Cable bill went up again

[debodun]

That doesn't work with Spectrum. They play hardball. Pay for our service or go elsewhere, and good luck with that. When Time-Warner owned the franchise, they were willing to work with me and service calls were free. Spectrum charges $50 now if a technician has to make a service call.

 

[Pinky]

That doesn't work with Spectrum. They play hardball. Pay for our service or go elsewhere, and good luck with that.

You may try calling around to find out what they charge. If you tell them you are leaving your current provider for their high charges, they may give you a good offer.

 

[Pinky]

You may try calling around to find out what they charge. If you tell them you are leaving your current provider for their high charges, they may give you a good offer. We've done this with auto insurance and life insurance too.

 

[oldman]

In the US, cable companies enjoy a lot of perks that most corporations don't have. There really isn't any competition. Each cable company has a defined territory. In PA, cable companies pay a fee to townships, and boroughs, for the exclusive rights to provide cable service in their jurisdiction. I don't know about other states, but I doubt out of state cable companies wouldn't latch on to this money making privilege. Aside of corporate greed, it does cost an arm and leg to provide hundreds of channels. Even if it cost 50 cents/month per channel, that a $100+/month. I wish you could select from a menu of networks, and pay for only what you want. I haven't turned on my stove in the last decade. I nuke everything. So, I really don't need a bunch of cooking networks.

When we had our home in Florida, we had four choices for a cable provider. Here in PA, just one, Comcast (Xfinity). I think I once read that every time a movie plays on TV, the stars get a residual. Each “local” station also gets a piece of the pie. My nephew put an antenna back up and pays only for Internet, which is like $70.00.

His TV reception with the antenna was only so-so. I know little about TV’s and such, and I wanted to ask about this, but I thought that if your TV stations were sending a digital signal, which our’s do, that if you were using an antenna, your signal could be distorted.

Does anyone know if that’s right?

 

[JaniceM]

When we had our home in Florida, we had four choices for a cable provider. Here in PA, just one, Comcast (Xfinity). I think I once read that every time a movie plays on TV, the stars get a residual. Each “local” station also gets a piece of the pie. My nephew put an antenna back up and pays only for Internet, which is like $70.00.

His TV reception with the antenna was only so-so. I know little about TV’s and such, and I wanted to ask about this, but I thought that if your TV stations were sending a digital signal, which our’s do, that if you were using an antenna, your signal could be distorted.

Does anyone know if that’s right?

I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to, but I have a converter box plus antenna and it only recently occurred to me the occasional distortions are likely coming from nearby neighbors' appliances such as microwaves, etc. Other than that, the system works fine.

 

[oldman]

I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to, but I have a converter box plus antenna and it only recently occurred to me the occasional distortions are likely coming from nearby neighbors' appliances such as microwaves, etc. Other than that, the system works fine.

What’s the converter box for?

 

[JaniceM]

Around a decade or so ago, t.v. stations stopped the regular over-the-air broadcasting the way it'd always been.
So to bring in the channels- and t.v. to work at all- converter boxes were sold. I bought mine at Walmart. All it takes is connecting it and the small antenna I'd already been using onto the t.v.

 

[debodun]

I have an old CRT TV and I need a DTA converter which I rent from the cable company. They force you to rent because they will not activate it unless it is one of theirs.

 

[oldman]

I have an old CRT TV and I need a DTA converter which I rent from the cable company. They force you to rent becaus they will not activate it unless it is one of theirs.

That’s part of the racket they run. “Here’s the cable and by the way, you will also need to rent this box.”

 

[Phoenix]

Check out Roku. You buy this receiver for about $30. It's a streaming device that you hook up to your internet provider. After that it costs you nothing. There are things you can get for free and then you can pay for service from Hulu and the like. We have all kinds of options. Roku

 

[Ruthanne]

Deb, I went through the same thing with cable for decades until I just could not afford them anymore. Sure I got a good deal for a year when I first joined up with Cox, and AT & T but then they kept raising it and adding on surcharges and weird taxes every other month until the bill was sky high in my estimation. I loved a lot of their channels but after I had it up to here with them both I switched to streaming services and now I don't use the streaming services as they started going up higher, too. I did hear that AT and T has a $15.00 a month basic streaming service now...I did not join because of my previous experiences with their cable or uverse and their streaming services.

As I am low-income I can't afford any of them any more. So, now I just use Broadcast TV that is free with an hd antenna that cost about 25.00--a one time cost. I also have Prime because I have Amazon Prime and I pay about 14.00 a month for that. The only other thing I have now is Netflix.

I used to think I'd die practically without some of my cable channels but it turned out I didn't Then there were streaming channels that were the same ones I loved on cable but I got tired, too, of all the reruns plus the cost of watching mostly reruns.

I have gotten used to my Broadcast free tv and have about 37 channels and I don't hardly watch all of them. I have found shows and channels I like that are similar to what was on cable and streaming.

So now monthly I pay for Prime (14.00) and Netflix (10.00) and because I am low-income I have a discounted internet service for 10.00 a month all for a total of 34.00 a month. I haven't seen any of these services go up in years. I find a lot of good stuff on Netflix and once in awhile watch Prime shows but most often I enjoy the Broadcast TV.

 

[PopsnTuff]

I'd drop it too, but there are some channels I like I can only get on cable like The Science Channel, Comedy Central and Turner Classic Movies among others. The broadcast available here isn't great.

Same reason why I keep it Deb....mine is $87 month with Dish and no bundling, just TV package, voice remote and movie apps built in.....
my son lets me use his Netflix account so thats a plus.....

 

[PopsnTuff]

netflix would save you a bundle on the TV stuff... you could just cancel TV and save money. but it's up to you of course...

