Spectrum & Disney

[kdonnel]

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.

I lived in a neighborhood that actually had two cable companies available. So there were three choices for in the ground broadband.

Prices were not better.

All that was different was that every other house had a transformer, an at&t pedestal, and two different cable company pedestal.

Edited to add:
Fixed wireless gives many a second choice for high speed internet.

The latency makes it less than ideal for gamers but for streamers if you have a good signal you can get 500Mbps or more out of 5g fixed wireless service.

 

[sam_gordon]

Going back to @Imzadi's concern about Spectrum throttling bandwidth if you give up cable TV, we've had Spectrum for years, and NEVER had their cable product. We've been doing streaming (left Dish) since the first of the year. While we've occasionally had buffering while watching Hulu live, I haven't done any troubleshooting to find out if it's the wifi from the TV to my router (very possible) or actually Spectrum.

And again, while there may only be a single cable company in your (general) neighborhood/town/community, that doesn't mean it's a Monopoly. There are two satellite providers, plus a bunch of streaming providers. THERE'S your competition for cable.

 

[Praying Colonel]

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.

I wish I could get internet for $60/month. We started with the inevitable introductory rate for Spectrum's lowest-priced, slowest internet (300 down), then it went up $15 after a year and now it's up another $15 for the current year.

But my place is basically located in the bottom of a bowl and I get 1 bar of cell coverage on a good day, and Spectrum's the only internet provider to my place, so I'm stuck with $84.99/mo.

We had buffering issues when we were using DirecTV Stream but don't experience any buffering issues with YouTube TV, so it may depend on the app.

 

[Jwaire]

And as expected,

https://twitter.com/x/status/1701240523476889649

 

[Jwaire]

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/11/dis...hat-would-end-cable-blackout-sources-say.html

 

[sam_gordon]

We'll never know who blinked (probably both), what the terms of the deal were, or how long it's for. But I guarantee this one will end right around the fall, just in time for FB.

 

[Imzadi]

Going back to @Imzadi's concern about Spectrum throttling bandwidth if you give up cable TV, we've had Spectrum for years, and NEVER had their cable product. We've been doing streaming (left Dish) since the first of the year. While we've occasionally had buffering while watching Hulu live, I haven't done any troubleshooting to find out if it's the wifi from the TV to my router (very possible) or actually Spectrum.

And again, while there may only be a single cable company in your (general) neighborhood/town/community, that doesn't mean it's a Monopoly. There are two satellite providers, plus a bunch of streaming providers. THERE'S your competition for cable.

Unfortunately, our landlord made all the tenants take down their satellite dishes decades ago. Back in the 90s people used to party on the roofs, drink, sunbathe & stuff and put up their dishes. As police & news helicopters became more prevalent, and it could be seen what people were doing up the roofs, I think the laws changed. The roof doors were always locked from the outside, yet people used to just prop open. But, now, our roof doors have an alarm that stays on until the landlord or superintendent checks out the situation and turns it off. So they got rid of all the satellite dishes and even the excuse that people were up there adjusting their dishes.

As for other services, the landlord will not allow our building to be wired for FIOS. I've checked many times over the years. He legally has to provide only one type of service. As for other cable companies, I see commercials on TV for them: Optimum, RCN/Astound, other companies, none are in my zip code, nor in surrounding zip codes. So, the only other choice is to go back to crappy Internet from Verizon. So, Spectrum really does have a monopoly here and especially in my building. Thanks for trying to find an alternate solution.

 

[Imzadi]

And as expected,

https://twitter.com/x/status/1701240523476889649

Tonight's football is 2 NY teams. Having 9 million irate NY & NJ fans, (okay even 6 million as not everyone is into football,) is a lot of households to lose in one of the biggest metropolitan cities.

 

[Imzadi]

YAY! ABC and FX are back up here!

We lost Freeform here in the negotiation. Yet the newest PSA message on that channel says that the Spectrum TV Select package will include Disney+ at no additional cost.

 

[jcarwash]

We lost Freeform here in the negotiation. Yet the newest PSA message on that channel says that the Spectrum TV Select package will include Disney+ at no additional cost.

Several channels aren't coming back. From the Hollywood Reporter: "Under the new deal, Freeform, Disney Junior, Disney XD, FXX and Nat Geo Wild, among other cable channels, will no longer be carried by Spectrum, which instead will focus on the core ESPN networks, FX, Disney Channel, and Nat Geo channels, as well as ABC stations."

Also regarding Disney+, it's going to be the Disney+ Basic with ads that's going to be included, not the Premium no-ad tier.

 

[sam_gordon]

Several channels aren't coming back. From the Hollywood Reporter: "Under the new deal, Freeform, Disney Junior, Disney XD, FXX and Nat Geo Wild, among other cable channels, will no longer be carried by Spectrum, which instead will focus on the core ESPN networks, FX, Disney Channel, and Nat Geo channels, as well as ABC stations."

Also regarding Disney+, it's going to be the Disney+ Basic with ads that's going to be included, not the Premium no-ad tier.

