OT: Good Read on 'Cord Cutters' Watching the NFL

nabwong said:

So, I just signed up for NFL Sunday ticket streaming service at student price which is $99. I still have a student email since I haven't finished my monograph.

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You? The VP of the Boycott NFL club?

hambone1818 said:

I haven't, no. There are four out-of-the-box apps that each have some form of 'tv shows', 'movies', etc type of setup, when you drill down you get 'genres', 'most popular', 'search', etc. That's the vast vast majority of what we watch.

Then there are add-ons that are kinda self-explanatory: Ted Talks. SportsDevil. XXXFilms (whoever does it preloads half a dozen porn sites for some reason).

So there are no 'channels', per se. Hope this makes sense.

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Thanks for the help.

Wheelman said:

I believe the ESPN game should be on ABC for both teams local market. Pats-Dolphins game should be on CBS. Not sure what happens if the game was on later in the season when CBS isn't airing the thursday night games.

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the patriots have appeared 4 times on thursday night football. in the 3 times prior to the 2014 deal with CBS, WCVB picked up the game locally.

strangely enough, 3 out of 4 of those games are significant in one way or another and have some sort of deflategate connection:

1. the 16-0 game--which was technically on a saturday night but was part of the thursday night package. everyone around the country got to watch anyway because it ended up getting simulcast on NBC and CBS. in the boston area, it ended up being broadcast on all three networks plus the NFL Network!
2. 11/13/2008 vs jets. first overtime game on TNFL, jay feely kicked a field goal to win it 34-31
   
3. 9/12/2013 vs jets. patriots win 13-10
4. 10/16/2014 vs jets. 16 PSI!!! patriots win 27-25

upstater1 said:

You? The VP of the Boycott NFL club?

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I gotta watch the F U tour somehow.

hambone1818 said:

Aside from the internet speed, which I can get figure out once I call, I'm incredibly, incredibly happy with our decision. Saving ~$70 a month and far, far more options than we had before.

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It's remarkable how good I felt getting back that much money each month. For instance less than one month's savings bought the amplified indoor antenna I can use forever (and given how reliable electronics are, it should be forever).

upstater1 said:

Let me be clearer

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Thanks for the good info.

By contrast, I'm single and I have the el-cheapo 6 mbps service from <big cable monopoly> and I only rarely see glitches, but since it's just me it's exactly one stream at a time.

The problem with OTT (cord cutting) is that the content providers use third party everything to send the video. This means that they could have a problem with the Encoding/Transcribing, Third party CDN, and lastly your ISP. With linear (cable companies) networks they own the video from end to end. They actually purchase a lot of their network monitoring equipment from a local company 5 min from the stadium.

www.ineoquest.com

Once more individual's cut the cord, and lets not forget about the "cord never" folks, OTT content providers will start paying for an end-to-end monitoring solution that encompasses all the third parties in the content distribution chain.

Bill Lee said:

Great advice, wish I had done it weeks or months ago! I followed the advice and tvfool predicted I'd be able to get all the channels I need (FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC) for football with an indoor antenna. I'm 35 miles from Boston and all the channels are out of Boston so no need to adjust antennas. I went with:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BN5Z2WM

cuz I'm a nerd and liked the idea of the amplified antenna that turns off when I turn off the tv because it's plugged into the tv's usb port. It's working great! What surprised me is that it's picking up stations in full digital mode that I couldn't get at all back in the analog days.

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I congratulate you on your success, but I'd like to make an observation on your purchase that may help those further away / with worse reception than you.

Amplification on a receiving antenna cannot boost TV signal beyond what the antenna itself can receive. Amplification DOES help maintain the signal if you have after-antenna losses such as from multiple -3.5dB splitters and/or long coax runs (such as when serving multiple TVs around a house off one antenna).

As a general rule, it is better to buy a larger antenna with better reception with your money than a small antenna with a built-in amplifier. You can always purchase an amplifier later if you need it.

Good points re: antenna design. In my case it seems to be a stupid design because the amp is mounted near the tv not near the antenna. In any case the amped design was only $10 more than the non-amped design so I'm not going to bother returning it because it's working great.

Last night's pre-season game was the first NFL game I've seen without paying for cable since cable first came through my old neighborhood in the mid-70s, and it feels damn good to not be paying the monopolistic cable cabal. The picture was crystal clear, at least as clear as the one I got when I was getting extorted by the cable cabal.