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

[hey_moe]

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.

[Bjoern]

No TV, no cry. :icon_lol:

Just crap showing nowadays anyways. At least here.

[Dain Arns]

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.

[Curtis P40]

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:

[WarHorse47]

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

[dhasdell]

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!

[Cazzie]

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

[MaskRider]

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.

[txnetcop]

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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[Lionheart]

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.. .

[Reddog]

No TV and DSL internet for 29 dollars a month. Works for me.

[Trans_23]

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.

[Ken Stallings]

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

[hey_moe]

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.

[brad kaste]

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.

[GT182]

They will nail you with a large termination fee Mike. At least wait until time is up.

[Dangerousdave26]

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.

[MaskRider]

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!

[demorier]

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.

[hey_moe]

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.
They will nail you with a large termination fee Mike. At least wait until time is up.

[Lionheart]

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.

I salute you!

Man, I could save 250.00 a month, thats $1,000.00 a year..


Bill

[Emil Frand]

pay tv freezone at my house, been well over 15 years since Ive last had it. I do have a netflix account and its worth way more than the 9 bucks a month I pay.
I dropped cable way back when they started the tier scam, of course stuff I wanted was on tier 4 history channel etc, its a joke, on us. Last christmas I bought my parents an hd flatscreen, the picture looked the same to them, I asked doesnt it look crystal clear and vibrant compared to the tube tv, no was the response, turns out direct tv the service they had charges extra for hd and they were recieving aanalog signal, my inlaws have a beautiful 52 inch hdtv, went up for thankgiving and the picture looked like crap, they have cable and after trying to fix the problem realized they too were only getting analog signal, its funny broadcast had to go digital and most stations are hd but pay service charges for it.

[harleyman]

We have DirecTV... AT&T Phone Package(Home)...Cell Package(4 phones)..high Speed Internet...(DSL)

Three HDD recievers..Two of them are DVR...

Total bill per month...$280.00

I have no cell..hate them

There is Chet on TV, and I fall asleep

But the missus and kids(only home every other week) insist on keeping it..

I pay the bill, hate all the services, and am out voted...LOL


We'll all go down together I guess in the end...

[NoNewMessages]

Man, I could save 250.00 a month, thats $1,000.00 a year..




Bill, with your math skills you could get a job with the Feds "balancing the budget"...:wavey:


While surrounded by a sea of humanity, the area I'm in is a little more less developed. Twenty years ago, before mini-dishes were invented and the cable lines got laid, I bought a LARGE satellite dish. Cost about $2,100 IIRC, but I had to have my MTV. Realized way back in the analog days that a whole lot of feeds were not encrypted. If I wanted to watch the original NBC feed from back east at 5:00pm, not a problem. Wild feeds, which were shows sans commercials sent out for rebroadcast in Canada or some type of syndication, not a problem. Most all the baseball feeds, not a problem. Loved watching the White Sox with 'Hawk' and "Wimperoo".

Then they slowly started encrypting the feeds. Most everything went to a subscription basis. Couple of years ago I tore the big, ole dish down. The minis can keep their over-hyped stuff. May go to cable just for the internet, as my DSL service isn't the greatest and I'm looking at some really big packages to upload.

Otherwise, I have two converter boxes bought using the Fed's money and they just collect dust. I do miss the local weather gal, but I can probably find some YouTube videos to tide me along...

[GT182]

I hate Comcast with a passion. I just pisses me off to no end that we can't select the channels we as customers want. It can be done. I'd dump my cable but then I'd have to put up with da Warden. I'd lose my broadband, and Vonage phone service which I do like.

I know now why we pay so much for having Comcast service. I count from 7 to 10 Comcast vans sitting lined up at Wawa every morning, and the drivers having coffee and shooting the BS.... for close to an hour. Add these up with all the others all across the country and you'll get what I mean. We is getting scrod by Comcast.

