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The Average Cable Bill Has Increased More Than 50 Percent Since 2010 (streamingobserver.com)
According to new research, the average cost households pay for cable is now up to $107 a month -- that's a 50% increase since 2010 when cable bills were $71.24 a month. When compared to last year, it's only a 1% increase, "thanks in large part to increasing fees for things like regional sports licensing and taxes," reports Streaming Observer. From the report: Leichtman Research Group's data was gathered through a telephone survey of 1,152 households from throughout the United States. The research found that 78% of American households still subscribe to a paid TV subscription. That percentage is down from 86% in 2013, 87% in 2008, and 81% in 2004, but 78% is still a pretty high figure given how high cable costs continue to rise each year and how affordable streaming video services are in comparison.
Internet access is almost necessary to do many financial and civil tasks, and yet, it is difficult for many low-income people afford the internet.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
... for a big part of the market. These companies need to understand that by hiking rates they're causing more people to cut the cord. They need to go for volume if they're to survive as TV businesses (and not just ISP's).
I had been a Comcast customer for years. I had Internet, Phone, and Cable TV service. Rate was about $180/month. Two year contract.
The Internet service is excellent. Not only is it fast and reliable (wasn't always but they fixed things) but they actually do IPv6 right.
So last year (about 18 months ago) they decide I must be too pleased some it's TIME FOR A FLEECING!
My contract is up. I want to renew. NOT AN OPTION. I say what do you mean you can't. I'm using it right now. Yes but the 3-service deal is no longer offered. You have to get the 4-service deal. It is called "quad play." In addition to the other services you get home security.
I say I don't want another security service. I have ADP and have invested $1500 in sensors that would be thrown away if I changed now. Not to mention I would have to purchase more sensors.
I won't bore you with the details but the choices boiled down to this: 1) ditch Comcast (and I lose the Internet service i depend on for my business). 2) Get the three services I have been using which will cost about $100 more than what I have been paying, or 3) get the FOUR services for about $40 LESS -- FOR NOW -- than I have been paying.
Now get this. I say ok I'll take the quad play but I'll just not use the home security. So no need to schedule the installers --- hold your horses right there son. We WON'T give you a new contract until AFTER our installers show up to your house, burn a half day of your time, and certify that the service is installed. And there is this wireless pad thing that has to be in the house somewhere.
I bitch enough that the gal gives me a "free" camera.
So now I have two security services running at my house -- I never arm the Xfinity one but I do use the camera which is pretty well implemented. I have to feel grateful that they didn't make me unplug the ADT system.
Somehow the monthly bill has creeped up on me. Now it's $225/month not including the occasional movie my wife buys. Instead of $40 less I was pitched I am now paying $40 more.
That's my Comcast bitching for today. Thanks for listening.
Although one wire carries both, internet and cable services are sold separately. My guess is that Internet bills have also increased 100%, though they have dropped per megabyte.
Now to your question. most internet providers offer services for low income people. Typically, public housing, SNAP, or some other form of proof of low income is needed. Here are a couple of examples:
https://www.att.com/shop/internet/access/#!/
https://www.internetessentials.com/
https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/spectrum-internet-assist/
The plan: squeeze more money out of each diehard customer in a shrinking market. Obvious issue is, it makes the market shrink faster. One uncomfortable detail: the demographic of those diehard customers is increasingly on fixed income.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Wow. I can barely remember when I had cable (about 10 years ago), and my current house has never had cable service.
What particularly got me to cut the cord was the excessive sports fees the cable companies were paying and passing on to the consumer. Since I do not watch sports and since some cable companies owned sports teams (i.e. Comcast) were collecting the fees they were charging, I simply opted out. Besides, the only time I had free time to watch TV was when most of the cable channels were broadcasting infomercial after infomercial, it was a "no brainer".
"The Average Cable Bill Has Increased More Than 50 Percent Since 2010"
Man, I'm glad I happened to be sitting down before I read that shocking headline.
#DeleteChrome
My internet-only bill has gone from $24.99 (AT&T, 6 Mbps DSL) in 2009 to $98.00 (Verizon/Frontier 75 Mbps, but more like 3 Mbps when it worked) in 2016.
