I'm assuming you guys are in a non-competitive neighborhood? I pay less than $94 for 1GB both up and down. We have competition though.
Cutting The Cord on Cable/Satellite TV Service?
- Thread starter LoweTek
- Start date
I'm in an area with both Comcast and Fios and I'm paying $70/month for 100mbit with Fios. I've never seen anything for $40-50 outside of introductory pricing.
FWIW when I called to cancel Comcast/Xfinity (Greater Boston area) that was also the number they quoted me for internet only. I set a cancellation date and they sent me an email asking me to call a different number to discuss other options. That was the actual retention department, and they went down to $55. I still switched to RCN in the end to save another $10.
There was some discussion on this topic in (of all places) the Footy Broadcasting thread in the soccer forum. Cord cutting was great for a few years, but there's now a massive fragmentation issue with the services making it potentially more expenses depending on the services you need (especially if you're a sports fan).
My old company, Synamedia (NDS before Cisco bought us; they then sold it back at a $4B discount) is developing SW that will crack down on password sharing, which I'm sure is a big part of the "cost savings" equation that "cord cutters" (Netflix still comes over a wire you have to pay someone for) are currently enjoying.
YouTube TV is increasing to $50 also. They are trying to soften the blow by adding channels:
Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and MotorTrend.
My family is moving this summer. Will need to see if an introductory price from the local cable or FIOS will get me to cancel.
Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and MotorTrend.
My family is moving this summer. Will need to see if an introductory price from the local cable or FIOS will get me to cancel.
Just got that notice and I’m super annoyed. YoutubeTV was a really solid deal. Not liking the idea they will just increase price like this at all
It's not ideal but at least they (a) clearly announce it and (b) make it very easy to cancel and switch to some other service if you want to. When traditional cable raises prices, they usually do it with no announcement at all (or via even more opaque methods like increased "fees" instead of increasing the base rate), and they also often make it extremely difficult to cancel. Plus you then have to deal with turning in the cable box, etc.
So for me the streaming options are still beneficial even with increased prices, though obviously that extends only so far. Hopefully at some point in the relatively near future the streaming services will reach an equilibrium on prices and channel offerings so that people can make more informed decisions about which option is right for them.
Edited to add: There are other benefits too, like being able to watch TV in-browser, that many cable companies and even other streaming services don't provide or provide only to a limited extent.
Exactly. I have zero interest in any of those channels and now the price has jumped up by 25%, at the same time Netflix also went up.
I was just thinking the other day how much I like youtube TV and how I would recommend it to anyone, etc. Now not so much. I'll be checking around to see if any of the other streaming services are a better fit now.
I should have known it was too good to last at that price. There is a lot of money that used to go to cable companies that is now being saved by consumers, so corporations aren't going to just sit back and let consumers keep that money without going after it.
I expect that internet service providers will also be jacking up prices for internet only accounts soon. Fewer people want to pay for their cable TV, but those people rely on their internet, so they will make that more expensive.
I’m a happy YouTube.TV customer. I’m in New England so I get local news, free DVR, every Patriots broadcast, every Celtics game, and NESN. I literally could not ask for more for $50/mo.
That said, I was a very happy cable customer when I could get cable. Living in DC I paid no more than $75/mo for 75 Mbps internet and 50+ channels. I was watching Pats games at bars and paying for MLB.TV until T-Mobile started giving it away. I moved often enough that I was always on some new customer promotion.
I’d get cable in my current location, but I literally can’t. Comcast wants to charge me $3,000+ to run the cable from the road to my house.
I hope these over the top providers realize what a service they’re providing by offering quality, performant programming in rural areas. I tried Sling and DirecTV Now and others and they just couldn’t deliver steady, HD picture.
Be wary of Google and privacy, but YouTube.TV is a total home run. They could double the price and I’d keep it.
That said, I was a very happy cable customer when I could get cable. Living in DC I paid no more than $75/mo for 75 Mbps internet and 50+ channels. I was watching Pats games at bars and paying for MLB.TV until T-Mobile started giving it away. I moved often enough that I was always on some new customer promotion.
I’d get cable in my current location, but I literally can’t. Comcast wants to charge me $3,000+ to run the cable from the road to my house.
I hope these over the top providers realize what a service they’re providing by offering quality, performant programming in rural areas. I tried Sling and DirecTV Now and others and they just couldn’t deliver steady, HD picture.
Be wary of Google and privacy, but YouTube.TV is a total home run. They could double the price and I’d keep it.
If you don't have copper to your house, what are you using for internet that's fast enough for streaming?
