Ranting On...DirecTV, HBO Go, and My Future Life Without Cable

This morning, possibly the best news that anyone who enjoys and watches television could have possibly experienced occurred: HBO Go, the holy grail of online cable websites, will begin to be offered next year as a standalone service, available for people who don't have a cable subscription.  Already it seems to have set off a set of seismic waves, hitting Netflix's stock prices (though that may in part be because the Dow has gone insane in the past couple of weeks), and causing all of us to really question the value we place on the insanely expensive prices we pay for cable each month.

I had a double dose of cable issues today that made me particularly re-examine my thoughts.  As I mentioned this morning, I have been ill for the past couple of days, and as a result, have been using my cable services more than usual.  I will admit that I don't spend a lot of time on my cable or watching television-I frequently will watch some Comedy Central Adult Swim before bed (though it's mostly background noise), will catch up on broadcast shows and the like during the week, and of course will watch my HBO religiously, but by-and-large I don't really watch as much television off of cable as I used to do.  I blame it in part on the shorter television seasons, my decreased love of broadcast or current television programs, and the fact that I have a pretty extensive TV on DVD collection (not to mention Netflix) that I will watch continually.

However, this morning my DVR/receiver decided randomly to stop working, and the people at DirecTV had absolutely no ways to fix it.  Gone were all of the dozens of movies I had recorded in hopes of watching them for the OVP (probably about sixty of them, all told).  Gone were the season passes, the random PBS specials I had recorded, the past seasons of Suits that I was still trying to catch up on.  Gone were the next few days of access to the next episode of Gracepoint (not available On Demand) or Modern Family this evening.  And what did I get in return from DirecTV?  Nothing.  No explanation as to why this happened (why is there even a screen that says "trying to reboot" if it's basically just a way to placate the customers?).  No reimbursement like you'd receive if your flight got cancelled.  And of course, they couldn't even think of a way to help me keep the programs that I had on my DVR, not even remotely feeling bad about it.

And to add a cherry to this crummy sundae, they had the gaul to try and charge me a shipping fee to get the new equipment.  At this point, my Minnesota niceness evaporated into a series of anger.  I have been running a fever off-and-on for two days, my nose was red from going through two boxes of Kleenex in the same amount of time, and my head was still a bit sore from the cascade of sinus headaches I've been enduring.  I was not going to spend $22 for a fault with their equipment.  So, like any disgruntled customer calling a cable company (I do occasionally feel bad for the people on the other end, who must suffer from esteem issues from being yelled at all the time...though I also have to think that if they did a better job with customer service they wouldn't have so many problems, so it's a bit of a wash), I threatened to cut the cord.  After showing that I was serious about this, they quickly waived the fee, mailed my new equipment, and I hung up the phone, knowing that my string of Spencer Tracy and Barbara Stanwyck movies were lost until TCM decided to air them again.

The problem with the cable business model, at least from a consumer's standpoint, has been that there are no proper alternatives.  Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon are starting to change that, but in the meantime, if you want to watch a program live or near live, you have to have a cable subscription.  Additionally, thanks to contracts that Netflix, Hulu, and the like have with different companies, we aren't quite at the point yet that where we are able to see all of the programs we want on the same service, while avoiding the horrid customer service and expensive business model of cable television.  People want the convenience of cable and don't want to have to bundle-there must be a way around this, but so far no one has had the business incentive to come up with it.

Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies

However, this is the straw that broke the camel's back, at least for me, and I have a feeling this is a trend more and more people are willing to consider.  The reality is that I truly don't watch a particularly robust lineup of channels.  With Mad Men soon to be off the air, the only cable channels I watch original programming with any sense of regularity and urgency are HBO, Turner Classic Movies, and the Food Network.  Sure, I sometimes tune in to Suze Orman (though her program itself has become more about having stupid people on and teaching them a lesson than giving her longtime viewers genuine advice ala the Monologue), I like CNN on Election Night (but that's only once every two years, and I stop watching if my party is losing), and would admittedly miss South Park and The Daily Show (though both you can see pretty easily online).  The reality is that I get better news from news websites than CNN or MSNBC could possibly provide, I am willing to put up with the occasional commercials if it means cutting costs pretty severely by watching broadcast shows online.  Inevitably someone like FX or AMC will come up with another show that I'm interested in catching, but honestly-I can wait at this point for the show to be on Netflix if it means saving $70-80 a month and not dealing with the cable monopoly.

No, the only three networks that I really want to enjoy are HBO, the Food Network, and Turner Classic Movies.  HBO Go being on streaming solves a third of that problem, and quite frankly, the Food Network isn't worth the price of admission to me for cable, though I do watch it regularly, would miss it, and would investigate an HBO Go-style situation if it was cost efficient and had all of the back catalog of episodes.  That leaves only TCM standing in my way.  For me, Turner Classic Movies is a lifeline.  As I've written about before, Netflix streaming is not a good substitute for movies-the content is too limited, particularly when it comes to classic movies.  I'm actually a bit surprised that Turner Classic Movies hasn't expanded into a streaming service of some sort-there has to be a pretty healthy appetite for it amongst classic film fans (particularly older consumers who might not be as into the idea of Orange is the New Black, but are savvy enough to know that they'd like something like this in retirement), and it certainly would continue to put pressure on Netflix, which is sort of Time Warner's raison d'etre lately (that's really who the HBO Go launch is targeting).

In the meantime, though, I'll be watching with calculated eyes whether or not I could live without Turner Classic Movies and their treasure trove of films, as I am done with cable.  This is too much-you cannot run an industry where you essentially charge people for things they don't want or use, punish them with excessive fees for your faulty equipment and make them wait hours on end while you take your sweet time to show up and solve an issue or fix a problem.  When you make even the airline industry look good by comparison, you know you have become a major pain in the ass.  So DirecTV, I look forward to the day when I can call and cancel my subscription.