By Hector Cisneros
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| Courtesy of Flickr |
I have heard it said that “life is short and then….” You fill in the blank!
As an advertising executive, I strive to understand the motives of consumers. What drives us to do things in life? What are our
wants and desires? As humans, we have many things that drive us, and our wants and desires can be endless. Having
said that, I know that most of us value time and money the most, (I’m excluding
love and our survival needs for food, water and air because they are subjects for
another story). Many value money because
it is a universal means of exchanging goods and services. But, there is one thing
that everyone values more than anything else,
and that is time. Time can only be spent once,
and it is very hard to extend your time of play when you’re getting close to game
over.
This brings me to
my point. Today’s broadcast TV market is shrinking, not because people are addicted
to their digital devices. They are switching to watching their digital devices because
it saves them time. It also provides them a better way to control and allocate their
time and money. It puts them in charge of what, when and how they watch TV! In this
episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore why, when and how to cut the
cable and satellite TV cord so that you can watch TV anytime you want, (and save
some money along the way). So, put down your
remote and get your scissors out so that you too can cut the cord and watch digital
TV on your own terms.
The Big Problem
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A Short History of How We Got Here
Cable and Satellite TV have been duking
it out for the last 20 years to see who could provide the most bang and service
for the consumer buck. Comcast/Warner has become a mega corporation through acquisitions
and mergers. As such, it holds a dominant position as an internet access and service
provider while Dish and Direct TV satellite are in a battle for the most channels
for the least dollars spent.
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| Courtesy of Pixabay |
The Internet to The Rescue
This is where the
internet is making a huge difference. In the past, you had to buy bundled packages
because few, if any a la carte programming
was available. Today on-demand internet TV
(championed by Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and a few others) have
opened the floodgates for true a la cart WebTV
service. The success of the afore mentions pioneers have given birth to a new slew
of a la cart online giants including HBO,
ShowTime,
Cinemax,
The History
Channel, Disney, and Nickelodeon
just to name a few. Many of the pioneers like Hulu and Amazon Prime also offer second
tier access subscriptions to Stars and other programming
that can be added a la cart as well. Cable and Satellite TV have always offered
what they call premium channels as an add-on,
but now they have direct competition with other online providers (including direct
competition with the premium movie channels own offerings). On top of that, most
of the broadcast giants are also jumping into the fray with their own online web TV portals, including episodes on
demand as well. What this all means to us as consumers are more choices and more control of your most valuable assets,” time
and money.”
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| Courtesy of Pixabay |
There are Three Critical Parts for Cutting the Cord
1.
Your Internet service speed is
critical!
2.
The right hardware for your needs - an HD antenna, digital devices, TV Players, etc.…
3.
Choosing the right online subscriptions
for you needs and budget.
The Need for Speed
Now to be able to cut the cord you’re
going to need a fast internet provider that doesn’t throttle your service up and
down too much. Livewire has a good article that talks
about testing your internet speed so that you can determine you and your family
needs. You can test your download speed by visiting any of the
test sites in this article.
Hardware is Everywhere
You can get local channels by purchasing
an HD antenna at Walmart or another retailer. In most cities, you can get 10 to 30 channels free
on air including most of the broadcast channels. Laptops
with HDMI output make great
online TV connections, especially for college students, the kids, and travel. A small desktop PC with HDMI can also be a great
online TV connection as well. A good Smartphone or tablet can also be used as a
Smart TV receiver because you can project the streaming video from your smartphone
or tablet to any TV device that will accept your signal. Many current TV’s are Smart and include an internet
connect consoles in them. All you have to do is choose the providers you want and
sign up for access. There are also many console players to choose
from in the market. Products like Chromecast, Roku,
Apple TV and Amazon Fire all are great choices
depending on your needs and budget. Also, many DVD/Blu-ray players, Game consoles
now include online subscription TV services.
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| Courtesy of Wikipedia |
Online Subscriptions are the Prescription
There are now dozens
of online subscription providers (paid and unpaid) today. Netflix,
YouTube TV, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, fuboTV,
and direct subscriptions HBO Go, Showtime,
MaxGo, Stars, Nickelodeon, Epix, Disney and even DirecTV Now, and Dish Online. Also, many of the
major TV channels can be purchased as part
of inexpensive bundles from some of the above subscribers. This includes live sports channels like ESPN, and
other programming like AMC, CBS, ABC, NBC,
Fox and so on.
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Still not sure what
to do? The reality is this. Everyone has unique needs, budget and skills to accomplish
this task. If you’re looking to cut, partially cut or are just curious as to whether
it’s less expensive or not, do your due diligence. What I considered to be the future back in 2010 is here
now. The not too distant future will bring the complete transformation of broadcast
TV to where the internet is the primary access provider for all TV programming.
My research says that you can save money, but its,
not a huge saving yet. On our notes page, I have listed more than two dozen articles
to help you do your research. You can find a solution that fits your needs, just
remember that all three parts are important. I hope you found this information useful.
The wise use of our time and money is a topic near and dear to my heart. I hope
this article helps you to save both.
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In this article, I have provided three important parts of the puzzle
needed to successfully cut the cord to cable and satellite TV. I have also provided
a road map of where we came from, what we can do today and where we are going in
the future. I have provided detailed descriptions
of the components needed, internet speed requirements and links to many subscription providers
(including aggregate and premium movie channels).
If you feel your business could use some help with
its marketing, contact us at 904-410-2091. You can also fill out the form
in the sidebar of this blog where we will provide a free marketing analysis to help
you get better results. Our claimed
to fame is that we are one of a few companies who actually provide real guarantees.
If you found this article useful, please share it with friends, family,
and co-workers. I recommend checking out the links in the blog, along with checking
out other related articles on our Show Notes Page.
Also, don’t forget to listen to the BlogTalkRadio show on this subject.
If you have a useful comment or opinion related to this article, leave it in the
comment section of this blog. Also, don’t forget to plus us, on Google+ and
share us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well.
Hector Cisneros is COO and Director of Social Media Marketing
at Working the Web to Win, an award-winning
Internet marketing company based in Jacksonville, Florida. He is
also co-host of the weekly Internet radio show, "Working the Web to Win"
on BlogTalkRadio.com, which airs every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern. Hector is a
syndicated writer and published author of “60 Seconds to Success.”
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Digital/Online businesses are the future. Today, everything is going digital and affordable. It's time to cut those wires and cables that have been holding us since decades.
ReplyDeleteLove how you explained every side of the topic, will surely share it with my boss at https://snipon.com.