from Hacker News

ASK HN: Should TV stay as it is?

by Shalle on 6/29/13, 10:29 PM with 1 comments

I wonder... And have wondered for quite a while, why does the tv-channels/companies work as they've done for almost 100 years?

In Sweden we have an fee called Radiotjänst which everyone in Sweden has to pay monthly(they say it's optional but if you own a tv-receiver you have to pay. TV-receiver according to them = TV, smartphones, tablets, internet, computers yea everyone ha to pay it). Then there is an fee for getting a plan with channels and on top of that there is commercials so what exactly do we pay for? Do we actually pay $100 monthly to watch commercials? In my logic it should be either free and profitable by commercials or a paid service with no commercials.

How do you feel, do you agree or disagree? Should services you pay for actually contain commercials?

  • by tjr on 6/30/13, 12:35 AM

    I rarely watch broadcast television. Most of what I do watch is via Netflix streaming. I think this model works well, though presently Netflix offers only a portion of theoretically available content.