What Satellite & Cable Companies are doing as a Result of Cord Cutting

[ultrarunner]

It is a no starter for many...

Have kids in school and quickly learn Internet is required to do homework...

 

[Oaktree]

Been wanting to cut the cord (satellite) for years, but I'm to far away from the towers (70 miles one set and 100 from other). If I lived in a major metro area, it would be gone

Yeah same here. Only off-air reception here is PBS and that's not really anything that interests me.
We have Spectrum here, and the nickel-and-dime increases are getting old. As noted above, the company doesn't seem to care.
Looked into satellite tv a while back last summer when cable boxes became mandatory, but no deals there either, and their lowest-level package (1) had fewer channels and (2) several of the ones we watch weren't included and was way more expensive. Sorry, no deal. I've got Spectrum's cheapest, mostly off-air package and that's gonna have to do.

If I have to cut something, it will most likely be phone, and just get a Magic Jack or Vonage or something like that. Don't want a cell phone. Dunno if it would save much though by removing one thing from a bundle. I notice they're advertising just tv & internet for almost as much as I get for a 3-way bundle. And they NEVER tell you what the price will go up to once the promo special runs out.

Getting internet and then internet options to everyone will be key to killing the monopoly!

Not really, just a different monopoly. Only choices for internet here are Spectrum or DSL. Dealing with the phone company is rarely any more pleasant than with a cable company, and for the same price cable internet is way faster...25 m here vs. maybe 10% of that on DSL. Cell reception here is spotty at best, so I doubt 4G would be any better, and it tends to be pricey and only marginally faster than DSL. Satellite internet has so much latency as to be useless for VOIP or remote computer access (which I need to do for work). And it's expensive and doesn't work when it's stormy.
They got ya. Pick your poison.

I also have Roku and it works pretty good on 3MG DSL

As an alternative to a cable box I ended up getting a Roku myself. Spectrum has an ap for it, so we can get the channels we got before, and a couple we didn't (mostly shopping channels).

Trouble is with streaming is that it seems to be good for movie buffs and the like, but anything that doesn't require a subscription is free for a reason...very little worth watching, and the line-up changes constantly. There was one show I sort of got into, but a new month came and the show wasn't there anymore. I forget which service...Vudu I think. And none of the pay stuff is any bargain either.

 

[RNeumann]

To me that's the issue. Just renewed 2 yr contract with FIOS to maintain reliable internet service. If only it were available from others at a reasonable price. . . .

It will happen! I now have internet from a company that uses radio type towers- no wires but it isn’t satellite. My buddy ditched his wired internet service and now uses a cell based service. It’s going to be a few more years but it’s happening.

 

[rekees4300]

One might think that these companies would respond with lower prices and more flexible TV options. Instead, the opposite is happening: They豎*e squeeze their remaining subscribers by cutting off promo deals and hiking prices. As a result, cord-cutting is starting to feel less like a choice and more like a necessity.

You are absolutely correct. Directv (aka AT&T) jacked our monthly fee up by another $10. That has become an annual event! I would love to cut the cord but, for rural folks, the 800 lb. Gorilla in the room is lack of Internet broadband. Without that, cord cutting is a pipe dream. :zzz:

 

[shooterdon]

It will be hillbillies like me that pay the price. I have no choice. Cannot even get a land line without running a line 2 miles. Cell only works with a booster and then it is spotty.. I am stuck with satellite for TV and Internet. With a 50 ft antenna, I might get three channels and two are not worth watching.

But...there may be hope. As Dish and DirectTV lose customers, there will be more satellite capacity available. I would gladly pay $125/mo for true unlimited satellite internet.

 

[oldballs]

Re: What Satellite & Cable Companies are doing as a Result of Cord Cutting

Being a really "old" guy, I've never made it my business to understand all this TV cable, internet lingo. But, I do have two old antenna TVs that I use in the evening when i'm too tired to use my mind.

However, this internet I really enjoy on a daily basis. And my house phone, which I don't use that much, is bundled into the package at $93 per month (Spectrum). But, even $93 bucks is lot for me to pay each month. I wish there was something cheaper....but they got me by my "oldballs".

Cheers,
Mike

 

[dmccarty]

We cut the cord years ago after spending years talking about cutting the cord. We really should have done it sooner but it was easier with a busy schedule to pay the bill.

Our house can only get 1.5 DSL service and which has allowed us to stream video. Now we are trying one of the unlimited cell plans for Internet, which is working great so far, but it is too early to say if it is viable long term.

