big executive kind of thing that happens every year, was

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Speaker 1: talking about, um, you know, the fact that that college

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Speaker 1: kids don't subscribe to cable packages when they're in college

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Speaker 1: because they've got broadband at school and cable is expensive,

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Speaker 1: and then they're getting out into maybe the workforce or

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Speaker 1: maybe they're having trouble and they're continue and that they're

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Speaker 1: just never going to buy it. He joked, there's a

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Speaker 1: reason that tobacco companies giveaway free cigarettes at colleges. Wow,

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Speaker 1: what a great joke. Boy. I sure wish I had

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Speaker 1: said something like that to be recorded for all time

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Speaker 1: on the internet. He said sarcastically. Um, yeah, so we

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Speaker 1: don't really know how many people don't subscribe, because I mean,

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Speaker 1: these these are numbers that don't tend to get counted

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Speaker 1: in surveys. Yet again, it's difficult to record something not happening.

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Speaker 1: But if it does mean that there are more and

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Speaker 1: more people who are never becoming so subscribers either to

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Speaker 1: cable or IPTV or SATURDAYLA or whatever, and they're just

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Speaker 1: relying on other services, things like the streaming services will

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Speaker 1: talk about in our companion piece, or just you know,

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Speaker 1: anything that they can get online. If if that's a

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Speaker 1: growing trend, that's bad news for providers, all right, especially

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Speaker 1: because over this period of time, broadband subscriptions, you know,

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Speaker 1: people who are who are purchasing plans to get broadband

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Speaker 1: into their home are on the rise. Yeah. Yeah, the

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Speaker 1: cable television portion of it is in decline. So there

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Speaker 1: is some worry within the cable industry, particularly in the

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Speaker 1: cable providers and satellite providers, that what they are going

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Speaker 1: to end up being will be don't what they call

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Speaker 1: dumb pipes, meaning that they'll just they'll just provide that

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Speaker 1: connection that Internet connections, So you'll still subscribe to have

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Speaker 1: the Internet connection, you'll still subscribe for a monthly plan

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Speaker 1: on that. But that would be what the cable companies

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Speaker 1: could turn into. If you're looking well into the future

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Speaker 1: and assuming that these trends are one reel and two

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Speaker 1: going to continue, which by the way, is still really early,

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Speaker 1: and there are a lot of things that cable companies

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Speaker 1: can do to either address this issue or at least

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Speaker 1: make it last longer. Huh. And we'll talk about a

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Speaker 1: little bit of that, but uh, we don't know what's

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Speaker 1: how it's going to turn out. So I know a

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Speaker 1: lot of people kind of have this foregone conclusion that

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Speaker 1: cable companies are are on the way out. It's just

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Speaker 1: a matter of time. People for the past four years

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Speaker 1: have been saying it is the end of television as

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Speaker 1: we know it, and that gets complicated, I mean, because

394
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Speaker 1: when you're talking about this whole system going away, it

395
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:43,600
Speaker 1: changes everything about the entertainment industry and the television industry

396
00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:45,359
Speaker 1: and the way that all of these contracts are drawn

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Speaker 1: up and where the money goes and who gets how

398
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Speaker 1: much of it right, and whether or not we ever

399
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Speaker 1: get another awesome, well produced television series or if everything

400
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Speaker 1: has to become something on the cheap because suddenly the

401
00:22:56,920 --> 00:22:59,920
Speaker 1: money that would be going into the system and providing

402
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:03,800
Speaker 1: the ability to produce this content suddenly goes away. Um,

403
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Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about where this, this whole,

404
00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:10,119
Speaker 1: this whole process comes from, Like what is going on

405
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:12,159
Speaker 1: with cable, What is going on with the content that

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00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:15,720
Speaker 1: comes to you the viewer when you turn on your television,

407
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Speaker 1: and what is it that's driving the changes for people

408
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Speaker 1: to make these choices to cut the cord. Now, Uh,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about the different groups involved. First of all,

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Speaker 1: when you're talking about television show, like a specific show, Um,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, I'll pick Supernatural because I haven't talked

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Speaker 1: about it in like fourteen or fifteen episodes. So Supernatural,

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Speaker 1: You've got the company that actually makes the show, the

414
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Speaker 1: content creators, all right, they have entered into a deal

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Speaker 1: with a particular channel, whatever channel it is that runs Supernatural,

416
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Speaker 1: which I honestly don't know because I get it on.

