Sax, yeah, different groups, but all I want to add is BBC America and that package runs up the cost. And throws in useless to me, seemingly endless, sports channels.
I’m trying to figure out if there is a solution that brings me the 20 or so channels I do want. Roku? I already pay for Showtime, Netflix, and Amazon Prime.
This is a great discussion. We don’t do cable but have Satellite. (DirecTV). H is into sports. I’ve got a few channels that I watch. H has a few others. I’d love to have a cheaper solution.
The one trick I learned with the fios packages is that if you switch the channel pack ( no additional cost) so you can then go on demand and catch up on everything you missed when it was aired. So you can effectively watch everything but only when you have that channel in your package. So you can get the BBC package one month watch everything and then get a different package the next month.
HOWEVER, that’s too darn much work…ugh.
It appears that the way the cable companies are going to deal with cable cord cutters and still drain you is to charge by amount of bandwidth you use.
And I’d probably want BBC America all the time.
Absolutely. Off the top of my head, I think our U-Verse was going up to where it just didn’t make sense anymore. We had an initial cost to buy the Tivo box, but after that we pay about $25 bucks/month for Netflix and Tivo (I don’t include the Amazon Prime because I had that before for the shipping). Compare that to $80-$100 (I can’t recall right now the exact amount) that Uverse wanted, it’s a big savings. Even if I downgraded to the most basic package I would still pay more. Netflix works out better anyway since the kids are in college and enjoy watching there.
We intended to drop UVerse TV, but then learned that it would be cheaper (for the next 12 months) to keep their basic TV service in a package with internet than to go with internet alone. Once our year is up, I’ll see what UVerse offers.
Right now we get about a dozen channels on only one TV. It’s not the limited channels that bother me but the inability to check local news/weather from any TV set like we did when we had very basic cable service.It’s an annoyance but nothing that would drive us back to Charter.
@Silpat - we learned that we could get another discount if we called back at the end of each year. Except last year they told us there was nothing we could do. So we decided to drop them and go with Tivo and Netflix. Then when we called to actually cancel, we were told they could drop our price (figures! But at that point I was already happy withour new arrangement). Also, I’m not sure I understand your last statement. Are you not getting uverse on all your TVs? If not, and you don’t want to pay for it, you could just use a regular antenna to get your local channels.
We tried a Mohu Leaf antenna last year, but our area is notoriously difficult to get reception because of all the mesas and canyons. I remember barely getting one channel and if I oriented the antenna a different way I’d get a different channel. I’ve been calling in each year after our promotional rate ends to get another one, but the new Spectrum says they won’t play that game anymore. I’ve been looking into streaming services and Playstation Vue looks like it might be the best for us since it has the local channels. We expect our service to go up $30-$40 in the spring when our promotion period ends, so I’ve been trying to get a head start on figuring out alternatives.
One way we avoid paying for an additional cable box is to use a Roku on a secondary TV and use the cable company’s app on that to get our normal selection of channels. We feel the need to have some of the local broadcast channels, particularly CBS, so that limits our choices.
BBC America is included in our Sling package.
oooo…@lookingforward is going to like that, shellfell.
Following intently…
We live in the L.A. area and dropped our cable subscription (with Charter) a few years ago, when we could no longer get the promotional cost and were spending around $120/mo for cable + internet. We have a Samsung Smart TV with a Mohu Leaf indoor antenna. We get about 50 channels over the air, although many of those are Spanish and Korean. We pay $60/month for Charter (now Spectrum) high-speed internet and subscribe to Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu, with a Showtime add-on. Periodically, to watch shows like Game of Thrones, we’ll also get a standalone HBOnow subscription. We already had Amazon Prime and Netflix before dropping cable, so our addtional costs for Hulu, Showtime and HBO are still less than what we were paying before. Even though Spectrum keeps trying to lure us back with promotional offers, we’re happy with our current set-up and would never go back to cable.
@sax our internet is DSL bundled with our landline. $53 for both through Frontier.
Our cable was $33 plus a month…for crappy reception and service.
Our antenna is from Denny’s Antenna shop online. They are in Michigan. They have a brick and mortar store there. Ours is a Denny’s HD Stacker. We also bought a preamp and a distribution amplifier because of our cable run lengths. Total cost $242. DH did all the installation.
Company is very easy to deal with…and you can even call on the phone and get a live human being!
@ClaremontMom, I think there was a communication failure with UVerse when I called them. If we wanted to get the basic service on all TV sets now, we’d have to rent boxes again for each TV plus pay some other fee. Dh & I are both so annoyed with UVerse that we decided to not bother.
We have an attic antennae, but due to the topography here it doesn’t work very well. We can’t use a roof-top antennae. For now we have Amazon Fire on two TVs and Blu-ray/dvd players on the others.
Currently we pay approximately $75/mo. for the best available UVerse internet service plus their most basic TV service for one set. The previous cost of their next lowest TV service (for 4 TVs) plus internet was about $180/mo.
I’m convinced the Frontier TV folks are idiots. When I called for pricing…I was told that for my first year it would be $75 a month…bundle for wall phone, Internet and TV. Then after 12 months, it would go up to $125. No thank you! Only price increase was TV. So TV would be $75 a month.
Well…the Frontier person called yesterday…she asked why I was declining the TV…and I told her that I wasn’t interested in a $50 additional cost after the first year. She says “who told you THAT? It’s only $15 different.”
If they can’t get their acts together to even give pricing…no wonder they are losing customers!
So happy with the antenna TV. Best reception we have ever had!