We don't watch much TV which is why it was absurd to have pay for TV. What we do watch is on PBS, which we can get with the OTA, but it is generally only 3-4 days/nights a week for a few hours. With pay TV we would turn on the TV for noise and not really watch.

I don't see us having a traditional pay TV subscription again. The channels that we used to watch, all turned in to scripted "reality" TV, which is cheaper to produce than the original shows, but our bill kept increasing. :confused3: We would often park the TV on a "kids" channel because something like Drake and Josh was the best thing showing on several hundred channels. :shocked: That is what finally forced us to cut the cord.:laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[MossRoad]

I'm sure cable and internet service providers do the same as newspapers....

They subscribe to a service that runs an algorithm on their customer database rate table. It selects all the accounts that are paying "promotional" and regular rates and finds the ones that are about to expire. They know that if they increase the price on all of the accounts that are about to expire, even though some will drop the service, the ones that stay with the service at the higher rates will offset the losses of the dropped accounts. They actually make more money by dropping accounts. Seems foolish, but they aren't in it for the long haul. They are in it for maximum profits now, and will get out when they can't squeeze that lemon any further.

 

[CMV]

...
If I have to cut something, it will most likely be phone, and just get a Magic Jack or Vonage or something like that. Don't want a cell phone. Dunno if it would save much though by removing one thing from a bundle....

I was using the cable company's wireless router/cable modem combo which was $10ish per month extra. My BIL gave me a nice cable modem & router but told me I'd lose my landline service since what he gave me didn't support the cable phone service. I have the bundle - internet, cable TV, and landline bundled thru Time Warner. I figured no big deal - only telemarketers call the landline anyway. Walgreen's automated prescription refill calls, but otherwise, if anyone wants to talk to us, they call our cell phones (which are much simpler to block telemarketers). So after a month now, I'm not missing no landline - actually like not having it ringing all the time with telemarketers & scams. We had the "unwanted call block" service on it, but still a lot got through. And every time it did "block" one, would still ring once which was incredibly annoying - no idea why it couldn't just do it silently???

Anyway, I called Time Warner/Spectrum to cancel landline and find out how much my bill would change returning their equipment. Loooong story [kinda] short, "unbundling" and only having 2 of the 3 services actually costs more! When talking to them about returning their equipment, he noted my internet service is 300mpbs (what I thought was way more than enough). He said that level is now standard 400 mpbs and they no longer offer 300. Great, I'm getting a free upgrade I thought. NOPE! the 400mpbs costs $10 more. I could go down to 200mpbs for same price as I currently pay. So ultimately, unbundling and canceling phone service, not renting their equipment would leave me with less and slower internet and cost exactly the same! So I still have phone service (non-functional) and I still rent their equipment (disconnected in a box in closet).

That was enough motivation to say "screw 'em" and am actively figuring out how to go ahead & drop all but internet and then switch internet to a different provider (although right now AT&T is only good high-speed alternative and when we had them, we quickly went back to cable due to multiple service interruptions & them not caring at all about making it reliable). But moral of story is once they have their hooks in you, they're not letting go of one dime.

 

[Oaktree]

They know that if they increase the price on all of the accounts that are about to expire, even though some will drop the service, the ones that stay with the service at the higher rates will offset the losses of the dropped accounts. They actually make more money by dropping accounts. Seems foolish, but they aren't in it for the long haul. They are in it for maximum profits now, and will get out when they can't squeeze that lemon any further.

Keep in mind though, that their costs are the same whether they have 10 subscribers or 10,000. I'm not saying that there isn't greed involved, but the money to operate all that infrastructure has to come from somewhere.

Anyway, I called Time Warner/Spectrum to cancel landline and find out how much my bill would change returning their equipment. Loooong story [kinda] short, "unbundling" and only having 2 of the 3 services actually costs more! When talking to them about returning their equipment, he noted my internet service is 300mpbs (what I thought was way more than enough). He said that level is now standard 400 mpbs and they no longer offer 300. Great, I'm getting a free upgrade I thought. NOPE! the 400mpbs costs $10 more. I could go down to 200mpbs for same price as I currently pay.

EEk!!!! Where do you live that 400 is "standard"??? The absolute highest tier available to me is 100, and that's way too pricey for my budget. We have 25 (up from 15 when they were still Time Warner). Still plenty for the two of us.
Like you, I have my own cable modem & router...got sick of paying $8/mo (I'm sure it's more now) and bought one for ~$60 at Walmart. No wifi, but don't really have any need for it. I still have the old cable modem, now it just handles the phone. Not getting charged for it, apparently there's a government regulation that prevents them from doing so for landline service. Can't understand why they're allowed to with tv or internet.