Making the Switch from Cable to just Internet

[mlmpetert]

Seems like a smart move by Redbox, although at first I thought Netflix made a smart move by separating their streaming and mail order content..… But a 20% increase is a whole lot easier to stomach then a 60% increase. Plus with the 800k subscribers Netflix lost theres bound to be a lot more demand for Redbox then there was say 3 months ago.

So Google TV 2.0 is rolling out. When I was first trying to decide on the different set top boxes for streaming I went against google TV, because it was completely worthless without having a cable box attached to it; it was a cable tv enhancer. It still seems like that’s what 2.0 is primarily intended for, although there may be work arounds at some point since 2.0 will have a dedicated app market.

Google is apparently still trying to buy hulu, which I don’t know is good or bad for cableless people like me, but im guessing its bad. If they get hulu I dont think Google TV will ever be made to be cable box free. But if they don’t buy it, google may have a lot of incentive to become a cable alternative and offer the ability to watch content from any internet provider, even the shadier ones, (like you can on your computer) through their Google TV box via a 3rd party app.

Another, and more realistic benefit, would be a Google TV model with an integrated DVR or DVR(lite). The best feature (and what I miss the most) is the ability to pause, rewind, and fast forward live tv. If you could buy Google TV with different size hard drives (like iphones) with basic dvr abilities (pause, rewind, ff) for a 15gb box all the way up to the 500gb boxes for people that actually want to record multiple network tv shows (or what they are streaming off of the internet, ie ESPN3) that would be awesome. Im sure an app will roll out for 2.0 that lets you do this with your own hard drive, but I think this would work much better as an integrated feature. Basically if Google rolls out with a box that lets you do everything you can already do on your computer but makes it less clunky with an interface that’s as easy to use as Cable box’s interface, I think youll see a major flight from cable/satellite. I say Google, but I guess Apple and maybe Roku could pull these things off.

Theres obviously a long way to go. But Roku has recently rolled out with a FoxNews channel. I believe this is the first and only major news channel to have a streaming network. They currently stream live news from 9-3pm. I feel like its only going to be another year or 2 until we will be able to just pay a subscription fee to stream major cable networks like FoxNews, MSNBC, CNBC, History, ESPN. We will see. In the meantime it looks like cable companies are fighting this by charging a lot for internet but with a very small marginal increase when you bundle internet with cable and/or phone. 4g to the rescue???