Rant About Specialty Subscription TV Channels

Lee

Lee

Senior Member
Location
Chatham, Ontario
Diva had a thread going the other day which I found interesting as there were many shows mentioned that I would like to see.

Problem.....so many are on channels that need yet another subscription.

And I get peed off when a show such as Yellowstone had the first few seasons included free with my Amazon Prime but now if I want to continue watching I need a new subscription for Paramount. Get ya hooked then whammo, you wanna watch, you pay.

It gets expensive, I am paying an extra $30 more just to watch 2 programs.

What about you?
 

My cable bill jumped $50 without raising prices! How did they do this? Well, it seems buried in the prior bills was a "discount" of $50 which they now took away! I'm reeling, and I feel so guilty, as I do not pay for cable, my son gifts me with it. Spectrum, formerly Cablevision. They suck.
 
Weā€™ve only just got high-speed internet so Netflix and all those channels are new to us. We caught Yellowstone when they had the Marathon going last Christmas. Then we got Fibre optics and Fibe TV and the rest of Yellowstone was free.Good thing cause my husband was hooked. Iā€™ve got no complaints. Iā€™m just happy to get so many choices. The moon got high speed internet before we did.šŸ˜‚
 

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I hate it when I find a promising show on Netflix and then see the remark: Will leave Netflix in two days! I hate it when Amazon Prime adds movies for sale! I hate it when Apple+ sells episodes of shows for $ 2.99. The only site that hasn't disappointed me is Disney+! However, I keep subscribing to all of them (with the exception of Apple+), plus Paramount+ because I am a Streaming hoarder! :)
 
I can't afford to get sucked into all that. I just chose what best suited me and my budget, and stuck with it.

Back in the day, a person usually had the same TV channels as their neighbors, so you didn't feel you were missing out. But now there are so many possibilities, and so much bait-and-switch.

I guess you have to ask yourself how much a particular TV show or service really enhances your life, and try to put that in monetary terms.
 
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I would have been content to stay with basic cable but the commercials drove me crazy. When they (?) gave permission to show 15 minutes of commercials per hour, that's what broke the camel's back for me! I could have recorded shows and then watched them while skipping commercials but I was forever hunting the Guide for shows to watch and got tired of it.
 
Michael Z said:
Sometimes I will get a free trial on Amazon and then keep it for a month and then cancel. I subscribed to their Documentary channel and watched a bunch of very good documentaries, making it worth it, but then the others I found did not interest me so I canceled.
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The free trials here in Canada generally last a week. Not enough time.
 
Lee said:
Diva had a thread going the other day which I found interesting as there were many shows mentioned that I would like to see.

Problem.....so many are on channels that need yet another subscription.

And I get peed off when a show such as Yellowstone had the first few seasons included free with my Amazon Prime but now if I want to continue watching I need a new subscription for Paramount. Get ya hooked then whammo, you wanna watch, you pay.

It gets expensive, I am paying an extra $30 more just to watch 2 programs.

What about you?
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Do you shop at Amazon? I just remembered that I got a prime membership so that all my shipping is free and included is prime tv which is what Yellowstone was on for us. We get free videos and some free books as well. I believe it cost $14.95 Canadian a month.
I find it to be well worth it.
 
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Another pet peeve: I have to keep subscribing to basic cable because my loved ones and I love watching a good Bundesliga Soccer game on Sundays and no streaming service is showing live games, at least not German football, at the moment!
 
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We've had Dish for many years...they have everything just about...and you can use the Hopper to tape and then get rid of the commercials. They are pricey but our bill hasn't changed much in the last 5-7 years. Hub won't hear of changing. We've got like every channel and special channels like Peacock and Paramount there is - and ESPN, lots of sports for him.
 
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There are some good websites to follow that will give you hints to coping with all the changes in TV. I dropped cable 5 years ago and have been streaming since. I and learned a lot from this site I linked below this paragraph. They have guides to get you started, etc., and there are articles there about new shows, deals on TV services, and they have a page on Facebook where other users will answer your questions.

https://cordcuttersnews.com/

One thing I like is there are no contracts with any of the streaming services. You can sign up for BritBox for example, for a month and binge some shows there, cancel at the end of the month and sign up for a month of Netflix.

Another thing that is helpful in cutting costs is if you can get the broadcast channels on antenna. Many people can and that makes them free to watch.

If you like having most of your channels from one place Amazon provides that. Again you can subscribe to one or two at a time and keep costs down.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/storefront/ref=atv_gst_GettingStarted_c_9zZ8D2_1_1?node=2858778011

There are free services like Pluto that has a variety of channels you may not recognize but might enjoy.
 