Wow. That's a lot of channels. I'm sure it's to keep costs down. If I was Spectrum, I would have offered to include those channels in a higher tier (then people can pay for them if they want them). Maybe Disney wouldn't allow that.

 

[brockash]

YAY! ABC and FX are back up here!

We lost Freeform here in the negotiation. Yet the newest PSA message on that channel says that the Spectrum TV Select package will include Disney+ at no additional cost.

So far we've noticed we've lost Freeform and Disney jr. - Really stinks.

 

[Imzadi]

Several channels aren't coming back. From the Hollywood Reporter: "Under the new deal, Freeform, Disney Junior, Disney XD, FXX and Nat Geo Wild, among other cable channels, will no longer be carried by Spectrum, which instead will focus on the core ESPN networks, FX, Disney Channel, and Nat Geo channels, as well as ABC stations."

Also regarding Disney+, it's going to be the Disney+ Basic with ads that's going to be included, not the Premium no-ad tier.

Wow! That's a lot of channels to lose.

And Disney+ Basic with ads sounds sucky.

 

[Jwaire]

"When we looked across the portfolio to try to identify where the greatest value in this deal was to us, we definitely made some trade-offs with the following thinking in place: The digital networks are for the most part targeted, and they super-serve an audience in the linear ecosystem, but they are also windowed onto what we are calling our primary channels [Disney Channel, FX, Nat Geo]," Walden says."

"So you know the Nat Geo suite, ultimately that programming also airs on Nat Geo and then it is windowed over to Disney+, similarly with Disney Junior and Disney XD. And then FXX has been a valuable source of programming for Hulu, and so we don't intend to change how we program that channel right now. It's very much connected to our pipeline of general entertainment to Hulu."

https://apple.news/Ao-Uur1_6TXyEdj03wqXamg

Basically, Disney has agreed that these channels are not important and the writing is on the wall for them. They mostly air reruns that can now be found on Disney+ or other primary parent channels. FXX produces a few shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but that's on Hulu anyway and they also run it on regular FX, it's former home.

I'll be curious to see if you Spectrum subscribers will pay less for your new Select cable package or are you just losing 8 or so channels for nothing.

 

[Imzadi]

Got this in my Spectrum email. Although, it ended up in Spam in my Spectrum email account.

"To make up for your inconvenience during this time, we will be issuing you a credit in the next 48 hours for the time since the channel loss on August 31, 2023, through their return on September 11, 2023. To view your credit once it's been applied, please visit Spectrum.net or My Spectrum App.​

​

No action is required on your part."​

Yay, I don't need to sit on the phone or the app after all.

 

[sam_gordon]

Got this in my Spectrum email. Although, it ended up in Spam in my Spectrum email account.

"To make up for your inconvenience during this time, we will be issuing you a credit in the next 48 hours for the time since the channel loss on August 31, 2023, through their return on September 11, 2023. To view your credit once it's been applied, please visit Spectrum.net or My Spectrum App.​

​

No action is required on your part."​

Yay, I don't need to sit on the phone or the app after all.

Guessing $5-10, maybe $15 for two weeks.

 

[JPPT1974]

Glad they fixed it to watch Monday Night Football on ESPN!

 

[WEDWDW]

Wow! That's a lot of channels to lose.

And Disney+ Basic with ads sounds sucky.

I think Disney+ Basic is $7.99.

Big whup.

They will probably just build that $7.99 into the package prices.

 

[brockash]

"When we looked across the portfolio to try to identify where the greatest value in this deal was to us, we definitely made some trade-offs with the following thinking in place: The digital networks are for the most part targeted, and they super-serve an audience in the linear ecosystem, but they are also windowed onto what we are calling our primary channels [Disney Channel, FX, Nat Geo]," Walden says."

"So you know the Nat Geo suite, ultimately that programming also airs on Nat Geo and then it is windowed over to Disney+, similarly with Disney Junior and Disney XD. And then FXX has been a valuable source of programming for Hulu, and so we don't intend to change how we program that channel right now. It's very much connected to our pipeline of general entertainment to Hulu."

https://apple.news/Ao-Uur1_6TXyEdj03wqXamg

Basically, Disney has agreed that these channels are not important and the writing is on the wall for them. They mostly air reruns that can now be found on Disney+ or other primary parent channels. FXX produces a few shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but that's on Hulu anyway and they also run it on regular FX, it's former home.

I'll be curious to see if you Spectrum subscribers will pay less for your new Select cable package or are you just losing 8 or so channels for nothing.

Got this in my Spectrum email. Although, it ended up in Spam in my Spectrum email account.

"To make up for your inconvenience during this time, we will be issuing you a credit in the next 48 hours for the time since the channel loss on August 31, 2023, through their return on September 11, 2023. To view your credit once it's been applied, please visit Spectrum.net or My Spectrum App.​

​

No action is required on your part."​

Yay, I don't need to sit on the phone or the app after all.

So I guess my question is what kind of credit do we get every month now that we lost multiple channels and it's permanent?

 

[sam_gordon]

So I guess my question is what kind of credit do we get every month now that we lost multiple channels and it's permanent?

Probably none. I'm sure its in the contract that programming might change.