I have never paid for any cable TV or video streaming service in my life. Reason is simple, I don't want to financially support people / shows / stations that go against my personal standards of human decency.
Had cable TV constantly contacting me, since I had them for internet, until one day. Asked them, "Does this include Fox News" ... "Yes" ... "I'll will end my life before ever supporting Fox News. Contact me again when I can get À la carte and I don't have to fund the trash at Fox News." They never contacted me again.
Only streaming service I ever paid for was SiriusXM. Canceled it when I found that Fox News was part of the package.
There is already so much content to consume in a day that I don't have to sit in front of a TV for an hour or two. HTPC from my ripped DVDs and Blu-rays goes a long way if I too.
When I got my house, I needed to set up internet, and Verizon FIOS was what I went for.
I called them to get it set up, and when I suggested the internet dude on the line kept trying to upsell me TV packages. I was polite at first but eventually I said something like "listen, I don't want your 'Movie Lovers' package. I don't want your 'Sports Fan' package. I don't want your 'Family Entertainment' package. I don't want your 'Comedy Lover' package. I just want internet. I do not want anything but internet. If you pitch more more packages I will still only want internet".
Admittedly a little rude, but the guy did get the point after that and he was perfectly helpful getting everything set up.
I'm sure they're forced to do that and graded on how many upgrades they sell. Their bosses will even listen on calls and if they don't make all those pitches, they'll get written up or fired. Source: seen it first-person.
Yeah, I wasn't really upset with the guy for reading his script. I'm sure he was doing what he was trained to do. I figured that if I gave the little diatribe then I kind of figured that he wouldn't get in trouble for just moving on.
When having negative confrontations with companies, I make it a point to tell the CSR "My statements are not directed towards you, they are directed at your CEO and executives, the decision makers." And will remind them at least once more near the end.
Secondly, the CSR was not from the Philippines.
I tried years of "please don't contact me again" and of course they kept doing just that. How would you stop the companies that would financially support bad actors from continually hounding your for their business?
I'm impressed that you were able to cancel SiriusXM. I thought that it was set up to cling to people for life, and possibly continue billing their estate after death.
I don't see politics as left and right. To me they are in the shape of a Radar chart or Radial Column chart or Sunburst diagram.
People in real life are multi-facet not singularly polar. People with agendas and grifters are polar. Polarization is also for those that want to be self-defined by a party.
I also do not support news or other agencies that reject STEMM or use questions to mask direct lying.
Back when we had things like Dish and cable, I was able to put a "Parental Block" on channels. I used this to hide or remove channels I never watched, but I found it had a secondary benefit when my Texan in-laws visited -- "Sorry, our TV package doesn't include Fox News".
Actually, a more likely button might be "Sports" which would either open your preferred sports app (smarter way to do it) and default to Fox Sports, or a "Stream TV" type button that opens up Tubi which is already run by Fox, and surprisingly had decent content on it.
I'm not surprised they're going this route, and would not be surprised if News becomes a drastically smaller piece of Fox over the coming years.
Why would this be more likely? The current remotes already have a Netflix button, a Hulu button, a Sling button and a Disney+ button. Roku sells dedicated buttons on their remotes to the highest bidder.
Had cable TV constantly contacting me, since I had them for internet, until one day. Asked them, "Does this include Fox News" ... "Yes" ... "I'll will end my life before ever supporting Fox News. Contact me again when I can get À la carte and I don't have to fund the trash at Fox News." They never contacted me again.
Only streaming service I ever paid for was SiriusXM. Canceled it when I found that Fox News was part of the package.
There is already so much content to consume in a day that I don't have to sit in front of a TV for an hour or two. HTPC from my ripped DVDs and Blu-rays goes a long way if I too.