 | | Damn Straight Tired of paying $100+/month for mostly garbage programming. Switched to $8 netflix streaming only and a $99 appletv, and it has enough content to keep most family's happy. For everything else (sports, latest tv shows), I find online streams/DL via the pc and play it on the plasma...
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.:|:. aztec being aztec...™ | |
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 vpokoPremium
join:2003-07-03
Boston, MA | Got rid of cable two years ago and haven't missed it, not even once. I still have Comcast internet so I still have coax running into the house, which gives me the major networks (and some other crap) over clear QAM. | |
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| | 1- vast majority cutting cord is due to price
2- less video connnects is due to housing crisis- this is by far more of a problem than rich smart folks cutting cord
Give me the 2 grand these clowns want and I'll give you a report that says that fat cats like to eat more than skinny cats. | |
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 | | | Re: Report is bunk Of course it's due to price. People are getting sick of the constant price increases the cable companies ram down our throats. Add to that their refusal to offer a-la-carte or even to split the expensive sports channels like ESPN off into their own tier.
It's entirely possible to price yourself out of the market, as the cable companies are beginning to learn. | |
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| |  Jim GurdPremium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI | Re: Report is bunk said by ISurfTooMuch:Add to that their refusal to offer a-la-carte or even to split the expensive sports channels like ESPN off into their own tier.
Yep, I got tired of paying the ESPN tax. I have no interest in sports and got sick of subsidizing them with my monthly bill. Now I have DSL and an antenna. I don't miss cable at all. | |
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| | I still have TV service. I went to satellite from cable, because I got tired of Time Warner's random bill hikes. I know what my bill will be for the next two years, then I'll shop around again. If I didn't watch live sports, the pay service would have been gone a long time ago. | |
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| Reviews:
 ·ooma
 ·Comcast
| Re: While I did cut the cord... I also enjoy live sports however i love my $ more. Its not necessarily the package price thats the issue however. Its the combination of price hikes, equipment/dvr fees and hd fees. Way to many extras needed to have a decent package. Now I dont have a DVR but I use Hulu/ content provider websites which acts like a DVR and use my antenna for my HD (better than cable) sports on network channels. I do miss some games but ESPN 3 has enough sports to keep me happy. | |
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| | | Same here. Live sports is what keeps me around. But I call in everytime my current special promo prices end, and they always give me a deal too good to refuse. This year I got Sunday Ticket for free, free HD access extended for 6 months, and $10 off a month when I wanted to cancel my $50 a month package.  | |
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| | | | Re: While I did cut the cord... Yeah, in the past they were willing to give a better price. They offered me $10 off full price guaranteed for one year, but I had to sign a two year contract. At least with Directv, I know what my monthly cost is over the entire contract period. | |
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| |  BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | yeah but it's stupid that you have to call very few months and threaten to leave to get a better price. Well obviously they aren't going broke giving you that better price so why not just charge that from the start? | |
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| | | | | Re: While I did cut the cord... said by BF69:yeah but it's stupid that you have to call very few months and threaten to leave to get a better price. Well obviously they aren't going broke giving you that better price so why not just charge that from the start?
Exactly what I thought when my promo ran out with Charter internet. I have expanded basic cable, which I wouldn't have if it wasn't for the wife. I wouldn't even own a tv in that case.
I got so PO'd at the lady trying to sell me a promo on tv/phone I told her to just give me the 12/1 internet (which was a downgrade) for the regular monthly price and shut up before I cancel my tv!!
I despise having to call Charter for anything so at least if nothing else i got rid of the headache of having to call in to renegotiate.
I'd cut the cord on the phone totally if any cell company came in clearly and dependably around here.
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The Firefox alternative.
»www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/ | |
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| | | | | |  Re: While I did cut the cord...
