Spectrum Sucks

[Por_sha911]

We're watching the US Open tennis and suddenly a screen pops up that says we don't want to pay what Disney wants for ESPN so contact Disney. Now there is no ESPN channels. Really? You want me to do your negotiations for you? I don't think so.

They keep jacking up their rates and the service is never reliable. I'm calling Spectrum to say if you can't deliver channels like ESPN I don't need you!

Rant over

[Baz]

Same with the Gator football game. The SEASON OPENER and they pull the freaking plug just before kickoff!

Idiots!

[Por_sha911]

No, not idiots. Bastages. They want the viewer to be outraged at the other company.
I spoke to a rep and he said they are doing this for our good. You are pressuring me to fight your battles for my sake? He said they don't want to raise my rates. Horse manure! They are constantly raising my rates.
I reminded him that they are losing more and more customers who are cutting the cord, their service is unreliable, and this move is going to drive more people away. I explained I wasn't angry at his but he needs to pass on to management the complaints. When he tried to defend what they are doing I suggested he find a better job.

[JackDidley]

Take your equipment back to them. Get another provider. They will suddenly find a way to cut the premium in half and give you more services. Then tell them, no way. Thats what I did.

[Dpmulvan]

We call them rectum around here. $200 a month for crap and commercials, Remember when cable first came out?? Brown Box with blender like buttons and a cord but zero commercials.

[john70t]

Add up your costs over time. It's probably close to a new car.

I've never paid for cable t.v. (aka "no commercials, we promise") and the times I've watched it have been infuriating.

-Every 5-10 minutes there is another commercial at the times when it finally gets interesting.
Mental boner lost. Again and again and again.

-And guess what, there is also commercials on the next dozen channels I flip though.
(calculate the statistical probability of that)

There is free news across the internet.
Also free movies and entertainment. I could list a dozen.
If a particular site has value and content...then pay a small amount for that and support them.

It costs ~.01cents to stream 10GB.

Simple question: You are paying. But are you in control?

[Baz]

This is what we are seeing on the screen.....lol......wtf?

[HobieMarty]

Yep, and all of this right as the college football season starts. Way to go Spectrum!!!

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[Heel n Toe]

We have Spectrum and were planning on watching the Florida game tonight when it went dark... SEC, FX, and NatGeo are gone, too.

According to Spectrum, you can get on Tubi and get everything: https://disneyespnfairdeal.com/

[Skytrooper]

My rates have been jacked up twice in the last 6 months ! I only have the internet as I can stream a lot of other content. I need to start looking for service through another provider. The thing is...We just got the Spectrum cable in June of 2021. Prior to that our only choice was frontier dsl. That is the rub about living in the country. Spectrum was the first cable service on our road.

[osidak]

The part about being forced to take channels you don't want is very true.

You want the disney channel - well then you have to take every espn channel - if you only want some of them.... well your price per channel goes up any way to be the same price as having them all.

I don't give a **** about ESPN and the vast majority of sports on TV - so that makes me odd man out. Yes Spectrum sucks and I to degree agree with them cutting channels

anyway

[2.7RS]

Funny to read

How do you think they are financing the mega billion media sports industry. Someone has to pay.

Time to start watching high school heroes night.

Still free as far as I know

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

We have Spectrum and were planning on watching the Florida game tonight when it went dark... SEC, FX, and NatGeo are gone, too.

According to Spectrum, you can get on Tubi and get everything: https://disneyespnfairdeal.com/

Thanks, John!

Coming up Fubo for me.....

Fubo TV is a leading streaming partner that can provide you access to your missing channels.

[Mike Andrew]

We have been thru all of the available cable providers in our area and all the situations mentioned in this thread have occurred. After contesting the last price hike with no reduction, drove over to their store and dropped off the equipment. Still no offer of better pricing. F' em. So, now Roku. A bit of a hassle at times but a whole lot cheaper.
As long as I can get racing and rugby, I am satisfied,
Now, if something can be done about the commercial load which, on some networks is 40%. Aarghh!!

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Baz

Thanks, John!

Coming up Fubo for me.....

It's not free and while they say there's a 2 month trial, that only means you get a small discount for those 2 months and you can cancel anytime in thos first 2 months, which seems a little dishonest, because you can of course cancel anytime past those 2 months too.

No thanks....I'll wait it out.

[GH85Carrera]

Commercial are just not an issue for me, I record everything, and I mean everything, and fast forward through the commercials. We are on Cox Cable and internet.

During football season, my wife willl record and watch 8 or 9 games in a day. Record several games at once, and start watching one of them. When the commercials hit fast forward, and when she catches up to "real time" change to another game with still recording the other games. Get through all the endless time outs, penalties, and commercials, and get too thee action. It does not take long to watch a game when you skip to just the plays on the fields and not long reviews of a play, and walking off the penalties. Switch to another game and catch up there. She can record 6 different games at once.

The only time I watch TV in real time is for severe weather coverage of severe thunderstorms, super cells, and tornado watches and warnings. The local TV stations show the storms and the exact locations mile by mile and the direction they are moving.