25 Mbps DSL. It took me 4 hours to download Mario Kart on Switch, and forget about uploading. But streaming on YouTube.TV is great. Netflix gets blurry occasionally. Prime and others buffer sometimes. But YouTube.TV quality is consistently excellent.
You can get everything that YouTubeTV offers from PS Vue. In fact, PS Vue has the NFL Network while YTTV doesn't.
YTTV was cheaper than PSVue, but with the price hike they're now the same. No need to keep YTTV if they were to double their price, you have options.
Thanks Rip! PSVue was the first service I tried. The Roku interface was bad, but I’ll look at it again. I liked it.YTTV was cheaper than PSVue, but with the price hike they're now the same. No need to keep YTTV if they were to double their price, you have options.
How much longer are these prices going to stay cheaper than cable especially when you figure in bundling of Cable + Internet. Streaming services are creeping up in price, as appear to be internet only packages. I think in two years, the costs are going to be pretty much on par. The biggest savings will come in renting add on features like Cable Boxes and DVRs, but a lot of channels are available streaming to subscribers already. I've got access to pretty much everything I need on my basement TV without a box or DVR down there.
This is exactly the situation I'm in. I'm now going to be paying ~$90/mo ($40/mo internet only plan from comcast + YTTV). FIOS keeps offering a 2-year deal for cable+gigabit internet for $80/mo, which sounds great, except I'd also have to get 2-3 cable boxes, rent their router, plus fees, etc, that means the real price is more like $120-140/mo. If I could watch FIOS TV with my rokus, I'd be inclined to switch (although for now I'm able to play zip code games with YTTV that allow me to get sox/pats/bruins/celtics out here in PA, which means I'm likely to keep it even after it's not the most affordable option, or until they tighten their rules on that).
Sorry, $50 more ($95) or $50 total? I'm getting a little sick of my Comcast bill and $50/mo for that seems pretty good. I have some non-Comcast ISP options in theory, though I suspect their cable modem service is still the best option, sadly.
I’m on month 6 of PS Vue via Roku and have few complaints (mainly with an occasional software glitch that never seems to last long) and no intention of changing. I watch mostly sports as well which appear pretty flawless. Some occasional graininess when I first tune to a live even (via PS Vue, MLBTV or whatever that NBA app is I use for Celtics games) but it generally goes away sometime in the first minute. Both Roku’s are wired to what AT&T at least claims to be 1000 mbps speeds.
Work the cable companies enough and you'll always get the best deal. The traditional packages still rule in most areas where there is competition - plus you have the streaming capabilities as part of package now, too.
The problem with doing that btw (besides the fact the owner of that forum only allows recommendation posts like that on services he sells), and I'm only posting this here because I just noticed that I happened to be one of the people in that thread recommending it at the time, is that such info on the bigger providers like that one can get dated rather quick. Since the spammy ones with too large a marketed following tend to go on to oversell their servers, and which of course that went on to do. It's pretty much trash now. Much better and more reliable options out there these days that don't get plastered all over twitter and youtube.
Youtube, Youtube TV, and Youtube Kids are coming back to Amazon fire devices. For Youtube. it's a return. Hopefully a permanent one.
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/youtube-youtube-kids-youtube-tv-are-coming-back-to-fire-tv-devices/
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/youtube-youtube-kids-youtube-tv-are-coming-back-to-fire-tv-devices/
Maybe this will mean that Amazon will fucking finally add Chromecast support to Prime Video.
Oh thank the lord yes. I can finally start watching Amazon shows. I generally only do when I'm traveling and watching things on my laptop anyway, because otherwise it's too much of a pain for me.
Hunh, I've been able to send Amazon Prime Video to my chromcast by opening it in a Chrome browser and hitting the cast button. There have been some buffering issues, but not often.
I haven't tried that in a bit - Amazon used to try and block it, but it's been a back and forth cold war there - but getting full CC support in the mobile app is a big step forward.
I generally don't hunt down my laptop when watching TV, and it's really only when I decide to pirate a sports stream that I do it. Using a service that I'm actually paying for should feel like less of a work-around
NESN is leaving Playstation Vue as of 5pm tonight: https://nesn.com/2019/04/sony-playstation-vue-is-dropping-nesn-act-now-to-keep-nesn/amp/
And in another year, your TV package will be back up to $100/month like with cable.
Farewell "cord cutting".
Farewell "cord cutting".
Same, just switched to Fubo. I tried YTTV a while back but didn’t like the DVR — on certain networks I could only watch the on demand version of something even if I had set it to DVR. I contacted customer support and this is a feature, not a bug.
