What if Cable networks charged us more, but eliminated commercials?

[Video Games]

Even when we did have cable, it wasn't even hooked up

[Vash The Stampede]

Wouldnt they make more by just charging everyone 10 bucks a month more? I might still have cable if there was an option to not see commercials.

HAHAHA NO! There's so much more wrong with cable TV than just commercials.

[nymphetsss]

Tv is for old people and they are dying off, so the cable companies have to do something , it seems like charging higher prices for internet is the standard ( at least in canada)

[Draco-Onis]

So the Netflix model?

Spectrum revenue is 42 billion.

Netflix revenue is 11.6 billion.

Seems spectrum (time warner) makes more money charging $100+ a month and showing you a fuck ton of commercials.

Edit - DVR are a standard thing. Record the show and fast forward the commercials. It’s why only live programs generate anywhere close to the ad revenue they used to see for all programs. It’s why sports leagues make so much money off TV deals. They are the one thing people will view live and sit through commercials anymore. Well, baseball gets the money cause they eat up a shit ton of space (nearly 4 hours) during the day time blocks and contains tons of downtime for ads

Not really the same thing Netflix doesn't charge you so you can get on the internet, phone and TV.

[Nihilist74]

Wouldnt they make more by just charging everyone 10 bucks a month more? I might still have cable if there was an option to not see commercials.

I think its time to get rid of cable companies all together except for the internet service. We should get rid of all the networks, make everything streaming on demand. It is all becoming that way anyways. I would just use youtube, netflix and hulu if it was not for american football season.

[callipygoustp]

Commercials were only part of the issue for me when I cut the cord years ago. The big issue, the main issue, for me was content on demand. I love the vast quantity and diversity of material that I can watch any dam time I want to via the two services I now have: Netflix and Amazon (sometimes HBO/Showtime/Starz/etc). Maybe cable now allows for this? I don't know. Don't really care either as I am pretty happy, and really have too much to watch, with the services I currently use. ~$20 a month for more than I can watch in a given month compared to the ~$45 Comcast would charge me for the basic cable package which provides me with a lot less.

[Linkedblade]

...well the issue is that would literally NEVER happen...

If every cable subscriber paid 10 extra dollars a month that wouldn't be even NEAR what they make in advertisement revenue plus this will add in the questions of live tv...which have breaks for commercials...so do we just see them drinking coffee and doing nothing while the people who opted to not pay the extra money have to watch commercials?

Never?

You sure about that?

Because that's how cable was when it came out.

[Roxinius]

it would never fly commercials feed the networks more revenue and the price of cable would have to be raised 10000 fold to offset the profits

[endersblade]

What's this "cable"?

What most people use for the internet. Some strange people actually watch "LIVE" TV that way. Neanderthals.

[talwynn]

Wouldnt they make more by just charging everyone 10 bucks a month more? I might still have cable if there was an option to not see commercials.

This isn’t how cable tv works. It’s not the cable company putting the commercials on air, it’s the networks. Service providers setup the network to broadcast television and get the right to do so from the FCC (at least in the US). They then pay the network the right to broadcast whatever that network provides. A small portion of a subscribers bill goes to each network. One of the more famous ones being ESPN, earns on average $33 per subscriber per year. Their outrageous price is why ESPN isn’t on Google Fiber. Google didn’t want to pay them that much.

To get rid of commercials, every network would have to become a premium network like HBO. The providers see very little of ad revenue.

[Mysterymask]

Never?

You sure about that?

Because that's how cable was when it came out.

Kinda think that Live TV as we know it would go away before commercials go away...but even then no one here is thinking of the logistics of it

Say Bob and Jim have cable packages

Bob bought the one without commercials while Jim decided to keep commercials

Super Bowl Sunday happens

about 5 minutes into the game it goes to a Commercial break........

What happens? It's live TV does Bob now get to watch more game footage than Jim? The time that normally commercials are going on Bob is now watching the field...just kinda set up while the announces just sit around waiting for the commercials to end. Is there some special commercial break report for Bob while Jim watches a Cash for Gold Commercial?

Even without live TV does that mean the non commercial guys get like 20 minute intervals of shows while the commercial watching plebians keep the standard 30 minute ones....How about late night informercials? Are those commercials that will be omitted by the package? Does the guy who has the no commercial options get to see just cable tv movies in its entirety? Are there going to be literally 2 broadcasts..per channel for the possibility that someone is going to pick the pay extra option.

[yetgdhfgh]

HBO seems to work fine without commercials so iam sure it could happen for more tv networks

[Khuros]

Hour long shows are around 40mins+/- 5 mins. 30 min long shows are ~23 mins.

[Mysterymask]

The real scandal is that you're paying a TV station to show you adds

You mean like Internet, Newspapers, Magazines, movies, etc etc

[For_The_Horde]

How about they charge us the same, but get rid of commercials, because paying for commercials is stupid. I mean it, the whole point of cable back in the day was better television and no commercials, then they added some commercials, now its 1/3 of all tv is commercial time.

[Deleted]

If not for the dick move cable companies charging roughly the same for solely using internet vs. Internet and cable, I'd given it up long ago as I dont watch cable 5/6 days of the week. Except, for the 10 bucks extra spend compared to solely internet, you get radio, on demand shit, plus (sports) channels.

[PosPosPos]

Wouldnt they make more by just charging everyone 10 bucks a month more? I might still have cable if there was an option to not see commercials.

They would just charge you more and still leave the commercials where they are anyway.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Commercials are not the reason I don't watch a lot of "regular" tv.

I don't watch a lot of regular tv because most of the shows are formulaic garbage. I don't need another show about the tough-as-nails law enforcement officer getting partnered with a wacky off-beat civilian with a talent for solving crimes.

I'm willing to pay more for Channels that put out decent programming...regardless of whether or not they have advertisements

[Lochton]

Wouldnt they make more by just charging everyone 10 bucks a month more? I might still have cable if there was an option to not see commercials.

I'd rather save the money and have the commercials. Sometimes interesting offers and events are shown after all.

[Najnaj]

Cable is doomed either way you cut it, all traditional TV is.

Why would you pay 10 bucks a month to be able to watch a handful of shows when you can pay 10 bucks a month for thousands...without commercials.