Is Cable TV becoming a thing of the past?

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Is Cable TV becoming a thing of the past? by The Pattaya Sleuth

As technology progresses it seems that so do the ways of accessing our favourite TV programmes.

It seems like only 5 minutes ago since those of us from the UK had access to just four terrestrial channels. Then came along Sky satellite television and cable stations offering a wider selection of channels – most of which were quite frankly made up of a load of rubbish and it seemed that terrestrial TV was a thing of the past.

Could this scenario be happening again – this time to the cable and satellite channels? Well it would appear so. More and more people are choosing alternative ways of watching TV these days. Most of the options come via the use of the internet and websites such as You Tube and various streaming sites – some of which are more legal than others. Other ways of accessing your favourite channels come from set-top devices such as UK Expats TV and other similar hardware. This often enables you to watch your favourite TV from back ‘home’ but perhaps not the local channels that are popular with our Thai friends.

So what are the advantages? Firstly, a lot of the channels that you come across are tailored more to your own interests and you can watch programmes that were shown the previous day or perhaps even longer ago meaning that you are not ruled by the clock. This can be important if the particular programme that you want to watch is being shown thousands of miles away bringing time differences into the equation. Another factor is that they are often cheaper. Websites such as You Tube are free and set-top boxes usually have a monthly subscription of hundreds rather than thousands of baht a month. Thirdly when it comes to set-top devices, there are often fewer channels so not cluttered with rubbish or at least as much.

Of course not everything is perfect, you need a good internet signal, the channels can change, be cancelled or be blocked without prior warning and of course the illegal streaming and download sites lead you open to prosecution. You probably need to choose what is the best option for you and there are plenty of good forums offering sensible advice and of course a good old Google search can always help you along!

So, is cable already a thing of the past? Maybe not yet but the writing is on the wall as these internet sites improve all the time.

-- Inspire Pattaya 2016-02-13

[scorecard]

Please take a look, internet based: http://www.filmon.com/tv/live

[IMHO]

What this article didn't mention is that most forms of Live TV are dying - outside of sports, news and some special events, why would you want to watch movies or series on someone else's schedule?

[AJBangkok]

That's exactly right. With the exception of live news and sports internet based systems like Kodi and others allow disintermediation of the networks and cable companies from their content so you can watch what you want when you want.

I would say that even accessing "live" news and sports free is possible via Internet but there remains issues with the quality and consistency of delivery.

I cut off true visions a year ago and I have more viewing options today than I ever have had before.

[chilli42]

Other than sports, I have not watched regular TV or cable in years. It's all Netflix, Amaxon Prime and loads of other streaming options. The one thing that bothers me though is where will the money come from to underwrite and ultimately pay for new quality content? The music business has been destroyed by the Internet. I hated to pay the prices the record companies demanded but now that they, for the most part, are a ghost of the past the music business is a shambles and the content coming out has been diminished to banality and boy bands. I am not sure how this can be avoided in TV content as subscriber prices will be challenged to keep pace with production costs when there are no advertising revenues.

[AlQaholic]

The streaming sites available so far in Thailand are of too poor quality to be of any value, such as IlikeHD an expat TV, they are not really streaming in HD. I am using Kodi and can watch just about anything I want at any time I want entirely for free, but it requires a bit more in depth knowledge how to set up your android box. Although this is ideal for me my wife cannot get used to the idea but still needs True.

One element that is missing so far with internet streaming is you cannot just sit down and flip channels to see what's on, which is very convenient if you just want to sit down and relax for a while without any specific purpose. What I mean is, you know exactly where everything is on the remote, but with internet streaming sites it is different, you need to search for something specific. Also most news channels and many documentary channels are difficult to find on the internet as most streamers on the web focus on entertainment, movies and series.

[TheCruncher]

Hvaen't had cable tv for the past 20 years, and wouldn't accept it if it was for free, though I have watched everything I wanted to watch all those years.

[TheCruncher]

The streaming sites available so far in Thailand are of too poor quality to be of any value, such as IlikeHD an expat TV, they are not really streaming in HD. I am using Kodi and can watch just about anything I want at any time I want entirely for free, but it requires a bit more in depth knowledge how to set up your android box. Although this is ideal for me my wife cannot get used to the idea but still needs True.

One element that is missing so far with internet streaming is you cannot just sit down and flip channels to see what's on, which is very convenient if you just want to sit down and relax for a while without any specific purpose. What I mean is, you know exactly where everything is on the remote, but with internet streaming sites it is different, you need to search for something specific. Also most news channels and many documentary channels are difficult to find on the internet as most streamers on the web focus on entertainment, movies and series.

