Cord Cutters - - - -


 
Cord cutting is starting to hurt cable and dish companies. If they were smart, they would offer packages of only what folks want to watch and are willing to pay for, not 100's of channels of garbage.

Amen to that Bob. Although I don't see that happening because the networks are constantly raising the rates on the programs they supply to the cable and satellite company's and they have to pass that along to their subscribers. So if you got to pick and chose the cable and satellite company's would no longer have the revenue to cover the cost of 300+ channels for people to chose from. Although personally I think about 90% of those 300 channels wouldn't be missed by many people.

We are paying about $235 for cable, internet and phone.
The only show I watch is Motor Trend and some football during the season and Barb watches the Hallmark channels and the Food network. Plus we get all the local channels out of Phoenix for news. Our TV comes on about 5pm for the news and is off no later than 11pm.
To get the channels we watch we had to take the 250 channel package of stations about 240 of them we will never watch.
Then on top of that I was going to drop my land line with them and was told my rates would go up $26 because I no longer would have the full package.
 
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Cord cutting is starting to hurt cable and dish companies. If they were smart, they would offer packages of only what folks want to watch and are willing to pay for, not 100's of channels of garbage.

"Crime" Warner cable tried this a couple years ago in our area, but it was still too much $ for what they offered. They were offering 20 channels for $40 or something like that. But what they didn't tell you upfront, was all the fees that would be piled on top. No thanks.
 
We are paying about $235 for cable, internet and phone.

Then on top of that I was going to drop my land line with them and was told my rates would go up $26 because I no longer would have the full package.

That's insane. I pay $97 (taxes included) for gigabit internet, cable for 1 TV, and landline that I don't use. The 2-year contract is coming up for renewal in November. I will either switch to Comcast (currently have Verizon) or cancel and sign up under my wife's name.

Do you have another provider in your area? Or is there the option of having your SO sign up under their name so you get the new customer pricing?
 
That's insane. I pay $97 (taxes included) for gigabit internet, cable for 1 TV, and landline that I don't use. The 2-year contract is coming up for renewal in November. I will either switch to Comcast (currently have Verizon) or cancel and sign up under my wife's name.

Do you have another provider in your area? Or is there the option of having your SO sign up under their name so you get the new customer pricing?

We have Direct TV satellite, Dish network and the local phone company Century Link and Cableone which we have. They are all about the same price. We went with Cableone because there is no contract.
I can get the cost down by just getting basic cable, but there isn't a channel on it that we would watch and no local channels.
 
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Well if I was having to pay as much as 325 a month I would look at cord cutting also. I pay 65 for my TV, 56 for 500 meg internet, no land line, 2 cell phones at about 115 a month with a high data limit.
I have had Dish network for over 15 years no contract , I like the free viewing options each month but as I said I do not have any movie channels and when we get a free viewing there is not that much on HBO and the others that excited us, we like Epix much more .
More only real increase in my month bill comes from when we adjust viewing packages which is not often.
 
We have Netflix, Amazon Prime for video etc, and SlingTV. I add and subtract different packages on Sling as we need them. I will be adding the sports pack on in a couple weeks here for college football.

We have OTA antennas connected to each TV for local channels, which is fine when the signal is good. I really just need to stick an antenna up in the attic, and connect it to a network enabled DVR.
 
We have Netflix, Amazon Prime for video etc, and SlingTV. I add and subtract different packages on Sling as we need them. I will be adding the sports pack on in a couple weeks here for college football.

We have OTA antennas connected to each TV for local channels, which is fine when the signal is good. I really just need to stick an antenna up in the attic, and connect it to a network enabled DVR.

Last month Sling offered a deal, all of their packages and the DVR for $20. Don't know if its still available.

And on edit, its still there, they call it the Total TV Deal . I was gonna switch to YouTube TV, but this kept me with Sling. For $10 more than YT, it offers a lot of channels.

https://www.sling.com/
 
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Last month Sling offered a deal, all of their packages and the DVR for $20. Don't know if its still available.

