Moderator please move if not appropriate in this forum but there are a number of African hunting TV shows affected...

I know that this does not affect everyone on the forum but Verizon is a large provider across the county. I think the recent decision by Verizon to drop both The Outdoor Channel and The Sportsman's Channel is really poor if not downright stupid business to cut out over 130 million participants in the outdoor sports let alone all the "peripheral" business. That means for me, living in the Phila suburbs, that I get absolutely no outdoor programming including any of the African hunting shows that I watch weekly. Not only does this decision affect viewers, but think about the number of sponsors and supports who pay money to advertise on these channels...they should be complaining loudly.

I called Verizon support to reduce my monthly bill for eliminating these channels to get of course a representative who would only take my information, but they did send me an email that I can respond to. The Outdoor Channel put up a Web site KeepMyOutdoorTV to help find alternatives and where to complain.

On a larger point I think this reflects the failure of Verizon and some of the other cable TV providers to recognize that Cable TV is on the way out. Consumers want to pay only for the channels and content that they want to watch and are flocking to streaming providers on the Web and elsewhere. The monopoly period is fast sounding a death knell.

Perhaps if enough voices are heard the will reverse the error of their ways. Thanks for listening and sorry for the distraction on the forum.

Paul

quote:

On a larger point I think this reflects the failure of Verizon and some of the other cable TV providers to recognize that Cable TV is on the way out. Consumers want to pay only for the channels and content that they want to watch and are flocking to streaming providers on the Web and elsewhere. The monopoly period is fast sounding a death knell.Perhaps if enough voices are heard the will reverse the error of their ways. Thanks for listening and sorry for the distraction on the forum.

Paul,
The large "Cable" vendors know what is happening in the market but are largely held hostage by Contracts they hold with the owners of the Content. A "Cable" vendor wants to add channel A because a thousand Pauls called them last month and asked for it. They check with the owner of Channel A and "sure you can add it is the answer. Oh by the way you have to take these other 6 worthless channels that nobody wants to watch and you have to make sure all are place in the 2-72ish channels in your lineup and oh by the way, we have be lower in the lineup than Channel B...." and on and on it goes. The content owners have crammed 400 channels down the throats of the "cable" owners and now the entire industry is paying the price, i.e. the market fleeing to streaming video. A caveat to this are the "cable" owners who are also the Content owners, Comcast, Time Warner mostly who are playing both sides of the game.
I will predict that in 10 years the paying public will still be paying $70-$100 a month for Video entertainment in their homes but they will probably have 2, 3 or 4 providers of that content. Google, Amazon, Apple, Netflix are all hunting seals in the water now.
I would be interested in what you think about that?

I just fired my cable company

My question is.... why isn't there an 'outdoors' streaming company already?

It might have to do with ratings which have been steadily going down over the last few years on all outdoors shows.

I'm really surprised this hasn't generated a bit more traction on the forum. I'm in the same spot as the OP, having now lost all my outdoor and shooting programming after having switched to FIOS last summer.

I've written Verizon, called them to complain, written the NRA, SCI, DSC, and NSSF asking for their involvement in getting this back to where it was. Having worked in the communications industry for a number of years now, I understand how the bundling of cable channels works and why we can't have a la carte channel selection. However, the reason Verizon quoted for dropping these two channels was due to low viewership (really?!) and increasing cost of content (REALLY?!). I simply cannot believe the cost of these two channels was so hefty it forced them no other choice but to drop them. I already paid $11.99 a month just for that package. It basically included only those two channels. It's very, very difficult to think this was motivated only by money; there has to be some political component here. They didn't get rid of any of the other garbage channels they have but selected only these two.

The word is out. Verizon knows the F'd up. The literal first thing that plays when you call their customer service line is, "if you're calling about the Outdoor Channel, please try these other channels instead..." I guess they're getting a lot of calls.

I only had cable because of these two chanels plus a couple more. When most of the hunting shows became too 'reality-show-like' for me, I gave up cable TV.

Clayman said -

quote:

I'm really surprised this hasn't generated a bit more traction on the forum.

Clayman - Though I am in favor of there being Outdoor shows on TV, I personally find most of them to be artificial and boring as compared to real fishing and hunting.

Additionally, if it were not for the commercials and the fact that each segment begins with a repeat/ rehash of the previous segments, there would be about 20 minutes per hour of real entertainment. BORING!

Let these shows compete for ad $$ and viewers and may the best ones survive.

PS Many younger viewers have totally dropped their wire line phones AND their cable TV and view all of what was TV over the Internet using their smartphones and home computers as was mentioned in a previous post.
This trend will continue until the monopoly of the content packagers is broken up so that individual viewers can view and pay for only those channels / shows that they want. Viva La Independence!

quote:

Originally posted by crshelton:
Clayman - Though I am in favor of there being Outdoor shows on TV, I personally find most of them to be artificial and boring as compared to real fishing and hunting.

Additionally, if it were not for the commercials and the fact that each segment begins with a repeat/ rehash of the previous segments, there would be about 20 minutes per hour of real entertainment. BORING!

It's not necessarily about whether or not you like the content. It's about a particular way of life and an entire industry being censored by a large and far-reaching corporation. I don't have to mention on this forum, of all places, what a slippery slope this is. Verizon's off-base response to dropping these channels was "watch the Discovery and National Geographic Channels." Seriously?! What happens when Comcast decides to give them the boot? Then DirecTV? Then DISH? Pretty soon, the entire sport we all enjoy is vanishing off the face of the map.

quote:

PS Many younger viewers have totally dropped their wire line phones AND their cable TV and view all of what was TV over the Internet using their smartphones and home computers as was mentioned in a previous post.
This trend will continue until the monopoly of the content packagers is broken up so that individual viewers can view and pay for only those channels / shows that they want. Viva La Independence!

I am the younger viewers. I'm 34, which certainly fits into the "up and coming" demographic. I want my hunting shows on my television like I have always paid for and should be the case. The fact that I now can't watch these shows at all and many of them don't have an online presence to speak of is just simply unacceptable on the part of Verizon. I don't see the market shifting to on-demand content entirely until the hunting, shooting, and fishing sports have been permanently damaged.

More fallout:

Verizon Sparks Backlash by Dropping Outdoor Channel

cut the cord. my wife and i have not had cable in well over a year. not only is it nice to save the 100bucks a month, but with the streaming and on demand channels these days, there is just no need.

i use a Roku. there are numerous free hunting channels you can add, as well as some subscription channels. i paid $36 for a year of 'wild' television, a channel out of canada, and have tons of shows to catch up on.

i have netflix and hulu; and if you want specific channels from cable, you can often find small bundles of live tv for the roku for a couple bucks a month.

i think this is the future, cable a la carte. no need for 200 channels when all i need is 5.

if verizon dropped the hunting channels due to free market conditions, fine. if noone is watching and they aren't making money, fine. but i have a feeling they should drop several more channels before they drop outd and sportsman. seems like just one more stab at hunters in the general population PC world.

I cut the cable five years ago. Internet only and I haven't missed it.

I have a set of modern rabbit ears on a big screen. Works great and I pull in HD broadcasts just fine.