I was paying right at $200/mo for Comcast XFinity. About half that was for 150Mbit (downstream) Internet with no data cap (that's extra, of course). The other half was for STANDARD DEFINITION basic cable.
I'd happily have taken Google Fiber if it were available but AT&T GigaPower got here first. Now I have 1000Mbit down/800mbit up, HD cable channels (and many more than Comcast offered), three set-top boxes (only one with Comcast), and a DVR (none included with Comcast)...all for only $80/mo.
Is it any wonder people are ditching traditional cable companies?
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
It's because the content they are delivering has got 50% better, AND, so has their service!! What a wonderful world we live in, good times.
You'd put more effort into leaving than you would into finding a job? Astounding.
It's hard being poor and working in the US, dickhead.
I don't respond to AC's.
You probably are not going to agree but I work for a small cable company and some media companies double their cost per sub every time contracts come up for renewal. Cable companies make almost nothing on video these days. The exception is Comcast. Comcast owns several networks and the HITS platform. As for the rest of us the profit margin is hair thin. If it wasn't for internet sales most small cable companies would have went out of business years ago. When I started working for this company they had twelve systems. Ten years later that number is three. one of the three is actually three towns tied together by fiber. The captive market doesn't allow for true negotiations, so expect more of the same in the future.
225! ruddy hell I got off at 120 at my house.
Right now I am paying 25 because of a special deal with my apartment. It has all 3 services. I only use the internet. The TV is so bad I do not even watch it anymore. I can tell you the entire cable lineup from 1988 from channel 2 through 52.. I *watched* TV now I dont. The service has a literal negative worth to me.
At my house I got internet and cable for ~28 a month in 1999. When I got out it had crept up to 120. I took that money and bought DVDs and BluRays. I have well past 1500 movies at this point. I do not even bother getting netflix...
Perhaps you should stop with the insults and work on improving your work ethic, intelligence, and communication skills. That will rapidly increase your income, although I will doubtless read some impossible outlier sob story about how that is a ridiculous ask.
We are in a booming economy, jobs are there for the taking. You, not the system, are the current failure.
This number is way skewed. The smart people who have cut the cord have either blocked the survey phone number or hung up. :)
Having a job doesn't get you out of poverty unless you were successful in education, have sufficient social skills to keep yourself out of the slave labor category, or are lucky enough to have a marketable side interest. Without any of these, you continue in poverty, because the money that you earn will barely cover your rent.
This is not an accident. "What the market will bear" is just another way of describing a cost of living such that the least skilled create a labor force that is perpetually trapped in poverty, which is what keeps them in labor. It's the natural state of a capitalist economy that has nil or only token social planning.
I'm sorry- but it's your own undoing. There are lots of jobs in the US and the low end the spectrum that pay sufficiently to cover the basics. If you live in silicon valley and make six figures and are bitching about being poor I have no sympathy for you. MOVE! Get up on your two legs and migrate someplace cheaper to live. Wilmington, NC or pretty much anywhere in southern New Hampshire has both jobs, cheap housing, and a good life waiting for you. You can literally buy a house for something like $50,000 in NH in places that are pretty nice and have low-skill or no-skill jobs available. I know a lot of people here with $13 / hour jobs. People working at walmart even for christ sake and have houses, cars, cell phones, and a life. You don't have to suffer. If you do suffer it's your own undoing.
. . . and not have to have Rectum as my ISP. Only other choice is Centrylink DSL. Would be nice to have some real competition, but since I'm in a rural area I imagine that it will stay that way in the foreseeable future. Doubtful that over-hyped 5G will actually give competition (doubtful that the major cell networks are even interested in building a 5G network here anytime soon.)
I just pay $25 for the slowest internet available (10 mbps is really enough for 99.99% of people), $5 for amazon prime and then another $1/month for a shared seedbox to download whatever isn't on prime...
Poor people in the US get free healthcare.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
...they give 50% better service.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
I can see your house now! comcast is broadcasting your feed on trollluzr.com!!! super fun to watch!!!
At this point cable is just a tax on anyone too old, or too dumb to switch to streaming services.
...and there's never been fewer channels worth watching, much less subscribing to. And viewers who tune into "news" and financial channels aren't any less stupid than people who enjoy HSN.
