[Axe77]

Originally Posted by carboy

The reason I still have cable is because when internet goes down, then TV also goes down - there is nothing to entertain you. Is there any solution for this?

Originally Posted by noopster

Why does your Internet go down. Home WiFi providers like Tata Sky broadband and Airtel provide almost zero downtime. Get inverter backup for your router so that power cuts don’t affect your internet connectivity. In the event that your internet does go down you can change the network on your smart TV or Fire stick to your 4G mobile hotspot.

Agree with Noopster here. If you’re still concerned about this, perhaps just keep some downloads in your library for such very rare occasions. Maybe a few movies or a few episodes of something you like. I even have some YouTube downloads at any given point on my iPad. Helps for random interesting watches even during flights etc.

[ninjatalli]

Wow - just discovered this thread now. Surprising considering we/I cut the cord to cable back in 2014 itself.

2014 - 2019: We kept a pre-paid Tata Sky account which we'd load a miniscule (few hundreds) amount once probably in a quarter or so - as and when the need arose (for e.g. some cricket or F1 or tennis series). Would probably amount to ~500 Rs annually. Tata Sky guys tried hard to push more sales towards us for the initial year but then stopped their efforts.

2019 - I completely got out this loop too and ditched cable 100%. Only Netflix and Prime (Hotstar eventually got added later in 2020).

2021 - now I'm planning to ditch Netflix. I see the same pattern; the new movie/series gets watched only once in a while (thanks to work and other commitments) and most of the time Netflix is used to watch re-runs and old movies/series. Unlike Hotstar (where the F1 and cricket still makes it a requirement to hold on to it) and Amazon (Prime for shopping) which we/I will be still retaining for a while.

Originally Posted by noopster

We cut the cord a few months ago and are a 100% OTT family now.

I guess it's a lot harder for the family to say "aye" to such a decision than just the individual.

[GrammarNazi]

I do regret cutting the chord to a limited extent.

There was an experience when the family was tugged to be together to see a movie/serial. There were plenty good shows till the early 2000s.

OTT kills that. Everyones in their own world watching something unique.

Sometimes it's important to see the slow/emphasised part of a movie, and then see the rest of the movie with that background.

OTT shows play to one individuals senses. Since number of views is the metric they earn by, often they aim for primitive senses (nudity, gory death, superstition, wokeness etc) so as to get maximum views. Appealing for someone to be outraged is the theme these times.

Anyway, partly it's bad, maybe partly it's good.

[diyguy]

Wanted to check if there is an internet only based stb that can be used to watch regular channels without an outdoor dish antenna? My mom is now the only consumer of STB and with the rains in Chennai the dish has gotten misaligned. I thought good opportunity to move her to a internet based provider. She watches a lot of Hindi channels across all providers of soap operas and the usual religious channels.

[rbp]

Good news for Netflix users, prices reduced from 800 to 649 per month.

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by rbp

Good news for Netflix users, prices reduced from 800 to 649 per month.

For those who were on the standard (HD content) plan of rs 649/- have to take explicit action to move to the now reduced 499/- plan. Please check your mails.

I can afford YouTube premium in my monthly budget now

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by rbp

Good news for Netflix users, prices reduced from 800 to 649 per month.

Attachment 2244960

This is definitely good news. Especially for some of us who have subscriptions on so many OTT platforms. Netflix has the most expensive plan for HD content on TV and 4 of us have a shared account.

On that note, Amazon has jacked up the pricing to Rs 1499 from 999!

[ScorpioYadav]

Only keeping the DTH alive for Live Sports & News and have paused the subscription to the secondary box. Hotstar & Sony Liv apps become very unreliable with the increase in traffic on them when live sports are on & hence DTH is preferred in this case.

But I realise that I’m viewing far lesser movies now on OTT than I used to when the TV channels curated their playlists for me & I just decided which one I wanted to watch.
Similarly, haven’t listened to any new music on TV or on streaming platform since the longest time apart from when listening to car radio. The same logic here also that it was easier to just listen to what the music channel played for us than exploring new content ourself. (The fact that they are not churning out great music nowadays also doesn’t help the cause !!)