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This is my ongoing battle, I cut the cable cord in 2012. After talking with Xfinity CS it was either take it or leave it (the new fees). So I left it. I now watch NetFlix, HULU, BritBox Discovery+ /w fees & get Freevee & ROKU for free. All for $55 or less. Much cheaper than Xfinity Basic. I cut Amazon Prime last year(it was easier than I thought) couldn't justify the $139 fee.

I bundle orders to meet the $25 threshold so 'Free Shipping' when needed (I'm retired so can wait). I could get the free streaming channels but hate the ads & have enough watching to waste my time with the others. I activate HULU & NetFlix on a monthly basis. BritBox & Discovery+ are usually the go to channels @ $15. Shopping is now mostly @ Winco or Costco (can usually beat Walmart or Amazon prices) both within a mile of home.
 
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Seems like Iā€™m going to have to do some investigating.

I was thinking the same thing as Lee as I read the list. A little bit of everything that Iā€™d like and theyā€™d all add up to a lot of money.

Myrtle said:
If you like having most of your channels from one place Amazon provides that. Again you can subscribe to one or two at a time and keep costs down.
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Doesnā€™t work in Canada.
 
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Jules said:
Seems like Iā€™m going to have to do some investigating.

I was thinking the same thing as Lee as I read the list. A little bit of everything that Iā€™d like and theyā€™d all add up to a lot of money.


Doesnā€™t work in Canada.
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There seems to be such a difference between the West Coast and here in the Maritimes. I am subscribing to various streaming channels through Amazon. I find it very convenient since I can cancel one or the other of the channels any time! I also installed Roku! Great app for a low price. You can also subscribe to different channels through them!
 
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Are we lucky in the UK having Freeview? Netflix, etc is extra if you wish to pay, otherwise, if you're prepared to wait, eventually all programmes get shown on Freeview.
I pay extra to watch some Sky channels but they don't often have anything I want to watch.
 
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PeppermintPatty said:
Do you shop at Amazon? I just remembered that I got a prime membership so that all my shipping is free and included is prime tv which is what Yellowstone was on for us. We get free videos and some free books as well. I believe it cost $14.95 Canadian a month.
I find it to be well worth it.
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We got fibre optics mainly for better reception and the bundle they offered us was far cheaper than our previous internet & tv deal which was satelite. Iā€™d already had prime for the free shipping discount so it worked out to be a much better deal than we were getting. And the best part is no commercials. We just got what came with our basic package and if upgrading our internet led to all this I couldnā€™t be happier about it. There is no such thing as cable where we live so the choices were limited.
 
I've been wanting to cut the cable (currently Spectrum in our new location) for years but hubby is a Nascar fan and they have never allowed streaming so we pay $80/mo. to watch only Nascar and football. We don't watch any network shows or channels. We mostly watch a movie every night on either Netflix or Prime, but I'm getting tired of Prime offering mostly paid movies.

I talked to Spectrum a while back and asked how much it would be for just internet service (we get it now for $70/mo.) and got rid of tv service and they said it (internet) would go up quite a bit because it wouldn't be "bundled". Oy.....

We also pay for Disney+ because we're fans of Star Wars and watch all the movies, including the Mandalorian series.

I haven't found a streaming service that will give us what we want. We'd still have to pay for channels that we wouldn't watch. It's all such a racket!! :(
 
Old Salt said:
There seems to be such a difference between the West Coast and here in the Maritimes. I am subscribing to various streaming channels through Amazon. I find it very convenient since I can cancel one or the other of the channels any time! I also installed Roku! Great app for a low price. You can also subscribe to different channels through them!
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For sure!
 
I don't have or want any fee TV shows or channels. We record on our Dish TV channels anything we want to watch. Then when we play them back I skip through the commercials...it is a bit of a pain, but ANYTHING to not watch those stupid commercials!

Don't get me started on all the magic medications and vitamins they try to force on us.....it is 'Geritol' in the worst way possible!
 
Before I moved I had a DTA converter for my TV. The cable company installed a regular "box" at my new house, but now I can't get TCM or the Science Channel. The tech said I'd have to subscribe to a higher "tier" of service to get them. I don't think it's worth the extra $40 a month to watch perhaps 4 or 5 programs. I hooked up the DTA to a spare TV, but I guess they caught on after about a week and turned off my service to it. When I contacted them, they said I had to return the DTA. Pikers!
 

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