I guess you haven't heard about Ivue or Renegades tv guide then.

Also almost every news and documentary channel is available, so I don't know why you can't find them.

Name me a news channel, other that a local channel from somewhere in Alaska, that you can't find and I will send you a link.

[crickets]

Sophon has good movie channels but now have that inspire rubbish on all the time. Sports channels are 95% crap unless u like badminton or tennis. Online will be the go in about 1 year for me.

[hawker9000]

Other than sports, I have not watched regular TV or cable in years. It's all Netflix, Amaxon Prime and loads of other streaming options. The one thing that bothers me though is where will the money come from to underwrite and ultimately pay for new quality content? The music business has been destroyed by the Internet. I hated to pay the prices the record companies demanded but now that they, for the most part, are a ghost of the past the music business is a shambles and the content coming out has been diminished to banality and boy bands. I am not sure how this can be avoided in TV content as subscriber prices will be challenged to keep pace with production costs when there are no advertising revenues.

Some of the streaming services mentioned, e.g., Netflix, are becoming relatively prolific sources of original programming. There are too many truly popular new series to mention. The traditional cable TV providers are rightly concerned about those "cutting the cord" and simply abandoning their wildly overpriced subscriptions. Regional blocking may be holding back the feasibility of that here in Thailand, but with the possible exception of the Bridge Channel, these streaming services will be opening up in Thailand. (Netflix already has.).

[chicowoodduck]

I killed my tv long ago....nothing but rubbish on it so no great loss....???

[BORRISGOODENUF]

I agree, cable and satellite TV are old hat, history and generally not worth paying for. Using the Internet for my News and entertainment has been my choice for the last four years. I became really peeved paying to see the old and repeated programmes, mostly junk, full of commercial breaks, could watch only by the clock. So controlled. Watching all my sports programmes, movies and TV shows.

Internet has given me total freed

om of choice, ^{"LOVE IT"!}

[RIJoe]

What impact will the single gateway have?

[partington]

The problem for me is that I just don't like to watch smeary SD TV anymore. After 10 years of having ultra clear definition TV on every channel, watching SD just makes you focus on how bad the picture is, to the exclusion of being able to focus on the actual content. When you have a massive LD flat screen and what you can see on it reminds you of watching an old cathode ray tube 30 years ago in some dingy bedsit, it makes you feel a bit like your life is a failure...

Well not quite of course, but I agree with post #6 above: even with providers like ilikeHD that have servers inside Thailand there are only a half dozen or so truly 720p quality English language channels (though more have this label than the viewing quality suggests is justified), and the number of true 1080p English channels can be counted on the fingers of one hand with digits to spare.

With Kodi sources, I have found (admittedly in a very brief experience) that in this country reliably streaming 720p live TV is hardly possible. I only have 13Mbps internet, but upgrading it to what you might need would be expensive, and if I were doing that to watch TV, I would just use that money to pay for a cable service. I actually prefer the experience of clicking from channel to channel to see what's on, so I don't want or need access to 1500 poor quality TV channels, just 15 to 20 truly HD ones.

Also, with the international internet bottleneck here, I'm not sure you could rely on getting much more than ~4mbps to servers overseas and this might not be enough for the sort of picture I would like.

There's also the consideration that internet TV puts all your entertainment needs in one basket, and the internet here is not absolutely reliable. At least if the internet goes down cable is unlikely to simultaneously. So for me at the moment internet TV is a useful stopgap but not ideal.

I do have to say though, watching crappy TV pictures is a bit like being short sighted, you get used to it quickly and forget how much you can't see...

[AlQaholic]

thanks cruncher:) and by the way streaming HD just needs a little bit of bandwidth, like 2 - 3 MBps or so...

for TV guides I haven't even started to explore those, thought it was just another crap list of shit, will check it out...thx

[KittenKong]

I cancelled cable TV in my condo last year and have not renewed it this year. It only costs around 1000B a year but I simply never watch it so why pay?

[TheCruncher]

thanks cruncher:) and by the way streaming HD just needs a little bit of bandwidth, like 2 - 3 MBps or so...

for TV guides I haven't even started to explore those, thought it was just another crap list of shit, will check it out...thx

Both Renegades and even more Ivue are very decent guides, though they only provide the program guide automatically adjusted to your timezone, and you have to link each channel to your favorite stream

Each guide support certain addons, from which the channels will get automatically linked to the program, if you have those addons installed.

Well worth to check out.