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malonish wrote:Net Neutrality is one of the few things government did right.

“Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good intentions -- tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.”

-- Milton Friedman

While everyone would be extremely happy with a la carte channel packages, it's still not there yet. You can get OTA channels for free which is nice to get your 4/5/8/11 assuming you live close enough but you also have to get an OTA DVR (not including external HDD) which can be expensive and some need subscription service if you want a "channel guide and DVR scheduler".

There are services that are deemed "cable-cutter", (I have one and will give my review so far) is: PS Vue, DIRECTVNow (I have) and Sling Tv. I personally found Sling tv to be the worst deal because if you want both espn and fox then you have to buy both their packages (around $40 a month). However they will be getting cloud DVR soon. Directvnow had a great plan for $35 a month limited time which gives over 100 channels and all the sports channels except for NFL network and cbs sports network. Also you don't get local channels except fox which NFL games get blacked out (hence my OTA discussion). Also no planned DVR services which really does suck. PS Vue is more established but a bit more pricey with less channels but has DVR. All of them don't have a la carte but does make them more concised packages (no Spanish channels or pointless channels).

Then there are the other subscription medias like Netflix (have), Hulu (don't), Amazon prime (have) which again their stuff doesn't fully satisfy consumer needs alone. CBS tried to do the stand alone subscription platform but again how many shows on their do you actually watch? Maybe one or two.

In conclusion, while not mentioning everything (I.e having a powerful internet 200mbs is what I have), there isn't a truly viable a la carte platform out there that I'm aware of. Anyways, just my take.

Hulu will have all of the ESPN channels Fox and cbs sports network along with hgtv soon. ..

Right. It isn't there yet. 10 years from now it'll be the standard. The networks know this and are doing everything they can to adapt before they get left in the lurch.

A plug for Sling TV. For 20 bucks you cannot beat it. Yes, No fox at this price tier but it enables
quite a bit. Big games on ESPN/TNT in full HD without having satellite/cable or having to resort to.. well..other means. Should also be noted that one could easily subscribe to the extra Fox tier as needed throughout the year and dump it at other times.

Sling combined with an OTA antenna (why setting this up is such a trauma is beyond me) provides a great experience on a 50 inch Plasma for little cash.

DP