Should we go back to cable？ - Error Code Show

0:01 So, you know, back in the day, it was pretty cool to have a fancy little phone and you can install little apps on it. Oh my gosh. And you had you had, you know, maybe like four or five apps, right? It was so cool. You could download, you know, a little game to play. You could download YouTube. You watch videos on your on your little phone. How nice was that? I don't know about you, but I have way too many apps on my phone now and they just keep multiplying. And, uh, very, in a very similar way. So has the move from cable to streaming services back in the day. Um, you know, when the, when Netflix went online, it was really, really cool to have Netflix.

0:47 Oh, like cancel cable. All you have is Netflix. All you need is Netflix. And then came, I don't even know who came next, but then you had Hulu. So it was like, Oh, Netflix and Hulu. That's cool. Then you have Apple TV. Now you have like Disney Plus. Now you have Prime Video. You have Max Paramount plus Peacock. Dear God. Um, so like I was thinking the other day about this actually, and I was like, aside from commercials, right? Yeah. Why the fuck? Why don't we go back to cable TV because in the beginning again in the beginning it was actually cheaper. It was cheaper to get rid of your $150 cable, you know bill every single month and then drop down to Netflix for like what like 15 20 bucks a month.

1:38 You know, I don't think it was that much back then Yeah, it was like pretty cheap now It's like $58 per month if you get everything but then if you get like Everything without ads and stuff. What is it like a hunt? It's over $100. I think 178 98 180 dollars 180 dollars a month and I bet cables on sale now because no one has cable who the hell has cable anymore so cables probably like $20 a month now like what the hell so I don't know this is a And I I will say this Online streaming services has ruined it It has ruined all of you. It's ruined. Me is ruined.

2:25 Octokitty ruined Alex because you no longer have the joy of just being forced to watch some random movie like Lawnmower Man that you would never actually watch. If you had access to 50 ,000 movies on streaming services, you would not watch Lawnmower Man. But if you're flipping around the cable channels and it's on, you watch it. So you might I actually had that experience with my daughter a few months ago, right? Because I still have, so I can watch football and stuff and certain other things, I have an HD antenna in my living room, right? That's attached to my TV because by law they have to put the broadcast channels over air for free. It's a federal law.

3:09 They're required to do it mostly for the emergency broadcast system, right? That's the deal. So you can go to Best Buy and buy like a $50 HD antenna and it'll get you like 30 channels. Right and my daughter was sitting there. She was like, what did you guys do before the streaming and I was like here? I'll show you I flipped it over to that input and I started moving channels Just channel up channel up channel up and she was like, well, how would you find what you wanted to watch? You would just keep hitting channels until you found something that was inoffensive enough to watch Right when you were home sick, it was the price is right Or whatever was on daytime television. Um Yeah. So again, you're right. I think that there is kind of a balkanization there where we watched things that you probably discovered more interesting things back then because it was easier to discover. I know when I flipped through my Netflix, I'm like, I don't know if I want to watch this. Right. Like, yeah, you have to think about it pretty hard. And there's just so much content. And yeah, so. I know some of the streaming services are starting a bundle program. I know I got in it like in the early days So I have Disney Plus Hulu and ESPN Plus for $16 because I was like an inaugural member like I'd signed up in the first like day Right.

4:34 Well So I get that And cable subscribers are way down From 2019, 85 .6 million households had traditional pay television cable in 2023. That went down to 58 million. That's a huge drop inside of four years. Yeah. And it's just going down and down and down. I'm kind of with you. I wonder when we all go back to cable just because it's cheaper. Yeah. And I feel like these like. hipster kids these yeah the generation like underneath us is going to be like oh look how cool and retro cable is I'm like watching ads like I didn't I didn't even know ads existed I will say this I I miss like old school 90 ads where like they made no sense at all but they were just fun most most of the time funny and also just a little weird like some of them are just burned into my memory like the one with the egg and it was like this is your brain on drugs oh yeah dang yeah there's a there's a great guy on tiktok called matt mccarthy he's a standard comedian he collects vhs tapes right and he plays them on his tiktok like sections of them and one of his favorite things is like all these memory

6:06 burned commercials that we had Like the Hershey's Christmas one with the Hershey's kisses where they're all the little bells. Oh, yeah. Yeah, right. I'm looking at Xfinity right now. It's actually cheaper than streaming now. Right. If you want all of the ad free versions of all your streaming services, 180 bucks a month, it looks like like Xfinity is starting to base out at somewhere around 60. Right. I don't think it's going to help them, but It is getting cheaper to go back that way. Yeah, I just. I wonder when does it when does it become ridiculous? Right.