[masraum]

I haven't had cable in years, and I haven't watched ESPN in decades, but the cost per channel, especially for ESPN is insane. I have no doubt that the cable companies play musical channels specifically to increase prices and profits. I remember years ago with basic cable you'd get a bunch of crap that I suspect was barely, rarely watched along with some channels that you wanted. But then there was always a couple of channels that you wanted that required the purchase of one of the upgrade packages. The problem was that the upgrade packages that included a couple of channels that you wanted, also included a bunch of other crap that you didn't want. I have no doubt that the cable companies knew what channels were watched by folks and did the channel shuffle in an effort to get folks to buy the upgrades to increase their bottom line. Of course, it's a business, and that's their ENTIRE goal, so no great surprise. It just feels like you're getting bent over since no other purchasing is like that.

When you go to the grocery store if you want those chips or that steak, they don't force you to also buy 10# of kale 5#of kohlrabi, a 20# bag of Alpo (whether you've got a pet or not), and 5 boxes of panty pads.

I remember MANY years ago, after my dad retired, they lived in the middle of no where, and had C-band satellite (the old big, 6' dishes that moved between multiple satellites) and they were able to get channels a la carte. Their satellite provided eventually stopped supporting the old C-band satellite systems and forced them to move to digital satellite which did not allow a la carte channels and was priced more like we are used to these days with basic and then various upgrade/premium/add-on packages.

https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/pricing-out-youtube-s-potential-15-price-decrease-amid-disney-carriage-battle-68074065

f YouTube, LLC's YouTube TV drops Walt Disney Co.'s networks as threatened, the streaming service has promised a $15 price drop, with a bulk of that savings likely coming from losing just ESPN (US).

Disney and YouTube's virtual multichannel service are continuing to negotiate terms for a new affiliate contract before their current pact expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 17.

In a blog post, YouTube TV said it remains in active conversations with Disney, but has not yet been able to reach an equitable agreement. If a deal cannot be realized by the deadline, the virtual provider's estimated 4 million customers could lose access to Disney's expansive portfolio of cable networks, as well as the ABC (US)-owned TV stations. If this happens, YouTube TV will drop its monthly retail price by $15, or almost 23%, to $49.99 per month.

Disney owns the most expensive basic cable network in the U.S., with ESPN (US) having a monthly affiliate fee per average subscriber of $8.23, according to 2021 estimates from Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Its second most expensive network is the Disney Channel (US), with a monthly affiliate fee per average subscriber of $1.12. ESPN2 (US) follows close behind at $1.05.

Looking at the affiliate fees for just Disney's linear cable networks carried on YouTube TV, the monthly affiliate fee total per average subscriber comes to $15.33.

Notably absent from that total are the retransmission-consent fees, which pay TV operators pay to broadcasters to carry local station signals. Kagan projected ABC-owned stations' average monthly retransmission-consent-per-subscriber fee at $2.48, in the third quarter. That was up 11.6% from $2.22 in the corresponding period in 2020.

With the pay-TV ecosystem continuing to decline amid consumers' push to lower monthly viewing bills and growing affinity for streaming services, Disney could see further erosion of an already-declining subscriber universe should it not come to terms with YouTube TV. At the close of its fiscal 2021, ended Sept. 30, Disney counted 77 million subscribers for FX (US), and 76 million apiece for ESPN, ESPN2 (US), Disney Channel, Freeform (US) and National Geographic Channel (US).

That compares with 86 million for FX a year earlier, or a loss of almost 9 million. Disney Channel, Nat Geo and Freeform each tallied 85 million a year earlier, while ESPN and ESPN2 reached 84 million subscribers.

In a statement, Disney expressed confidence a disconnect will be averted.

"Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution has a highly successful track record of negotiating such agreements with providers of all types and sizes across the country and is committed to working with Google to reach a fair, market-based agreement," the company said in a statement. "We are optimistic that we can reach a deal and continue to provide their YouTube TV customers with our live sporting events and news coverage plus kids, family and general entertainment programming."

For its part, YouTube TV's message noted that if a subscriber wants to continue watching some Disney fare, the company's direct-to-consumer bundle is available for $13.99 per month. The bundle includes Disney+, Hulu LLC's subscription video-on-demand service and sports streamer ESPN+.

YouTube TV served up a similar warning to its subscriber base in September when it was facing a carriage dispute with NBCUniversal Media LLC. YouTube said it would drop $10 from its monthly retail price if it could not reach a deal with Comcast Corp.'s programming arm, while also alerting subscribers that they could sign up for Peacock, NBCU's streaming service, for $4.99 per month.

The two sides eventually reached an agreement in October to keep all of the NBCUniversal networks on YouTube TV. The new deal did not expand to encompass the streaming service Peacock.

It is unclear if current negotiations with YouTube TV extend to Disney's direct-to-consumer offerings. Disney did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.

[Dpmulvan]

https://g.co/finance/DIS:NYSE

[URY914]

Originally Posted by Baz

Same with the Gator football game. The SEASON OPENER and they pull the freaking plug just before kickoff!

Idiots!

Baz, it was better that didn't see the Gator's game. LOL!

[HobieMarty]

We have been using Roku for many years now but have Spectrum for our internet. For the channels like Fox News and ESPN, I sign in to watch them. Bama plays on the SEC Network Saturday night so unless this dispute is resolved by then I guess I won't be watching.
This is the message I get when trying to view anything on the ESPN app.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk