Flip the Table, We Don’t Have Cable

Bluefield College administrators decided prior to the spring 2019 semester to discontinue providing cable television service to its residential students.

Administrators believed that students have recently shown more interest in viewing television programming through streaming devices rather than cable, so they dropped cable to help the college save money for other campus services.

“As you may know, there has been a growing movement among consumers to ‘cut the cord’ on traditional telecom services in favor of streaming services, which tend to be more flexible and less expensive,” said BC’s Josh Arnold, associate vice president for Student Development about the decision to eliminate cable services. “Traditional cable services are projected to be the next ‘Blockbuster Video’ and likely will not exist as we know them in the coming years.”

Arnold said that Bluefield College paid in excess of $60,000 per year for cable services and that many students reportedly did not use the cable, preferring instead to stream television programming from their mobile devices using family accounts with services like Netflix, Hulu, and Sling.

While most students have access to streaming devices, affording subscriptions to services like Netflix and Hulu can be costly. Sophomore student Sarah LaPrade is one of many who says she has been negatively impacted by the decision.

“I think it’s stupid that the college shut off our access to cable,” LaPrade said. “Now I can’t watch live shows like ‘Dancing with the Stars’ without using my own money to pay for a live TV subscription.”

Not all students, such as commuters, have been directly impacted by the lack of cable service, and according to Arnold, the decision on whether to cut cable from campus dorms or not has been an ongoing discussion in recent years.

“Two years ago, we determined it was not in the college’s long-term best interest to continue paying for traditional cable services,” Arnold said. “Our contract with Comcast (Cable) was terminated before the start of the fall 2018 year, though it took them over a semester to officially ‘cut the cord’ and deactivate services to campus.”

And while some students may be struggling to adjust to the change, Arnold said the funds saved from eliminating cable are already being put to good use.

“The resources used for cable television were repurposed into a number of new student support services,” he said, “including the hiring of full-time, live-in professional resident directors for the residence halls — a norm at nearly every college and university across the country, but new for Bluefield College.

Arnold noted that live television streaming services through Hulu have been added to the Student Activities Center and plans for next year include rolling out streaming services to the first-floor lounges in Cruise, Rish, and East River residence halls. However, gaining private or individual room-by-room access to these services, he said, will take some time.

Students are also encouraged to take advantage of streaming services that offer student discounts until the time comes for students to utilize the services on their own devices.

“It is my hope that streaming service giants will begin to offer corporate contracts that allow us to extend services to students’ personal devices,” Arnold said. “The industry isn’t quite there yet, but it is rapidly moving in that direction. In the meantime, students are eligible for substantial discounts on such services as Spotify Premium and Hulu Plus through (their) bluefield.edu email account.”

Arnold added that local TV channels remain available for free through the over-the-air service nocable.org. He also said that over-the-air antennas with a minimum range of 50 miles provide an optimal signal and are similar in price to one month of a typical Netflix subscription.