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| | Courtesy of the Mouse
"But those programming benefits will come at a steep cost: At $15.2 billion, the deal is the largest in U.S. sports-media history and its average price of $1.9 billion represents a 73% increase from its $1.1 billion annual outlay under its current eight-year pact that expires with the 2013 season. "
»www.google.com/search?q=Operator···l0.1l1l0 | |
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|  TwiztedZeroNine Zero Burp Nine SixPremium
join:2011-03-31
Toronto, ON
kudos:3
·TekSavvy Cable
| Re: Espn just signed a new deal with NFL- so get ready to pay said by AndyDufresne:Courtesy of the Mouse
"But those programming benefits will come at a steep cost: At $15.2 billion, the deal is the largest in U.S. sports-media history and its average price of $1.9 billion represents a 73% increase from its $1.1 billion annual outlay under its current eight-year pact that expires with the 2013 season. "
»www.google.com/search?q=Operator···l0.1l1l0
Would rather have those billions in my wallet thank you very much! Power to the People down with big corporate media.
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You see there is only one constant. One universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect.
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Motorola SurfBoard 6120 | Netgear RangeMax WNDR3700v1 | |
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| | | | Re: Espn just signed a new deal with NFL- so get ready to pay If you don't mind getting the game 5 - 10 minutes after its over then sites like ten yard torrents offer free HD NFL games.
If you prefer live games, numerous forums exist with links to torrent tv, and various other live streaming sites.
I get every game and pay nothing. | |
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| | | | | Re: Espn just signed a new deal with NFL- so get ready to pay That sounds completely legal and legit.  | |
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| | | | | | Re: Espn just signed a new deal with NFL- so get ready to pay said by NeoandGeo:That sounds completely legal and legit.
»torrentproxy.org/
Free. If your worried about copyrights | |
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| | | | |  dvd536as Mr. Pink as they comePremium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
kudos:4 | Re: Espn just signed a new deal with NFL- so get ready to pay And *not* worried about download speeds
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Oh YES! let me drop everything i'm doing regardless of who it affects to deal with your petty little problem! | |
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| | | | | | | | Re: Espn just signed a new deal with NFL- so get ready to pay I've regularly see over 1.2 MB/s. You may have to choose between one or two.
On average they are good for about 1 day.
Takes all of 20 - 30 seconds. | |
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| | | BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | said by DataRiker:If you don't mind getting the game 5 - 10 minutes after its over then sites like ten yard torrents offer free HD NFL games.
If you prefer live games, numerous forums exist with links to torrent tv, and various other live streaming sites.
I get every game and pay nothing.
Can we keep the dicussion to LEGAL means? That's like saying how you can save money at wal-mart by shoplifting. Sure you can do it. Doesn't mean you SHOULD do it. | |
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| | | | | | Re: Espn just signed a new deal with NFL- so get ready to pay Shoplifting?
I guess somebody should call the police, but oh wait what would you report missing? | |
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| | I cut the cord almost a year ago and can't imagine ever giving the cable or satellite companies money for their programming again.
Roku, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon FTW! | |
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| | | Re: Cord Cutter I cut the cord 3 years ago (satellite TV). Then about 6 months ago subscribed to base cable to get a couple of the news channels, HGTV, the Food Channel etc.
I have an HDHomerun that I record most of the shows on network TV using an over the air antenna and then I watch other stuff from network websites and such. I have not rented a movie in a store for several years now. | |
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|  LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 | And don't forget over the air tv where you can still get your sports on the major channels.
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»www.rickperry.org/ | |
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| | | | Re: Cord Cutter For now. Good luck finding those sports in a couple of years. | |
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| | | | I have an antenna to watch over the air TV broadcasting, watch the College football on Saturday, The Jets and the Giant on Sunday and a combination of DVDs and the internet keeps my family happy. I don't see why people pay over $100 every month to watch movies that were first released on DVD a long time ago.
