Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) 2017 - 2020

[RonBoyd]

It was a black Friday deal.

Oh! I have always ignored "Black Friday" (and such). I may have to rethink that policy.

 

[SmallCityDave]

Oh! I have always ignored "Black Friday" (and such). I may have to rethink that policy.

Yeah it's a good deal but the commercials make it painful, using it with Playon makes it worthwhile.

 

[audreyh1]

How did you work this deal?

I also picked upon that Hulu for 99c a month for a year deal, and then leveraged it for a substantial discount on Showtime thru Hulu. When the Showtime discount runs out next month I’ll probably drop it after watching Killing Eve. I just can’t stand the Hulu commercials.

 

[Chuckanut]

Yeah it's a good deal but the commercials make it painful, using it with Playon makes it worthwhile.

I agree. I signed up for it and cancelled two months later. The commericals very annoying, and I could not find one thing they offered that was good enough to make me want to watch the commercials.

I guess I am spoiled by Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the Tivo skip mode.

 

[stephenson]

I, too, grabbed Hulu at a buck a month last year ... probably not willing to pay their full price, though.

While commercials are always painful, Hulu's are almost unobtrusive compared to the networks ...

 

[SmallCityDave]

I agree. I signed up for it and cancelled two months later. The commericals very annoying, and I could not find one thing they offered that was good enough to make me want to watch the commercials.

I guess I am spoiled by Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the Tivo skip mode.

I didn't know Tivo worked with streaming services..... I'll have to look into this.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I didn't know Tivo worked with streaming services..... I'll have to look into this.

Maybe it's because I have older TiVos (Bolt and Premiere), but I find they're not as good as even a Roku 3, much less my late 2017 Samsung smart TV. But then, I've been using TiVos a loooong time just as DVRs, with separate set-top streaming boxes, so maybe it's just habit. The Roku remote is also much simpler, and much more suited for streaming IMO.

 

[timo2]

I finally got my Playon app working right and I really like it, is anyone using Playon with Philo?


I received my Dish bill yesterday it went from $78 to $108 without notice.... I called to cancel but they asked me to try the Flex pack with DVR & 2 tv's for $37, I'm giving that a shot.


I currently have hulu ($1 per month) with playon but I'm thinking of going with Prime, Netflix & maybe Philo and dropping Dish.

I have the flex pack. I'm happy with it, although DW likes it more than I do. The things I like about Dish is the Hopper, as in my setup it provides Netflix and YouTube at a better sound quality than my 4K roku (video is similar). Plus DW likes that the DVR and the program guide are easy to use. The basic Flex package has all the channels DW likes to watch with very little channel bloat compared to the other packages. Here is my per month bill breakdown:

Flex Pack, $37.99
Local Channels (I don't get good OTA), 12.00
Joey receiver (for DW TV, I use Dish anywhere for my TV) $7:00
Regional action pack, $12:00 (for Rockies baseball..I had MLB single team last year and it came out to the same price, except I also needed a VPN with the MLB)
FCC, $0.04
State/Local Tax, $5.87

One caveat here, during NFL season we have to change to a package that gets the NFL 'Red Zone' for DW. She's a big football fan. Then after the NFL season is over, we change back to the Flex package.

 

[REWahoo]

Here is my per month bill breakdown:

Flex Pack, $37.99
Local Channels (I don't get good OTA), 12.00
Joey receiver (for DW TV, I use Dish anywhere for my TV) $7:00
Regional action pack, $12:00 (for Rockies baseball..I had MLB single team last year and it came out to the same price, except I also needed a VPN with the MLB)
FCC, $0.04
State/Local Tax, $5.87

You don't pay a monthly charge for the Hopper/DVR?

 

[timo2]

You don't pay a monthly charge for the Hopper/DVR?

Yes I do, thanks for catching that, and my apologies.
Hopper is $15.00,
Joey is $7.00. I just couldn't convince DW to use the inferior Dish Anywhere app for her TV.

 

[Chuckanut]

Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV)

I didn't know Tivo worked with streaming services..... I'll have to look into this.

TiVo has apps for Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and others. Skip mode only works for OTA recordings.

 

[GTFan]

Tivo skip mode works for more channels than just OTA.

https://www.tivo.com/popup/skipmode-channels

I have an app called kmttg running on a PC that gives my Tivo auto-skip capability, so for primetime shows on all those channels we watch commercial-free with no button presses.

The Tivo apps are generally not as up-to-date as what you can get with a recent Roku or Fire stick. And on anything older than a Bolt they are too slow - I have a Roamio and gave up on Tivo's apps last year in favor of Rokus and my LG OLED's apps.

 

[Midpack]

They gave me a $25 per month credit for a year so it should be $37.

