Verizon CEO Actually Recognizes That People Want To Cut The Cord

from the good-for-him dept

Wed, Sep 29th 2010 3:41am — Mike Masnick

While many in the TV business were recently patting themselves on the back in pretending that TV had "beaten" the internet, and people weren't interested in dumping their expensive cable plans, at least some folks are recognizing where things are headed. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, who has always been more of a straight shooter than some other execs in the industry, is admitting the obvious:

"Young people are pretty smart. They're not going to pay for something they don't need to."

Such a simple sentence, and yet one that so many people are in denial about.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: cord cutting, ivan seidenberg

29 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Kari, 29 Sep 2010 @ 4:26am

lol ... I had comcast for an ISP and they capped me. Waited for sprint 4G to be in my area. Got an EVO 4G, cancelled my Comcast, cancelled my Verizon, never had a TV (Why do you need a TV? All you really need is a big screen).

Now I have unlimited bandwidth on my computer. Yay for technology. I'm also paying the same, if not less, than I paid previously.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
NAMELESS.ONE, 29 Sep 2010 @ 4:28am

lets see
a computer can"
play music
play movies
play tv
play games
marketing with web servering
make software
run software

LIKE this replaces
cable/satellite
vcrs and tv
ghetto boxes and stereo sytems
game consoles etc

do a price comparison to the above
and a cheap used 100$ computer can do it all....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Joe, 29 Sep 2010 @ 4:50am
  
  Re: lets see
  That is why I am comfortable canceling my cable. All I need is a TV hooked up to the net and a nice TV that accepts VGA or HDMI cables.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - chris (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 9:55am
    
    Re: Re: lets see
    i tried that, but sadly the DSL service where i live was horribly slow. i watched all the TV and stuff that i wanted (bit torrent just don't care) but it was difficult for the whole family to play online games at the same time.
    
    so i canceled DSL and have cable now, but i took the highest connect speed and the lowest number of channels. i did this because i had no other choice.
    
    though, now that i have worked with the cable company's business service to get broadband for my hackerspace, i am wondering what it would take to get business service for myself at my house and not bother with cable television at all.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
NAMELESS.ONE, 29 Sep 2010 @ 4:29am

p.s.
i havent had a need for a tv since 1996
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
NAMELESS.ONE, 29 Sep 2010 @ 4:33am

OH and my age
40
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Joe, 29 Sep 2010 @ 4:48am

It isn't that we don't need to pay for Cable
It is that there is a lot of stuff on Cable plans we really don't want. If they sold it by network (a la carte) at a reasonable price (seriously $60 per month for some channels I can only watch on my TV?) such as $30 per month where we can watch all the channels we want to watch on our TV, phone, Ipad, computer and any other device released as they are released.

Then I can see why I would pay for Cable. Otherwise when my triple play runs out (it is running out next month) I will continue to cancel my cable and only pay for internet and phone (but without all three the only one I NEED is the internet, where yes they will continue to over charge for less service because they have monopolies in individual markets. Sucks for me but I will be damned if I have to pay $60 just for cable TV.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Common Sense, 29 Sep 2010 @ 4:54am

New Respect
I thought all of that industry's executives were the same greedy, foolish, blind-to-the-future, retards at every company. I now have a new respect for Verizon....but don't worry, it's only a little and it doesn't come with any faith that they'll be able to keep it for an extended period of time...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Dark Helmet (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 5:44am
  
  Re: New Respect
  That's my first thought too. So let's make another fair statement. His was:
  
  "Young people are pretty smart. They're not going to pay for something they don't need to."
  
  Mine is:
  
  "Emerging executives are pretty smart. They're not going to keep trying to sell us something we don't have to pay for. They'll figure out another way to give us something that we'll want to buy."
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - CommonSense (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 8:00am
    
    Re: Re: New Respect
    I like it. One slight difference, for now, is that his statement is true, and yours is only partially true, though we hope they figure it out...
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - chris (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 9:46am
    
    Re: Re: New Respect
    "Emerging executives are pretty smart. They're not going to keep trying to sell us something we don't have to pay for. They'll figure out another way to give us something that we'll want to buy."
    
    they only have one thing i want to buy, residential broadband and mobile service.
    
    i can get everything else over tcp/ip.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
fogbugzd (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 4:56am

Denial
In corporate America you can afford to be in denial if you own enough Congressmen.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- trench0r (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 5:30am
  
  Re: Denial
  in soviet russia, congressman own you!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Benji, 29 Sep 2010 @ 7:56am
    
    Re: Re: Denial
    Pretty sure it's the same here in the US.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
redrum, 29 Sep 2010 @ 5:47am

Roku!
I cut the cable a year ago because I needed to save money, but there definitely was a void. I couldn't get HTPC or Boxee to work on the old pc that I was trying to set up as a media pc. Geexbox was interesting but not really viable as a cable replacement.

We use Netflix, so I just got a Roku box. This thing is awesome, and only $59. I have 3mb dsl service, and it streams all the Netflix (and other stuff) in really nice quality, and for no extra fee! My wife finally stopped complaining and we have been watching and discovering lots of new things.

Now we no longer miss cable.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Another AC, 29 Sep 2010 @ 5:57am
  
  Re: Roku!
  We use Netflix for the same purpose. We cut the tie to Satellite a while ago. Don't have the Roku, but the kids have a Wii and we use it. Currently pending on the HTPC but as soon as it is up and running, we will use it. With FIOS internet @ 15Mb down and 5Mb up, I have plenty of bandwidth to stream media into the family room. FIOS offered the Triple Play, but their DVRs currently suck compared to others and we were just not watching it enough. Now my kids have been introduced to classics like The Pink Panther, The Inspector, Inspector Gadget...They think it is great!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- JEDIDIAH, 29 Sep 2010 @ 6:08am
  
  Re: Roku!
  Well, boxee will probably eventually be running flash and that just doesn't run well on a primitive old box. DVD rips and over-the-air TV recordings can run well on an ancient cast-off box but Hulu can't. It's using a more "modern" encoding and is terribly put together.
  
  Something like a Roku gets around that by having speciality decoding hardware and actually using it.
  
  My $200 HTPC decodes BluRay rips just fine but can't handle Hulu because of Flash.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - chris (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 10:07am
    
    Re: Re: Roku!
    Well, boxee will probably eventually be running flash and that just doesn't run well on a primitive old box. DVD rips and over-the-air TV recordings can run well on an ancient cast-off box but Hulu can't. It's using a more "modern" encoding and is terribly put together.
    
    while i am pissed at intel over this whole HDMI + upgrade card fiasco, there's no denying that the atom CPU and nvidia ion chipset make a decent, inexpensive, flash capable machine, provided it has more than a gig of ram.
    
    i wish AMD made a similar low power/low heat/low cost chip.
    
    flash on old hardware usually comes down to RAM, the more the merrier. the problem is that 2gb of ram on a 6 year old box, if the box even supports it, can be tough to find and tends to be expensive.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Sep 2010 @ 6:30am

Only reason I have cable anymore is cause of sports :-/

Expensive to watch my teams play on my TV :-/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Sep 2010 @ 6:41am

nhl nfl UFC nba
all on torrents and streams ....out there

and who needs a tv?
once you have a 80$ computer and a 120$ 20 inch monitor WHO cares
then yu dont just have a tv
you have a game console
game machine work station and more
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Overcast (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 6:52am

and who needs a tv?
once you have a 80$ computer and a 120$ 20 inch monitor WHO cares
then yu dont just have a tv
you have a game console
game machine work station and more

Yep ^^

The TV's usefulness for me started to quickly die in 1980 when I got an Atari 2600.

I have NO high def TV's at home, LOL. I do have a 24" Wide Screen monitor though! A TV is a waste of cash for me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Sep 2010 @ 6:59am

Translation:
We need to get legislation neutralizing any aspect of net neutrality now that nobody is looking, we need to enforce ASAP discriminatory bandwidth utilization and force people to pay for it.

He is not acknowledging that fact because he is a good guy, he is doing so because he already mapped out how things should play out and probably got some assurances that it will play that way.

Short version:

He already got in place the things he need and will screw every customer under the sun.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Daniel Vaughn (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 7:22am

Call me crazy..
Maybe I'm alone here, but I actually enjoy having my cable and big plasma TV. Sure, the internet can cover most of the programming available, but cable with my DVR is so much more convenient than downloading shows or waiting 8 days for damned Hulu to bring up new episodes. I have about 8 or 9 shows that always record, so I just live off the DVR, commercial-free. Plus I don't have to worry about anybody else I live with bogging down my bandwidth. Comcast may charge an arm and a leg, and I do split the cost with two roommates, but even alone I'd be willing to pay the price of that added convenience of just being able to sit back with a remote and watch.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 29 Sep 2010 @ 8:57am
  
  Re: Call me crazy..
  The time delay on Hulu is irrelevant if you're already talking about downloading shows. You can automate all the downloads too; I do, and it's awesome! Grabbing shows within an hour of their airing, including shows that I *couldn't even get* on a cable plan (read BBC and other shows that don't play in my country), is pretty cool. It's even cooler when I get an email letting me know a new show is ready for watching ;)
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hephaestus (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 7:24am

Hoo-ah !!!
Comcast is going to merge with NBCU. Everyone is up in arms over this merger. What they don't see is that the TV studios are becoming less relevant and seeing competition from mutiple sources. Gaming, texting, cell phones, social media, alternate sources for content, youtube, are all eatting into the time people have for TV. Plus you also have all content going digital which makes cable redundant.

The cable companies are in for a rude awakening over the next few years as profits shrink from cord cutting, and competition increases from cable companies expanding into each others monopolies in an attempt to maintain profits.

Its going to be fun to watch and Kudos to GE for seeing this when media industry insiders can't.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
TPBer, 29 Sep 2010 @ 8:00am

GoogleTV
nuf said, this will be the new TV platform. I do not know why they call the boxes companion boxes, they can be used as stand alone streaming centers. They probably use the companion description to make the guys like Dish network feel good about their eventual demise :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
that_id (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 8:59am

Between Hulu+ and Netflix, I can access almost any (HD)TV shows or movies I want right off of my PS3. For the shows that aren't on the PS3 version of Hulu+, I just switch over to my HTPC which is also connected right to my TV. The occasional movie that I can't get streaming, well fortunately I have enough patience that I can wait for Netflix to mail it to me.
Home phone? Who needs it. I've moved about 10 times in as many years for work, my number changes constantly due to area providers. Started using MagicJack, number stays the same for years, I don't even plug it in, it just forwards to my cell so I don't have to give that number out.
Cut the cord already. Get your home wired with ethernet instead of coax and phone jacks and tell your local provider to shove those 'bundles' where the sun doesn't shine. A generation has figured out a way to deliver their own 'cafeteria plan' for media because cable & sat couldn't/wouldn't offer it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Griffon, 30 Sep 2010 @ 2:36pm

way to much credit
You are giving him WAY to much credit. See what he was really saying was

Now we can offer rape you with your pants on tiered data plans because we can claim we are giving young people a way to not pay so much... but of course we are not doing that at all.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Mar 2011 @ 10:58am

the blackberry curve sucks i just had 6 of them peaces of crap and the only one that worked was the first one and the other were all defected n want turn on or anything so if i could get my money back and choice of an regualor phone i would cause this phone isnt worth my waste of time
[ link to this | view in chronology ]