Posted on 05/06/2014 12:51:00 PM PDT by jeannineinsd
Cable TV's sports costs are prompting a growing number of people to "cut the cord".
Exhibit A: The $8 billion charged by the Dodgers for broadcast rights to their games knowing full well that pay-TV companies would have to pass along this sky-high cost to all customers.
Time Warner Cable is the Dodgers' partner in crime. It paid that whopping sum for exclusive rights to distribute the Dodgers channel to other pay-TV companies, assuming, like the team, that it would get away with sticking both fans and non-fans with an extra $4 to $5 fee every month.
The harsh reality, however, is that most Southern California pay-TV customers already are forking out big bucks for local sports that they may never watch.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Very unusually, I agree with the LA Times on this matter. This article deals with the high cost of cable TV, the high fees the cable companies are paying for sports broadcasting rights, and the author's championing a la cart pricing for cable TV channels.
The author does throw in a slam at the Clipper's Sterling (this is the LA Times after all). The rest of the article is about cable TV pricing.
This is true on a personal level for me. It was about 10 years ago I bundled together internet, TV, and phone services. The cost was just under $100.00 per month.
This year, for the same service, the fees have ballooned to $228.95 per month. The internet and phone portion of my bill combined is under $100.00 I do not have any premium channels such as HBO or Showtime. There isn't anything on TV worth $128.00 per month to me.
I am the only person in my household who watches any TV at all. I watch about half a dozen channels with any regularity. I can drop my TV service down to a more minimal channel lineup, but if I do so I will lose most of the few channels I do watch: History H1, HGTV, ABC Family, American Hero Channel, Hallmark channel. So there is no advantage to me to keep cable service at a less costly tier of service.
So our household will be joining the crowd of cord cutters. It has become financially unsustainable to mantain cable TV service.
I will also disconnect the "house phone". The house phone has just become a vehicle for telemarketers to call and harass. Anyone I want to talk to has my cell phone number. All of our household members have cell phones. The house phone has become an unneeded, expensive duplicate service.
What happens if nobody buys the service?
Believe me, eventually the telemarketers will find your cellphone numbers, too. It takes time, but it happens.
They’d have to change the laws first. Given that there’s a per-minute cost associated with cell phones (at least historically, even if most people now have unlimited or close enough to it on their plans) for received calls, it’s illegal in most, if not all, places to make telemarketing calls to cell phones.
The last person left has to pay $6 billion per month.
We ended our cable dependency 5 years ago. There ARE moments, like last night when I wanted desperately to watch ‘24,’ or some of the NCAA March Madness games, but otherwise? Nope. We do subscribe to Netflix and that’s about it. (<$10/mo)
You will get used to it, and a lot faster than you’d suspect. Good luck.
Anybody recall the cable industry’s mantra back when they were trying to get all those neat monopolies set up:
“COMMERCIAL FREE CABLE”?
Yeah, right!!
It may be illegal (in most, if not all places)...but trust me, it happens.
Roku - one time $70 for network box, $7 for Netflix, $7 for hulu and ala carte movies on Amazon.com (usually $3.99) - plus your regular internet service fee
love it
Time warner hates it - they’ve been to the house to check the cable terminus in the front yarde to make sure I wasn’t jackin it.
It would make a lot of sense to unbundle cable packages and let you buy a la cart.
BUT “Big Cable” has huge clout in government at all levels, federal, state, and municipal.
I don’t see it happening any time soon.
Anyone who has a TV and is subscribing to cable or satellite is already paying too much. Sports is the primary reason why cable and satellite TV bills are so damned high. All sports, including Fox Sports 1 and 2 and ESPN, MLB Network, NFL Network and all the rest should be unbundled from the basic package and stuck in a sports only tier so that that yahoos who actually watch that mindless nonsense can pay for it.
Sports are the only reason I still have cable.
If you have Amazon Prime you can get away from paying $3.99 per movie in most cases.
Maybe it’s illegal, but that hasn’t stopped them. I’m signed up for state and Federal Do-not-call lists, and they seem less effective with each passing year.
I have only Internet through my phone company and the basic cable TV is included in my monthly rent payment.
I do not subscribe to the premium channels. I don’t feel they’re an added value over the basic channel lineup. I get mine through Charter Cable.
They should be a premium channels tier. Those who want to watch sports can pay for them. I think that’s only fair.
The Do-Not Call registry I think is a total government shell game. They get people with legitimate phone numbers to sign up, and then they have a database of phone numbers that has a warm body attached to it, which in turn they sell to third parties.
When there is a big game on that I want to see, there are plenty of friends and family I can call upon. All I have to do is mention I'll bring over beer and appetizers and they toss out the red carpet for me! It also got me seeing friends and family a little more.
In a pinch, I'll just go to one of the neighborhood bars. I saw the Red Sox win the World Series in a Buffalo Wild Wings last fall. We had a blast. Much better than watching at home.
But all in all, I watch much less sports these days and that's a good thing too. More time for reading and Freeping.
I have my Roku box with Netflix for when I want to see TV shows or movies. True, Netflix doesn't have everything but they have enough content where I will never have time to watch it all in a hundred years.
You want to watch sports? Go to this website...http://goatd.net/
Use MalwareBytes to prevent any bugs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.