"Five hundred channels and nothing to watch!" Yes! That is true. For those of you who pay a lot of money for cable TV, grab a diary and jot down the channels you watch, what you watched and for how long. Do this daily for one month. You will shocked to see how you are wasting you hard earned money.  | |
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| chimera
join:2009-06-09
Washington, DC | Ditto, I love my Roku box which lets me see Hulu, Amazon, Netflix and youtube on my TV without an issue. There are some shows that I can't see on them, but who cares? They'll show up eventually and if the shows are good now, then they'll still be good in a year or two. In the mean time, I have a backlog of decades of TV and movies that I can watch combined with the new releases for series that I follow on these.
Now I can see why sports fans would need cable for now, but I'm not a sports fan, and I'm sick to death of subsidizing them. | |
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| | | I haven't cut the cord but Im getting close, the prices for television is expensive as hell!
I have the basic Time Warner package w/ HBO
HBO is the only channel I agree with paying the fee. For everything else I use Hulu, torrents, and sites like frequency.com where I can create custom web video channels with everything Im truly interested in. | |
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| | ...consumers really do not care too much about these price hikes (not too much) if A the economy were bustling and money was flowing more abundant and B there were more novelties on TV to warrant the increase. However in both cases, there are not those factors anymore. The economy is [bleep] so people watch every dime they bring in and that leads to them realizing that the money they are shelling out for cable service is for a lot of [bleep] very similar to the economy.
But now it's more than that. It's a trend that will keep on growing and that is cutting cord for the most inexpensive and lowest common denominator. Big business like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Cox, Charter, and Time-Warner follow the same principle by outsourcing their support, sales, and customer service to other third world countries for pennies on the dollar compared to pay scales in the US. They do this to save themselves money in payroll, benefits, and various other perks from year to year. Well consumers are following the same trend and finding the lowest common denominator to save them the same money from year to year.
The cable industry figures that they can increase prices because they are adding exceptional "value" and "content" that warrants the prices but apparently they've not actually viewed the content and/or ratings to some of this content. Nielsen and the content providers care about the ratings to determine what is hot and what is not, the cable industry could care less so they do not pay attention to the [bleep] that they push onto their cable boxes. As long as they have a blind eye to it all they can tout that their content is worth it and its expense.
Consumers know better and will continue to cut cords. It may take 2-3 years for the effects to really be felt by the cable industry and make them change their tune, but I'm willing to put money on all they will do is back the MPAA in tossing out lawsuits on all of the downloaded content from Bit-torrent. Their reasoning will obviously be that if they eliminate the Bit-torrent competition then those cord cutters will have to come back to them.
Now if the economy improves, then there will be a lot less complaint from the cord cutters as well as less of a defection in the ranks. But I think the trend will continue even if the economy improves but I'm sure the cable industry will put some other positive spin on it to justify the price increases. | |
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|  pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Re: The tricky part is... said by menace33:Now if the economy improves, then there will be a lot less complaint from the cord cutters as well as less of a defection in the ranks. But I think the trend will continue even if the economy improves but I'm sure the cable industry will put some other positive spin on it to justify the price increases. I doubt many of the cord cutters will return even if the economy improves. It is much easier for someone to stomach the slashing of a $100+ a month bill from the budget than it is for someone to add such an expense later on.
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"Net Neutrality" zealots - the people you can thank for your capped Internet service. | |
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| | | Yep, the corporations "save" more money by sending it overseas, which sends less money into the pockets of would-be consumers here--meaning, in order to save money, the U.S. consumers cut back on things that are far from essential, like [over-priced] "entertainment" [which doesn't have that much entertainment value to begin with]. Ultimately, those corporations wind up losing money they might have gotten had they been more conscious of what they weren't really "saving" at all.
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"Sorry for not responding to your post, but either I haven't seen it yet, or what you said was so devoid of substance that I found it utterly uninteresting." | |
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| | But I was not going to pay for something that I was using less and less and less....
So I stopped the Comcast cable (returned the box and everything), canceled the TiVo service and instead only have the Netflix and Hulu on my XBOX.
Savings of ~$90 a month. Still nothing to balk at.
