Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) - 2021 version

[pb4uski]

I’m not disputing your claim, but not true anywhere we’ve lived. Here’s Spectrum at my address, they advertise $49.99 but it’s actually $95.40 plus additional fees and taxes.

That's exactly my experience at my Mom's house.

 

[JoeWras]

Let's look at the fine print.

https://www.spectrum.com/cable-tv

Limited time offer; subject to change; valid to qualified residential customers who have not subscribed to any services within the previous 30 days and who have no outstanding obligation to Charter. Spectrum TV® Select promotion price is $44.99/mo; standard rates apply after yr. 1. Taxes, fees and surcharges (broadcast surcharge up to $16.45/mo.) extra and subject to change during and after the promotional period; installation/network activation, equipment and additional services are extra. General Terms: TV: TV equipment required, charges may apply. Channel and HD programming availability based on level of service. Account credentials may be required to stream some TV content online. Services subject to all applicable service terms and conditions, subject to change. Services not available in all areas. Restrictions apply. Enter your address to determine availability.

I guarantee you that the so called "broadcast surcharge" will be $16.45. And then there are other fees, not even named.

This game is out of control and frankly disgusting.

 

[Golden sunsets]

I’m not disputing your claim, but not true anywhere we’ve lived. Here’s Spectrum at my address, they advertise $49.99 but it’s actually $95.40 plus additional fees and taxes.

But its not $95.40 if you get only 1 box and 1 DVR. The info you post, says "stream anywhere", so if you're inclined get one box with DVR, stream on all other devices and reduce the price by about $26 ( add taxes to that and its probably more like a $28 or $29 reduction). So the total price is around $68+/-, not very different than Utube TV.

Yes they charge for broadcast TV and U tube doesn't, but the final price is the same.

Where Spectrum really gets you is with Internet. If you bundle cable with internet the internet cost is $49.99. If you get your entertainment content from Utube or other streaming service, internet costs you $69.99, so you are better off costwise with Spectrum. How surprising!!! They've figured out how to make themselves competitive. These folks aren't stupid. But after a year you've got to jump through hoops to keep the bundled price of $129. We are about to do that as we do annually each year. This year we aren't going away for the winter like we normally do, so we'll turn in the box anyway for a month and try Utube or some other service and see how it works as cord cutters for a month. Which do you think we should try?

 

[Golden sunsets]

When I was on Spectrum and used streaming out of home, if I was not using Spectrum Wi-Fi, several channels were not available. Also, I think a few were not available except at home streaming.

Not so in my market. I routinely watch TV on my phone out of the house, while waiting in a car or Doctor's office and I've never been blocked. The "stream anywhere" claim in Midpacks add above is not limited to in your home on spectrum intetnet.

 

[euro]

When I was on Spectrum and used streaming out of home, if I was not using Spectrum Wi-Fi, several channels were not available. Also, I think a few were not available except at home streaming.

Yes, that is the case in our area too. I have internet only at our cabin in the mountains and we have Spectrum at home. We can stream maybe half of the channels at the cabin. For example, one I remember is: we cannot stream ESPN at the cabin. Many others also, but I don’t specifically recall which.

 

[Midpack]

But its not $95.40 if you get only 1 box and 1 DVR. The info you post, says "stream anywhere", so if you're inclined get one box with DVR, stream on all other devices and reduce the price by about $26 ( add taxes to that and its probably more like a $28 or $29 reduction). So the total price is around $68+/-, not very different than Utube TV.

Yes they charge for broadcast TV and U tube doesn't, but the final price is the same.

Where Spectrum really gets you is with Internet. If you bundle cable with internet the internet cost is $49.99. If you get your entertainment content from Utube or other streaming service, internet costs you $69.99, so you are better off costwise with Spectrum. How surprising!!! They've figured out how to make themselves competitive. These folks aren't stupid. But after a year you've got to jump through hoops to keep the bundled price of $129. We are about to do that as we do annually each year. This year we aren't going away for the winter like we normally do, so we'll turn in the box anyway for a month and try Utube or some other service and see how it works as cord cutters for a month. Which do you think we should try?

I used our situation, three TVs. Regardless, it’s $74.42 plus taxes and fees for 1 TV w HD & DVR. BTW I’ve often noted here that cable/satellite is somewhat competitive vs live streaming for 1 TV households...

 

[JoeWras]

Yes they charge for broadcast TV and U tube doesn't, but the final price is the same.

The broadcast TV fee needs to be baked into the price.

I think they are getting away with it because they argued to their friends at the FCC that this fee is variable depending on local markets. From what I hear, it is variable by maybe a buck. So for that, they can advertise a price that is deceptively about $15 too low.

