TV in the states?
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Hi all,
I am currently going through the process of moving to the states. At the moment staying with family, they have time warner, which is pay cable tv I think - not really paid too much attention to it.
I really want to know how the broadcasting works over there? if anyone knows?
Is there an equivalent of free view? are the likes of NBC, FOX, ESPN free, and then you just pay for stuff like HBO? I know there isn't a TV licence.
Someone told me cable is better than satellite, maybe just due to the Florida weather, but I know in Europe its the opposite, sky being the best.
If anyone can explain to a simpleton like myself, how it all works, if there is a list of FTA stations I could look at. I'll probably end up getting cable when we move in to our place, but just curios how it all works
I am currently going through the process of moving to the states. At the moment staying with family, they have time warner, which is pay cable tv I think - not really paid too much attention to it.
I really want to know how the broadcasting works over there? if anyone knows?
Is there an equivalent of free view? are the likes of NBC, FOX, ESPN free, and then you just pay for stuff like HBO? I know there isn't a TV licence.
Someone told me cable is better than satellite, maybe just due to the Florida weather, but I know in Europe its the opposite, sky being the best.
If anyone can explain to a simpleton like myself, how it all works, if there is a list of FTA stations I could look at. I'll probably end up getting cable when we move in to our place, but just curios how it all works
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So cable is more widespread for that reason. It started before satellite was even practical.
Their equivalent of BBC, ITV, C4 and C5 is NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, The CW and MyNetworkTV, plus they've got various other over the air networks that vary from state to state, city to city.
ESPN is a pay TV channel but is usually included in the base packages - it's the most expensive channel per customer per month in the US. The main basic channels are ESPN, TNT, TBS, Comedy Central, CNN etc. You then usually have to pay a bit more for a 'sports pack' which includes all the national channels like NBCSN, CBS Sports Network, Fox Sports etc plus various regional channels. You'll notice that because the country is so huge, TV doesn't quite work in the same way. Everything is run by local affiliate stations and they cut in to national programming in the mornings and then again in the evenings. Everything else through the day is pretty much weather and local news on loop.
There are loads of national cable companies like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner etc. You mention Florida, and from personal experience the big cable company there is Brighthouse.
The two satellite companies are DirecTV and Dish Network. If I was going satellite, I'd choose DirecTV every time.
US TV isn't as good IMO because of the sheer amount of ad breaks, infomercials and religious programming they have.
But the broadcasters who emit terrestrialy are affiliates if the main networks doing they're own breakfast and early evening newscasts. But peak time is network sometimes time shifted ... Sometimes not!
They are carried on the local cable and in big markets by satellite ( but alway rows over copy right and fees!!!) incidentky both these platforms are DVB .
As broadcaster they are vey strictly regulated but own one frequency each in the market each broadcast often have there own different masts. ... So there is no integrated DTT platform like we have.
With pressure on spectrum there is a repacking process which will mean that more than one broadcaster will share spectrum....
But this requires ATSC 3.0 ..... Which looks like being very DVB t2 like with AVC and AAC
But at moment ATSC with MPEG 2and AC 3 .
Its also true that most of Canada and the US have cable TV. They do have a sort of version of Freeview in the US but its not as good. I got two pen friends that stay in the US. Both are from the state of Michigan. They stay 12miles or so from each other one has had cable TV for years from the company called charter. Other one cant get cable TV in his area so he got a dish from Direct TV.
Darren
From what I know and been told. A Sunday afternoon/early evening seems to be sport on some of the main channels that are free. Also sport in the US is not much dearer per month than in the UK depending on what company you are with if you want extra sport.
The TiVo service is also available in parts of the US.
Darren
But they also have local 'blackouts' that might stop your local team being screened in your area so as not to effect sales of tickets.
I spent an entire summer in the USA a few years back with only off air broadcast available in my apartment and saw plenty of live sport.
There's more to Cable than Comcast and Time Warner, these are just more well known due to them having control of major population centres.
Also important to note, you also don't get choice in who your cable provider is, for example Los Angeles is majority Time Warner with small parts services by AT&T Uverse, and when I say small parts, it's small small parts.
Not for much longer (thankfully)
http://online.wsj.com/articles/fcc-votes-unanimously-to-end-sports-blackout-rules-1412091621
As for sports, NBC Sports (Premier League and F1) and ESPN can be found on free to air but to get full coverage you will need to pay.
