After an almost two year experiment, Business Insider’s Dan Frommer has plugged himself back in to the cable TV ecosystem. He explains why in an editorial over at AdAge and, of course, on his own Business Insider column.
Frommer was an early cord cutter, taking an early leap into the “Hulu Household” domain. I took a more practical – albeit certainly more expensive – approach. I watched as much as I could online, but knew damn well that I wasn’t ready to give up all the perks of cable. Despite having a tricked out HTPC / Media Center, the cable companies still have a stranglehold on high-def content.
So for anyone who shelled out the $1500+ for a new HDTV in the past year or two, you ‘ll be underwhelmed when streaming standard def content on to it. Other than students living in dorms, and urban dwellers in 250 square foot apartments, there’s still too much to give up by cutting the cord completely.
Dan mentioned Major League Baseball’s MLB.TV subscription service, and sings it praise. But even with 6 games on the screen at once, and keeping all of your fantasy baseball scores and stats in front of you, its still no match for high def. Same for the NHL. Once you’ve seen hockey on TV as clearly as you do in real life, there’s no going back. Funny thing – people actually like being able to see the puck on screen. Who knew?
But cable companies should not rest on their laurels just because they won back a major influencer like Dan. He also calls on the cable companies to fix their damn user interfaces, and I couldn’t agree with him more. VOD on Cablevision flat out sucks. And the way you have to scroll alphabetically through hundreds of listings to find a program should be embarrassing for them. And, while I’m bitching, Cablevision isn’t playing the TV Everywhere game with the Olympics. (Thanks for calling me back, @jimmaiella
So, welcome back to the wired world, Dan. Its still to soon to go all-or-nothing, but it sure is fun having Boxee, Hulu, Netflix, Fancast, and even Windows Media Center to play with. But its also nice to kick back on the couch and watch a movie in high def on HBO or a game on HBO. Until you can clearly watch a 100mph Jonathan Papelbon fastball over broadband, I guess we’re stuck ponying up for cable.