Cable TV

[Dave Johnson29]

So, who do you yell at if not the TV?
.

Hmmmm, good question Mitchell and I can understand where you are coming from with that question. Didn't I recently read that your beverage of choice was Mountain Dew????

I never find the need to yell unless trying to attract someone's attention on a windy day down at my front gate, 300 feet away.

Maybe move that beverage choice to tea or beer?

[Gerold Griffin]

Last summer I got fed up with the satellite campanies not providing local channels in our area. Put up a nice big antenna with rotar and now we get 14 differant stations from 11 differant networks. All free, in HD. Next year at this time when my contract is up with with the satellite company they just may get thier box back due to thier high cost and lack of local programming. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Shawn Christ]

I cut the cord and got satellite 9 years ago when we bought our first house. At the time it was half the cost of cable. We now pay $70 for Dish Network which includes one receiver, HD and DVR; I suspect that's not much cheaper than cable anymore.

Someone else mentioned you can take the 1-year deal and find another deal when that one is up. A few coworkers do this and switch between cable and the satellite providers annually. Not for me. But people have also learned how to play the complain-game by playing Dish Network against Direct TV. Call them up and find something to complain about such as no locals in HD, poor reception, no internet or phone packages, etc. You can easily end up with free premium channels or credits to your account for 3 months. For instance, I want to see the new WWII miniseries "The Pacific" on HBO. So I called up Dish Network and complained about no HD local channels. They verified they weren't available so I asked to have them removed. They said that would be a $5 transaction fee. I asked if it could be waived. They put me on hold and when they came back to the line they said I would get a $39 credit on my account, once a month, for 3 months. I then went online and added HBO for $16/month and will cancel that when the series is complete. Paid for the programming with money left over.

I also agree with the antenna comment. In our area we can pick up all of the major networks plus PBS and other regional networks. All in HD, all for free. If not for a few random shows, ESPN and the Chicago sports networks, there's isn't much need for all of the added programming. But I just can't bring myself to end it (yet).

[Eric Franklin]

I've used an antenna for the last couple of years with a Mac mini as dual-tuner DVR. No cable or satellite provider can match the quality of my local channels. I use Netflix for movies(streaming and DVD). So I only pay $30 a month for internet through u-verse.

[Pete Kurki]

I've used an antenna for the last couple of years with a Mac mini as dual-tuner DVR. No cable or satellite provider can match the quality of my local channels. I use Netflix for movies(streaming and DVD). So I only pay $30 a month for internet through u-verse.

Now that's cheap! I get the DISH family package and all locals with two receivers (one dual, one solo, feeding 3 TV's), and my last bill was $34.19. Our 5M DSL, however, is almost $50 per month, but it is part of my wife's home office package that she gets reimbursed for.

Living in the rural area cable or fiber are not even available for us.

[Paul Atkins]

I'm with Eric. We have an antenna and get all the major networks and 2 PBS channels and with Netflix on demand, we have more than enough to watch. The tuner on the iMac is clear as a bell with stereo sound with recording and pause for live shows etc. It's our CD player, DVD player, Skype (free video chat), our TV and our computer. I can type this and watch TV at the same time. Talk about all our eggs in one basket. Thirty bucks a month plus Netflix.

[Brian Elfert]

For some reason I doubt that alacarte will be much cheaper if it ever comes. They'll just charge a huge markup for each channel. I watch about six cable only channels in the course of a year along with the broadcast channels, but I get over 100 channels not including HD channels.

I think a huge part of the price increase for cable over the year is the subscriber fees charged by some of cable networks. Pretty much every sports network costs $1 to $2 a month per subscriber. Sports networks alone could cost $15 a month or more.

The broadcast networks are threatening to charge cable companies to carry them which will add to the monthly cost.