Who Killed the Great American Cable-TV Bundle?

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This. I’ve been saying this all along. It’s just like the newspaper industry. Instead of cutting costs elsewhere or trying to produce a better product, or (heaven forbid) the CEO take a pay cut, they just keep jacking up the price for the remaining customers until they go out of business. I call that insanity, not sustainability!
 
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This. I’ve been saying this all along. It’s just like the newspaper industry. Instead of cutting costs elsewhere or trying to produce a better product, or (heaven forbid) the CEO take a pay cut, they just keep jacking up the price for the remaining customers until they go out of business. I call that insanity, not sustainability!
And this what burns me up about the so called "free market".............Its all about profits over people.....
 
This. I’ve been saying this all along. It’s just like the newspaper industry. Instead of cutting costs elsewhere or trying to produce a better product, or (heaven forbid) the CEO take a pay cut, they just keep jacking up the price for the remaining customers until they go out of business. I call that insanity, not sustainability!

As someone who worked in the newspaper industry from 2004-2016, I can say definitively that many, many costs were cut. Also, many, many CEOs lost their jobs (in addition to a lot of other people). The biggest problem I saw, to your point about better products, was they got rid of journalists based on seniority, and not ability to deliver quality products, so instead of a mix of new and existing employees of high quality, they had a bunch of long-time employees of varying quality. Also, they treated the Internet like a hobby instead of a new line of business from day one. At least at the company I worked for, the cost of the printed paper was the cost of printing it and delivering it to you. Revenue continues to come primarily from advertising, not circulation.

As for cable/satellite companies, the continued cost increases are not sustainable, and I think they know that. The hard part will be managing the transition to the new paradigm, and, in that way, yes, it is very similar to newspapers. AT&T and Dish are certainly trying out different things to stay on top of whatever the future model is.
 
And this what burns me up about the so called "free market".............Its all about profits over people.....

I call a free market is keeping what you have earned and not being regulated or taxed to death. Hence people over government. Have you seen how horrible people have it in socialist and communist countries? Once you try them for a while, you’ll be wanting capitalism back! There is a reason people all over the rest of the world try to come to the US and not any other country.


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As someone who worked in the newspaper industry from 2004-2016, I can say definitively that many, many costs were cut. Also, many, many CEOs lost their jobs (in addition to a lot of other people). The biggest problem I saw, to your point about better products, was they got rid of journalists based on seniority, and not ability to deliver quality products, so instead of a mix of new and existing employees of high quality, they had a bunch of long-time employees of varying quality. Also, they treated the Internet like a hobby instead of a new line of business from day one. At least at the company I worked for, the cost of the printed paper was the cost of printing it and delivering it to you. Revenue continues to come primarily from advertising, not circulation.

As for cable/satellite companies, the continued cost increases are not sustainable, and I think they know that. The hard part will be managing the transition to the new paradigm, and, in that way, yes, it is very similar to newspapers. AT&T and Dish are certainly trying out different things to stay on top of whatever the future model is.
Newspapers died when the internet gave classified ads away for free

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Not. Newspapers died when news became so readily available 24/7 on TV and the internet that by the time the paper was printed it was "old news".
No..newspapers printed all the facts and gave details...tv news just a 2 minute story..internet news is mostly bs..it sad to see 200 year old papers die

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Ergen relevant since Echostar was first conceived. He has pulled a rabbit out of his out several times over the years as he did with Sling, and that's why I can't bet against something happening with the spectrum he owns. (My all time favorite F U is when he actually made getting Distants easier when he worked around the FCC who said DISH could not offer them at all and did so for several years)
 
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Ergen relevant since Echostar was first conceived. He has pulled a rabbit out of his out several times over the years as he did with Sling, and that's why I can't bet against something happening with the spectrum he owns. (My all time favorite F U is when he actually made getting Distants easier when he worked around the FCC who said DISH could not offer them at all and did so for several years)
Spectrum has to be built out


Maybe a Google deal

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Newspapers died when the internet gave classified ads away for free

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A few did, but most are still around, although the printed paper is no longer the focus. The ones that have survived are now digital news media outlets, and the good ones get people to subscribe online. I still trust online newspapers for my news way more than any cable or network news show. Reading is also good for your brain, unlike watching people argue on TV.
 
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newspapers printed all the facts

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You mean the facts they want you to read. I still read the newspaper, except I read it online. I'm not saying that the switch to online and cable news outlets is a good thing, just saying that is what killed the printed newspaper. Loss of Classifieds was not the primary reason for their demise. Advertising was a result of subscriptions, not the cause.
 
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A few did, but most are still around, although the printed paper is no longer the focus. The ones that have survived are now digital news media outlets, and the good ones get people to subscribe online. I still trust online newspapers for my news way more than any cable or network news show. Reading is also good for your brain, unlike watching people argue on TV.
I remember the 15 cent newspapers packed with ads in the late 1980's

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You mean the facts they want you to read. I still read the newspaper, except I read it online. I'm not saying that the switch to online and cable news outlets is a good thing, just saying that is what killed the printed newspaper. Loss of Classifieds was not the primary reason for their demise. Advertising was a result of subscriptions, not the cause.
Most newspapers buried the facts in the articles..online is just a brief synopsys

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Most newspapers buried the facts in the articles..online is just a brief synopsys

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Well, yes and no. In the good old days, print papers had standards that varied depending on the editor's whims, and a lot of them, depending on how important they considered the story, would determine how much word salad you had to get through to get to the meat of the article. When they first started online news publishing, the stories were often edited down versions of the print stories, and often the result was not great -- the brief synopsis as you mentioned.

Now, stories are written for the internet first, and they are written in a more succinct style in general, and they are expanded as needed, usually with additional detail that online readers wouldn't actually read, for print after the fact. A lot of online stories don't see more than a cursory glance from an editor as well, and they get updated multiple times before making it to print. The story might start out as a brief synopsis, but by the end of the life of the story, it can be as detailed as anything that shows up in print. It is just a very different model.
 
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