Fall is upon us and perhaps you are shifting to watching TV shows again. Perhaps you have bought a new TV. Perhaps you have received invitations and presentations about all the new channels and technology that's available.
Alternately, you may be like our house - large enough TV, happy with a limited number of channels and wanting to simply watch a few favourite programs. We watch about 15 hours of TV per week, a lot on weekends when Knowledge Network brings on the dramas.
Well, change is afoot. If a Delta Cable customer, you are being invited to throw out that old technology and go for High Definition TV (HDTV). Of course, that requires a new "box" and added costs. But just think, they can offer
you 165 channels! Last January I got a letter telling me about all the improvements that will be coming. Frankly, the only thing that changed was a 13 per cent increase in cable fees.
Fear not, the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (better known as the CRTC) has just conducted hearings about where TV is going, and one suggestion is the call for a "Skinny Basic" package, along with letting you and I choose which channels we want beyond that.
This hearing and its subsequent rulings will affect you regardless if you get TV from Delta, Shaw or Telus, all of which are regulated by the CRTC.
Some hope this will reduce the cost of basic cable, while at least some suppliers say many specialty channels will be cancelled. Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper weighed in recently hoping for pick-and-pay TV, saying, "[Let] Canadians chose to pay for the TV channels they actually want."
Many say the process won't be that different and costs will not decrease.
More fundamental change is
happening, and fast. Cable TV subscribers are decreasing, Pay TV, which was growing, is now declining. And, imagine, fewer homes have TVs!
All of this is due to folks, especially younger folks, watching what they want on their computers, tablets and smart phones. Netflix has now grown so much that up to 40 per cent of prime time Internet traffic is taken by its programs! Accompanying this is the disappearance of the traditional wired phone line. In Canada, over 40 per cent have already abandoned the old phone from Telus or Bell, and another 49 per cent plan to do so - all to convert to cellular phones.
As for me? Not long ago I spoke with Telus about being offered a deal on my home phone. Like magic, the $40 per month phone bill went to $10. We have two residences where we need to deal with all of this. We will eliminate cable in one in favour of computersourced programs found on the Internet. In our other place will be a new smart TV that will be wirelessly connected to the Internet to provide the programs we want.
Bye bye, cable TV!