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FractalSphere - "Maybe it's in the basement, I'll go upstairs and check" - M.C. Escher | |
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 thegeekPremium
join:2008-02-21
right here
kudos:2
·Suddenlink
| I tried cutting the cord. Didn't work. I moved last year to a non-Big Ten state so I switched from cable to satellite so I could get Big Ten Network. Still have internet through the cable company though. And when the installer came for internet he said he didn't have a filter to block TV because they hardly ever have anyone get internet without TV. So I'm getting basic cable from the cable company for free. Therefore I unsuccessfully cut the cord, even though I'm not paying for it. It works out great too because I can't get local channels on DirecTV in my area. | |
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cbrain
join:2000-05-21
Silver Spring, MD Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·DSL EXTREME
·Comcast
·Future Nine Corp..
·Google Voice
| In February I cut the cord on DirecTV. Every week I get several promo offers by mail, print and phone from Comcast, Verizon, DirecTV and Disk with discount offers. Every offer requires me to order many channels I'll never watch for every one I want.
I loved DirecTV with my "hacked" TiVos. The price wasn't bad, selection and quality great and customer service OK. I installed large hard drives and networked 3 TiVos. Wonderful setup. I discovered I had so much content recorded I will never be able to watch. TiVo has great content search capabilities and predicts & records programs we might like. TiVo does not search recorded programs. I ended up with so many stored programs it was a pain to find what I wanted to watch or to keep up with deleting what I did not. Made me realize how little I really watched and how wasteful paying for so many stations was.
If I miss DTV, I could have it up and running with a phone call. I don't see that happening. I have well over 600 hours recorded, Roku with Netflix, Amazon, all the freebies, and, best of all ... I have a family and a life. It's only TV. | |
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Rekrul
join:2007-04-21
Milford, CT Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| The only reason I have cable TV right now is that it was a package deal from my cable company along with phone and internet service. When the promo price runs out, I'll be dumping the cable portion to save money. It's not just the money though. I never watch TV anymore. I watch TV shows, but not TV.
I'm one of those 'filthy pirates' that the content companies are trying to eradicate. I download all the shows that I watch. And it's in no way a "dog's breakfast". I can get pretty much any scripted show, and most reality shows (but I rarely do), and in most cases, I can get Canadian and British shows long before they air on any channels in the US, if at all. In the case of foreign shows, I don't have to deal with American censorship or having parts of the show removed to add more commercial time. | |
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| | Media companies are the deadbeats for trying to get people to pay for a video feed of advertising and product placement. | |
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RJW1678
join:2003-01-15
Wilmington, DE Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
·Verizon Online DSL
| On July 24, 2009 I got fed up with 100's of channels of reruns or just plain crappy programming - so I bought a good antenna put it in the attic - got 35 channels about half in High Def - and got rid of cable TV. Got one of those $50($10 after government voucher) converter boxes for my VHS VCR and I am able to record without the high cost of a DVR - can even watch what I record in wide screen with zoom feature on my TV. I had the money to pay for cable - but the cable was not worth what I was spending on it. | |
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| | First off I have Comcast for internet as there is no other choice. The at&t copper coming to my house is in awful condition so not a choice. I have an antenna and get over 50 stations in Houston.
In regards to sports I am of the opinion that all revenue coming to colleges via TV, Cable, Satellite etc. should go straight to the state general fund. This would solve a lot of issues. | |
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etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
Dallas, TX
kudos:1 | cord cutters are not deadbeats they are financially challenged individuals. | |
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| vpokoPremium
join:2003-07-03
Boston, MA | Re: I agree... They're less financially challenged after cutting the cord. | |
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| | | As someone who cut the cord and makes a six figure salary, I prefer to think I'm just a smart consumer. | |
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| | | | Re: I agree... Six figures? What can you buy with that any more? | |
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nonymousPremium
join:2003-09-08
Glendale, AZ Reviews:
·Callcentric
| They will start charging Netflix a premium amount to get content. They want their money and they want it now.
