Cable TV

[Dave Lehnert]

We first got cable tv in the early 80's. It was $18 a month and we got a movie channel or two . Now its $80 a month, no movie channels, and a whole bunch of Shopping networks.

Am I the only one who thinks the price of cable is out of control and it time to "Disable the cable"

[Chris Padilla]

Not a bad idea...wish I could get away from it. I'm on satellite...two DVRs...$100/month! :(

[Myk Rian]

Time to complain to the city council. They have a cable commission that makes the deal with Comcast. Tell them to get their act together.
We get Basic Preferred cable with 6meg I-net for $93/month.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Yes.... and no.

Yes. If it hurt$ - disconnect it. We should prolly all turn the TV off and read a few good books anyways. $80.00/mo = $9,600.00 in ten years, minimum. YES, WE ARE ALL NUTS. 'Course, if you get HBO or sim. and a few family members watch just 1 or 2 'new' movies/month you're even if you would have gone out to a theater and/or rented a few more at Blockbuster anyway. I'm kinda in that camp. I would have spent at least half of my cable costs anyway.

No. If you're aged and/or disabled, bedridden, hobby challenged or in need of mindless entertainment at any cost.

Quite frankly a therapist would cost much more and render worse results than is achieved by falling asleep in front of the tube every other night.
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[Don Jarvie]

We're at 150 a month. Granted we have all of the movie channels and DVR from Comcast.

For those with Comcast here is a tip. Call them up and ask if they have any specials. We got the phone, internet, cable with all of the premium channels with DVR for 3 dollars less than no premium channels and DVR.

The deal lasted for 1 year and then you call again and get another package.

[Dave Johnson29]

Five years, 5 months, no TV. I have 2 dish network dishes and K and C band 10-foot dish in the yard. Never activated any of them.

Don't feel like I have missed anything yet.

Let' see,
$150 x 12 = $1800 / year

$1800 x 5 = $9000 for 5 years
$150 x 5 = $750 for 5 months
Hmmm, Saved $9,750 so far and counting.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Five years, 5 months, no TV. I have 2 dish network dishes and K and C band 10-foot dish in the yard. Never activated any of them.

Don't feel like I have missed anything yet.



So, who do you yell at if not the TV?
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[Zach England]

I pay something like $70/month to get god knows how many channels, but all I watch are MLB network, NFL network, and ESPN. This is in addition to $200-something a season for the MLB package.

[Jim Fay]

Yes, I can't understand why they don't allow an "ala cart" pricing format. I would think it would be hugely popular. I just recently (today as a matter of fact) had to downgrade my cable to the extremely basic package. We were up to almost 150.00 a month. That is absolutely ludicrous. I was able to get it down to 75.00 but boy are my kids mad!! Can't win.
Jim

[Dave Lehnert]

Our cable company, Time Warner, offers a good package price and a "Guarantee rate" for like two years. Guarantee rate = Fancy new words for Contract:eek:

Cincinnati Bell is wiring now for cable TV. No wonder T.W is offering a "Guarantee rate" to lock you in.

[Rick Davidson]

It is ridiculous we pay way to much. I have been saying the same thing for a while now they should offer it ala-cart. It is so annoying that out of almost $100 a month and 200+ channels we only watch about 10 of them. I only want to pay for those 10..

[Jim Becker]

Currently on DirecTV on the "Family Plan" and it's about $53 a month with two HD STBs and one SD STB. Once FiOS arrives, the bundle will still keep the TV cost down. We don't watch that much and I'd never pay for a "movie" channel since it would be wasted.

[Walter Plummer]

What gets me is how we the consumers let cable turn into pay tv. Back in the days when tv was free, cable sold itself by offering minimal commercials, and un-cut, un-censored movies and shows. We got value for the price. Now it is thirty times the channels and thirty times the commercials, and everything is cut to shreds or they don`t dare show it because it might offend someone. Rant over.

[Randal Stevenson]

We first got cable tv in the early 80's. It was $18 a month and we got a movie channel or two . Now its $80 a month, no movie channels, and a whole bunch of Shopping networks.

Am I the only one who thinks the price of cable is out of control and it time to "Disable the cable"


Yes, I can't understand why they don't allow an "ala cart" pricing format. I would think it would be hugely popular. I just recently (today as a matter of fact) had to downgrade my cable to the extremely basic package. We were up to almost 150.00 a month. That is absolutely ludicrous. I was able to get it down to 75.00 but boy are my kids mad!! Can't win.
Jim


What gets me is how we the consumers let cable turn into pay tv. Back in the days when tv was free, cable sold itself by offering minimal commercials, and un-cut, un-censored movies and shows. We got value for the price. Now it is thirty times the channels and thirty times the commercials, and everything is cut to shreds or they don`t dare show it because it might offend someone. Rant over.