[IamNikhil]

Deactivated our Tata Sky DTH last year. This was connected only to the Living Room TV. Realised that we were spending 400/- bucks a month, but the only usage was by my father who used to catch up on some news randomly across the day. Otherwise, all of us had separate TVs in our bedrooms and since all are Smart TVs, all content was consumed only via the internet. Even the content that we all watched together in the living room was primarily OTT. With the amount of money we were anyway shelling-out for basically all OTT platforms (you name it and we have a subscription for sure!), the money being spent on Tata Sky was a sheer waste!

Glad to have cut the cord.

P.s. Netflix reducing it's fees is a welcome move. Man, it was overpriced and how! Finally they have realised that they need to penetrate the market wider, if they have to survive in India. Thankfully Hotstar, Prime, Zee5 and Sony Liv have been economical.

[UPS_Guru]

Netflix has reduced prices across all its plans

[Sran]

Not going to cut the cord. Surviving on Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon or ZEE5 is not possible. It enforces an echo chamber. On TV one can watch or atleast glance at things that they may not agree with and may watch it longer than intended. Without a wide spectrum medium, one will only watch that reinforces their idea of right. Most of the things we see on OTT platforms are enforcers of their point of view. Listening, watching different POV are not possible when one feels comfortable in their bubble. Plus too much consumption of any medium is detrimental.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by GrammarNazi

I do regret cutting the chord to a limited extent.

There was an experience when the family was tugged to be together to see a movie/serial. There were plenty good shows till the early 2000s.

OTT kills that. Everyones in their own world watching something unique.

This will be the case if each person only uses their personal device (phone, iPad, laptop) to watch. But with smart TVs you still retain the family experience. I have only one new TV at home (native smart with all OTT apps loaded or downloadable); the other two are 8-12 years old but work fine with Chromecast and FireTV stick respectively.

We still watch shows and movies as a family. Only R rated content is restricted to a smaller group. And the kids occasionally watch their own stuff, but we prefer it still happens on the TV since it prevents them from having their head down all the time and also allows some content supervision.

Originally Posted by Sran

It enforces an echo chamber. On TV one can watch or atleast glance at things that they may not agree with and may watch it longer than intended. Without a wide spectrum medium, one will only watch that reinforces their idea of right. Most of the things we see on OTT platforms are enforcers of their point of view. Listening, watching different POV are not possible when one feels comfortable in their bubble. Plus too much consumption of any medium is detrimental.

One of my friends, who is a writer/journalist, often said to me: the day you can finish a book, the content of which you completely disagree with, you have truly matured as a reader. This was 20 years ago. Things have changed a lot since then. Social media often reinforces the world as echo chamber view that you talk about. But it's up to an individual to expose themselves to multiple points of view and develop a nuanced perspective. 15 mins a day of Fox News should fix that
Seriously though, there is some "woke" content on Netflix: case in point a limited series called "Colin: In Black and White" that I started watching yesterday. The problem is that it is so OTT (pun intended!) that I lost interest midway through Episode 1. Doubt if I will return to it: frankly (though Gen Z folks will disagree with me) I like a story and performances and am not that worried about stuff that causes offence or rights historical wrongs. Having said that, stuff like "The Trial of the Chicago 7" and any number of documentaries on the freeing of (predominantly black) men for crimes they haven't committed are rivetting, though it could be argued that they also push an agenda.

[sdp1975]

My hotstar subscription is up for renewal and I'm undecided between the 899/- and 1499/- plans. I was using the 1499/- plan earlier. I don't need 4K or 4 screens so the 899 plan works out well for me. We cast it to TV so the the 499 mobile plan isn't an option.

The only concern I have is on the ads. 1499 is ad free but 899 is supported by ads. Are the ads too frequent ? I don't watch often but if the ads are shown every 10 mins or so it does become an annoyance. Any thoughts ? I can also start with 899/- and upgrade later.

[ottocycle]

Ads would be annoying in my opinion. So it's better to go with total adfree.

[yoscenario2000]

I've cut the cord 2.5 yrs back & shifted to smart TV.

Only glitch I'm facing is ADs of OTT series running randomly during the live TV serial run break. And these ads are worst than TV ads (read 16+ content) & not appropriate for kids while watching their favorite TV channel.