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Streaming-TV services bump cable out of many homesJul 08, 2012 (The Sacramento Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Dan Bethel of Sacramento recently canceled his cable TV service. It was a death by attrition. "Our cable box had been off for three weeks, and we didn't even notice," said Bethel, 31. Bethel and his wife, Nicole Hastings-Bethel, 29, were busy streaming movies and TV shows from Netflix and Hulu Plus through their XBox 360 game console. Dan Bethel isn't anti-cable, per se. He just doesn't need a package with channels he will not watch. "I would gladly pay for cable if I had more control over what I wanted to watch," Bethel said. With streaming video, he can decide what and when to watch. Fully curating one's entertainment experience is easier today than it ever has been. Summoning a season of "Mad Men" or an Akira Kurosawa movie classic takes very little technological know-how and minimal effort, thanks to a growing number of subscription video services and TVs, Blu-ray players and game consoles with built-in streaming capability. Streaming's integration into the mainstream has been gradual enough that people watching movies on television in their living rooms or on iPads in coffeehouses don't notice they are living in a futuristic film. The hovercrafts are not outside, as expected -- but the multiple screens, touch technology and vast options are. "It's a colossal change in the way we are consuming entertainment," market analyst Dan Cryan said. Cryan is senior director, digital entertainment, for IHS Screen Digest. IHS research indicates streamed movies will overtake DVD and Blu-ray in popularity this year. He cautions that the study tallied "actions," equating renting a disc from a Redbox kiosk with streaming a Netflix title. The comparison is not always clean, because streaming-video consumers will stop a movie not long after starting it and move on to another. But the research is telling when combined with a second IHS finding: By 2014, total time spent watching streamed movies will eclipse total time watching discs. The catalyst has been Netflix, the 15-year-old company that took a public-relations hit and lost subscribers in 2011 when it jacked up prices and briefly split its DVD and streaming services. But some subscribers have come back, and Netflix remains the market giant, with more than 20 million subscribers streaming video. Netflix is further repairing its brand with original programming. Next year, it will exclusively show the fourth season of the beloved TV comedy "Arrested Development." Netflix has had "incredible penetration into consumers' living rooms, and incredibly good device availability," Cryan said. "You can't buy a TV (today) without Netflix on it." Apps for Netflix competitors Amazon Prime Instant Video and Hulu Plus are showing up on plenty of devices, as well. Those subscription-streaming services, both introduced in the past two years, aim squarely at Netflix. Hulu.com has for years offered TV-centric content free to viewers via computer. Hulu Plus lets users stream content to TVs and other devices. It also offers content exclusive to Hulu Plus subscribers, who pay $7.99 per month. That content includes films from the Criterion Collection, a video label specializing in international film classics. Amazon Prime Instant Video, introduced last year, is part of a $79-per-year Amazon Prime membership that includes free two-day shipping on items ordered from Amazon.com. Prime subscribers, such as regular Amazon Instant Video users, must pay $2.99 or $1.99 per order to stream most newer TV episodes and films. But thousands of catalog entries are free with subscription, from "SpongeBob SquarePants" to the Swedish-language film version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Amazon Prime membership figures were not made available. Hulu Plus reported 1.5 million subscribers at the end of 2011 -- a fraction of Netflix's membership. Cryan said the two services "will be important going forward." Matt Moskovciak, home theater editor for the consumer website CNET, has gone without cable TV since graduating from college six years ago. In that time "it has gotten much easier" to be cable-free, Moskovciak said. He doesn't mind waiting a day and paying $1.99 to see the latest "Mad Man" episode through Amazon Instant Video. It's similar to a cable subscriber recording an episode on his or her DVR, he said. "A lot of people don't watch it that day, anyway, so you don't miss out on the water-cooler conversation." Many committed streamers are younger people, like Moskovciak and the Bethels. But streaming is not the exclusive domain of the young or the tech-savvy. Running Netflix or Hulu Plus through a Blu-ray player or gaming device requires only a quick online registration and a pass code. If your TV or disc player does not double as a streaming device, Moskovciak recommends a Roku or Apple TV set-top box. The Apple TV box costs $99, and Roku boxes start at $50. "It might not be the smartest thing to replace your $1,000 TV when you can get a device for $50," he said. Rokus are loaded with apps -- for Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, and the $10-a-month independent-film service Fandor, among others. But no iTunes. That's an Apple TV thing. Apple TV works best for people with other Apple devices, Moskovciak said. Apple technology makes interplay between devices easy. "You can be watching a video on YouTube on your computer, and then push a button so everyone can see it on the TV in the living room," Moskovciak said. There are plenty of living-room wonders to be experienced sans cable, but cable cord-cutting is not for everyone, Moskovciak said. A cord-cutter cannot, for example, take advantage of HBO GO, the HBO streaming service that requires a cable subscription. "I am hesitant to tell people to dive in," Moskovciak said. Most people are not cutting cords, industry analyst Cryan said. "The amount of normal TV (watching) is in really good health, and the U.S. cable business is doing OK," Cryan said. "On the whole, for all the massive change, we are not seeing widespread substitution." Plus, cable still offers perks for movie lovers, such as its "same day as theaters" independent films from IFC or Magnolia. These films cost $6.99 to rent, but for people too unmotivated to get off the couch and visit a theater, that price is right. In a perfect, budget- consciousless world, streaming fans could subscribe to cable, all the video subscription services, and drop $2.99 a pop for movies on iTunes or Amazon Instant Video. For now, consumers such as the Bethels are crafting less-expensive packages. Theirs include a $15.99 monthly Netflix subscription that offers streaming and DVDs by mail, and a $7.99 Hulu Plus subscription. Dan Bethel also spent $15 at Big Lots! for a digital antenna that picks up broadcast TV shows. The antenna will be put to good use, Bethel said, during the upcoming Summer Olympics. Call The Bee's Carla Meyer, (916) 321-1118. ___ (c)2012 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.) Visit The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.) at www.sacbee.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |