While the actual sets you enjoy high-definition programming on continue to get
cheaper and
cheaper, the content itself continues to become more costly. In case you couldn't already guess, 2008 will be no different than the years prior, meaning that cable, satellite and fiber subscribers across the country will all likely be seeing rate hikes. According to a recent article in the
Denver Post, Comcast users in Colorado will see a rise of about four-percent in their bills, and company spokeswoman Cindy Parsons stated that the hike reflects "...increasing choices in HD viewing options and a $150 million investment in Comcast's Colorado network." Of course, these poor souls aren't alone -- DirecTV is said to be pumping up bills by around four-percent as well, and we've all ideas most other carriers will be jumping at the chance to hop on this bandwagon. Nevertheless, it's worth keeping an eye on your cable bill over the next few months, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to bark in someone's ear if you can't figure out exactly what you're paying extra for.
[Image courtesy of
Flickr]
posted January 27th 2008 8:55AM
My DirecTV bill is going down. It's dropping from $69.99 to nothing! I got tired of paying that much money to watch only handful of HD networks. I can stream pretty much any network show I used to watch online, for FREE. The video quality, especially on Fox, is actually quite good.
Comcast just took over Insight here in Indianapolis. As soon as we here this, the wife and I switched to Dish. And now that Dish is going to offer and HD only package for $30, seems like it was a good move!
Yes, as the manager of a cable TV system in Oklahoma, cable rates will rise once again. We have received notice from all programmers that their rates will go up, some of them major price increases, so let the bitching begin. Some programmers, like HBO, have already raised their rate twice in the past year. Over $3 of your cable bill goes just for one channel of ESPN, and their rate goes up based on a percentage of the previous rate, so as rates get higher, the rate of increase gets bigger each year, lots of fun, yes?
Arent they known as "Scamcast"?
My Comcast cable bill went up a couple of bucks not too long ago, but that made sense to me since I started receiving four new HD channels, including the history channel HD. I don't mind reasonable rate hikes as long as they are in line with content and normal levels of inflation.
Ah, yes, we get to pay more and more for dozens of channels that we never watch but have forced upon us. Where the hell is "a la carte"?!
TBN, the church channels, and QVC put a temporary end to a la carte. I watched the CSpan meeting. It was crazy. The church channels were arguing that if they switch to a la carte nobody would pay for them...therefore it wasn't fair.
Jesus hates TV anyway, so I don't quite see the issue.
Yeah, a la carte will kill most of the channels out there. But I'm all for it. Cheaper bills, plus it will force channels to provide good content if they want to stay in business. If it does happen, I will probably have less than 30 channels.
DISH has a $29.99 HD only package that is going to be available Feb. 1. This will contain all of their national HD offerings. I myself will be going this route.
Verizon FiOS tv is going up a few bucks next month for any new additions to the plan and/or new customers. Quite nice though that they're allowing existing customers to keep the old price.
To be honest, I haven't really been watching that much TV lately since there isn't anything worth watching on. Sports is the only thing that keeps me coming back.
Ala carte will kill a lot of channels, but not necessarily due to lousy programming. There will be nitch channels out there that offer quality programming that just can't exist in an ala carte world. Yeah, it would be cheaper to go ala carte, but make sure you really consider the consequences.
If asked to actually hand over money, how many people would choose to pay for the Food Network. I probably would not, but I still loves me some Alton Brown.
so you want to watch food network, but don't want to pay for it
what a donkey
A la carte? You mean, only pay for what you want to see? Wow! what a shocker that would be! And Food Network? You don't want to pay for it, but it's OK if everyone pays for it just so you can watch it? Yeah, right. Food Network, ESPN, MTV, TNT and all the rest that I don't watch can fold for all I care. If ANY enterprise can't make money from only those willing to pay for its service or product, then it should go out of business.
as HDTV sales go up, and the 2009 crossover gets closer and closer, digital tv is supposed to go DOWN, not up. i dont see how this is beneficial to the consumer if the feds make it a requirement to go completely digital, then the local monopolies ala comcast and other cable providers get to hike up costs. it should be the other way around!
"True Cable" seems to be phasing out, now we have to pay and deal with commercials which takes up a great portion of the time slot.
The mandate by the government only means that broadcast TV must be a digital signal, as opposed to analog. Nothing else, and means nothing in respect to cable. If anything, people will slap on those good 'ol rabbit ears and settle for over-the-air HDTV and cancel cable, not give them more business.
Now, the fact that TV companies are handling all digital signals SHOULD make it easier for them to sell it to satellite and cable companies. However, with more HDTV sets being sold and demand going up, we are seeing that the supply isn't quite meeting the demand, yet, so prices rise. I would think this would keep happening until stations recoup the cost of new equipment and cameras and all or most channels are HD.
But, as cable has proven over the last 20 years or so, prices for a commodity like TV will only go up.
Here's an idea. If you tune to a channel and watch anything over say 1 minute, you get charged a certain going rate for that channel. Then all channels could survive based on their demands.
Why not just make it a how much TV you watch cost versus a la carte? If you made it a la carte, I'd bet that most people would raise their rates to a dollar or more like with Telus TV which is somewhat a la carte.
If they billed in "meter" form (ie. how much you watch) there'd be an outcry from organizations that represent the elderly and disabled. For many of them, having the TV on all day and night is the only thing that keeps them sane.
What I truly DON'T understand is that many HD customers are ALREADY paying increased costs for HD recievers and HD packages ... WTF. Bleed us dry.