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00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:55,359
Speaker 1: I think it's the c W. Yeah, so the c W.

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Speaker 1: So you've got the the show that then has the

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Speaker 1: relationship with the c W. C W is paying essentially

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Speaker 1: to have this show on its channel. Then you've got

421
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Speaker 1: the cable company. So in this case, i'll talk about Comcast.

422
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,639
Speaker 1: It is a service provider, Yeah, it is. It is

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Speaker 1: what sends the tubes into your home. Right, So Comcast says, hey,

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Speaker 1: I want to have the c W as part of

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00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:23,480
Speaker 1: my my library of channels. Yeah, the package of channels

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Speaker 1: that I offer my subscribers. And so then uh, the

427
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,400
Speaker 1: cable provider will pay a certain amount of carriage fees

428
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:34,679
Speaker 1: usually is what we call this, to carry that channel

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Speaker 1: into its package. And then you've got the actual customer,

430
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 1: the person on the other end who's paying a subscription

431
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 1: to have access to all of this. Where this gets

432
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,639
Speaker 1: really complicated is when you start talking about big, big

433
00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:51,160
Speaker 1: companies that own lots and lots of channels. So for example,

434
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:56,840
Speaker 1: Viacom owns many different channels, MTV Nickelodeon, MTV two, MTV seventeen,

435
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:02,440
Speaker 1: or or Disney's entire ABC, ESPN, Disney channels. So you've

436
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:06,760
Speaker 1: got these different giant companies that own multiple channels, and

437
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,720
Speaker 1: what they'll do is they'll do something called bundling where

438
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:13,119
Speaker 1: they bundle these channels together in a single package and

439
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:15,439
Speaker 1: say when the cable company comes up to them and

440
00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:18,159
Speaker 1: say to Disney, for example, and says, hey, Disney, we

441
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,040
Speaker 1: want ESPN. We have to have ESPN in our package

442
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:23,880
Speaker 1: because otherwise no one's going to buy it, Disney can say,

443
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,159
Speaker 1: all right, but you also have to take ABC Family,

444
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:28,879
Speaker 1: and you have to take Disney Channel, and you have

445
00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:30,840
Speaker 1: to you have to pay for all those or you

446
00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:34,640
Speaker 1: don't get ESPN. They all get bundled together. So this

447
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 1: sort of arrangement allows big, big companies to do things

448
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:40,600
Speaker 1: like not only get money for channels that might be

449
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:44,160
Speaker 1: a hard sell otherwise, which which can be great for

450
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:46,600
Speaker 1: the content creators at the end of the day, and

451
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:48,959
Speaker 1: it could be great for the audience too, and maybe

452
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:52,119
Speaker 1: that there's a very small audience that tunes into that channel,

453
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:54,439
Speaker 1: but they may find the programming on that channel to

454
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:56,680
Speaker 1: be exactly what they want. Or if you ever hit

455
00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 1: that station randomly in the nine two channels they have

456
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 1: to have, you might find something new that you like exactly.

457
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 1: So it's not we're not saying that the channels that

458
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,959
Speaker 1: are generally speaking, you know that that perform at a

459
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 1: lower rate, are necessarily worse. They're not. They're not. There's

460
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 1: nothing about that that makes them better or worse than

461
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 1: any other channel. It's just popularity. It is an individual

462
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:23,119
Speaker 1: decision which becomes a non individual decision because of the

463
00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:26,080
Speaker 1: way that these cable companies are bundling these packages. Right,

464
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 1: So you've got these big bundles, and so a cable company,

465
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 1: a cable provider, not the not the mega corporations that

466
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,560
Speaker 1: own all the channels, but a company like Comcast takes

467
00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 1: a look and says, well, you know, I'll go ahead

468
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,159
Speaker 1: and pay for this big bundle of channels because I

469
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,520
Speaker 1: want this one or two channels that are really popular

470
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,960
Speaker 1: for my subscribers. I'll pass the cost onto the subscribers,

471
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:51,719
Speaker 1: so that will help determine how much the monthly bill is.

472
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 1: And then you, as a subscriber to get your monthly bill.

473
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 1: And you think, I don't even watch half these channels,

474
00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 1: or even of these channels, I never watch any of them.

