The end of sat. TV?

[GordonThree]

AT&T just launched its "last" television satellite...

AT&T’s top boss, chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson, (during a meeting) “We’re kind of done.”

ATT declares the end

Pushing their new DirectTV Now service, it smells to me like they're passing the buck. Instead of having to pay huge bills to fly a new bird every few years, and run the ground uplink stations, they can pass the buck onto us consumers; we will pay for the transport, either through wireless service or direct connect internet.

[RobWNY]

I need something more than an antenna. I get two OTR Channels where I live. Both are some obscure religious channels. I've never seen them in our cable lineup or satellite when we had it. I have no idea where they originate from but I'm assuming very local since I can't pick up any channels broadcast out of the two closest cities to me (Erie, PA and Buffalo, NY). When I said I want my local channels, I meant the Buffalo, NY and Erie, PA affiliates for ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. Sure I can get those networks using another solution while I'm away but if I'm 1,000 miles from home, I'm not going to be watching those local affiliates. I'll be watching some other feed. Basically, I just want Buffalo, NY and Erie, PA News, Weather and Sports while I'm 1,000 miles away. I'm not aware of a setup that's capable of that.

[joebedford]

For me, I rarely watch "network TV". Nothing I want to see (except Survivor). My tuner is 99% on specialty channels. Only 2 OTA channels here and no cable - I live in the boonies. Sat. is the only option.

[GordonThree]

Only PBS and ABC over the air here. I'm not going to build a tower and antenna array to grab fox, CBS and NBC. I get some NBC and fox through Hulu. CBS just doesn't exist for me

Not everyone has good OTA, just like cell service or anything else wireless.

[timmac]

RobWNY wrote:
I want my local channels and the only way I can get those channels is with Cable or Satellite at my house. I am far enough away from where they broadcast from that OTR isn't an option. When I'm out of the broadcast area, forget it. When Youtube TV or Cell phone Streams or a Sling/Roku setup lets me get the local stations I like then I'm all in. I hate having to pay the big bucks to get what I want while others who aren't interested in local channels save a lot of money. I'm being punished for being old and liking what I like.

You can get your local channels with a antenna without cable/satellite, on the road you use your antenna to get local channels in that area, you can also watch your local news on the road thru wifi on YouTube, here in Vegas we can watch news 13 and news 8 thru YouTube without commercials anywhere there is internet....


Internet TV is expanding daily while cable/satellite TV is dying daily..

[RobWNY]

I want my local channels and the only way I can get those channels is with Cable or Satellite at my house. I am far enough away from where they broadcast from that OTR isn't an option. When I'm out of the broadcast area, forget it. When Youtube TV or Cell phone Streams or a Sling/Roku setup lets me get the local stations I like then I'm all in. I hate having to pay the big bucks to get what I want while others who aren't interested in local channels save a lot of money. I'm being punished for being old and liking what I like.

[GordonThree]

oops just read the last sentence

[Mickeyfan0805]

2oldman wrote:
Without local recording, streaming would be a 'gotcha'.

Yes. At least for YouTube TV (what we have), it is not a DVR in the sense of a cable or satellite DVR. What you have is a 'library' of selected shows to which you have access. That library includes all episodes that have aired since you added it to your library (often many more than are available on the OnDemand option). In most cases, you are still able to fast forward shows that are in your library, but a few of the major networks (CBS, for example) require you to watch commercials. For us, watching commercials on some networks is a price we are willing to pay for the respective savings.

That said, you are correct that there is no local media involved. This is a streaming service. If you do not have access to high speed internet, you will not have access to any of your shows, and there is no download option.

[GordonThree]

2oldman wrote:
Without local recording, streaming would be a 'gotcha'.

Agreed ... I would expect, but need someone with the subscription to confirm, you can download your Google recordings to a secure device (tablet or phone, not laptop), for offline viewing.

I wish AT&T would allow that for it's streaming products.

[2oldman]

Without local recording, streaming would be a 'gotcha'.

[GordonThree]

2oldman wrote:

jerem0621 wrote:
And we get unlimited DVR. Works great and no, I’m not even thinking about going back.

What do you record on?

From my brief research, two things could happen. It either records to the cloud (Google's storage somewhere) or more likely, you get a access to view an already recorded on-demand version, that has commercials baked in.

[2oldman]

jerem0621 wrote:
And we get unlimited DVR. Works great and no, I’m not even thinking about going back.

What do you record on?

[2oldman]

Sandia Man wrote:
Well, I am not going to worry about it until it actually happens which could be a few years anyway.

Could be a lot of years...if there's enough folks like me who record stuff.

[Sandia_Man]

Well, I am not going to worry about it until it actually happens which could be a few years anyway. I have been switching back and forth for well over a decade between Dish and Directv to take advantage of promotional pricing and find they have the same channels with very few exceptions.

Currently with Dish due to the fact that Directv does not carry some specific sports programming since ATT took over. I doubt Dish has any future plans of going out of the sat tv business, and they are so much more RV friendly than Directv has ever been, can easily get local channels wherever we go through Dish chat on my smart phone.

[Mickeyfan0805]

GordonThree wrote:
edit: OK, the provider is YouTube TV ... which is an add on for regular Youtube. Had my confused there 😉

Correct - $40/m subscription service (at least for now).

[2Rad4U]

Youtube TV has the Smithsonian channel. I never had that with cable!