The ONLY reason I have cable, is due to the cable modem. It is one dollar less WITH basic cable and the cablemodem, then just the internet service itself (stupid huh?). (dial up providers are few and far between)

I have to agree with the above comments. Cable is just a licensed monopoly. (at least in my area)

[Tom Veatch]

...
Am I the only one who thinks the price of cable is out of control and it time to "Disable the cable"

Not at all!

I "disabled the cable" several years ago. The only TV I've watched for a number of years is an occasional news broadcast and what plays through the VCR and DVD. You know, I don't feel the least bit deprived and have discovered a number of authors whose work I thoroughly enjoy.

[Dave Johnson29]

So, who do you yell at if not the TV?
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Hmmmm, good question Mitchell and I can understand where you are coming from with that question. :) Didn't I recently read that your beverage of choice was Mountain Dew????

I never find the need to yell unless trying to attract someone's attention on a windy day down at my front gate, 300 feet away. :D:D

Maybe move that beverage choice to tea or beer? :eek::D

[Gerold Griffin]

Last summer I got fed up with the satellite campanies not providing local channels in our area. Put up a nice big antenna with rotar and now we get 14 differant stations from 11 differant networks. All free, in HD. Next year at this time when my contract is up with with the satellite company they just may get thier box back due to thier high cost and lack of local programming. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Shawn Christ]

I cut the cord and got satellite 9 years ago when we bought our first house. At the time it was half the cost of cable. We now pay $70 for Dish Network which includes one receiver, HD and DVR; I suspect that's not much cheaper than cable anymore.

Someone else mentioned you can take the 1-year deal and find another deal when that one is up. A few coworkers do this and switch between cable and the satellite providers annually. Not for me. But people have also learned how to play the complain-game by playing Dish Network against Direct TV. Call them up and find something to complain about such as no locals in HD, poor reception, no internet or phone packages, etc. You can easily end up with free premium channels or credits to your account for 3 months. For instance, I want to see the new WWII miniseries "The Pacific" on HBO. So I called up Dish Network and complained about no HD local channels. They verified they weren't available so I asked to have them removed. They said that would be a $5 transaction fee. I asked if it could be waived. They put me on hold and when they came back to the line they said I would get a $39 credit on my account, once a month, for 3 months. I then went online and added HBO for $16/month and will cancel that when the series is complete. Paid for the programming with money left over.

I also agree with the antenna comment. In our area we can pick up all of the major networks plus PBS and other regional networks. All in HD, all for free. If not for a few random shows, ESPN and the Chicago sports networks, there's isn't much need for all of the added programming. But I just can't bring myself to end it (yet).

[Eric Franklin]

I've used an antenna for the last couple of years with a Mac mini as dual-tuner DVR. No cable or satellite provider can match the quality of my local channels. I use Netflix for movies(streaming and DVD). So I only pay $30 a month for internet through u-verse.

[Pete Kurki]

I've used an antenna for the last couple of years with a Mac mini as dual-tuner DVR. No cable or satellite provider can match the quality of my local channels. I use Netflix for movies(streaming and DVD). So I only pay $30 a month for internet through u-verse.

Now that's cheap! I get the DISH family package and all locals with two receivers (one dual, one solo, feeding 3 TV's), and my last bill was $34.19. Our 5M DSL, however, is almost $50 per month, but it is part of my wife's home office package that she gets reimbursed for.

Living in the rural area cable or fiber are not even available for us.

[Paul Atkins]

I'm with Eric. We have an antenna and get all the major networks and 2 PBS channels and with Netflix on demand, we have more than enough to watch. The tuner on the iMac is clear as a bell with stereo sound with recording and pause for live shows etc. It's our CD player, DVD player, Skype (free video chat), our TV and our computer. I can type this and watch TV at the same time. Talk about all our eggs in one basket. Thirty bucks a month plus Netflix.

[Brian Elfert]

For some reason I doubt that alacarte will be much cheaper if it ever comes. They'll just charge a huge markup for each channel. I watch about six cable only channels in the course of a year along with the broadcast channels, but I get over 100 channels not including HD channels.

I think a huge part of the price increase for cable over the year is the subscriber fees charged by some of cable networks. Pretty much every sports network costs $1 to $2 a month per subscriber. Sports networks alone could cost $15 a month or more.

The broadcast networks are threatening to charge cable companies to carry them which will add to the monthly cost.