475
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 1: Why am I paying for all these channels? Well, the

476
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:04,680
Speaker 1: reason you're paying is because these mega companies that own

477
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,239
Speaker 1: multiple channels are saying this is the only way we're

478
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:11,239
Speaker 1: gonna play. So that's a complicated business side of the

479
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 1: cable industry. Now we'll talk about reasons why people want

480
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: to cut chords. Part of it. We've just addressed this

481
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 1: idea of I don't want to pay for that. Why

482
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: don't I just pay for the things I like? Why

483
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:28,160
Speaker 1: don't you create a cable plan where I can pick

484
00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:32,400
Speaker 1: specifically which channels I like, and I will pay that.

485
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 1: And if you make the bill so that it makes

486
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:38,000
Speaker 1: sense compared to how many channels I want, like you

487
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,400
Speaker 1: might say I want one local Channel, I want Comedy Central,

488
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:44,800
Speaker 1: I want Sci Fi, and I want h Discovery And

489
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:46,639
Speaker 1: then you're like, those are the channels I want and

490
00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:50,800
Speaker 1: that's it. Well, then you know you would expect the

491
00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: bill to be different than if you were to get

492
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 1: a big package with five channels. The problem is, because

493
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:59,480
Speaker 1: of this bundle deal, there's no incentive really for the

494
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: big company needs to do this. I mean it would

495
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 1: mean that it would mean that other channels would suffer.

496
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: And like we said, there are there's plenty of good

497
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,879
Speaker 1: programming out there that you just might not be interested in.

498
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 1: It's just not your thing. But if they are not

499
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 1: bundled with the big channels, that they might fail and

500
00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:16,960
Speaker 1: they might not be able to to fund the creation

501
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,679
Speaker 1: of these programs, right. And then if you're talking about

502
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: a drop in the amount of revenue that goes to

503
00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:26,240
Speaker 1: the channels themselves, the people who are funding the creation

504
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 1: of this content, then you don't have money to produce

505
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 1: the content, right exactly. So it's really complicated. You can't

506
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,040
Speaker 1: just say let's go ala carte, because if we were

507
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: to try that, let's say that tomorrow everyone decided that

508
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 1: a la carte is the way to go, you would

509
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:43,880
Speaker 1: rapidly see a lot of shows die off or at

510
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 1: least have their production values cut severely. It would it

511
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 1: would be an extinction level event in the industry. It

512
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 1: would be a huge shake up. It would be crazy.

513
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 1: But yeah, it would be tough. I mean it would

514
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:57,600
Speaker 1: be as as a consumer, that's the thing that sounds

515
00:28:57,640 --> 00:28:59,640
Speaker 1: like it makes the most sense to me, right as

516
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 1: a consumer. As a consumer, you can totally see the

517
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:05,400
Speaker 1: benefit to you from from the side of I get

518
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 1: what I pay for. From the creative incorporate standpoint, of course,

519
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:10,440
Speaker 1: I understand why they why they want to, you know,

520
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 1: continue creating what they're creating. Right. And another another reason

521
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 1: a lot of people are looking at cord cutting is

522
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 1: this concept of time shifting. Now, time shifting is something

523
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 1: it means that you're watching a program when you want

524
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 1: to as opposed to win the program airs right, right,

525
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 1: The DVR is becoming a you know, big enough storage

526
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 1: capacity wise not in size um and uh well yeah,

527
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:36,000
Speaker 1: I mean like and be cheap enough. Right. This the

528
00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:39,080
Speaker 1: start with the VCR obviously, but then the DVR made

529
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,080
Speaker 1: it much easier and now has incorporated into a lot

530
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: of cable companies and satellite companies equipment where you can

531
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 1: have DVRs as part of the actual cable box. But

532
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:52,280
Speaker 1: beyond that, there are now services out there where you

533
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:55,640
Speaker 1: can get access to more than just the last episode

534
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:57,320
Speaker 1: or the last three episodes you might be able to

535
00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: get assuming that you remembered to hit record and that

536
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 1: nothing wiggy happen VR and etcetera, etcetera. With these other services,

537
00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:06,200
Speaker 1: you can see the last like five seasons of a show.

538
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:09,800
Speaker 1: And it's that kind of freedom that also gets people saying,

539
00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:12,720
Speaker 1: why do I need to have a cable subscription if

540
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:14,880
Speaker 1: I have access to all of this now? The answer

541
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,120
Speaker 1: to that, I would argue, is that you want access

542
00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: to the most recent material, which is not always possible online.