6:50 Like you and I talked when we first started the podcast because you had just canceled your Disney Plus and I was like, oh, you got to restart that because we got to do reviews of this show. I tried it. I tried to do the thing where I would like cycle. You know like oh, yeah churn that dude netflix next month. I'll do disney plus within streaming. They call it churn That's what the in industry term is is how fast users churn I sign up to watch this show and when that show's over I cancel Which is why disney's actually gone the way of you'll notice They released daredevil, right? Yeah when daredevil is over what starts?

7:32 And or and then and or and they just keep cycling shows so they always have a new one popping Yeah, right My issue with Netflix is you never know what's Netflix is like almost like the Hallmark Channel in that there's 800 pounds of crap that Netflix produces and then like one really good show and you have to sort through them all. And also Netflix does not know how to advertise their shows. Anything good I see on Netflix, it comes from recommendations from people. People being like, oh, did you see this on Netflix? It's not from Netflix telling me about the show. It's from other people telling me about it. You know, because Netflix sucks at marketing. Yeah, they do. Oh, my God. Yeah, they're terrible about it. Disney will at least like market their crap.

8:29 They will. Yeah, sometimes they will shove that down your throat like they will come to your house, knock on the door and be like, you're going to watch this now. Yeah. But yeah, Netflix. I don't know, they need to figure out marketing. Do you really do? Do you have a what is your favorite streaming service? Which which one is the best in your opinion? Corn hub. No, I'm just kidding. Oh no. Um, I don't. So there, Ooh, there are things that like will irk the shit out of me with some of the streaming services. So for instance, if I have to like scroll pretty far down to like hit the continue watching. Oh, I hate it. I hate it so much. One thing I really hate about Netflix is the lack of trailers. They will like push something out. I'm like, what is this about? And it will say like, I don't know, like five words like Jeff and Alex form a podcast. And it's like, oh, OK, well, is this what is this? And like no trailer. And I'll just cut to like the most random 10 second clip. And you're like, what the fuck is this about? I'm not going to watch this. I hate that. I think

10:00 Amazon Prime. Has a pretty good setup, but that's mainly because you can link so much with it Like I go to Amazon Prime and I have like paramount Other stuff I can't even think yeah with it. So I like that like the central hub thing Disney's like really good though. Disney's is like clean Peacock sucks. So somebody in the YouTube chat just brought this up now I will say it's not my favorite but the one that is better than everybody thinks it is is Apple TV plus Right and see Apple TV plus is like linked with my Amazon Prime.

10:44 Yeah, and it's got some Phenomenal shows Apple TV very quietly has been producing some top -tier content Shrinking which I can't say enough about I love that show Love that show, right? It's it's Jason Siegel and Harrison Ford. Just crush it in that show on Solo. That's a grumpy old therapist and I Love it. Yeah, um It's a great show Ted Lasso's on there the morning shows on there right for all mankind's on there They're just a very quietly or like we don't release a lot But what we release is top tier and that's all we spend money on I still think for its catalog the size and depth of its catalog Disney Plus is the best one Yeah, because they just have the biggest vault Right and especially now that they own all the Fox properties the old 20th century Fox properties. They're like, oh we have the Simpsons now Right. Would you like to watch season 2 Simpsons? We've got that here you go You know Honestly the one that I've been closest to canceling is Netflix Yeah Yeah, the only reason we have peacock is my wife got it at like a New Year's sale She got like the whole year on sale

12:16 for like $12 .99 For 12 months. It's the only reason I have peacock. I We have like peacock because like I I just have verizon and I feel like Every time when I get a new phone I get like 36 free years of That's the one That's the thing a bunch of the phone companies started doing a few years ago Where it's like if you're with this like when I was on t -mobile, I think we got netflix for free Yeah, right and now i'm on at &t and I get something else. Um Yeah, somebody say Disney pick up Paramount Plus actually has some pretty quality content and their movie library is really good because Paramount's made some really good movies over the years Yeah, right We got really far afield on this topic It's good.

13:09 Yeah, somebody the chats kind of with me like I thought about dumping Netflix and then they'll put out one good thing YouTube chat. What if Nickelodeon got into it unlocking God to your millennial myth and legend? I piece Nickelodeon is already there. They're on Paramount Plus Paramount owns the Nickelodeon all of the Nickelodeon content is On Paramount Plus. So if you're looking for the Nickelodeon content, that's where it lives Because they own that the Paramount so Nickelodeon forever. Where is there it does someone own like G4 and I like look up old G4 I don't know. That's a good question. Probably not. It's probably a loss to the Internet ether. It's probably written versions on YouTube. Yeah. So, yeah, again, Netflix is the one I'm closest to doing. Hulu again, I get it bundled. Same thing with ESPN. Which is nice. Good old Reddit. Anyway. Uh, what do you guys think? What is your favorite streaming subscription? Should we all just go back to cable because streaming has just gotten too bloody expensive Let us know what you think down in the comments below