How To Not Get Ripped Off From Basic Cable

[scottmandue]

Why is it when you guys throw these numbers around you never quote how much you are paying for internet?

Live streaming is great... I'm thinking of doing it when my dish network contract is up.

But...

Currently paying $58 for HD content with a DVR on dish.

Lowest price for internet in my area is $60 then add fees for whatever streaming service you want.

[SoCal911T]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Hulu has freak'n annoying commercials.

Not only annoying but waaaay too frequent. I gave up Hulu because of it.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

One month of U-verse for 4 rooms costs me less than an hour's wages.

Straight-up ballin', yo!

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

Why is it when you guys throw these numbers around you never quote how much you are paying for internet?

Live streaming is great... I'm thinking of doing it when my dish network contract is up.

But...

Currently paying $58 for HD content with a DVR on dish.

Lowest price for internet in my area is $60 then add fees for whatever streaming service you want.

The cleaning lady is not allowed to use the internet until she gets done cleannig.

[gprsh924]

I've done the no cable thing. It's a lot of work to watch current shows. Fine if you are only watching last season's shows.

I must be spend my money really foolishly. I have Comcast cable w/dvr on 4 TVs, 80mbps Internet and a cleaning lady.

[Cajundaddy]

I ditched Dish a couple years ago because F1 and Grand Am were the only thing I watched and they dumped Speed channel. I have OTA antenna but get 57 channels with nothing on. Content quality is approaching zero these days IMO. Now if I could find decent internet for less than $65/mo life would be grand.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I think most people would buy Internet service regardless of whether or not they depend on it for TV / movie streaming. A more accurate analysis would involve determining the cost difference between faster, higher bandwidth Internet service versus a more basic option (because people need the extra capacity to support such streaming).

Using myself as an example, I pay $40 per month for high-speed Internet. I might still opt for the same package even if I didn't stream videos like I do, but for sake of argument let's assume that I would go with the most basic package otherwise. The cost of that is roughly $25 per month, meeting at differential of $15 per month. Factoring that into my earlier calculations means that the total net cost comes in around $50 per month - still considerably better than cable especially when considering (1) no commercials, (2) portability of content across devices and (3) the added bonus of having home Internet service available for non-video use.

Internet service is competitive as well - you do not need to get it from your local cable company. I happen to get mine through the phone company serving this area ("dry line" - I don't bother with a home phone, I don't need it). I looked at a few other options with local ISPs as well, also satellite Internet and cable-based Internet. I experimented briefly with cable-based Internet and got transfer speeds of 12 to 15 Mbps (pretty good). The phone line setup (ADSL) I finally settled on is less than half the cost per month and still gives me 8 to 10 Mbps. It costs less than half the cost of the cable-based service I tested out and still gives me more than adequate bandwidth for HD. Best of all it means I don't have any relationship whatsoever with Comcast - I'm not their customer and won't ever need to be their customer (unless I really, really want faster speeds - and there are other options for that too - like an in-home T1, but that's beyond the scope of this discussion).

The whole point of this of course is to say people should realize that they have options to get the programs they want - probably a better way than they're used to - and that it's well worth doing one's homework to avoid getting ripped off by companies who seem to be going the same way as Blockbuster Video (they even follow a similar, monopolistic, "screw-the-customer" model - and we all know how THEY ended up...)

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

I think most people would buy Internet service regardless of whether or not they depend on it for TV / movie streaming.

But we are not most people we use 4G and smart phones at home... I have internet at work and my wife can take the laptop to starbucks for free.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by gprsh924

I've done the no cable thing. It's a lot of work to watch current shows. Fine if you are only watching last season's shows.

I must be spend my money really foolishly. I have Comcast cable w/dvr on 4 TVs, 80mbps Internet and a cleaning lady.

Pics of the cleaning lady or it didn't happen, Does she so roofs too?

[jyl]

Cable TV was pretty useless for me without a DVR. I had TiVo, that was another $20/month or so, plus the cost of buying the TiVo box, and about $15/month for the multiple Cablecards.

[1990C4S]

I would use OTA if they made a decent OTA compatible PVR...everything I've seen is crap or super-expensive.

[911SauCy]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Round these parts a cleaning lady 2x a month would be in the $120 range.

I pay less than half that for basic cable.

Dang...round these parts a cleaning lady 2x/mo is $200. LOL

Our cable bill went from $99/mo to $260, changed providers and a year later we were back in the same boat, so we ditched.

[biosurfer1]

I tried to cut to cord a while back, but in typical Comcast form, they couldn't even do that correctly.

I called and said I wanted only internet, and the lady said it would be $61/month...or I could get faster internet and economy cable (~60 channels) for $49.99/month forever (no special)

Um, ok?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Send them a letter at least 30 days in advance saying your last day of service will be "x" and you will stop making payments for any service remaining past that date - anything still active is deemed to be free.

Somehow, magically, they seem to get the disconnection right after that. I had a friend of mine go through exactly that with Con-cast.