Everybody is cutting. How much longer does the traditional cable and satellite business have left?

[Anonymous]

Prices will only rise for Internet subscriptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not in this area. If you're a baseball fan from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, the only way to watch your team's games is via cable TV. MASN channel doesn't offer a streaming option.

Reddit.com/r/mlbstreams

[Anonymous]

I don't watch tv at all.

Best decision ever.

[Anonymous]

We've been using netfix/hulu/amazon prime for the past few years, and currently we use amazon prime, hulu (on a 99 cent trial), and DVD's from the library. We recently did a 1-week trial of a Spectrum's streaming cable service. It reminded us how dumb cable is. I honestly wish they would just go back to 3 channels. There are only so many good shows out there anyway - just take the few good shows plus a half-hour news program, and that would be more than enough to fill the 3 channels. There is truly no reason to have hundreds of channels with 24/7 programming. Almost all of it is terrible.

[Anonymous]

I don't have it but don't fault those who do. When you think about how much value you get out of it each month and how much time you spend, it's really not that expensive compared to other things you spend on. Night out to the movies is easily $50 if you get food. Dinner out, $70. Compared to a full month of TV/internet for $150/month or whatever. It's really not that much for what you get.

[Anonymous]

Sports will save them for a while.

[Anonymous]

I think they'll come up with some new brand of internet that's faster or has a wider range and then jack up the price. Either that or they'll implement data limits like the providers in Canada do.

[Anonymous]

We are in the middle of cutting Comcast/Xfinity cable because of both the cost and that they keep changing equipment and their installers are clueless. We are shifting to Roku and YouTube TV and keeping Netflix and our Amazon Prime account. We have two homes and we can move the Roku stick equipment and change the YouTube account between our homes so that instead of two ridiculous cable bills we will have one YouTube bill. We will see how it goes and we are learning how to stream shows like the PBS Newshour. It takes some work but we are sure we will save at least $150-200 a month between our two homes. We are in our mid 60’s and when we make the break it means the cable guys are screwed.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know how long people will hold out. We’ve been cable/satellite free for two years and have no regrets. We have an attic antenna, a TiVo dvr, plus internet/Netflix/prime (those 3 we had anyway.)

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to get cable without the local broadcast fees? I can get local channels over the air. I’m cable for tlc/hgtv/ bravo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have it but don't fault those who do. When you think about how much value you get out of it each month and how much time you spend, it's really not that expensive compared to other things you spend on. Night out to the movies is easily $50 if you get food. Dinner out, $70. Compared to a full month of TV/internet for $150/month or whatever. It's really not that much for what you get.

If you can get an as good or better meal for $35 you'd go somewhere else. Cable created a monopoly and jacked up prices and smart people have created alternatives. Cable customer service is also awful.

[Anonymous]

Few considerations. Netflix + Hulu + Amazon Prime + Disney's new service(s) + whatever else you're looking to subscribe is going to end up being as costly as the cable you're looking to replace. Sure if you only keep 1-2 services, you might save money but you are getting a fair bit less.

The cable providers may well start bundling the services in with their subscriptions OR may start suing streaming companies (which makes some sense if Comcast has to pay feels that say, Hulu does not, despite offering an essentially similar service.)

https://www.howtogeek.com/402533/streaming-services-are-beginning-to-look-like-cable-companies/

[Anonymous]

I am a cable holdout. My DH would cancel but I won’t let him.
I don’t even watch that much TV but from 2005-2006 my roommate and I didn’t want to pay for it. (Granted this was before Hulu, Netflix streaming etc.) and I just really missed some things and I said: never again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it were up to me I'd get rid of our cable/internet/phone package right now. I rarely watch tv, only check the home phone messages once a month so I keep that unplugged because it's 99% phone harassment ie scam selling crap, internet I could just use my phone but it's too small so I rarely use it. Only one person has my number, my husband and he only calls me maybe once in a while on his way home. Verizon sold phone my number and I'm getting a few unwanted calls now that I block. But add another $150 for that, well half because my husband gets an $80 stipend for his phone through his work, we could be saving much more. One bill instead of two.

My husband is addicted to tv. Always has been. I honestly believe it's because he wasn't allowed to watch tv when he grew up. Or should I say they weren't allowed to watch what normal kids watch so for him, I just let it go but damn, that's $200 a month I could put into a Christmas savings account and be done for gift buying. Combine that with the $400 I save monthly for my own savings fund, I could spread a lot of Christmas cheer. KWIM.

Maybe when he retires we can cut this expense. To get internet only they charge more than the entire package. It's disgusting. TV rots your brain literally. My husband needs a year round hobby.

.

I’m in the same boat with DH. He won’t change, and there’s no point dreaming about “what if we cut the cord and saved $”

[Anonymous]

We cut the cord due to Comcast's abusive customer service and never looked back. The time they charged me $15 "activation fee" to move a box from one live cable jack to another in my own house - I was gone.

On my way out I posted instructions on my 4000 person parents' listserv for how to switch to our local internet provider and how to use a digital antenna to get all local stations to cancel Comcast. About 12 people emailed me with additional questions so I know that got traction.