The one that annoys me is the notion that if one does not have cable, they must not watch a lot of TV.
I must be an outlier. I have nothing to do BUT watch TV. With the amount of time I have on my hands these days, you'd probably think I struggle to find something to watch.
Nope. My 2TB Tivo capacity is at 90% and I have another 2TB worth of shows sitting on my computer. Way more than I have time to watch. I would just be throwing money away if I subscribed to cable.
Because most of the content is on cable, and a lot of the good stuff is even moving upwards to HBO. At this point, I consider TV to be the second digital package up (XF Preferred on Comcast) plus HBO, as that's where the majority of the good content is.
Or perhaps you are just unaware of how much is available online? Perhaps you could go through your Season Passes and share some shows which aren't available online, because, as I said, I only found 1 in my list.
It's very hit or miss. Some stuff is and some stuff isn't. So if you want to watch particular shows, you're going to find some that aren't online. Then you add sports and HBO, and cable is very well entrenched.
Alright, my Season Passes, not including a whole bunch that aren't active right now:
NOVA- available through PBS online or OTA
Frontline- available through PBS online or OTA
Nature- available through PBS online or OTA
VICE- HBO only
Silicon Valley- HBO only
Real Time with Bill Maher- HBO only
Cosmos- OTA, not available streaming
Mythbusters- Purchase only through Amazon, iTunes, VUDU
This Old House- available through PBS online or OTA
Big Bang Theory- OTA or purchase through Amazon, iTunes, VUDU
Daily Show- available delayed through web or purchase
Colbert Report- available delayed through web or purchase
Last Week Tonight- HBO only
The Rachel Maddow Show- available delayed through iTunes podcast
Manual: Monday Night HBO Docs- HBO only
American Experience- available through PBS online or OTA
Live (for this past season):
UConn Mens basketball- in addition to CBS, requires cable package with ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SNY, CBS SN
UConn Womens basketball- requires cable package with ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SNY, BTN, CBS SN
March Madness- in addition to CBS, requires cable package with TBS, TNT, and TruTV
So the breakdown is it's mostly HBO and sports, plus some shows that require a purchase or are delayed (or both). Once I move to an area that has AJAM, I will watch some of that as well. I have watched other stuff on Discovery and Animal Planet as well, although those have gone way downhill.
Now add in the cost of buying some shows a la carte, take away the convenience of TiVo for shows that aren't available OTA, and add in the cost of the Comcast de-bundling fee, and you can see why cord cutting is mostly hype. I also want to get into a few other HBO shows, and I've watched some really good documentaries on HBO GO, so that's more cable tie-in right there.
I can say that the HD OTA broadcasts I get now on my TVs are less "soft" and "bright" than the same shows I get from Dish. I am not saying Dish looks bad, but OTA looks better. I am not an expert in what things should look like on a properly calibrated set, so my descriptions are just my personal impressions.
No matter where they are getting the feed, they are likely compressing it heavily. MPEG-4 is a lot better with motion, but it tends to get soft quickly as well if it's bitrate starved.