The world has drastically changed over the past couple of decades in terms of technological advancements. Although the research and development for new gadgets is in place for hundreds of years, its pace has been drastically increased over the years. The major credit behind this technological revolution should be given to one sole technology which is the internet.
Ever since the internet came into being it has helped humanity in countless avenues of life by bringing ease and convenience to mankind through the rapid transmission of information, thus effectively bridging gaps and making the world a global village. Not only is the internet an incredible technology in itself but it has also paved the way for many new trends almost becoming a catalyst behind the inventions of the modern world. Plus the internet is also the most flexible medium of technology that has seamlessly integrated itself into all walks of life ranging from work to entertainment purposes.
The Internet has created shockwaves in the entertainment industry through the introduction of various internet-based mediums most notably the streaming platforms and online gaming industry. Specifically, the streaming platform has proved to be a game-changer as it has pushed both the cinema and cable industries to literally fight for their survival. Although there has been a consistent decline in cable TV viewership due to these streaming services in retrospect, there are some companies that offer you the best entertainment experience and also amazing discounts like you get with Spectrum plans. Such deals might make you change your mind and compel you to still stick with cable TV options.
Apart from the pricing, there are many other advantages of still keeping your cable TV and mixing it up with your internet-based options for an enhanced viewing experience. This piece is specifically written to enlighten viewers about some potential benefits cable TV possesses in comparison to these over the internet medium which we will dig into later on.
Cable TV in a Streaming Era
We already discussed how the internet is influencing different walks of life, improving some technologies while completely replacing others. The same is the case with the entertainment industry in which there have been improvements in terms of quality and convenience. One might argue that over the internet means of entertainment are better as compared to the conventional cable TV mediums, this argument is true but to only some extent as not every change is for the better, allow us to explain. Yes, streaming services do provide added convenience for users to watch their favorite content whenever wherever they want but there is some question that needs to be asked like some example listed below.
Is the content library vast enough to cater to every different type of viewer? Is there live programming including sports and news broadcasts? Does it have the flexibility in terms of usage and content like cable TV does? All these are hard-to-swallow pills for streaming subscribers and the answers to all these questions is a big fat No. We will go into all these factors that still are pretty much relevant and give solid reasons to viewers in order to keep their cable subscriptions, instead of getting rid of them altogether.
Reasons to Keep Cable TV
Everything has its pros and cons nothing is perfect in this world, the same goes for technology. Someone’s loss is another’s gain the same is the case with streaming services as its potential flaws are the main reasons you still need to keep cable TV since those flaws are the points that cable TV covers pretty successfully. Here we are going to talk about those points where cable TV shines and takes the cake from its competitors.
Vast Content Library
Although some might think that this is an absurd point to add to the benefits of cable TV since streaming services have a much better content library. Well, this is true and false at the same time that’s because streaming services might have a huge content library but does that cater to every kind of viewer, No. On the other hand how often than not that it has happened that while flicking through your TV you found a random program and then you seemed stuck at it for hours and hours. This is the beauty of cable TV as it has something for everyone to watch no matter the age group. Plus users have the ability to flick through channels and watch selective content before picking their favorite channel to watch something you can’t get with any streaming service.
Live Programming and Sports
This is the area where competitors of cable TV seriously lack. Although there are internet-based platforms that offer live TV, their channels and content didn’t even come close to the traditional cable setup. Plus these live TV platforms are barred by technical issues like latency and poor quality and continuous buffering which hampers the overall experience of live TV. Plus the channel lineup and the variety of live content are considerably limited. On the other hand, sports networks are something that is still out of reach of many streaming services, although some networks are available, but, they are quite few and far between. So cable TV is still the best bet for a news fan and sports freak.
Dependence on the Internet
The biggest advantage of cable competitors sometimes becomes their greatest weakness as well. As most of these alternatives are dependent on the internet they are directly influenced by reliability issues and outages which are faced by most internet consumers because when the internet goes down the whole streaming setup collapses as well. Apart from that internet is also being used for various other purposes in every household and usually, multiple users are doing data-heavy tasks simultaneously on a single connection, this makes the streaming experience distasteful because of the speed issues. This problem can be fixed by setting up a dedicated internet connection for streaming but this would cost a lot more than a traditional cable setup.
Final Thoughts
This article is in no way saying that cable TV is the ultimate solution for all your entertainment needs and is a perfect technology. Every technology has its shortcomings and the same is the case with cable TV and this is also a matter of fact that cable is way past its prime. But this doesn’t mean that we should completely get rid of TV cable in favor of other modern means however this piece is written to highlight the advantages cable TV still possess and reasons why it should be kept in conjunction with modern means of entertainment for a complete and enjoyable viewing experience.