From: robgood@bestweb.net   
      
   On Tuesday, December 29, 2020 at 7:06:07 AM UTC-5, Questor wrote:   
      
   > Some questions to open up the discussion: What's your TV setup? Have you "cut   
   > the cord?"   
      
   I've never been a cable subscriber.  In the days when I watched a lot of TV,   
   it was over the air.  Now I'm where OTA reception would be inadequate for any   
   but maybe one stray DTV station.   
      
   I practically stopped watching TV at home anyway in the last years I lived in   
   the Bronx.  Simpson cartoons stopped being funny enough, "Lost" and "Monk"   
   ended, and I stopped watching   
   football once I'd been coaching it a few years.  However, when I was visiting   
   places that had cable TV (such as hospitals), some of those channels looked   
   very interesting; but I should account   
   for the fact that there isn't much other entertainment in a hospital room.   
      
   I see so much video and do so much reading on the Internet for free (other   
   than the connection cost) that the only reason I might go for cable TV would   
   be as a package from the ISP.  But the   
   difference in additional price between cable TV and just data and voice has   
   been great enough that I'm not currently interested.  I might be interested in   
   subscribing to an audio podcast and   
   streaming program or aggregator or Patreon channel for access to their   
   archives; I also donate to Auricle Communications, operators of WFMU, WMFU,   
   and alternate streams.   
      
   > What streaming services do you have, and why? Do you like them?   
      
   None, but I might consider paying for some in the future.  As is I don't even   
   take advantage of most of the free stuff.   
      
   > What do you think is the future of video entertainment distribution? Will it   
   be   
   > more fragmentation, or a market collapse and consolidation? Or is this a   
   > transition to some other model, and if so what?   
      
   Almost anything other than TCP-IP is dead, and the WWW will continue to   
   dominate that.  How many of you are still reading this via NNTP?  DTV is a   
   dead end.  However, FM, AM, and possibly SSB   
   analog radio will continue a long time.  Direct satellite broadcast I don't   
   know enough about to say.  Fragmentation will continue until the only media we   
   have in common will be the "classics", as in   
   music and a few great books and authors, and few of them.   
      
   Bob in Andover   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)