How much do you pay for TV reception?

[Sue J]

$43 State and local taxes and fees

Are you really paying $43 for taxes and fees? That sounds like an awful lot!

 

[DallasGuy]

Verizon keeps sending me (at least 3-4 times a month) junk mail offering landline phone, internet and FIOS TV for $99 per month for the first year. I'm guessing it would jump up to about $150 or so (plus taxes) after the first year. If they'd guarantee me the $99 forever, I'd probably take it. But I get annoyed when companies offer deals like that and then the price goes way up later. It seems like bait and switch to me. So I'll stick with my over the air TV for now.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Are you really paying $43 for taxes and fees? That sounds like an awful lot!

Yes, that's a lot of taxes, etc. but I'll detail that for you as well:
$10.10 FL Local CommunicationTax
5.50 FL State Gross Receipts Tax
.11 Telecommunications Relay Service
.50 County 911 Funding Fee
11.57 State and Local Sales Tax
13.50 FL State Communications Service Tax
1.51 Federal Universal Service Fee

$42.79 Total (Said I would itimize and round off. I was over by $.21)

 

[freebird5825]

Copied from another thread...​

I have cable with DVR (no paid channels), high speed Internet, unlimited local/long distance land line telephone, and fire/security/medical alarm services. I get a discount of $187 per year on my home insurance for the fire/security/medical alarm system.​

MONTHLY SERVICES
All The Best w/Home Security ..................$171.94
Includes: Basic, Standard, Explorer Pak, Digital Navigator, Digital Equipment, Digital Home Phone*, Road Runner High Speed Online, Monthly Monitoring
*Includes unlimited local and long distance calling within the United States and US Territories.
DVR Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$12.95
Subtotal Monthly Services: . . . . . . . ..... .$184.89​

MONTHLY ALARM MONITORING .. . . . . . . . . .$5.95
Taxes and Fees: . . . . . ...... . . . . ......... . .$9.96​

Grand total = $201 and change

 

[VaCollector]

Cable portion of my bill is $98 plus tax so I put myself in the $100- $150 category...and I
only wish that I had the courage to handle the wrath of the home world if I would switch to
over-the-air only

 

[Texas Proud]

I pay about $50 ish for Dish...

I pay an additional $20 for internet TV for my wife...

I wished I paid zero... but have gotten used to the DVR... I do have a DVR that does record over the air, but it does not have a TV guide etc. so you have to program it for every thing you want... the DVR picks up things that I want and does not record if it is not new... so a benefit...

 

[glippy]

I don't pay anything monthly for tv. However, I do watch a fair amount of it.

I have a home built DVR that is pretty much the center of entertainment in my living room hooked up to a 42" screen. It has thousands of classic video games on it. Plus a DVR built in that records lots of stuff in HD from OTA. I also use it to download and play a movie here and there. It holds all my music and plays it out through a surround sound system. And it also has a nice interface for watching hulu (just the free stuff) and some other free tv streaming sites. I could have a lot more if I added hulu plus or a netflix subscription but I find I already have plenty to watch with the free stuff. The box is innocuous looking and fits in the entertainment center underneath the tv. I can control it 100% with a remote but a wireless keyboard and mouse tucked away in an end table make navigation a bit easier. Plus you can pull stuff up on the web like photos, sports scores, weather, youtube videos, or just something interesting you want to show to a friend.

The only thing I really miss are some premium shows on HBO and such. I loved six feet under and the sopranos. But the solution there is either download them, or wait for the dvd's to come out and then buy them second hand and sell them when I'm done.

Beats the heck out of $150+/month, yikes. It took some know-how to setup, but I like doing stuff like that anyway and it's fun to show it off to friends.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Are you really paying $43 for taxes and fees? That sounds like an awful lot!

Sue J, thanks for questioning the tax portion of my Verizon bill that I detailed after your post. I got to thinking about that and went back and looked at some bills from four and months ago. The taxes were a lot less than now and so I called Verizon. They had no explanation but they are submitting an inquiry to their accounting group to research this. Without your post I might have gone blindly on. Thanks again for questioning my post.

 

[Sue J]

Sue J, thanks for questioning the tax portion of my Verizon bill that I detailed after your post. I got to thinking about that and went back and looked at some bills from four and months ago. The taxes were a lot less than now and so I called Verizon. They had no explanation but they are submitting an inquiry to their accounting group to research this. Without your post I might have gone blindly on. Thanks again for questioning my post.

That's my frugality favor of the week! I hope it saves you some money going forward and that they send you a nice refund if it was charged in error in the past.

The only thing I really miss are some premium shows on HBO and such. I loved six feet under and the sopranos. But the solution there is either download them, or wait for the dvd's to come out and then buy them second hand and sell them when I'm done.

Have you tried a library for TV series on DVD? My local library has a ton of these and I've enjoyed watching an entire series from beginning to end. Many of the HBO ones are very popular.

 

[Free To Canoe]

$65/mo for basic Direct TV programs.

 

[kcowan]

$70/month for 2 locations combined: home and cottage with all digital and many HD channels plus music channels and FM radio channels. East (Detroit) and west (Seattle) network feeds plus many timezones in between, 3 movie and 3 sports channels.

 

[Orchidflower]

Bundles thru Cox Communications in Phoenix for tv/cable, internet and phone (2 extensions). TV has expanded program and no HBO or special channels, so it is $178. I gripe every month.
However, now that you are home and working out in your exercise room, yes, I personally think the tv will be some companionship. I know it sounds crazy, but as a single woman I keep the tv on for noise almost all the time and am not watching it. Yeah, I know....not very "green" of me.
Just don't get into the old fart habit of watching tv and not moooooving those muscles around, W2R.

 

[freebird5825]

...However, now that you are home and working out in your exercise room, yes, I personally think the tv will be some companionship. I know it sounds crazy, but as a single woman I keep the tv on for noise almost all the time and am not watching it. Yeah, I know....not very "green" of me.
Just don't get into the old fart habit of watching tv and not moooooving those muscles around, W2R.

When Mr B is off doing his Legion stuff and the weather is bad, I listen to digital music channels a lot. I pick a different one every day, but tend to return to the 70s channel.
I dance to the music as the mood hits me, or just use it as background while I am doing indoor projects. I find myself in a much more cheerful mood with music, i.e. zero commercials and no talking heads. TV soundtracks tend to annoy me.

 

[kcowan]

I have jazz on right now. No commercial interruptions!