[Wayne]

Not so fast on the assumption that people are moving away from BDUs and to OTA.

I would guess that more people, particucularly younger folks, are moving to the internet to get their TV shows, not to OTA. That is part of the discussion in the article.

If I wasn't a sports fan I would consider getting rid of cable since rumour has it that you can get most TV shows within minutes of the show ending in HiDef on BitTorrent sites - not that I watch many TV shows, other than sports, anyhow. Plus Americans have more options with sites like Hulu, iTunes, Netflix, etc than we do here in Canada. Hence the move to OTT (Over The Top) video as mentioned in the article. (OTT is defined as video streamed over your internet connection.)

 

[Wayne]

But isn't the PQ better via OTA than the Internet?

For streaming services, yes. For BitTorrent downloads - not much difference. The model is somewhat different however - using OTT is more akin to a VOD service whereas with OTA you are still stuck with following a broadcasters schedule unless you have a PVR but other than using an HTPC there aren't that many OTA PVR solutions, especially in Canada.

 

[Wayne]

The point is the vast majority of tv watchers don't watch tv using their computers.

The vast majority don't but at the margin there are some people who only watch TV on their computers. The vast majority of people still have fixed line teleophone lines but enough people are moving away from them to be a major threat to the Incumbent phone companies.

Also don't forget that there are more and more devices allowing to to watch computer video files or stream video over the internet on your TV even if you don't have an HTPC. First among these would be the Xbox360 and PS3 - also very popular with the under 30 set. Then there are tons of devices live the Popcorn Hour, WDTV Live, Sage HD Theater, etc that are inexpensive boxes that let you get content from your PC (or the internet) to your TV.

I am a quarter century removed from my university days but I would bet that a university student, particularly one living in a dorm, may use a PC for pretty much all media and communications. In other words, they won't be getting a phone line, since they can use their cell phone and Skype or other internet phone services, nor will they subscribe to cable since they have a good internet connection and will use their PC as a TV. They may become used to this and not bother subscribing to cable when they move out of the dorm and into off-campus housing. And once they are out of school they will have become so used to this that they don't bother with cable or fixed line phones at that time either.

 

[Wayne]

Why pay a subscription for a device with limited storage where you must set it to record a show, then when you watch the show you have to fast forward through the advertisments? Plus, there's a hard drive in there that will fail when you least expect it.

This is a very good question and we will see how it plays out. However one answer to your question is that you don't trust the service provider (Hulu, VUDU, etc) and are worried that they could pull content that you want to watch or could up their prices. When I have all of my content stored on my HTPC/media server with no DRM I have much more control over this content, even if the law changes and it becomes illegal to keep PVRed shows for more than a few weeks or to watch more than once.