And on edit, its still there, they call it the Total TV Deal . I was gonna switch to YouTube TV, but this kept me with Sling. For $10 more than YT, it offers a lot of channels.

https://www.sling.com/

Checking into this when I get home. My employer for some crazy reason blocks SlingTV's website here at work. :rolleyes:
 
Antenna in the attic for locals, tried Hulu Live for a while but switched to YouTube TV and like it better (though we kept the bare minimum hulu), Netflix, and Prime. Was with DirecTV for ages and the cost was getting way too high, switched to Comcast/Xfinity and saved about $80, then last year dropped that except the internet and went with the above, saving about another $50. It seems odd to have so many services, but trying to keep everyone happy with must have shows and we're still saving money over what we had before. Here lately I've been watching British panel shows (i.e. 8 out of 10 cats, cats does countdown, mock the week, etc.) on regular YouTube more than anything else, which the rest of my family can't understand.
 
We first did Sling, then YoutubeTV, now Directv Now. Plus antenna, Amazon Prime (we subscribed for online purchases but now watch some video) and Netflix.

Go to Suppose TV to match the channels you want with the provider that is a match.
 
In regards to the Tablo DVR's, does the commercial zap work? My old Magnavox DVR is dead and I need a replacement.
 
Hulu's raising their prices ~20% 12/18/2019, from ~$51 to $61, that's probably before tax, and before my Spanish language channel add-on (extra $5).

Maybe it's time to take youtube up on their free trial.
 
I now have Hulu live and I like it. It fits my wife and I better than Sling. Got no problem with the price hike, I'm still saving $90 a month.

But we are really close to going entirely OTA. There's only a few networks that we like, that keeps us with a streaming service.

And ESPN is one of them. Which ESPN does not have a future as we know them. They are dependent upon the cable bundle to make a profit and the cable bundle is disintegrating. I would not be surprised to see Disney spin off ESPN.

The ultimate impact on this, is the TV contracts ESPN and Fox have signed with college football conferences, the NFL, NBA , etc are gonna be drastically reduced. And pro athletes are gonna take a big pay cut. It will just take a few years for the old contracts to expire.

ESPN will no longer be able to waste money on stupid contracts like the Texas Longhorn Network. ESPN made a lot of money making non sports fans paying for their cable bundle, that was the glory days for cable and those days are long gone.
 
if I had unlimited free time I'd futz around with FTA/satellite stuff again. I haven't played with it at all for years but I still have equipment.

https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/forums/free-to-air-fta-discussion.24/

I watch the news channels but all I want is some C-Span! I get SO tired of commercials.

I still haven't permanently mounted an antenna in my attic............ maybe I can find some time for that....kind of want to add some ceiling speakers, can lights, etc, so maybe that'll happen.
 
Hulu's raising their prices ~20% 12/18/2019, from ~$51 to $61, that's probably before tax, and before my Spanish language channel add-on (extra $5).

Maybe it's time to take youtube up on their free trial.

Clint, we dropped Hulu for YouTube Tv and love it. The guide is (in our opinion) head and shoulders above Hulu, and for us, YouTube tv was just a better choice.
Good luck, let us know what you think if you try the free trial,
Tim
 
Clint, we dropped Hulu for YouTube Tv and love it. The guide is (in our opinion) head and shoulders above Hulu, and for us, YouTube tv was just a better choice.
Good luck, let us know what you think if you try the free trial,
Tim

Also dropped Hulu Live for YouTube TV and am quite happy with it.
 
I had to hang an antenna in the attic. Even though the TV " antennae farm " here is only 14 miles from the house. The ABC station still broadcasts in VHF and none of the rabbit ear or leaf style antennas pick up VFH without breaking up.

I added a Tablo DVR. I've not counted, but we've got 10 local OTA stations that offer good programming. There's many more, but they're either shopping, religious, or Hispanic. The DVR works well for us.

I looked into YT TV and I can't recall , but there was something YT did not have that was a deal killer for us, and it probably was sports related.

Disney admitted last week in their earnings report, that streaming is the future. They're trying now to position to save their business. They were one of the primary beneficiaries of the cable bundle.

I hope streaming won't evolve into just another version of the cable bundle. But Hulu's price increase is not surprising, I think they're all priced at or below their cost to attract subscribers. Will be interesting to watch this shake up play out.
 

 

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