543
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:23,360
Speaker 1: And uh, if you are a bunch around a bunch

544
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:25,520
Speaker 1: of chatter boxes like I am all the time, something's

545
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 1: gonna get spoiled. And seriously, people, you have to wait

546
00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:31,960
Speaker 1: until Tuesday morning before you can talk about breaking bad

547
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,800
Speaker 1: because I watched that episode the day after it airs,

548
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 1: all right, that's just me? Okay. So anyway, the time

549
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: shift and the the idea of this ala carta the

550
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: two big things that a lot of people really really want.

551
00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: They also want accessibility across multiple devices. That's the other

552
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:49,120
Speaker 1: big thing. Sure, sure, because you're not always you're not

553
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:50,640
Speaker 1: always in front of your television. You want to be

554
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:52,280
Speaker 1: able to watch it on your laptop or on your

555
00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 1: iPad or etcetera. Right, Right, So, getting back to that

556
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 1: whole bundling thing, not everybody is a big fan of that,

557
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 1: including some of the cable providers. For example, Cable Vision

558
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:09,480
Speaker 1: filed a lawsuit against Viacom because Cable Vision was objecting

559
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:12,640
Speaker 1: to being forced to pay for channels that very few

560
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:16,120
Speaker 1: subscribers ever watched, but they were being forced to pay

561
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 1: for for them because Viacom said, if you want MTV

562
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 1: and Nickelodeon, then you also have to take all these

563
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:25,560
Speaker 1: other channels. And uh so Cable Vision has filed a lawsuit.

564
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:29,240
Speaker 1: That lawsuit is still that was filed in early that's

565
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:33,240
Speaker 1: that's not been resolved yet as the recording of this podcast. So,

566
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 1: uh yeah, this is something that we're still starting to

567
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:40,479
Speaker 1: see unravel even within the industry itself, beyond just the

568
00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 1: consumer level, where you've got customers saying I'm tired of

569
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 1: having this experience of paying for stuff I don't use.

570
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:49,960
Speaker 1: So you know, we've we've kind of wrapped up that's

571
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 1: that's sort of where we are today industry. Yeah. So,

572
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 1: like I said, there there are certain things in the

573
00:31:55,840 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 1: cable industry that I certainly find very frustrating as a consumer.

574
00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:06,360
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily think that all cable companies are trying

575
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 1: something really innovative. A lot of them are just kind

576
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:12,080
Speaker 1: of attempting to force the way things were into a new,

577
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 1: a new world, and it doesn't It's it's like trying

578
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:18,040
Speaker 1: to fit a square a square peg in a round hole.

579
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 1: But that being said, I know that there are a

580
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 1: lot of companies out there that are looking into different

581
00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:27,480
Speaker 1: ways of creating content and distributing content, some of which

582
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:31,200
Speaker 1: are creating, you know, backing some of the streaming services,

583
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:34,840
Speaker 1: but a lot of individual channels will also um air

584
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 1: their shows online streaming on you know, like like MTV

585
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 1: site has a lot of MTV s shows right right,

586
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 1: and and you know, again, as a consumer, that can

587
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:44,160
Speaker 1: get a little frustrating because I know a lot of

588
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 1: consumers just want to be able to go to one

589
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 1: place and get all the stuff that they want. I

590
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 1: don't think that world is ever going to be not

591
00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:54,360
Speaker 1: a near future, yeah, it's all I think it's always

592
00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 1: going to be that you're going to have to pick

593
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 1: and choose which services you subscribe to in order to

594
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:01,520
Speaker 1: get specific tie of material. There's gonna be a lot

595
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 1: of overlap, but there's also gonna be some some areas

596
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:07,040
Speaker 1: outside that ven diagram that you are not gonna be

597
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 1: able to access unless you subscribe to multiple services. So

598
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 1: that wraps up this discussion. Guys, let us know what

599
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 1: you think. Are you big cable people? What do you enjoy?

600
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:18,560
Speaker 1: Tell us we're curious to know, and if you have

601
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:21,480
Speaker 1: any suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, let's know

602
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 1: that too. You can drop us the line on our email,

603
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: our addresses, let's see it's a tech stuff at Discovery

604
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:32,200
Speaker 1: dot com, right fantastic, Or you can drop us a

605
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 1: line on Facebook or Twitter or handles tech Stuff H. S. W.

606
00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:37,920
Speaker 1: Lauren and I will talk to you again really soon

607
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics that

608
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:51,160
Speaker 1: has staff works dot com