Dish satellite notified us our rate was increasing from $81/mo to $86, and we had 7 year old equipment. New equipment would have cost $96/mo and a 2 year contract, with no 12 month teaser rate. I threatened to switch to streaming and they found a way to bring us down to $43.85/mo ($42/mo discount) for 6 months, then another 6 months. But then they said they could only offer a $20/mo discount, or $25/mo with a 2 year contract. So they finally refused to compete with streaming for us.

We’ve used PS Vue (was $45/mo, now $50) and Roku’s for over a year now, best TV decision we’ve ever made.

 

[PoorOldCountryBoy]

We got a rude surprise when our Spectrum triple play bill went up by about $40. We are calling today but have done some research. We're pretty much out of luck with the internet as we only have one choice other than satellite where we are. The phone and TV are negotiable.


1. Return the boxes. We got these albatrosses last year and the operator assured us one of the two would ALWAYS be free. The new bill has 2 @ 7.50/month. The user interface is horrible. Fortunately our third TV we outfitted with a ROKU streaming outfit and that has turned out to be great.


2. Get 2 more ROKU controllers for $25 each, no monthly fee. The boxes are on their way back today. The controllers work fine and are far easier to use.


3. We've already negotiated the phone from $19.99 back to $9.99 just by threatening to leave. I actually like the phone service but anything more than $10/month will have us switch everything to cell phone service. Since this takes some doing it will be a couple month process if we have to.


4. TV: Since they annoyed us last week we started comparing our low-level package that was $39.99 (now going to $54.99) with substitutes. We like TCM, business channels like CNBC, golf channel, documentaries and fact based programming (like the old history channel offerings, pre-reality TV, which we don't get anymore with our cheap package). They steadily remove things and we're at the point where we see little value in it. We no longer get TCM and the Golf channel for example.


If we need to pay big time, we'll likely go to Youtube TV for $40/month--the channel selection is far better than our current package and the streaming seems faster and more responsive too. The channel listing is like a TV guide format so is very helpful. TCM and Golf channel are back!


Pluto TV is a nice surprise as well, and is totally free. Lots of techie stuff here like the NASA livestream channel, etc.


Amazon Prime (about $10/month) fills out the list and we get the additional benefits like Books, music and of course free shipping.


That's what works for us as of this week. Good luck to everyone. We don't spend a lot of time on the TV so don't think Netflix is worth it for us, we're just looking for some decent selection. We'll probably keep Youtube TV only in the winter since we're not watching TV in the summer.

 

[RonBoyd]

Yeah it's a good deal but the commercials make it painful, using it with Playon makes it worthwhile.

I agree. I signed up for it and cancelled two months later. The commericals very annoying, and I could not find one thing they offered that was good enough to make me want to watch the commercials.

Yes, I use PlayOn to record those providers that stream with commercials. I use SageTV for playback but have been told that the Commercial Skip inside the built-in PlayOn Player does a very good job.

Granted PlayOn is limited to about 30 providers but eliminating commercials is not what it used to be. And, of course, the other important aspect of PlayOn is the ability to schedule unattended (future) recordings.

 

[mpeirce]

Pluto TV is a nice surprise as well, and is totally free. Lots of techie stuff here like the NASA livestream channel, etc.

They just got bought by Viacom. It'll be interesting to see what becomes of them.

 

[Chuckanut]

Dish satellite notified us our rate was increasing from $81/mo to $86, and we had 7 year old equipment. New equipment would have cost $96/mo and a 2 year contract, with no 12 month teaser rate. I threatened to switch to streaming and they found a way to bring us down to $43.85/mo ($42/mo discount) for 6 months, then another 6 months. But then they said they could only offer a $20/mo discount, or $25/mo with a 2 year contract. So they finally refused to compete with streaming for us.

We’ve used PS Vue (was $45/mo, now $50) and Roku’s for over a year now, best TV decision we’ve ever made.

Like the article in the WSJ said, they are going to compensate for losing customers by raising the prices on their remaining customers. I guess that might work in the short run, but.... Really!!!?!? Is that a viable business plan? Hopefully, they have some other ideas.

 

[bUU]

Like the article in the WSJ said, they are going to compensate for losing customers by raising the prices on their remaining customers. I guess that might work in the short run, but.... Really!!!?!? Is that a viable business plan?

Continually lowering prices isn't a viable business plan. This approach keeps several options open. We're already seeing the early adopter advantaged pricing models for streaming begin to evaporate, with programming beginning to segregate itself into separate "channels", each with its own fee, on top of the fee for broadband. Keeping cable television package pricing high avoids the commodity service putting downward pressure on streaming service pricing offered by the same company. In addition, eventually the commodity service will become unprofitable, thereby serving as justification for whatever relief the providers may seek from rules imposed on MVPDs.

 

[Chuckanut]

Here is one review of the new Amazon DVR

https://zatznotfunny.com/2019-02/amazon-fire-tv-recast-dvr-design/

 

[ziggy29]

We are one of the few who "uncut" recently, when we moved.

