Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, etc.

I knew you'd know the answer to that.  It's great having you around, I can be lazy and not do any research to back up my statements and you can come in and clean it up for me.  

Doomsday Dracula @dukeleto frankyt iverdawg Seakazoo SnoBorderZero FShuttari thebtskink Wyldstaar

www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/07/us-paytv-poll-idUSKBN0NS28D20150507

77 percent of Americans prefer a la carte to bundles, 54 percent don't want ESPN, 47 percent don't want cable news nets

A vast majority of Americans would prefer to assemble their own pay TV channels rather than subscribe to packages that include dozens or hundreds of networks, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found in a challenge to traditional television distribution.

Seventy-seven percent of U.S. adults said they would like "a la carte pricing" which would allow consumers to pick their own channels. Only 23 percent said they would prefer bundles. (For a graphic see reut.rs/1H4mLdK).

Media companies and distributors that provide satellite, broadband and cable services are struggling to find ways to keep viewers from ditching traditional subscriptions and attract a younger generation, which sees less need for a cable subscription and watches on computers and mobile devices.

"I pay for a lot of channels that are not of interest to me," said poll respondent Charles Bourque, 63, who lives in Manchester, New Hampshire.

He does not want the Russian and Spanish networks that he gets as a Comcast subscriber, paying north of $200 a month. He does not speak either language.

Verizon tested the waters for a product offering more customization last month when it rolled out a Custom TV plan with 36 fixed channels and the choice of adding small bundles related to sports, children or news. That was seen as a step toward a la carte.

Twenty-First Century Fox and Comcast's NBC Universal both said the offer violates the terms of their contracts that allow Verizon to carry their programming.

Walt Disney's ESPN took the same stance and launched a lawsuit against Verizon, claiming the distributor breached the terms of their deal.

A Verizon spokeswoman declined to share details on subscriber numbers and the type of users signing up for FiOS Custom TV, which is aimed at millennials and cord cutters. She said that the Reuters/Ipsos poll results validated the rationale for launching Custom TV.

ESPN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The survey found few willing to pay more than about $10 per channel. The poll found 40 percent would pay up to $10 a month for sports network ESPN, while 46 percent are willing to do the same with news networks such as CNN, MSNBC or Fox News.

The percentage of people who will pay up to $30 a month for either ESPN or news networks was 4 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

A 54 percent majority do not want ESPN, while 47 percent said they do not want cable news networks.

Adam Smith, a 27-year-old who lives in Ludington, Michigan, said he would prefer to choose channels and pay $70 a month or less per month. He pays over $100 a month for his Dish Network subscription.

The online poll was conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Reuters from May 1 through May 6 with a sample of 1,680 Americans age 18 or older. The Reuters/Ipsos poll's accuracy is gauged using a statistical measure called a credibility interval. In this case, the poll results are accurate within plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

Eh screw cable. They have bent us over for too long. I have no bad feeling at all when I stream all my shows online for free. They knew they were screwing us and continue to do so by not offering a la carte service. Only after enough people complain and sign shitty online petitions and finally cut the cord, will they offer it and it will be hugely overpriced.

Maybe if they started a la carte offerings a decade ago, I would think differently but at this point I do not see myself ever paying for cable again.

The thing is, I think that outside of maybe a dozen prestige shows, most of what people watch on cable is bullshit that they run into while channel surfing rather than stuff they'd actually seek out and order channels for.  Take Scripps Networks Interactive for example.  They're the ones behind HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, and The Travel Channel.  No one in their right mind is going to go out of their way to spend money on that bundle, and yet all of those channels are really successful because people get bored on Saturdays and end up watching Chopped marathons.  That's the thing about cable, there's a lot of stuff on it that people don't think they want but end up watching anyway and will probably miss when it's gone.

They still give out Showtime like candy.  Every time I call Comcast to complain about something they give me 3 free months of showtime to make up for the trouble... speaking of which, I better make sure I have something to complain about when Homeland comes back...

As someone who did lots of channel surfing before I cut the cord, I freely admit watching lots of stuff I wouldn't ordinarily seek out.  When I did cut the cord, I missed being able to just pick up the remote and scan through countless channels until something caught my eye.  After two weeks, I got used to it and didn't miss it anymore.

I tried surfing my local channels last month and discovered that we have a Chinese channel here. 

Indeed. They will become Internet companies and we'll be bitching about other things.

It was always a great day of science class when 30 minutes of it were taken up by Bill Nye. Those were the days.

I watched both. Saw Beakman at a live show once. I remember it being pretty fun.

Netflix is beta testing a new interface

bgr.com/2015/05/20/netflix-movies-interface-design-changes-testing

Netflix is nothing short of a game-changer when it comes to home entertainment. It certainly wasn't the first service to begin streaming movies and TV shows to our homes, but there’s no question that Netflix led the charge, and continues to lead the charge, in terms of popularizing home streaming and changing the way we consume movies and TV series.

Of course, that hardly means the service is perfect. In fact, there are some things that are flat-out annoying about Netflix. Subscribers will be excited to learn that there are some changes brewing on the company’s website though, and we now have our first look at the upcoming redesign.

Back in March, we told you about a nifty little tweak we thought everyone who uses Netflix on a computer should know about. In a nutshell the “God Mode” tweak does away with the horribly annoying carousels and fans out all of the thumbnails on netflix.com, allowing the user to see all available content instead of having to scroll through a slow, choppy animation.

Well, it looks like Netflix is fully aware of how much we all hate its carousels, and the company is currently testing a new interface that finally does away with them.

A number of lucky Netflix users have been given early access to a substantial overhaul of Netflix’s website interface. Users were seemingly chosen at random, and the new interface they’re now seeing is far more sleek than the old UI. More importantly, the dreaded content carousels are gone, replaced by a better layout that fills the screen with details in each section rather than forcing users to deal with slow-scrolling carousels.

If you want to see as much content as possible on a single screen, the God Mode tweak is still your best bet. Netflix’s new UI is a big step in the right direction though, and it definitely enhances the browsing experience.

Sadly, there’s not yet any word on when the new interface will become available to all users.