By David Pierce
Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: I really like my
cable box.
I recently upgraded from one of those fusty old boxes to
Comcast's Xfinity X1 box, and the difference is insane. Rather than
remember hundreds of channel numbers, I just say, "the Warriors
game" into the voice-enabled remote and it jumps to the right
place. With one search, I can find content across live TV,
on-demand and even Netflix.
I know, I know. Talking about how great cable is in 2019 sounds
like bragging about my horse-drawn buggy in the age of the Model T.
The future of TV looks mostly like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and other
streaming services. But what we're discovering is, in this
cable-cut, streaming-dominated world, every set of shows we want to
watch comes with its own app, password and ever-increasing monthly
fee. Gee, it'd be great if someone could bundle all that content
together in one place! And maybe consolidate all my bills down to
one, and hand me a nice box to run it all. We could call it -- and
I'm just spitballing here -- "cable."
We don't need to displace cable, we need to improve it. The
cable companies are working to do exactly that, updating everything
from their confusing and predatory pricing to their miserably
outdated boxes themselves. Thanks to newfound competition from
Apple and Amazon, Roku and Android, and every streaming service you
can think of -- not to mention Verizon, AT&T and even T-Mobile
-- this could be Big Cable's last best chance to sell you TV. It's
forcing companies to finally ditch the blue TV Guide and bring the
cable experience into the modern era.
Besides, cable companies do still have one ace up their sleeve:
They're still the most popular, and often most affordable, way to
get fast internet, something all those streaming services
require.
The Walking Dead
The longstanding way of getting television -- call your cable
provider, rent a box, two-year contract -- is hugely popular and
rapidly dying. According to Nielsen, of the 5 hours and 24 minutes
the average adult spends watching video, a full 4 hours and 13
minutes is spent on live and recorded TV. But viewing on other
devices, like phones and streaming boxes, is rising fast while
standard TV watching declines. Millions of people are canceling
cable and finding other ways to while away the hours.
It's not hard to see why people would flee cable, either.
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon offer lots of content on
demand, rather than forcing you to tune in to a specific channel at
a specific time. They work across all your screens, not just on
your living-room TV.
But streaming has its issues. You have to manage a Rolodex of
usernames and passwords, and remember to pay (or cancel) all those
different bills. If you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime,
HBO and Showtime, your monthly cost is around $60, and you'd still
need to pay extra for broadband internet -- and most any live TV
you might want to watch.
As for live TV, a growing number of cable-replacement services
do add in core live channels. But although I particularly like
YouTube TV's live offering, it has raised prices, along with some
of its top competitors, so it's no longer the deal it once was.
Then there's that ever-present dilemma of streaming TV: finding
something to watch. You open Netflix and browse for a while, then
close it and open HBO Now only to do the same before hitting Amazon
Prime and Hulu and Tubi. Before you know it, you've spent your
movie-watching window staring at thumbnails. I don't care what Tim
Cook says: The future of TV is not apps. It's TV.
In Living Color
All this brings me back to my handy Xfinity X1 box, with its
surprisingly fast performance and usable interface. (OK, fine, the
bar for "handy cable box" is pretty low.) In addition to Comcast's
live and on-demand TV, it offers content from Netflix, Amazon
Prime, YouTube and others. When I search for "The Office," I can
see everything on live TV, on Comcast's on-demand platform and on
various streaming services from a single menu.
Most of the time, I search by speaking into the voice-enabled
remote that Comcast and other providers now offer, which takes all
the work out of flipping channels. The X1 doesn't include all my
streaming services -- I particularly miss Hulu -- but it's still
the biggest content library I have.
For years, the most frustrating thing about cable was that it
worked only in your home, only on whatever TVs you had hooked up to
special boxes. Now, most cable companies offer apps that let you
access all your movies and shows on your phone, tablet or PC. You
can also log into many channels' apps with your cable credentials.
"Any piece of glass that can render video was something we had to
build our products for, and ultimately give customers the choice,"
said Matt Strauss, Comcast's executive vice president for
Xfinity.
But this part is still not good enough: Thanks to longstanding
rights deals, some shows aren't available when you're not at home,
and I can't believe how many sports games are blacked out on my
phone. Also, as someone paying a ton of money for cable, it's
shocking how many ads I have to sit through when watching TV on
these apps.
For cable subscribers, the good news is that you can finally get
a huge selection of content and watch it anywhere, using much nicer
products than anything cable companies offered before. The
operators are even working on solving cable's single worst feature:
billing. "[Users] want to understand the price, and they don't want
to be surprised by fees," said Mr. Strauss. His company hasn't,
however, changed anything yet.
In general, we're getting the better bundle we always wanted.
But it might still be too late for Big Cable. "The cable bundle is
re-forming, not via cable, but from Amazon and Apple," said Matthew
Ball, an industry analyst and venture capitalist. Apple, Amazon,
Roku and others are rapidly getting into the channel-bundling
business, offering many of the same search and discovery features
plus the same one-bill simplicity.
Apple and Amazon are not offering us home broadband service,
though. Don't be surprised to see cheaper, simpler TV bundles from
cable providers purely as an incentive to keep you paying for that
high-speed internet -- plus all the other lucrative services they
now offer, such as security and smart-home systems.
But also don't be surprised when, in just a few years, your
wireless carrier or favorite tech company tries to sell you some
great bundles of its own. No strings -- or at least cables --
attached.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 21, 2019 09:14 ET (13:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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