When we moved to Oregon last year, we eventually bought a home with a large finished basement, which my FIL moved into shortly after. (It's all good since we all get along well and it's a mostly self-contained part of the house.) He insisted on having satellite TV, and I told him I'd get it set up if he'd be willing to pay an extra $100 for rent to cover it -- and he was. So it is really costing DW and me almost nothing, and if he can afford it and it makes him happier, so be it.

 

[SmallCityDave]

I just got off the phone with Dish and asked them to terminate my service.... I hop I can survive, they were actually really good.

 

[bobandsherry]

TiVo has an OTA 1gb VOX DVR "renewed" on sale for $249 and includes the TiVo lifetime subscription. May be decent option for someone who wants DVR capabilities for OTA, 4 tuners.

http://pages.email.tivo.com/presidents-day-sale

 

[stephenson]

We’re now one week into no cable ... very easy so far ?

41 channels via OTA antenna to HD Homerun box, with Channels app ... Apple 4K works great as the streamer and the interface is easy and elegant.

 

[pb4uski]

I have the flex pack. I'm happy with it, although DW likes it more than I do. The things I like about Dish is the Hopper, as in my setup it provides Netflix and YouTube at a better sound quality than my 4K roku (video is similar). Plus DW likes that the DVR and the program guide are easy to use. The basic Flex package has all the channels DW likes to watch with very little channel bloat compared to the other packages. Here is my per month bill breakdown:

Flex Pack, $37.99
Local Channels (I don't get good OTA), 12.00
Joey receiver (for DW TV, I use Dish anywhere for my TV) $7:00
Regional action pack, $12:00 (for Rockies baseball..I had MLB single team last year and it came out to the same price, except I also needed a VPN with the MLB)
FCC, $0.04
State/Local Tax, $5.87

One caveat here, during NFL season we have to change to a package that gets the NFL 'Red Zone' for DW. She's a big football fan. Then after the NFL season is over, we change back to the Flex package.

No OTA at home so we have been relying on Dish. We use their ultra skinny Welcome Pack. I just saw that Welcome Pack, which was $23/month will now in 2019 be $30/month for new subscribers and $26/month for existing subscibers... not sure what rate they will apply in my situation since we were on Welcome Pack until we went on seasonal hold.

Our equipment cost is $40/month for 4 TVs (DVR, Super Joey and 2 Joey's). What we do really like about Dish is the abiity to easily access live or recorded shows from any TV in the house... but I'm not sure it is worth an extra $30/month... but DW isn't very technologically proficient so it may be worth $30/month to not have to show her how to change inputs (again and again).

 

[Golden sunsets]

I posted on this string sometime last year. We were Spectrum Triple Play on the old Time Warner platform. Once Charter bought Time Warner, things changed and whereas we were always able to renegotiate the annual price increase, once Charter took over that ability went away. We are also snow birds and are away for 2 months each year. We had been paying $207 per month in 2018, including several premium channels (HBO/Showtime/Epix/Starz). Of those premiums, we really only watched HBO and occasionally Showtime, but the premiums were bundled. The internet was only 60mg. Knowing that the rate was going to increase again this past January, we decided to unbundle the phone in anticipation of cutting the cord while we were absent for 2 months. We did that in December and ported that number to Magic Jack successfully. I'm not thrilled with Magic Jack, but at least we have unbundled and can keep the same number we have had since 1991..

I had to laugh when we received a notice from Spectrum after the porting, that our bill in January would have gone from $207 to $295, if we had done nothing. We dropped a service, but the bill was going to increase by $88. We then dropped off our two boxes and downgraded to just internet (now 100mb rather than 60 we had in 2018) and the bill for internet only will be $66/mo for the next 2 months. When we return at the end of March we will then have a decision to make on service going forward. We can either go with Spectrum, as new customers (yes if you drop cable for 30 days you then become a ¨new customer¨). The new rate for internet, plus cable with the same channel line up plus DVR, On Demand, and HBO/Showtime/Cinemax(silver package) will be $147 per month, including taxes.

So we are now watching this string closely to determine if that is the direction we want to go in. Going the Spectrum route will mean we pay $81 including taxes (which are fairly significant) for cable including DVR and the premiums. I'm not sure that we can get a better deal than that, assuming that we do want HBO & Showtime. If we stay with Spectrum we will have to turn in the boxes every year to maintain the new customer pricing, but it really isn't that big a deal to do that and worth it to save, I calculate roughly $1,000 a year. It seems to me that some of the streaming packages, after adding the premiums and the taxes isn't that different than the $81 we will spend with Spectrum. Plus streaming of Netflix and Amazon, which we do regularly, frequently results in buffering issues, so I assume we may have the same issues with any additional streaming service we might choose.