Cutting the (cable) cord

[Wenders]

Believe nothing about Suddenlink. Back where I'm from, they're rearranging rates and moving the goalposts whenever family cancels part of a package. Worse, they somehow a monopoly in their town. Took multiple complaints before the state AG announced that they were investigating. I'm betting there's a kickback to some city government worker(s) somewhere.

In summary, be highly skeptical about Suddenlink.

I live in a small'ish town (just outside of a major metro area) and Suddenlink was the best possible option. But in not touching my cable package in the four years I've lived here, my bill has slowly inched up from $160/mo to $250/mo.

Here's the thing that is truly baffling to me:
Cable companies are being absolutely GUTTED by streaming. When I can get the same channels for half the price from Hulu/Sling/YouTube, and they are fairly transparent with rate hikes and when they're happening, cable needs to figure its ship out. But then, when I called to cut my cable, suddenly they had an amazing rate? They really need to figure out some way to offer the exact same rate to every single customer, and it needs to be the basement rate, and it needs to be competitive with these streaming services. (I know it'll vary a bit because of taxes, but the base rate for their services could be way lower.) Otherwise, they're all gonna go under.

I even got my technophobe parents to completely ditch THEIR cable after I showed them how my YouTube TV worked over the holidays. I never thought I'd see the day. I did have to have multiple FaceTime convos with my father on "how streaming works" and "where can I watch Hogan's Heroes" before they cut the cord though. I've set their TVs up with access to my Hulu account (which is just phenomenal when it comes to great clashic TV shows) but that entire concept of "I can watch any episode of this TV show whenever I want" hasn't quite caught on with them yet. Baby steps.

 

[Driftwood]

I could probably survive with just Discovery and NatGeo.
I probably watch more YouTube videos than I do TV. I'd rather watch a 10-minute fishing lure or cooler review than most TV programming these days.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Timely observation for this thread ...

 

[Sam Mills 51]

I live in a small'ish town (just outside of a major metro area) and Suddenlink was the best possible option. But in not touching my cable package in the four years I've lived here, my bill has slowly inched up from $160/mo to $250/mo.

Here's the thing that is truly baffling to me:
Cable companies are being absolutely GUTTED by streaming. When I can get the same channels for half the price from Hulu/Sling/YouTube, and they are fairly transparent with rate hikes and when they're happening, cable needs to figure its ship out. But then, when I called to cut my cable, suddenly they had an amazing rate? They really need to figure out some way to offer the exact same rate to every single customer, and it needs to be the basement rate, and it needs to be competitive with these streaming services. (I know it'll vary a bit because of taxes, but the base rate for their services could be way lower.) Otherwise, they're all gonna go under.

I even got my technophobe parents to completely ditch THEIR cable after I showed them how my YouTube TV worked over the holidays. I never thought I'd see the day. I did have to have multiple FaceTime convos with my father on "how streaming works" and "where can I watch Hogan's Heroes" before they cut the cord though. I've set their TVs up with access to my Hulu account (which is just phenomenal when it comes to great clashic TV shows) but that entire concept of "I can watch any episode of this TV show whenever I want" hasn't quite caught on with them yet. Baby steps.

It's similar to how newspapers are misrun. They're soaking their loyal customers - many of them older and won't change for any reason, even financial - for more fees for the time being. The cable outlets won't change until enough people tell them exactly where they should go.

 

[wicked]

Here's the thing. These cable companies are still gonna soak you for high-speed Internet that you'll need for those streaming packages. No programming costs for them because you're paying Hulu/Disney/whomever for the programming. They love it. Cable is almost a loss-leader for them at this point.

 

[Cosmo]

Our Comcast bill is around $225 a month and includes a mid-range internet package.
The cable itself is only about $90 a month. The internet is another $100, and then there are all sorts of ashorted taxes and fees that make up the rest.
How I justify the cost is that the cable itself is about what we'd pay if we picked up five or six streaming services. And then we'd have to still pay for the internet either way. In the end, I'm not sure if the difference is enough to steer me away from the convenience of simply turning on the TV and all of my channels are right there, instead of having to navigate through a bunch of different streams.

Basically word for word, same for me.

 

[goalmouth]

I'm just wondering how painful it will be to unwind my FIOS bundle.

 

[Slacker]

YouTube TV sounds like a great deal. I'll probably go that route.

Pros and cons of YouTube vs. Hulu Live?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

YouTube TV sounds like a great deal. I'll probably go that route.

Pros and cons of YouTube vs. Hulu Live?

They're the same price. You Tube has 13 more channels.

You can get a comparison of the channels here:

All the live TV streaming services compared: Which has the best channel lineup?

I don't know what Hulu offers as a DVR service. You Tube TV has an unlimited cloud DVR that is freakin' awesome.

 

[Driftwood]

Our issue here - and I'd say it's the same in many places - is you have one internet provider because cable companies signed exclusive contracts with counties many years ago. Comcast/Xfinity can soak you for whatever they want.
Our local electric company is looking at adding high speed internet as a service, and they plan to offer it for a substantially cheaper price as a public utility. I hope how soon that gets up and running.

 

[Scout]

Our issue here - and I'd say it's the same in many places - is you have one internet provider because cable companies signed exclusive contracts with counties many years ago. Comcast/Xfinity can soak you for whatever they want.
Our local electric company is looking at adding high speed internet as a service, and they plan to offer it for a substantially cheaper price as a public utility. I hope how soon that gets up and running.

There is also a serious race to getting high speed to the sticks. That service will overlap with the populated areas.

 

[Roscablo]

Our issue here - and I'd say it's the same in many places - is you have one internet provider because cable companies signed exclusive contracts with counties many years ago. Comcast/Xfinity can soak you for whatever they want.
Our local electric company is looking at adding high speed internet as a service, and they plan to offer it for a substantially cheaper price as a public utility. I hope how soon that gets up and running.

Our community voted for community broadband service a few years ago and the infrastructure has been going in over the past few months and some neighborhoods have it ready now. Our neighborhood is one. People are soaking it up like crazy. Maybe I need to call them and really figure it out or talk to people who have gotten it, but based on the pricing they have online (their website overall sucks, they want you to call them so they can sell you on it), I can't for the life of me figure out how it is better/cheaper than Comcast. Because it isn't on paper. I'm not defending Comcast and I think competition is good, but at baseline it's the same cost maybe even more expensive if you get all the same services -- they also offer phone and TV. I'm honestly shocked by that. I think people want to get away from the megabeast as much as saving money.