And they wonder why they are so hated by consumers?

I choose not to support that model.

Google/Alphabet corporation can tick me off too, but at least they are very upfront about their pricing on most products. The only add-on is the local tax.

 

[JoeWras]

More slimy madness in internet charges. What if we had to pay a "canning" fee after buying a can of beans at your favorite grocer?
https://arstechnica.com/information...nternet-infrastructure-surcharge-from-4-to-7/

Frontier Communications is raising its sneaky "Internet Infrastructure Surcharge" from $4 to $7 later this month, widening the gap between its advertised broadband prices and the actual prices customers pay.
Telecom providers love to advertise low rates and then sock customers with bigger bills by charging separate fees for things that are part of the core service. In cable TV, that means customers see one advertised rate for a bundle of channels and then pay way more after the addition of "Broadcast TV" and "Regional Sports Network" fees that supposedly cover the costs of certain channels that are part of the bundle. With Frontier Internet service, customers pay the advertised rate for Internet service and then get hit with fees including the Internet Infrastructure Surcharge.

 

[neihn]

I live about 25 miles from all the TV stations in PDX, they are not completely blocked by hills but not clear either.

I installed an GE antenna in my attic, however, it can only pick up a couple stations (PBS, KPTV)

https://www.amazon.com/GE-29884-Out...tronics&sprefix=ge+ant,electronics,222&sr=1-2

So I decided to add this pre-amplifier to the mix. I have to say it works wonder, I now can pick up all local stations except for one (KGW, since it broadcasts in VHF). I highly recommend this pre-amplifier, only caveat that you need an AC outlet to power it in the attic (yes, I have ac outlet in the attic).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQN3R9O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[JoeWras]

So I decided to add this pre-amplifier to the mix. I have to say it works wonder, I now can pick up all local stations except for one (KGW, since it broadcasts in VHF). I highly recommend this pre-amplifier, only caveat that you need an AC outlet to power it in the attic (yes, I have ac outlet in the attic).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQN3R9O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If my install gives me issues, this would be my next try. Cordcutters are generally happy with this for marginal areas.

I don't think you have to install the power injector in the attic though. You should be able to install it inside at the termination. But if you have the power, go for it. My only concern would be heat. That's maybe not a concern in Portland.

 

[JoeWras]

A little report on the Winegard HD7694P. After 6 months of relying on OTA, using a small leaf antenna, I decided it was time to upgrade and get rid of my drop outs. Time to go up in the attic with a yagi.

So as I last reported, I was surprised by the box size. It looks like the box is made to also fit their next size up antenna. This HD7694P is still large, about 5' x 3'. Despite that, it is very light, about 5 lbs. There was no assembly required except to swing out and lock all the elements.

In the end, there is no substitute for square inches. So large isn't bad, unless you can't fit it where you want it.

I'm opting for an attic mount to start. I'd rather not go outside. There will be attenuation in the attic, so it goes. It is still worth a shot. For mounting, I used a scrap piece of chain link top fence rail and drilled two holes in it, and inserted lag bolts through those holes right to the rafter. LBYM, use what I had laying around. The antenna mounted easily on this fence rail. I used RG6 to attach to the antenna and snaked it down through my air gaps to the knee wall the storey below. From here I have a wall plate into the room where I have my Tablo. My wall plate was done years ago when I snaked cat5 and RG59 from the basement to the 2nd floor. I just reused the old plate. The cat5 is useful for the Tablo connecting to my router.

Direction matters! Before I permanently mounted everything, I snaked the cable through the attic scuttle and tried it out. My aiming was done by using the AntennaWeb.org site. I could zoom in on the map and actually get proper orientation to my house for the two main transmitter sites. They are within 2 degrees of each other, so I split the difference. At first, I was 5 degrees off (handyman error) and reception was suboptimal. Getting proper direction was essential.

So how does it work? Great! I've gotten rid of 99% of stutters and pixelizations on the main channels. Very rarely I see a slight image hang on two affiliates. These are both VHF stations. I'm not getting audio drop outs which is good. The UHF stations are rock solid. Finally, my PBS affiliate still pixelizes every now and then with occasional audio drop outs. This is all better than the leaf antenna.

I'm not bothered by the PBS situation because my house is in a "2-Edge" zone for them. PBS has been a problem since day 1 where I live. It is 100 degrees out of sync from the other transmitters. They added a repeater in the same orientation, but it is half way up the tower compared to the other stations. That matters! I only watch Nova on PBS and it comes in good enough for now.

