After a months of back and fourth we made the decision to take our cable off the life support system. While we were not heavy television users, we expected the worse. We were expecting cold turkey symptoms across our family; however the withdrawal has been pleasant and motivating.
We initially started streaming TV using a computer and purchased a subscription to Netflix. The use of the computer was getting old so we purchased Apple T.V.
We have moved away from a push system of television. What I mean by this is; cable carrier (Rogers) along with the station (CTV) no longer pushes content into our living room. We are not forced to watch advertisements for BMW or Tide relentlessly and in the case of our children (toy consumers) the latest Barbie or transformer is not entrenched in our collective minds.
Our children are fairing well and have started to enjoy new animated super heroes on their terms. Sonic the hedgehog has become a very popular animated series but the revealing part of the experiment is that there is no advertisement for a sonic or his toys enticing our children to purchase. No mention of a super hero action figurine has been mentioned since we started watching television through the internet.
Cost is a factor in a stagnant economy. We reduced monthly cost 60% with a capital out lay of 109 (Cad). We had to get more downloadable space which pushed up our internet bill.
What is amazing is that we now watch much more educational content. My children are OK with watching Blue Planet or a documentary on the Hoover Dam. We can select what we want to watch rather than being subjected to a plethora of T.V. stations dictating what is on at a certain time period. Please don’t feel sorry for the little ones, they still consume plenty of animated cartoons shows.
Online TV has started a democratizing of sorts of the television business. I recently watched the “House of Cards” series which was financed, produced and made for Netflix. It was one of the best quality and intelligent pieces of TV that I have seen in the last decade. What is more interesting is that Netflix has coffers large enough to make its own exclusive content. I cannot wait until CBS or NBC takes a Netflix series and pays Netflix the rights to air its show on their stations. Netflix is making scars on the big behemoth which singularly is unsettling. However many thousands of scars are likely to bring and behemoth down.
What is the lesson for business owners? We cannot stay safely in one area and not diversify. Netflix started out mailing DVDs. Today they are an online streaming giant and are making series orientated television. It is inevitable that they will make a movie, it will only be available to their subscribers. Television is becoming more democratic and the dictators are slowly loosing an uphill battle. Small innovative and diversified business can play in the big sandbox and occasionally can re-invent it and even make their own sandbox where others will come to play. Amazon and yahoo are currently making their own series programming.
