Amazon wants to carry "P" games, which could affect realignment of Pac-12 teams to B12, or even to B10. The streaming service wanted in on the latest B10 contract but was politely told "no." But if they're willing to feature the weaker teams, Dennis Dodd says it could cause B10 to add more Pac-12 teams. More realistically, Amazon's presence could trigger Pac-12 teams joining B12, giving it teams in all four time zones. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/conferenc... /

You seem to be missing though that those networks have their own streaming services, which will carry those games. So they will reach their subscribers via cable, but also those who watch TV cordless.

Paramount+ which carries CBS has 43.3 million subscribers, and just added 4.3 million last month.

NBC Peacock has over 13 million paid subscribers, and that number is growing as they add premium content.

That may be true, but the vast majority of people do have options, such as decent internet service. And the problem people in rural areas face is cost; Directv is starting to price itself out of the market in areas that have available options, because they keep raising rates despite losing customers. Even the basic packages without premium services are close to $100 a month, when you add in the price of converter boxes plus taxes and other fees. That's why we dropped DTV.

It's similar to the issue with phone service your aunt and others in rural areas of Ohio, especially southeastern Ohio, face. In many areas the only available provider of phone service is the local landline company because the cable company won't build out and cell companies have terrain issues for coverage. So consumers have to pay what the landline company charges, or do without, which they really can't. And the landline companies keep raising rates on basic landline service so they can keep rates for more competitive services lower. I dealt with those issues for 23 years and it's only gotten worse because the landline companies don't want to invest in infrastructure to improve service to rural areas.

Not at all. My point was that it is all headed toward streaming and away from the archaic cable and satellite model. I'd really love to see the MAC go to an over-the-air network like Stadium who also stream but I don't see that happening or being profitable.

I've seen people online saying that their stream buffered and froze up and what not. That almost had to be a bad wifi, bad router, poor ISP or Roku issue. It certainly wasn't on Amazon. I watched last week and the preseason game, and it's a pretty impressive presentation. Now, the first time Amazon Prime Video had an "exclusive game," as best as I recall, was the day after Christmas in 2020 and it was buggy, for lack of a better word, but I think they've more than ironed out those issues.

Thanks, Alan. While this map is generally still accurate, there has been some improvement in the rural areas in Southeastern Ohio since 02/05/20, when the data was last updated.

This map is only a year old. Check out how many places have speeds of 10 or less.

https://broadband.ohio.gov/static/10272021-broadband-avai...

Alan, if you look at the underlying dataset from the FCC, it says last updated 02/05/20. And, to L.C.’s point, T-Mobile has recently increased 5G coverage in Athens County and other rural areas by their conversion of former Sprint towers to their new 5G network. The conversation was suppose to be finished by now, but I think there are still a few towers in our area that have yet to be converted from Sprint CDMA to 5G GSM. I think L.C. may be right that for rural areas 5G may be the wave of the future, as well as for many urban areas as well. BTW, I’m typing this on my cellphone in a rural area of Athens County using T-Mobile 5G while sitting in car on the side of the road.

Some improvement is like saying hey, the minimum wage went up to $7.25

Then it doesn't make sense for you, at least, today. But, it already does for some people, and as cellular speeds keep getting faster, it will make sense for more and more people. That, in turn, will slow the build-out for fiberoptic cable to rural areas, or may even halt it. It is much cheaper and faster to build more cell towers than it is to run a cable to every door.

I notice on many of the commercials that 5G cell coverage is missing for most of Nebraska. If you scroll down through this article from June 2021 to the coverage maps you'll see what I mean: https://www.pcmag.com/news/t-mobile-marks-5g-milestones-p... . I don't know if its because the Strategic Air Command still has bases and missile silos there or what. And of course the cell companies' websites always have disclaimers about their maps not being truly representative of coverage because of terrain and other things. I'm not sure 5G is actually needed to stream video, but I think it's probably a big help.

The FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) are working on up-to-date broadband maps. They expect to have a draft out in November.