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How many are sick and tired of their cable and satalite bill keeps going up?

H

hey_moe

Retired SOH Administrator
How many are sick and tired of their cable and satalite bill keeps going up?

I am thinking of getting out of our Direct TV contract....lol. Eighty bucks a month for basic package/ten for HD,five for DVR and five for the downstairs card. I watch the local news in the morning and evening and Linda watches that Life time channel for women once in a while...the rest of the time we either watch DVD or either download a movie on Netflix.To me I feel it's to high for what we use it for.320 bucks every four months is getting silly. We started at 49.00 which to me was kinda high then.I guess we be going to the outside antenna.
 
Only thing I watched on TV recently was the Olympics.
I do fine with the free TV channels we get here with the switch to digital signal last year.

What's nice are the extra channels I get now since then, like 3 different PBS channels. I like documentaries.
The NBC affiliate has another channel it broadcasts, Universal Sports.
US is kinda like the old ABC Wide World of Sports. Nice to watch other sports out there than just the usual.

About the only thing I miss is the Speed channel from cable/satellite.
Well, Turner Classic Movies, and the History Channel too.
Would like to see "Pacific" on HBO, but I'm sure it'll be out on DVD soon enough.

Seems like everything else is available on the internet.
Watch a lot of stuff on Hulu and Crackle.
 
Some of us can remember four or five channels, depending on how good your buddy turned the antenna. Always had something on. Now I've got cable and a 100 channels. What do I watch, the same shows that were on those four or five channels 40+ years ago. Getting harder to justify paying the cable bill every month...
Curt:kilroy:
 
Ah, but the rate increases are justified.:monkies:

In addition to just the rise in the general overhead of doing business, they want to expand their market and technology. And guess who pays? :engel016:

And lets not forget all the marketing on TV. You can get real slick deals if you've never had cable. But there are no discounts for loyal customers or senior citizens. :salute:

Kinda makes ya' wonder..

--WH
 
I agree with Curtis (above) and even worse we have satellite and at the first sign of rain or high wind the picture breaks up. At least with cable you can watch 500 channels of rubbish in any weather. Progress? Huh!
 
If it were not for baseball and motorsports, I'd never turn mine on.

Every time we threaten to drop some program package from DirectTV Mike, they end us letting us have it for the same or a reduced price. :wavey: They're a hellava lot easier and better to deal with than Comcast cable.

The commercials are what kill me, too many, too redundant, just an endless string of blather.

Caz
 
I have direct TV- way over 100 channels. My big gripes:
Yes, there are plenty of channels: most are not "active" on my favorites list so never show up on the guide channel because they are of no interest to me. I probably don't regularly watch more than a half dozen of the none local cable channels
​
Yes, most are HD but I don't care because I do not yet own an HD TV, and have no intention of getting one until my perfectly fine 32" flat screen Samsung gives up the ghost.
​
I would be perfectly happy to have a package that included nothing but my local broadcast channels, a couple of the ESPN channels, Turner Classic Movies, FOXNews and a couple of others.

Yep, been toying with the idea of dumping the ever increasing monthly cable bill. I am just not the type of TV viewer that get his money's worth from it.

I would miss TCM, but that is about it. Never do PPV.
 
Dumped all cable and Direct TV-gone to straight antennae TV streaming movies from Netflix and Zune through XBOX 360. Cost $50 a year for XBOX live! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!
Ted
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Man Ted,

That sounds like the way to go.



Mike; I hate it! Full agreement. I paid my bill yesterday, speaking of this. $254.00. Thats cable, 4 boxes, 300 channels, one phone that stopped working after the big rain 3 weeks ago, and high speed internet. Internet is $100.00 a month. Thats business though, an absolute need.

The main thing on cable I wanted was SciFi and Discovery Wings. Now Wings is gone, and SciFi is now the killer shark channel, the killer rock monster channel, and ghost hunters..... No more science fiction, just gore and people screaming. Like Ted, I am starting to purchase my shows directly and watch them when I want. I can get my shows and movies through iTunes and play them on my Mac or iPhone. Mac has better resolution then my TV ever will. I am wondering when I will cancel Cable TV. The amount is just toooooo much. $250.00... man.. .
 
I would dump cable in a minute but my wife would go into withdrawals. Remember when cable was first being introduced with the promise of no commercials? That went away in a hurry.
 
Part of what's driving these cost increases are downward ad revenues. Yeah, there may be more ads than before, but the channels are getting less for them.

However, a lot like the recording industry, the television industry is being a bit tone deaf.

While costs are being driven down by lack of demand, these channels are demanding more for their programming. DirecTV has already refused to carry Versus Network because Comcast wanted to charge a hefty increase.

The recent mergers in the industry has reduced competition. At some point, some Sherman Anti-Trust suits have to come down on the heads of the industry. The cable industry has become too monopolized and now they have control of the programming as well. This has placed them in position to charge higher fees to competitive broadcast companies, such as the current war between Comcast (who owns Versus) and DirecTV.

Eventually, when you charge more in a downsizing market, you go out of business or rationalize your cost structure.

Ken
 
Well what really bothers me with Direct TV is they don't have cables,poles...ect..ect to maintain but yet it just keeps going up. I just ordered a high end antenna and a tripod. I told Linda she can watch Lifetime on her pooter. It's not so much the eighty bucks that bothers me but what I am getting for the eighty bucks. I know they will try and give me some kind of a discount to keep us for a customer but I wanna just get away from all this paid local channels crap. To be honest with ya I enjoy the internet way more than TV. I also don't watch any type of sports.If I started paying what some of you guys pay I would really have a big chet..lol I should have the antenna hooked up sometime next week.Just before I connect it I will call DTV and tell them to ship the box out so I can send them their receiver back and a check for the remaining amount to the contract.
 
What I find amusing when you get a letter from your cable company,....mine being Comcast.....describing all these wonderful new programs they're giving you at no boosted cost. It turns out they're just more junk stations added to the program menu, but you can bet they'll raise the rent within the next few months. If it wasn't for a small handful of channels that interest me,....I would have pitched cable a long time ago.
 
I have no TV and have not had one in years.

I do have Basic cable for 35.00/month built into my rent that I can not get rid of or I would have turned it off before I moved in. Because of that fact I bought a TV Tuner card for my PC. I watch the History Channel and Discovery Channel some days but still not enough to justify buying a $20 TV Tuner card and spending $35 a month.

Kickem all to the curb Mike for $80+ a month you and Linda can have a nice night on the town twice a year.
 
By golly! After reading the posts on this thread I have decided to dump my Direct TV contract and just go with local channels. I've already recorded every single movie from TCM that I ever want to see and the rest of the channels I can quickly learn to live with out. I am years beyond the minimum time. I won't owe them a cent. It will be good thing!
 
We have cable TV. It's set up with the standard basic package and then you add on packages. main gripe I have is you can't make up your own packages containing channels that the household people want to watch. Not forced to subscribe to a bunch of crap that you never watch anyway.
 
To terminate the contract it is only 140.00...in two months time I would have paid 160.00, whats the difference...lol. They did say if I turned in the DVR,stopped the HD and DVR service and go with a standard receiver and agree to a cheaper plan they can drop it down a little. My response was mail me the return box for the DVR and bill me for the remainder of the contract.
GT182 said:
They will nail you with a large termination fee Mike. At least wait until time is up.
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