BTW, I find that rabbitears.info is a great resource. The old TV Fool site is out of date and not so good. It takes a little touring around this site to understand it. Once you click the right icons (tower distance, and antenna symbol) you are treated to topographic maps that show your situation. Because I live in the rolling Piedmont, the reception in my neighborhood differs greatly house to house. Topography matters. All my stations are "good" except PBS which is "fair" on this report.

Next steps: I'm going to enjoy it and see how well it works through the spring and summer. Should things deteriorate (trees?), I'll first add the pre-amp mentioned in another post above. Next step would be to move to the other side of the attic to receive through the wall only, instead of obliquely through the rafters. Only desperation would get me to move it outside.

Attached below is my installation and a 2-edge report from rabbitears.info for the pesky PBS station. Gotta buy a house on higher ground next time! So close.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

I have had over the air TV since mid-2015. Much is trial and error. I started with one antenna, then added a second. I have cities north, south and east. I have added a pre-amp and an amplifier, a DVR recorder and I forget what else. I just scanned and I have 61 channels. Many are 88 miles or more away. I encourage you to go OTA or continue to improve your OTA signal.

 

[REWahoo]

A little report on the Winegard HD7694P.

If the transmitter antenna farm isn't located in your back yard I'm surprised you can get any signal at all.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

JoeWras - How many stations do you get and how far away are they?

 

[zinger1457]

More slimy madness in internet charges.

Not that I like it but it is a common fee among utility companies, my electric and private water company both do it, when I get my propane tank filled there are additional fees (surcharges) added to the $/gal charges.

 

[JoeWras]

JoeWras - How many stations do you get and how far away are they?

They are farther than 45 ft. Ha ha, REWahoo found a hilarious typo on the Amazon listing.

But seriously, my Tablo reports picking up 46 stations. With the leaf antenna inside, it was in the low 30s.

I'm not so much about number of stations, but rather quality for the big stations.

The main antenna farm is 15 miles away, with the big stations up at about 2000' elevation. The PBS station is half way down that mast (or on a smaller neighboring mast) and it makes all the difference.

Terrain really matters. I've attached a report (from rabbitears.info) for this PBS station on a snippet of Raleigh. Red is bad. Basically, the red areas are in low elevation. You can follow the creeks. I randomly chose a point (red pointer) in a low area that is closer than my house (12 miles), but still gets worse reception than me!

The same report for the ABC/NBC/CBS affiliates is all green with a smattering of yellow, primarily because they are 2000' up that mast and can shoot the signal down into the valleys.

I'm finding these maps are really good in their descriptions of what you need (easy indoor, easy outdoor, etc.). Most of my home is in "Medium Indoor" and it shows. The leaf antenna was just not enough, the medium size yagi is just enough.

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

CBS all access is being rebranded as Paramount +.

Prices for annual subscriptions cut in half until March 3rd.

 

[ERObjd]

We dumped cable tv and cable bills back in 1995, what little tv my wife watches is on Plutotv which is on internet Usually all we watch on Pluto is WeatherNation or maybe I might watch The Rifleman channel once in a while. We do have a 25 inch tv in basement that kids used to watch when they were here and we used a $10 rabbit ear antenna for it and it got maybe 15 stations most of them not worth watching anyway. Kids did watch a bit of METV and maybe the local news stations. When we had cabletv years ago it was called Roadrunner.. now they changed name to Spectrum new name, same high prices and lame service. We use Windstream for internet now and don't have cable or landline phone.

Dumping cable and their ever increasing high bills is very empowering. I toss the $$ we would have spent lining the pockets of cable tv executives into a mutual fund that will line our pockets someday.

 

[pb4uski]

...After 6 months of relying on OTA, using a small leaf antenna, I decided it was time to upgrade and get rid of my drop outs. Time to go up in the attic with a yagi. ....

Joe, your experience sounds quite similar to mine... I out an RCA antenna in the attic. When we built the house we used attic trusses over the master bedroom becuase DW thought that she might go up there and sew ... that never happened but as a result of her plan I had run cable up to the attic so she could watch tv while she sewed... so I just used that same electricity and cable for the antenna and connected the coax to the input of the splitter in the basement to distribute signal to th TVs. I ended up having to add a ChannelMaster signal booster in the attic and plugged it into a receptacle that I had up there.

I found the RCA Signal Finder app on my phone and a compass to be useful in adjusting to the the antenna. I have a couple stations that are marginal but the ones that we care about come in very well.

I later added a Fire TV Recast OTA DVR since we already had a Firestick on every TV and that really completed the whole system very nicely.... now any of the 4 TVs in the house can view live tv on the antenna or any of the shows recorded on the DVR or control the DVR to add and delete recordings. BTW, the recast makes the distribution of signal via coax to the tv's redundant because the Recast broadcasts video from the antenna via wi-fi.

