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Do you recall when cable TV first came on? It was great. In MI there were no commercials and lots of good, edgy programs. You could kick back and enjoy it. Now it is garbage, wasteland, with nothing but commercials on it. You can click around to a dozen channels and often they are all advertising.
The TV companies are raking in the profits both ways - they charge us top dollar for their dreck and the sponsors pay too. Double dipping.
I propose they break it into two segments - one in which you continue paying but with no commercials or the other choice is getting it free with all the accompanying shills. You'd have your choice - pay for it and avoid all the stupid ads or not pay and continue running to the potty during their five minute ads.
Does anyone know how this could be accomplished? The laws would obviously have to be changed and we all know in America the laws are only changed to benefit the rich or big biddness. Maybe a grass roots movement or something.
Twice I have quit TV for two years and don't miss it a bit. It's easier than you think.
You gave your own solution - Stop watching TV and then you won't complain about the cost.
1.You don't like the cost of TV.
2. You drive while high.
3. Does anything make you happy?
It's the title of the thread that is misleading. Who's ripping you off? The cable company charges for a product, just like the gas station, or the convenient store. Now gas is a necessity for people to get to work. So, even though we're paying through the hose, we really have to buy that product. And at the convenient store, (open 24/7) you'll pay high prices for those items you ran out of and forgot to buy at the slightly-less-expensive mega-mart. But you don't have to have cable. And many people, like the OP, have opted to drop it. Others, like shut-ins, elderly, chronically ill, need cable, even if only to have an entity they can yell at for showing too many commericals.
I have cable because I have the triple play package for my phone and internet. In 2009, when I returned to my home after an extended absence, during which all services were suspended, I reenlisted in the triple play. I got an introductory offer of $99./mo plus tax & fees. The price has increased every year and every year I call the cable company and renegotiate the price. (Comcast has department called Retention, just to keep a customer from leaving!!) Yesterday, I had my latest increase
(184/mo) reduced to $140/mo and I now have HBO! . Do I think it should be cheaper? Sure. Just like I think I should get my bread, milk and eggs cheaper. Not gonna happen. So I call Comcast and work it out so we're at a place where if not exactly happy, at least satisfied we have the best we're gonna get.
If you can live without cable, great. I have lived without cable and internet. All things being equal, I'd rather not.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Yup, dumped the TV/cable long ago and will never go back. Netflix for movies and shows. Can even watch sports through the web, yeah, quality isn't the best, but whatever. Everything is done on my laptop.
This makes me madder in the movies than on cable. It used to be before the movie there were cartoons and then previews, now we have car commercails and Pepsi commercials, after paying $9.00 for a ticket. I see both as more of the "simmering frog" phenomena, where we as consumers just accept less and less while paying more and more.
we got tired of being ripped off too. The only thing we use our tv for now is hooking up an old vcr machine (movies are 25 cents a piece in 2nd hand stores) and sometimes watching a couple of good movies ..the news and any other good info we want we can get from the comp.
I was a kid when my family first got cable, and even though I was mainly watching Nickelodeon and MTV, I don't remember the quality being all that great. What we have to remember is that it's the ads that pay for the quality programming we get (and also the non-quality) If cable didn't have ads, it would either cost $200+/month, or it would look like Mad Men was made with someone's iPhone.
I don't even have an over the air antenna up anymore. I watch network TV shows over the internet, I have netflix streaming and a roku player. I pay 7.99 for the netflix and of course pay for the internet service (I would have to have the internet regardless).
A woman at work mentioned that she pays 130 dollars a month for direct tv......... To each his own but how on earth could you get 130 dollars worth of "value" out of television?
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, we really have to buy that product. And at the convenient store, (open 24/7) you'll pay high prices for those items you ran out of and forgot to buy at the slightly-less-expensive mega-mart. But you don't have to have cable. And many people, like the OP, have opted to drop it. Others, like shut-ins, elderly, chronically ill, need cable, even if only to have an entity they can yell at for showing too many commericals.
To each his own but how on earth could you get 130 dollars worth of "value" out of television?