Edit: Just tried Fubo for a day and cancelled because its DVR doesn’t let you record whole series, just one show at a time. Switching to YTTV, which apparently fixed the DVR issue I alluded to earlier. It used to be the case that if there was an On Demand version of a show available then you had to watch that instead of the DVRed version. This has been changed now for almost all networks; you apparently still need to watch the On Demand version of CBS shows:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.techhive.com/article/3310937/youtube-tv-lifts-dvr-ad-skipping-restrictions.amp.html
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Semi-related, but there have been glitches with NESN go on computer recently. I can get it to work in Firefox, but on Chrome it gets stuck in a loop of trying to log in with my provider. It is a known problem, but the fix advice NESN provides did nothing.
I discovered this last week when I was in a hotel that didn't offer NESN plus the night the Red Sox and Bruins were on the same time, but I had the same issue at home.
I discovered this last week when I was in a hotel that didn't offer NESN plus the night the Red Sox and Bruins were on the same time, but I had the same issue at home.
To answer my own question: my son was just notified that his college will be turning off the coax in a month, and replacing it with streaming SpectrumTV over the school wifi.
If you ever decide to use an over the air antenna you will need it. BTW, OTA is the best picture and sound you can get short of a Blu Ray or 4k disc player, much better than any cable, satellite or streaming provider (except 4k content).
Ok I'm ready
I don't watch any of the channels that I have on DirecTV and I'm paying 147/month without internet for services and equiment
My SmarTV is now dumb and won't connect to WiFI and I would need to drill holes through my floors in order to connect the router to the TV directly.
We got the Firestick which we really love.
The kids have an XBox on their TV.
I was looking at Sling and YouTube TV but it doesn't seem that the fire stick supports it.
Thoughts or are there other venues I should look at?
I'm out of market and would love to make sure I could watch the Patriots but it's not a deal breaker.
I don't watch any of the channels that I have on DirecTV and I'm paying 147/month without internet for services and equiment
My SmarTV is now dumb and won't connect to WiFI and I would need to drill holes through my floors in order to connect the router to the TV directly.
We got the Firestick which we really love.
The kids have an XBox on their TV.
I was looking at Sling and YouTube TV but it doesn't seem that the fire stick supports it.
Thoughts or are there other venues I should look at?
I'm out of market and would love to make sure I could watch the Patriots but it's not a deal breaker.
A Roku express is currently $24 for prime day (if you don’t care about 4K).
I don’t have a non-directv Patriots solution, but I’ve embraced going to the bar every Sunday.
I don’t have a non-directv Patriots solution, but I’ve embraced going to the bar every Sunday.
Just bought the Roku premier to try with YouTube TV. I HAVE FUCKING NESN in Harrisburg Pa!!!!!!!
Edit: lol. Oops. I got too excited. It’s MLB Network alternate programming showing NESNs broadcast.
Still getting rid of DTV
Edit: lol. Oops. I got too excited. It’s MLB Network alternate programming showing NESNs broadcast.
Still getting rid of DTV
I have no idea what equipment you have or the TV package, but I have DTV in 3 rooms and the Premier Pack including regional sports pack and I'm paying $67. I do get $5 off for having AT&T cellular but no internet either. Of course I do battle with them every August and give them a cut off service date and then I get flooded by calls from DTV and they drop their pants. The one thing I did notice is that my bill will be higher because I switched service to east coast recently. The regional sports fee will go from under $2 to around $8.
At the end of next month I'll have to do battle with them again...I'll see what happens. $147 seems very high.
3 receivers 2 that were never or rarely used.
HBO 17.99
The mid grade 87 package
Then add in the different fees and taxes
So I could easily get it down to 90 with just getting rid of the 2 receivers and HBO but it’s still more than I need.
What’s funny is they didn’t even try and save me when I called to cancel
Don’t be surprised if you start getting calls. They didn’t make much of an effort when I called to cancel last year. It was after I set the last date of service. I was bombarded within 24 hours.
I'm due for a big shuffle. I'm going to cut YTTV (It was borderline at $40 per month, and at $50 or $55 or whatever, it's no longer borderline) and HBO Now. Dropping back down to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu (which comes free with Spotify).
The whole point in my dropping cable a few years ago was to cut my bill, but now it's crept up to about what it was when I had it.
The whole point in my dropping cable a few years ago was to cut my bill, but now it's crept up to about what it was when I had it.
Honest question here: Are you planning to stop watching sports? Sure you could grab an OTA antenna, but outside of the Fox/CBS football games, a once a week baseball game, that's not getting you much.