 

[JoeWras]

NFL wants 100% increase in broadcast rights fees:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/19/nfl...crease-on-tv-rights-disney-pushing-back-.html

Why is this important to the cord cutting community? Because these costs get pushed down. And streaming rights are part of these deals too.

If you cut the cord and don't care about sports, it doesn't matter much. Get Philo or watch Tubi and Pluto. If you cut the cord and move to YTTV or Hulu+Live so you can keep your ESPN, it is going to matter a lot as the broadcasters pass along the cost.

Personally, I'm pushing back on sports. It is literally out of control compared to our other expenses.

 

[Midpack]

NFL wants 100% increase in broadcast rights fees:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/19/nfl...crease-on-tv-rights-disney-pushing-back-.html

Why is this important to the cord cutting community? Because these costs get pushed down. And streaming rights are part of these deals too.

If you cut the cord and don't care about sports, it doesn't matter much. Get Philo or watch Tubi and Pluto. If you cut the cord and move to YTTV or Hulu+Live so you can keep your ESPN, it is going to matter a lot as the broadcasters pass along the cost.

Personally, I'm pushing back on sports. It is literally out of control compared to our other expenses.

I don’t disagree, but if the NFL is successful, cable and satellite will be passing along the costs too. Streaming might cost more but so will cable/satellite, so no regrets cutting the cord?

 

[JRon]

Agree with JoeWras - we don’t pay for sports and it greatly reduces our monthly streaming bill. We do have ESPN+ as part of a package, but it shows pretty obscure live sporting events - not quite the “Ocho”, but close. What sports we watch are on network TV over the air.

 

[ychuck46]

Agree

NFL wants 100% increase in broadcast rights fees:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/19/nfl...crease-on-tv-rights-disney-pushing-back-.html

Why is this important to the cord cutting community? Because these costs get pushed down. And streaming rights are part of these deals too.

If you cut the cord and don't care about sports, it doesn't matter much. Get Philo or watch Tubi and Pluto. If you cut the cord and move to YTTV or Hulu+Live so you can keep your ESPN, it is going to matter a lot as the broadcasters pass along the cost.

Personally, I'm pushing back on sports. It is literally out of control compared to our other expenses.

Definitely agree that sports costs are out of hand. We always cancel our streaming TV service when we travel for the winter. Even only paying for nine months out of the year I will no longer reup for it when we return; this is after many years of cable, then DirecTV, then Vue, and lastly YTTV. Will stay with free TV together with our (currently have) Prime, Netflix, and free HBO Max, and we will add Disney+ for the first time when winter travel is done. For sports I will get what is over the air, on cable when we travel, and on the free Yahoo Sports app. Most of what I like anymore in the way of sports is college basketball and football, and some Browns football games, and I will get a load of those during our winter travels.

Anyone who does not want sports anymore, due to costs or the politics that have taken over many of them, just walk away. It is the only way anyone gets the message that enough is enough.

 

[JoeWras]

I don’t disagree, but if the NFL is successful, cable and satellite will be passing along the costs too. Streaming might cost more but so will cable/satellite, so no regrets cutting the cord?

Oh yeah, for sure. Everyone gets the cost increase. Cable will go up too in order to absorb this.

I guess what I'm saying is if anyone thinks cord cutting will help you do an end-around (see what I did there?), it won't -- if you want to watch sports.

Of course, there is always OTA. The problem with that is the sports leagues are trying to shift away from free OTA programming as much as possible. MLB has darn near completely cut the cord from broadcast TV. NHL did it years ago (except for a few Saturday and Sunday games). NFL is slowly shifting too, and I expect NBC/CBS/Disney to demand more exclusives in return for the huge fees.

 

[Midpack]

Oh yeah, for sure. Everyone gets the cost increase. Cable will go up too in order to absorb this.

I guess what I'm saying is if anyone thinks cord cutting will help you do an end-around (see what I did there?), it won't -- if you want to watch sports.

Of course, there is always OTA. The problem with that is the sports leagues are trying to shift away from free OTA programming as much as possible. MLB has darn near completely cut the cord from broadcast TV. NHL did it years ago (except for a few Saturday and Sunday games). NFL is slowly shifting too, and I expect NBC/CBS/Disney to demand more exclusives in return for the huge fees.

Agreed. I could save a lot with OTA plus lower cost streaming package, and we have a good signal at our new home. But DW won’t allow it so far, and I’ve learned to pick my battles...