[andersel]

One of my beefs is paying for channel I WILL NEVER watch. I guess thats the price you pay. I'm disabled and TV/Internet connection is very much my window on the world, especially during wintertime here in AK. I just need to get off my butt and go see if I can get my provider to make me a better deal!

[andersel]

One of my beefs is paying for channel I WILL NEVER watch. I guess thats the price you pay. I'm disabled and TV/Internet connection is very much my window on the world, especially during wintertime here in AK. I just need to get off my butt and go see if I can get my provider to make me a better deal!


LOL

[Chacha]

I salute you!

Man, I could save 250.00 a month, thats $1,000.00 a year..


Bill


Bill, with your math skills you could get a job with the Feds "balancing the budget"...:wavey:



...Are you donating the rest of the money to charity?...



I pay basic cable, and I watch with Hannah when she's at home with me.

.. So I watch Disney Channel and Nickolodeon Channel, or watch a movie with her...

When I am alone and she's at school, I watch a DVD or browse the net.... :running:

[mfitch]

Many of these complaints I share. Local channels are not available over the air (geography); we get far too many useless channels; we can't get a few channels we would like without paying far too much more.

Here is one happy (if old) local story. As usual the cable company provides substandard (delayed, not fixed, run around, etc) service. The customer however is in charge of the local base housing project (privatized housing on the local military bases which are growing). That project is worth tens of thousands a month for the cable company. A simple comment about the service problem made during business discussions led to a quick solution. Too bad such service requires that much leverage.

[hey_moe]

It never crossed my mind about getting channels I would never watch. I would dare say 95% of the channels we get we don't watch.The bill I got this month was for 255.22. That covered 2 cell phone (basic package)the telephone (basic package) Fios internet and then the satellite bill all combine in one. The bill started out around 150.00...this is how much it has gone up in a year and a half and we have added no extra service. We have the basic cell phone plan plus Verizon gives us a 20% discount each month because of the corporate account. Which brings that part down to 56.00 a month which to me isn't to bad. I would love to shut down our home phone but the company I work for requires you to have a land line so they can download your route each day to the HHT. If I didn't have to do that I would kill the land line service. The internet service pays for itself. I read the News ever morning and do just about all my shopping on line along with reading about the product I buy which is a plus for me. As far as I am concerned the internet is bad for retailers and great for the customer who wants to read about a product before buying and what other customers have to say about the product. Also you can shop around for the best price without leaving your home.Right now I am sitting here watching the local News and playing on the Net which is about what I do each morning and evening. Now the click queen gets home and she is addicted to the TV guide that comes with DTV...lol. All she does is surf the guide for something which just about always is nothing on...lol. So I get to watch a blue screen going up and down...WOMEN...lol. Anyway getting back to the subject,I checked at the BBB about Cox cable and DTV , I was surprised to see DTV was rated a F for everything and cable was rated a A. I really thought it was the other way around. DTV and BBB rating >> http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/DirecTV-Inc-81000357 Cox cable >> http://www.bbb.org/acadiana/business-reviews/television-cable-catv-and-satellite/cox-communications-in-abbeville-la-10000163 Cox cable varies in different areas but all in all they are rated high. DTV no matter what area it was in was rated low. If you read some of the complaints from other customers you will see that their ads are very misleading. After reading what others have said I am in the same boat...lol

[GT182]

Yep, there's a bunch of channels I'll never watch..... I'd say which ones but I don't want to offend anyone. And it makes me even madder that some we were able to watch have been moved to the more expensive packages.

[Blackbird686]

That pretty much hits the nail on the head, i'd say.... My satellite provider threw in a new TiVo box for free when I called and threatened to dump 'em because of the price increases on the first go. Then a month later they raised them up a second time.:173go1: I have been a loyal customer for 9 years with 'em. You'd think they would consider that.

BB686:USA-flag:

[extrudinator]

I am thwarting Comcast's evil plan by buying up all the old VHS tapes that are flooding the market and watching THEM. At a buck a piece, I'm filling my basement with movies--and it's still cheaper than paying for cable. MUUUUHAHAHAHAHA