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# Tech Time: The Future of TV

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#### How much does a TIME subscription cost?

TIME digital-only is $20 for one year. Print and digital is from $29 for one year, or $49 for two years. Both plans can be cancelled at any time. Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent.

#### What is included in a TIME print and digital subscription?

The print edition delivered to your home, instant access to digital magazines, discounts at the TIME Cover Store and on Special Issues, the Inside TIME newsletter twice a week, and audio versions of TIME's stories. It is from $29 for one year or $49 for two years at time.com/subscribe-agent.

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Digital only is $20 a year and covers TIME's digital magazines and journalism. Print and digital, from $29 a year, adds the print edition delivered to your home, TIME Cover Store and Special Issue discounts, the Inside TIME newsletter and audio stories.

#### Is TIME a reliable news source?

TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923. Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers.

#### How do I subscribe to TIME magazine?

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/s0cKIzc8.m3u8" -->
## Video: Tech Time: The Future of TV

[Watch (HLS stream): Tech Time: The Future of TV](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/s0cKIzc8.m3u8) (2:22)

![Tech Time: The Future of TV](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/s0cKIzc8/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2016-02-03. How will we be watching tv in a few years? And what will it look like? TIME Tech Editor Alex Fitzpatrick weighs in._


---

Jul 27, 2023 7:33 PM UTC

---

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---


## Transcript

[ MUSIC ] Almost nobody out there actually likes their cable company. Who wants to pay way too much money for a bunch of channels they never actually watch? Thankfully, it's getting easier than ever to cut the cord and get tv on demand, over the internet. Here's how the future of tv will be different. [ MUSIC ] For years, getting the best TV shows usually meant paying for an expensive cable package. But over the last few months lots of great shows have found their way online. Even HBO which makes some of the best TV out there, has a stand alone streaming service called HBO NOW. That makes life a lot easier for us TV fans if we only want shows like Game of Thrones, we don't need to pay lots of money for stuff we don't actually want to watch.

Streaming services are having a big impact on how TV gets made in the first place, too. The big broadcasters have to make shows that appeal to a mass audience. That's their whole business model. But steaming companies like Netflix and Amazon can focus on making lots of high quality shows that might draw fewer viewers on their own, but add up in the long run. That's how we got great shows like House of Cards and Transparent. Netflix in particular is great at using big data To predict which shows will be a hit with viewers before they're even released. That's a really big change in how TV gets made in the first place.

No more pilots, and no more focus groups. One rough patch right now for cord cutters is live sports. Depending on which teams you want to watch, it can be pretty tough to get games without cable. For instance, I can get Giants football games through an antenna, but I can't watch hockey or baseball without expensive streaming packages. And even those don't show home games all the time. There are signs of hope here though. ESPN is available on a very affordable slim TV. So you can get stuff like monday night football and lots of college hoops. Depending as other problems do if you cancel your cable and decide to sign up for lots of different streaming services.

You might find that you're paying just as much as before. So you need to pick and choose to make it all worth while. Meanwhile, cable companies are making up for lost TV customers by jacking up rates on internet access. Still, the future is looking pretty bright for television fans. Companies like Netflix and Amazon are making really great original shows, broadcasters are starting to put more of their shows online, and life is slowly getting better for sports fans too. In a perfect world, we'd be able to watch whatever, whenever, wherever. It's looking pretty likely that will happen eventually, but unfortunately you shouldn't count on that coming true any Any time soon.

[ MUSIC ]

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