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 ...
You’re mistaken about ownership and who’s got the power — as the cable companies want you to be. It doesn’t matter who owns the copper cable — the only unique priceless irreplaceable asset is the TUNNEL UNDER YOUR STREET. The right-of-way. You can own fiber optic cable that stretches to the moon — but if the city gives the franchise to someone else, you can’t sell your product in that market.
People think cable is a free market — it isn’t. It’s a quasi public utility. You can have five hot dog carts competing on one street — you can’t have five cable companies digging trenches.
Cities are cable company landlords. One huge market acting like the owners that they are instead of whiny babies begging to see the game could turn distribution into the buyer’s market it should be.
Charter no longer bundles Internet/TV. You can just get the Internet package for $30 a month. Competitive with phone company Internet pricing. A lot of the company’s customers are signing up only for Internet access and cable modem Internet throughput is higher than a typical DSL modem connection.
Forgot to add, I know of at least one cable company here in So. Calif.’that got their franchise yanked by a disgruntled city. There was NO SHORTAGE of bidders for the right-of-way.
The idea that no one will snap up an available franchise, even if they have to replace equipment, is demonstrably false. It’s a license to print money.
What do you mean? We get this ad in the mail practically every day.
HDTV with 125+ Channels
FREE HD and On Demand**
Fast Internet with speeds up to 30 Mbps
Phone with unlimited nationwide calling, including 411 calls
from $29.99/mo each for 12 mos when bundled*
Price goes up to well over $200 after the first 12 months.
We cut cable, still have DSL and watch Fox News on the net.
How did you manage that? I tried to do the same here with ATT and they flat refused, stating that I could not get internet-only without also paying for home phone service.
I agree. Looked at the Roku a couple of times before but could not determine whether or not it would do what I needed it to do. Things like FoxNews, USA Network, Spike TV, and History Channel did not seem to be available, and I never could determine if I would be able to access the somewhat-local channels I used to watch at one time.
For most of the series I like, I simply go online and download them to watch at leisure later on, so live tv is not really critical as far as I can see. Well, other than live viewing on FoxNews when something breaking is happening, that is.
Hard to find things like breaking news online or the FoxNews programs I like, not to mention live broadcasts of things like congressional hearings.
Unless you get lucky and some kind soul posts them on youtube to view and download later.
I rarely watch cable TV sports. I would cut out all sports channels to lower my cable TV bill.....absolutely! The NBA is on my never watch list.
put it on the roof or the eaves on the corner of the house.
Bingo!
honestly, if discovery networks would do just that.. I would drop cable all together..
still might when my promo is over.
I’m not willing to pay over 100 bucks a month for internet and cable.
Get a Roku and an unlimited internet plan.
Plenty of childrens, teens and adult program channels available.
You will miss live news and live sports.
But, I find I can turn on a radio and jump on FR and Twitter for the latest breaking news.
Ask for DSL Direct. It adds $5 per month to the cost of your DSL service level but discontinues the phone service.
Thank you. I will look into that. :)
You have to ask for the Internet only plan.
Charter makes money off it and none of what they offer is bundled.
Savvy cable customers can get what they want.
I’m signed up with CenturyLink. I am on their data only plan and its no longer required to obtain phone service as a part of a bundle package to get it.
Since I am deaf, that saves me a lot of money on a phone service bill I neither need nor want.
What you have to do with ATT is go over the heads of salesperson and talk to the supervisor. You usually can get what you ask because the phone company is making money off you and they want to keep you as a customer.
I do miss some of the sports things. I think eventually NCAA and others will come around to allowing internet subscriptions to their content.
I missed 24 last night - but it will probably be streaming on Fox tonight or by next week. So I will be off a week. Saving the $150 a month bill is well worth not having cable/satellite TV.
What finally got me to pull the plug is the NRA 500 Nascar race last year where the live broadcasters would not call it the NRA 500 - even resorting to calling it the Texas 500. Done, sucked it up for a few more weeks, and dumped satellite.
The payoff has been amazing for my household. I had a week off a couple of months ago - got more done around this household, projects I had lined up for a year or so.
Just had 3 days off this past weekend, again, extremely productive. We aren’t tied to the boob tube, we get things done. Then, when we do want to watch tv, might catch an episode or two of something on Netflix, or streaming from broadcasters websites. It doesn’t consume us.
We aren’t able to get TV over the air where I am without putting up some dangerous antenna. Have decided to go without for now. I do subscribe to MLB’s program - $19 a year to listen to all of the games online.
Too bad Nascar makes their price so high or I would subscribe to that also.
Too bad Nascar makes their price so high or I would subscribe to that also.
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Might want to check out Sirius/XM.
They used to offer an online service and I think MLB and NASCAR are part of the basic package.
Not sure what they are up to now, but may be worth a shot for you.
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