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.
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!!
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.
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.
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.
Sports has become indispensable for TV networks. It’s pretty much the only thing people watch live anymore, so they can charge advertisers more, and also push their other shows better. Knowing that networks desperately need sports means the leagues and teams get to charge more, of course then the networks have to charge everybody (advertisers and cable companies more), but we keep watching the sports.
I dropped NFL Sunday Ticket 3 years ago, the only games I could watch were ones I had no interest in.
I am waiting to see what happens with the SEC network.
Yep. Mine got me jacked into the $200’s (no competition here). So now only internet from cable. Antenna, Netflix & Redbox for TV, looking at Hulu. $40 for a voip box + voip service provider for home phone for a few bucks a month.
Cable companies lobbied hard against a la carte options, killed it in 2006. Now, they’re losing people, like me, in droves.
Now, after going to just internet, I get mail, email and phone solicitations constantly from them to come back to their triple play. F’em.
Three years ago I dumped satellite and put up my own antenna. I get around 70 channels via broadcast TV, many of which are extremely good channels.
Just this last week I moved my antenna onto a 10 foot mast and added a rotator, and now I pick up even more channels, and the ones that I already got I get even better than before.
There’s no going back for me. In 3 years I’ve saved close to $3,000.00. And I’ve put my money where my mouth is.
Unless the law is changed, cable companies are prohibited from offering a la carte channels.
That’s what most people think. And it’s one hundred percent false.
People think that because the cable companies want them to think that.
The truth is it’s perfectly legal for cable companies to offer a la carte channel purchasing. But there’s more money to be made with ‘”mandatory” packages, so they straight-up lie about why they “can’t” let you buy just the channels you want.
What individual cities need to do is start reviewing their contracts with cable providers. Award the franchise only to companies willing to offer a la carte channels. Cities own cable delivery system rights, just like the American public owns the broadcast airwaves.
I just have some rabbit ears these days, and that has me spending more time away from the TV...
People like Ted Turner do not need any of my money.
Quite a bit of what Cable/Dish TV does supports pornography and immorality. So count me out in supporting that cr@p.
My kids are sorting out what to do. With the latest cable bill increase, they are looking at $171/month, for TV and internet, no phone service. I think they have 2 “boxes”, and one movie channel, but not really much for bells and whistles.
I think ours (cable TV only) has increased a good 80% in the past 6 or 7 years. It is ridiculous.
I am trying to get internet for a new place in NC so I can stream movies.
Local tv stations are fine and I don’t need a landline.
I cannot believe how Time Warner hard sells me the services I don’t want - cable and home phone service. I finally agreed - to the tune of about $100/month- only to find out the internet they signed me up for wouldn’t be good to stream movies. I canceled everything so now I have to start over and find an internet provider.
I don’t want a satellite dish on the balcony.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
No one in our family watches sports, but we had to buy 100 ESPNs to get the premium cartoon channels, like Nicktoons and Boomerang. We also like the History, Discovery, Military channel stuff, but no sports. So we cut the cable cord. Most of our fave shows are on Netflix, including The Bible miniseries, military stuff, history and discovery stuff, breaking bad, the clone wars, etc. We watch what we want when we want, with no commercials. Oh, and we are saving money.