What is it you get out of having a land line and cable TV that makes you put up with this? What do you use them for?
I had been a Comcast customer for years. I had Internet, Phone, and Cable TV service. Rate was about $180/month. Two year contract.
The Internet service is excellent. Not only is it fast and reliable (wasn't always but they fixed things) but they actually do IPv6 right.
So last year (about 18 months ago) they decide I must be too pleased some it's TIME FOR A FLEECING!
My contract is up. I want to renew. NOT AN OPTION. I say what do you mean you can't. I'm using it right now. Yes but the 3-service deal is no longer offered. You have to get the 4-service deal. It is called "quad play." In addition to the other services you get home security.
I say I don't want another security service. I have ADP and have invested $1500 in sensors that would be thrown away if I changed now. Not to mention I would have to purchase more sensors.
I won't bore you with the details but the choices boiled down to this: 1) ditch Comcast (and I lose the Internet service i depend on for my business). 2) Get the three services I have been using which will cost about $100 more than what I have been paying, or 3) get the FOUR services for about $40 LESS -- FOR NOW -- than I have been paying.
Now get this. I say ok I'll take the quad play but I'll just not use the home security. So no need to schedule the installers --- hold your horses right there son. We WON'T give you a new contract until AFTER our installers show up to your house, burn a half day of your time, and certify that the service is installed. And there is this wireless pad thing that has to be in the house somewhere.
I bitch enough that the gal gives me a "free" camera.
So now I have two security services running at my house -- I never arm the Xfinity one but I do use the camera which is pretty well implemented. I have to feel grateful that they didn't make me unplug the ADT system.
Somehow the monthly bill has creeped up on me. Now it's $225/month not including the occasional movie my wife buys. Instead of $40 less I was pitched I am now paying $40 more.
That's my Comcast bitching for today. Thanks for listening.
You could go cellular. Just don't use verizon and you'll be $225/mo richer.
My cable bill has decreased 100 percent in the same interval of time. I like it that way. Pink Floyd said it best: I’ve got thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose from.
That’s about how many I get over the air. But whenever I go somewhere where they have cable, I find that there’s a larger selection but it’s just as much shit as the dozen or so air channels I can pick up with rabbit ears. So why pay extra for... more shit?
Thanks to ATSC, the channels I CAN pull down are pretty clear; although I never watch them. I just leave it hooked up there because I already own it and in case the shit hits the fan and I have no internet... in inclement weather, for example, I have the ability to watch news broadcasts. I don’t thinks I’m missing out on anything actually worth watching. Also, I have an extensive po...er... um... DVD collection.
Otherwise, I just pay the 15 a month for HBO GO when they’re airing Game of Thrones, and leave it off the rest of the time.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
The issue is bundling. They want you to buy more and more services so of course the bill goes up.
I have only internet service with the local cable provider. It's $90 a month for static IP and 25Mbit or so both ways. Years ago I was paying $70 a month for 256K both ways. Toss in Netflix and HBO NOW and it's over 100 a month for internet and TV.
The only reason people still pay for cable TV is sports. If you don't care about sports, it's not hard to get your bills down. The only necessary service is an internet connection. Everything else is a luxury.
Work Safe Porn
Cost of living keeps sharply increasing all across America. The only thing that hasn't been skyrocketing are wages. Stagflation is back with a vengeance!
Yet the official statistics say there is near-zero inflation. So I'm sure there are some credulous bootlickers here who will argue that noooooooo, even tho everything everywhere costs a lot more than it used to, there really is no inflation. 'Cuz authoritay told them so.
No, faggot republican traitors will be hanged from their faggot necks. Then we'll sort out who's employable you dishonest bitch traitors.
So now I have two security services running at my house -- I never arm the Xfinity one but I do use the camera which is pretty well implemented. I have to feel grateful that they didn't make me unplug the ADT system.
Somehow the monthly bill has creeped up on me. Now it's $225/month not including the occasional movie my wife buys. Instead of $40 less I was pitched I am now paying $40 more.
That's my Comcast bitching for today. Thanks for listening.
So I read everything you wrote with quad play and sob story about contracts. The one and only conclusion I was able to draw is you are not quite operating on all thrusters. Or to be more succinct about it you are certifiably raving mad batshit insane lunatic.
