The ability to now watch your TV shows and movies on demand has given us benefits such as living by your schedule and introduction to shows and movies we would not have known about. But what benefits has it given to you?
Not just that but it has allowed us to start reducing costs by cutting the cord and reducing our bills which we would have paid to cable or satellite providers.
Personally, going on-demand introduced me to new shows and movies I would not have known about without on-demand, such as Breaking Bad and House of Cards and more recently lots of Korean and Chinese TV shows.
Personally speaking. Cutting the cord from my cable provider while still subscribing (using NOW TV) to the channels I was viewing on there for a much more reduced cost was the first benefit. This first benefit was what drove me to on-demand but what kept me was having the TV on my schedule.
I always hated having to view TV programmes at the schedule of the TV company.
Why isn’t everyone doing it?
So now that we’ve learned the benefits of watching TV online why aren’t more people doing it? You would think with these benefits that the majority of people would be using on-demand as their primary TV provision, but not all are.
The answer is there are some possible drawbacks too like buffering problems during playback if your internet connection is slow. It can also be difficult for viewers who don’t know how to use a DVR with their streaming service because they need to learn an entirely different set of instructions than they’re used to using from traditional cable providers. And finally, many users report having difficulties finding programs due in part to the lack of a channel guide or network programming.
It seems that there are still some kinks in on-demand TV, but it’s not difficult to see why so many people love this option: no more commercials and having full control over what they watch when they want!
What about the cost?
One other hurdle, so to speak, that you need to get over is the initial cost. Although today, the cost of my favorite device, The Roku Streaming Stick, is almost half of what Roku costs when I got my first and is less than half the cost of the premium devices such as Apple TV.
But it is worth noting that, as with any new technology, the prices will come down over time. And even if you have to pay a little more today for an on-demand TV service with no commercials and full control of what you watch when you want, in the long run, this may be cheaper than traditional cable services.
The other cost you may want to factor in is, if you want to pay subscription to a premium network such as Netflix or maybe one from your local cable provider. In my experience, the cost of the on-demand service subscription is less than half of that for a regular subscription (I found my main one was around a 3rd of the cost for on-demand as opposed to a subscription to live TV).
In summary
Overall, I reduced my cost by a 3rd because I was already subscribed to Netflix and Amazon Prime, although if you are not currently you may want to add this cost against that you will be saving.
I’m not going back! No way! I’ll take my on-demand anytime folks! You should too – at least check it out and compare rates before making your decision. But one thing’s certain: there are plenty of people who love their on-demand TV experience – so do many others like me!”