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One of my nice family members put me in charge of getting them a deal. Ok, so my blood pressure went up just thinking about it.
One other family member just went through the hassle of trying to get a better deal after promo expired. He refused to pay the higher bill so cut the TV cable cord and watches via other means.
I called twice and was told, the only way to get your new bill (increased by 25.00) lowered, is to go elsewhere or downgrade your services. They aren't giving out any new promotions or helping anyone out.
They aren't changing to Sprctrum until Feb. That just blows my mind. They don't care and even suggest you go elsewhere. Wow!!!!!
Thank goodness I have Uverse, which I still have to fight for promotions but at least they move a little in price.
I don't know but to me it seems like I hear more and more people refusing to pay such high cable prices and are cutting cable TV and going toward other means for example, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Kodi, etc and just watching NBC, CBS and ABc along with the few other standard channels. I've even heard there is a way to DVR online also. These cable companies sure aren't trying to keep customers.
The real problem is the networks are charging the cable companies a lot more money when a contract expires. I don't think the cable companies make a ton of money on TV services. Their profit is more in the Internet services. The networks are starving for viewership. The old days of shows pulling in 20 million viewers each week are over. So their advertising revenue is down so they go after the consumer.
I finally pulled the plug on HBO and Showtime about 4 months ago. I was paying Time Warner Cable $258 a month for their Signature package and that did not include any premium sports channels. It's crazy what they charge. I am on uVerse now and the bill is $178. The Internet is much faster than TWC (1gig vs 50meg) and I have a whole home DVR that can record 6 channels at once. I like that, the TWC DVR only did 2 at once.
The real problem is the networks are charging the cable companies a lot more money when a contract expires. I don't think the cable companies make a ton of money on TV services. Their profit is more in the Internet services. The networks are starving for viewership. The old days of shows pulling in 20 million viewers each week are over. So their advertising revenue is down so they go after the consumer.
I finally pulled the plug on HBO and Showtime about 4 months ago. I was paying Time Warner Cable $258 a month for their Signature package and that did not include any premium sports channels. It's crazy what they charge. I am on uVerse now and the bill is $178. The Internet is much faster than TWC (1gig vs 50meg) and I have a whole home DVR that can record 6 channels at once. I like that, the TWC DVR only did 2 at once.
TWC DVR does 6 programs too. I have one. You just have to bring your old box in and get a newer one. Of course that DVR has a higher monthly fee.
Here in Spenser Creek Woods of Ladson (NCHS) we only have one choice which is TWC. I wish AT&T would come in so that we can get the Universe.
The real problem is the networks are charging the cable companies a lot more money when a contract expires. I don't think the cable companies make a ton of money on TV services. Their profit is more in the Internet services. The networks are starving for viewership. The old days of shows pulling in 20 million viewers each week are over. So their advertising revenue is down so they go after the consumer.
I don't believe this is correct. Yes, content owners have not only increased prices, but contractually forced bundling. Cord cutting has had made a small but noticeable impact, but it is this along with online viewing that has them concerned.
Regional powerhouse cable companies almost never compete and generate the largest part of their revenue from TV. This is why you're seeing data caps being put into place. It has nothing to do with capacity. The cost of capacity is minimal, they are protecting their TV revenue. On average, TV consumers pay $231 per year just to rent cable boxes. As an industry this equates to a $20 Billion in box rental fees.
I don't believe this is correct. Yes, content owners have not only increased prices, but contractually forced bundling. Cord cutting has had made a small but noticeable impact, but it is this along with online viewing that has them concerned.
Regional powerhouse cable companies almost never compete and generate the largest part of their revenue from TV. This is why you're seeing data caps being put into place. It has nothing to do with capacity. The cost of capacity is minimal, they are protecting their TV revenue. On average, TV consumers pay $231 per year just to rent cable boxes. As an industry this equates to a $20 Billion in box rental fees.
Comcast recently raised their data cap to 100gig a month. TWC and AT&T uVerse have no data caps in my area. Capacity can be an issue, I for one suffered from a saturated node here in Summerville because TWC did not want to upgrade the network. I had the same problem in NJ with CableVision. It's not cheap to split a node.
DirecTV has plenty of competition yet their pricing is no better than the cable companies. The networks are the problem. And the reason the networks are the problem is the salaries of these overpaid stars. Why should some sitcom star make 1 million an episode and the average show has around ~20 per year. Then take a news guy like Matt Lauer, 25 million a year - what a joke. These guys are not worth it.
If you want to see where the profit is, read this article. 97% profit for TWC for Internet services.
AT&T has a 1TB cap on unless you get Gigabit speed or have wireless service with them. I don't know what TWC caps are or aren't. But a 100 GB cap is nothing to a cord cutting family watching HD let alone 4k.
The cost of capacity to a ISP like TWC or Comcast is minuscule and the bandwidth cost in transmission is equally small compared to the cost they charge for overage. While ISPs have, over the last 10 years, decreased their % of profit reinvestment into CAPEX to properly manage their infrastructure, a 97% profit simply doesn't explain the level of protectionism these cable companies are pouring into watching traditional cable/satellite vs allowing you to cut the cord. They simply don't want to cannibalize that portion of their industry.
Comcast recently raised their data cap to 100gig a month. TWC and AT&T uVerse have no data caps in my area. Capacity can be an issue, I for one suffered from a saturated node here in Summerville because TWC did not want to upgrade the network. I had the same problem in NJ with CableVision. It's not cheap to split a node.
DirecTV has plenty of competition yet their pricing is no better than the cable companies. The networks are the problem. And the reason the networks are the problem is the salaries of these overpaid stars. Why should some sitcom star make 1 million an episode and the average show has around ~20 per year. Then take a news guy like Matt Lauer, 25 million a year - what a joke. These guys are not worth it.
If you want to see where the profit is, read this article. 97% profit for TWC for Internet services.
Comcast data cap is 1024GB (1TB) now. Not 100. Used to be 300.
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