Do people still watch satellite TV these days

[EarDemon]

What do you mean by geo?

 

[telstar_1]

The only reason I have satellite TV and satellite internet is for back up when the power goes out. Which happens more than it should in my area because NYSEG (and RG&E) suck. With winter storms it's not uncommon to go days without power. But yet let's put all of all of our eggs in one basket and shove electric cars down our throats and ban new natural gas hookups.

Traditional Spectrum TV is my preferred method for TV watching, I love it! I have everything and the best of everything (except for Cinemax and the foreign channels), with DirecTV I had a subscription to Premier for the longest time but dropped down to Entertainment a few years ago. I just prefer Spectrum in every way and don't care for DirecTV at all, except for the dependance on local utility power.

Between DirecTV as backup for TV and HughesNet for backup internet and phone, I'm paying around $250/month.

Spectrum includes all of the ad supported versions of the streaming apps and I get 'free' Netflix with T-Mobile. I have no interest to stream, the King of the Hill revival was the first thing I streamed in probably 6 months. Before that it was the Pepsi Jet special on Netflix sometime last year.

The only way I may get rid of DirecTV is if the speeds on HughesNet have improved enough and I go from my old grandfathered plan to Elite and it can support streaming during a multi day power outage event.

Couldn't you do something like starlink and ditch all other ISP and linear tv?

 

[dtv757]

Love my DirecTV . Im a sports fan so love all the sports on DirecTV

I get dodgers and red sox games in 4k too .

A lot of folks left for YTTV but they dont have RSNs or MLB network... (or NHL or NBA network)

I get Monumental too for mystics and ️spirit games YTTV just dropped Monumental.

Hopefully one day ill get fios /fiber broadband and have reliable home internet!

 

[navychop]

What do you mean by geo?

Geostationary orbit. About 22,000 miles up. ~500 milliseconds round trip, IIRC. Noticeable delay. Fine for one way communications, such as video. Not so good for two way. Intolerable for serious gaming.

 

[John2021]

If the only thing you use the internet for is TV then count it. But if you use it for anything else don't count it. Do you count your electric bill or your food bill? You can't watch TV without electricity and you would die if you didn't eat food.

AGREE! funny how most count it though

 

[John2021]

Us old geezer still watch sat TV

 

[NYDutch]

Us old geezer still watch sat TV

Not this 82 year old geezer! All streaming here now, with no intentions of going back to sat.

 

[Bruce]

A lot of folks left for YTTV but they dont have RSNs or MLB network... (or NHL or NBA network)

I get Monumental too for mystics and ️spirit games YTTV just dropped Monumental.

You do know, that RSNs receives extremely low ratings, the majority just do not care about them.

Along with, YouTube TV now has more subscribers than all of DirecTV ( including uverse, Satellite, Internet).

YTTV-10 Million

DirecTV-8.8 Million

The NBCU and TelevisaUnivision disputes followed battles earlier this year pitting Paramount Global and Fox Corp. against YouTube TV, which has hit 10 million subscribers since its 2017 launch.

In YouTube TV Carriage Battles, Media Companies Say Tech Giant Is After Their Streaming Lunch Money

YouTube TV has clashed with NBCUniversal and other programmers by demanding to "ingest" streaming programming into its user interface.

deadline.com

DIRECTV's video subscriber base is the third largest traditional multi-channel video programming distributor (MVPD) in the U.S. with about 8.8 million subscribers at the end of 2Q25.

https://www.fitchratings.com/research/corporate-finance/fitch-rates-directv-proposed-senior-secured-debt-offering-bbb-rr1-11-09-2025

 

[b4pjoe]

AGREE! funny how most count it though

It is just like Amazon Prime. I have it for the shipping and hardly watch any video from it so I don't count it as part of my streaming costs because I would have it even if I never streamed anything else.

 

[NYDutch]

It is just like Amazon Prime. I have it for the shipping and hardly watch any video from it so I don't count it as part of my streaming costs because I would have it even if I never streamed anything else.

Same here... Prime more than pays for itself in savings on shipping. Any of the other features we use from time to time are just bonuses. Last year our Amazon shipping costs would have been a bit over a thousand dollars without Prime. We also have a Walmart+ membership. While the shipping savings isn't quite as much as Prime, having the bulk of our grocery shopping and other purchases delivered to our door is well worth it to us.

 

[brice52]

Same here... Prime more than pays for itself in savings on shipping. Any of the other features we use from time to time are just bonuses. Last year our Amazon shipping costs would have been a bit over a thousand dollars without Prime. We also have a Walmart+ membership. While the shipping savings isn't quite as much as Prime, having the bulk of our grocery shopping and other purchases delivered to our door is well worth it to us.

I also use Prime for shipping and costs of Prime is far less the shipping costs would be. We also stream Prime Video, our household (ages 80, 73, 46) just stream what we want. Most of new programming is a turn off for us

 

[John2021]

It is just like Amazon Prime. I have it for the shipping and hardly watch any video from it so I don't count it as part of my streaming costs because I would have it even if I never streamed anything else.

Same here

 

[savarese04]

shove electric cars down our throats

I don't kink shame, but I truly don't get people's constant usage of this analogy.

I get dodgers and red sox games in 4k too .

Is this really 4k? It looks pretty good bc the bitrate is better, but i thought it was just upscaled 720p feeds?

I don't count it as part of my streaming costs because I would have it even if I never streamed anything else.

Ditto.

 

[dtv757]

Yes dodgers and red Sox and sometimes white sox home games (regular season ) are 4K

 

[dtv757]

Re Bruce/RSN

I was writing why I love my DirecTV.

Totally get YTTV cauae of billion dollar NFL spike in subs.

I dont watch billion dollar NFL any more stopped watching when they left DIRECTV.

"Most people" watch nfl I dont . I follow MLB and Wnba. I dont care what the masses do.

I love my DirecTV so I was posting reasons why I still keep it. Along with great customer service and discounts .

 

[dtv757]

Re NESN 4k

NESN Unveils Brand-New Studio Optimized For 4K Viewing - NESN.com

New England Sports Network (NESN) unveiled a brand-new studio space that will debut ahead of the Boston Bruins' season opener.

nesn.com

 

[savarese04]

Re NESN 4k

NESN Unveils Brand-New Studio Optimized For 4K Viewing - NESN.com

New England Sports Network (NESN) unveiled a brand-new studio space that will debut ahead of the Boston Bruins' season opener.

nesn.com

yes - ESPN famously has a 4k studio too. I'm curious if the games are show in native 4k though. I thought they get downsampled to some version of HD and then re-upscaled to 4k. Someone else can confirm.

Note: I am not saying they don't look much better than the standard HD version - they do.

 

[dtv757]

Espn use to do native 4K but ur right now they do upscale

 

[Bruce]

Yes dodgers and red Sox and sometimes white sox home games (regular season ) are 4K

The LA Dodger and White Sox games are up scaled from 1080P.

Red Sox and Bruins are Native 4K.