Netflix doesn't have most of the great tv shows I watch....

 

[Aunt Bea]

I wouldn't be as concerned about a $5.00 increase as I would the $220.00 monthly expense.

If you enjoy it and can afford it then accept the cost of the service and the inevitable price increases associated with it.

Some people spend that much on a round of golf or a night on the town.

 

[Camper6]

When we had our home in Florida, we had four choices for a cable provider. Here in PA, just one, Comcast (Xfinity). I think I once read that every time a movie plays on TV, the stars get a residual. Each “local” station also gets a piece of the pie. My nephew put an antenna back up and pays only for Internet, which is like $70.00.

His TV reception with the antenna was only so-so. I know little about TV’s and such, and I wanted to ask about this, but I thought that if your TV stations were sending a digital signal, which our’s do, that if you were using an antenna, your signal could be distorted.

Does anyone know if that’s right?

It doesn't matter if you are using cable or an antenna. All stations are broadcasting in digital now and the cable is transmitting in digital.
The only reason you might be getting distortion is in the strength of the signal your television is getting and you have to have a t.v. cable of receiving digital. The strength of the signal gets weaker the farther you are from the transmitter. That's mostly the case now with television sets. The old ones were capable of receiving analog signal and you needed a converter to change it to digital. You can upgrade your antenna system by getting a rotator which will get the stations broadcasting in your area. An ordinary stationary antenna will only be able to receive stations it is pointed at and pick up some in range.

 

[oldman]

He has a converter and a motor to turn the antenna.

 

[Camper6]

He has a converter and a motor to turn the antenna.

Well everything for over the air television is line of sight. If there are obstructions between the transmitter and the receiver there will be loss of signal strength.
Boy in the old days I remember being able to receive only 3 channels and one distant one that came in all snow some days and some days great. We were quite happy with the snow because that station carried the NFL football games.
I only have basic cable now. My bill is $28.25 a month. I'm happy with the amount of channels I get with that setup. All the major networks. If I want a movie I can rent one on demand , but I'm not a movie buff.
We also get promotional channels every month. Right now I am getting the Smithsonian channel.
If you like the promotional channel you can sign up for just the one channel now in Canada due to a recent ruling by the government. Before you had to sign up for a bundle.
$200 a month is way out of my range.

 

[Camper6]

I have an old CRT TV and I need a DTA converter which I rent from the cable company. They force you to rent because they will not activate it unless it is one of theirs.

How much is the rent on the converter? You should look into getting a new Flat screen T.V. and pay that money for the new T.V. The prices on new t.v.'s have come down considerably.

 

[Aunt Marg]

Being in Canada, i think high prices is a norm.
We can choose pkg, bundles, etc., but to get a few good channels, still have to put up the crap that goes with them.
100.00 for cable TV....Have to take basic....then add whatever pkgs you want after.
100.00 for internet, 2nd from the top plan, didn't think i needed more than what i have for internet.
A person can hunt till the cows come home......but i just can't be bothered.

That my story, and i'm sticking to it.

It definitely seems to be the case, doesn't it, Micka?

Here in British Columbia, the saying is... Bring Cash, and they hit it right on the head!

 

[KimIn Wis]

We dropped cable last year and went with YouTubeTV. For $65 / month we get all the local network channels, pbs, Smithsonian, Discovery, National Geographic, TBS, TNT, TMC, Food Network, Golf Channel, numerous sports channels, plus many more. The only thing they don't have is the History Channel but we only watch Pickers on that one. And you can watch 3 tv's at one time. So we split that $64 bit will our neighbors. We can watch 2 TV's at the same time, and they can watch one. Perfectly legal and even promoted by youtubetv (share with family/friend). We many not get hbo, showtime, etc. but I think you can add it on. Also, you can record programs that you routinely watch. Not sure how much space you get. Works for us.

 

[Robert59]

I have not had T.V. service in 15 years or more. I watch a lot DVD movies that I bought from yard sales.

 

[Macfan]

We canceled cable at the end of 2007. We filled the void with Hulu and Netflix. Currently Hulu (with ads) and Netflix run us right at $20 a month. Our old cable bill was $141 a month. I'd say we made a pretty good trade. Full disclosure, we also have Amazon Prime which comes with a video streaming service but I didn't mention that earlier because we subscribed to Amazon Prime for the Free 2 day delivery, didn't even realize it came with the video service till after we got it, so a plus for us. Consider going back to cable - No Way, No How, just NO! Don...

 

[Butterfly]

That $220 a month bill is outrageous.

I cut the cable years ago and have never regretted it. I use a Roku box and streaming. I've never found a shortage of things to watch. I'm going to ditch Netflix because most of what is on there is garbage, IMHO, and I hardly ever watch it. I have Britbox and Acorn TV and I also stream loads of free stuff from Youtube. Britbox and Acorn together cost about $12.00 a month.

 

[Butterfly]

We canceled cable at the end of 2007. We filled the void with Hulu and Netflix. Currently Hulu (with ads) and Netflix run us right at $20 a month. Our old cable bill was $141 a month. I'd say we made a pretty good trade. Full disclosure, we also have Amazon Prime which comes with a video streaming service but I didn't mention that earlier because we subscribed to Amazon Prime for the Free 2 day delivery, didn't even realize it came with the video service till after we got it, so a plus for us. Consider going back to cable - No Way, No How, just NO! Don...

Does Amazon Prime have good stuff on its streaming channel, Don?

 

[MarciKS]

Deb if you have computer and are able to stream some of that is free online. I think Turner Classic Movies might be. http://www.tcm.com/watchtcm

I couldn't get the TCM link to work so I'm not sure about this.