When I was last in the US the apartment we rented had free digital cable included in the rental. It gave us all the mainstream channels with HD alternatives and some sports on ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox.
U-Verse is in addition to a local cable operator though not instead of.
Then I saw this post
Okay. So not quite "stopped" yet then!
Here's one you can actually read without needing to subscribe
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/09/30/fcc-unanimously-dumps-blackout-rule/
No it's not, Uverse is its own FTTP network and doesn't require another cable operator
What are you talking about? No it's not what? I didn't mean it has anything to do with a cable network. I meant it is offered in markets where there is already a cable tv network. I was replying to a post that said that basically in areas where there is U-Verse there is no cable network.
U-Verse is an AT&T product. It has nothing to do with existing cable tv networks. It is a separate network. It's mostly FTTC actually rather than FTTP.
With American TV you can have whatever you want, there is a hell of a lot of variety, but you do have to be prepared for it.
What's your budget?
What sort of programming do you want to watch?
Whats the Broadband (assuming you want internet) like in your area?
You need to answer these questions before you can start looking.
Thanks everyone for the replies, so interesting info, cleared a lot of stuff up for me
Well I am moving to Tampa area soon, so I am guessing the broadband there will be good, I want to watch sport, I really want sun sports and fox sports, they show the heat, magic, and lighting games - it would seem the terrestrial TV has the NFL games covered for me - wouldn;t mind getting the gators games, which I think are usually on ESPN or SEC TV. But Fox Sports, Sun Sports and ESPN are a must for me.
Don't need HBO really or anything like that, the only other channels non-terrestrial that would interest me are FX and AMC, those types of channels.
I would be looking to get decent broadband, I download a lot, and stream a lot - so Sport and Broadband are important to me, don;t care for the phone, won't be phoning anyone, all my family are in Ireland, would use skype, and all my friends are in Florida and Texas which I would use a mobile package for.
Any Ideas? I really (obviously) don't want to spend much, rather go satellite, if it is a couple of bucks cheaper for the same - would only need 1 TV set - it would seem you need to pay monthly for the equivalent of Sky plus, any way around this, or is this the american way of life? Will have a HD TV, but wouldn;t want to pay anything extra for HD, if its free, then thats a plus.
If you have any ideas, it would be muchly appreciated, it is well over my head haha - I just go to the bar if I want to watch a non local NFL game haha - when NBA and NHL season start, I will be an alcoholic haha
I go to Florida quite a bit and from experience, if you were to use the provider I use when I'm over there (Bright House), you'd get all those channels in the more basic tier.
You'd be looking at around $90 a month though and that gives you the 'standard' pack as well as 30Mbps broadband. You get channels like ESPN and the other big networks but if you really want plenty of sport you can add the 'Sports Pass' for around $10 extra and get around 40-odd channels on top of your existing ones which is extremely good value considering what you get. Even without the sports pass, you'd still get access to pretty much everything on offer really.
You can get pretty much all the available channels for about $100 a month - that includes 30Mbps broadband and HD channels etc.
Thanks for that, I'll definitely look into them! 90buck seems like a lot., but I suppose it actually isn't when you break it down, especially with the internet - is that UPTO 30mpbs? or is it truly 30Mbps, and also what about a FUP, do they have them stateside? it just seems damn right un-american :P
That's 'up to'. They do 10, 30, 60 and 90Mbps. As for a fair use policy I'm not actually sure about that! Not something I've ever come across over there to be perfectly honest.
You can also get XFINITY from Comcast in FL. All the channels you mentioned earlier plus 'up to' 50Mbps fibre but once your initial 12 month offers end, that can get quite expensive - well over $100 a month I think but to be perfectly honest with you, once you get past the initial 12 month introductory offers that all the TV providers offer, they all get a bit pricey in the same way.
Even though things like sports aren't offered as stand-alone subscriptions in the same way as Sky Sports or BT are over here and the US model seems better value on the surface, it all adds up to a healthy chunk of money from month 13 onwards.
They all have a habit of offering to 'lock you in' to a set price for a set time before they hit you with the full whack. It's not cheap but the amount of choice is staggering... if you can cope with the amount of advert breaks!! ;-)