Plus that $100 a month saved adds up to part of a nice vaction or weekend trips every year. Think my young son will get more out of the trips and the vacation then he will TV. Plus he has enough junk to watch with oTA, netflix and just the computer. More than enough so he is not suffering . Plus we can still punish by taking away his TV time and he doesn't like it. So right there he has enough to watch and we cut way back. | |
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 espaethDigital PlumberPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
kudos:2
·Vitelity VOIP
| I'm a huge NHL fan, and am a season ticket holder to the tune of around $7k/season.
DirecTV = ~$85/mo for ChoiceXtra + $160/season for Center Ice
Canadian Sat = ~$60/mo for CBC/TSN/TSN2/Rogers SportsNet.
So relatively speaking, $1900/year for 2 TV subscriptions, even if only for hockey, represents a huge comparative value. Factor in all the other stuff I can watch and the value proposition only improves.
There is nothing available for streaming (legal or otherwise) that matches the quality of HD broadcast video for fast action sports. | |
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|  pnjunctionTeksavvy ExtremePremium
join:2008-01-24
Toronto, ON
kudos:1 | Re: Paying for TV from 2 countries here I'm a Leaf fan, I just paid $40 on the early-bird special to stream 51 games from Leafs TV. The 1600 kbps stream isn't quite HD but it's pretty good. I can watch the 400 or 800 kbps stream over my phone anywhere. With the 24 games CBC broadcasts OTA in HD I'll get 75 of 82 games legally for $40. Not bad at all. | |
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zeke56
join:2009-03-22
Naperville, IL Reviews:
·VOIPo
| As many have said or implied, it's a question of value, not cost. I simply don't value TV enough to pay what they want to charge. It's worse when you consider that ~1/3 of commercial TV is devoted to those commercials - in other words 1/3 of the cost goes to providing you with the privilege of letting them try to sell you stuff. Considering further that the majority of commercial TV is brainless drivel, the value becomes vanishingly small. | |
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| | | Re: It's value not cost said by zeke56:As many have said or implied, it's a question of value, not cost. I simply don't value TV enough to pay what they want to charge. It's worse when you consider that ~1/3 of commercial TV is devoted to those commercials - in other words 1/3 of the cost goes to providing you with the privilege of letting them try to sell you stuff.
Exactly. I have a media PC hooked up to my TV and haven't watched any US network programming in years. This season I thought I'd record some of the new series to see if I was missing anything. I wasn't. Even New Girl which the critics seem to be going gaga over was boring and stupid.
The only thing I found remotely interesting was Sing-Off - because they don't have the fake histrionics, language and no-talent groups thrown in for laughs. Even that went to a 5 minute commercial after every group, so I ended up DVRing it and watching it later in the evening. | |
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|  japPremium
join:2003-08-10
038xx | said by zeke56:As many have said or implied, it's a question of value, not cost. I simply don't value TV enough to pay what they want to charge. Access to desired content and only desired content rings loud here too. Ala Carte is way overdue.
Outdated licensing models play a role in the cord cutting trend. If I could on-demand current & archival US plus BBC, AJ and CBC content I'd be all over it. Content regions by political boundaries is looking stupider every day. People want to watch in their native tongue, or get actual news, or British teleplays, or Indian cricket games, or they discovered Dr. Who really is better than Star Trek. Infringement applies a similar consumer pressure in that it's global.
It's dishonest to say one cannot compete with "free". Infringing is work & risk which isn't free in real terms. When legit providers get to where we can plop down on the couch and call-up that 2008 One-to-One episode with guest Samantha Power they'll be in a very happy place and so will we.
Increasingly people know the technology is there but providers are showing no inclination to provide local content much less that of other countries. Unless one looks to the infringing providers. So behavior becomes ... well duh. It's not like consumers are gonna wait around for the major networks to get a clue. Movie & TV moguls are looking evermore like 1970s-80s Detroit: they've been dictating what we watch for so long they're incapable of accepting a new reality even as they stand watching people march in the other direction.
BYW, if anyone knows where I can find that episode please PM me. | |
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