Seriously dealing with Comcast is worse than dealing with uncle NATAS. Never ever rely on anything a Comcast CSR/sales goon tells you ... EVER.
That's THE feature.
I guess our investment means we'll see full-duplex deployments with cable internet soon huh? Yeah, I'll hold my fucking breath on that one. Nope, instead they'll ration out speeds like they always do....charge a little more here and little more there. Glad ATT fiber is coming to my block. Fuck cable companies.
Situation was not better with only 13 channels....
I've got a little black book with my poems in
Got a bag with a toothbrush and a comb in
When I'm a good dog, they sometimes throw me a bone in
I got elastic bands keepin' my shoes on
Got those swollen-hand blues
I got thirteen channels of shit on the T.V. to choose from
I've got electric light
And I've got second sight
I got amazing powers of observation
And that is how I know
When I try to get through
On the telephone to you
There'll be nobody home
I've got the obligatory Hendrix perm
And the inevitable pinhole burns
All down the front of my favorite satin shirt
I've got nicotine stains on my fingers
I've got a silver spoon on a chain
Got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains
I've got wild staring eyes
And I've got a strong urge to fly
But I got nowhere to fly to
Ooh, babe when I pick up the phone
there's still nobody home
I've got a pair of Gohills boots
But I got fading roots
Songwriters: Roger Waters
Nobody Home lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc
Many public library branches keep inconvenient hours. By the time you take the city bus from work to the library, it may have closed for the evening at 6 PM. Visit on a day off? The branch near me is closed Saturdays and Sundays from the weekend before Memorial Day until Labor Day. (Source: ACPL.info)
Assuming that "Obama phone" means a phone issued to Medicaid recipients under the Lifeline program, which began under President Reagan and was expanded to cellular under President Bush: A Lifeline cellular plan probably includes metered voice and text and 0 MB data.
That's what happens where there are few choices; Cable companies have a near monopoly and they can charge whatever they like as they pretend they have no choice.
Many professional and collegiate sporting events and political news-and-opinion shows are exclusive to traditional multichannel pay TV (that is, cable and satellite). They are not available over-the-top on the Internet.
In addition, many cable system operators offer only lower Internet access speeds (per second or per month) to Internet-only subscribers. Someone who doesn't watch TV but wants Internet access faster than a pittance of GB/mo must subscribe to TV that he or she doesn't watch in order to become eligible to extend the cap. Want business Internet? Better form an LLC and get your house re-zoned.
Is leaving Comcast behind worth moving to a different state?
Do you not have a business account? Plenty of people have Internet-only business accounts for less than $225.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
It was a rip-off in 2010. Maybe it's because I grew up with the idea that, “Ok, TV is free, but you have to watch these commercials” that I could never bring myself to pay for cable TV. Like that frog in the pot on the stove, they slowly added commercials, then more commercials, and (apparently) increased the rates people paid at the same time. Now, people finally seem to be noticing that the water is boiling.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
According to the government's inflation calculator, $100 in January 2010 has the same buying power as $116.50 now - the amount I'm paying for cable has only increased a little more than that percentage (closer to 20%) in the same time. However, I get more channels, more in HD (and better quality HD), and have added premium channels to my subscription since that 2010 cost, so adjusting for inflation and service delivered, my cost has gone down.
Of course, I have two cable companies available (I've switched since 2010), plus AT&T and Google Fiber's video services, so maybe there's something to this competition thing...
Poor people in the US get free healthcare.
Sure, after they are bankrupt and their credit is ruined.
At least my Cable Internet is about the same price or actually less than it was, but for significantly faster speeds.
In 2010 I was paying TWC $65/mo for 15/1 mbit speed, and in 2013 was paying $85/mo for 30/5 mbit speed.
Currently in 2018 I am now paying Spectrum (who of course bought TWC) $70/mo for 400/20 mbit service. They keep upgrading my speeds at no cost increase.
My final Time-Spectrum bill was a whopping $200+! I chopped it in half by switching to Google Fiber with local channels only. Since then, I've added quite a few streaming services and it's STILL cheaper than Spectrum, and that's before cutting the locals, since Hulu Live gives me those.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
These statistics only include the USA, and exclude the rest of the world.
Was going through my bill the other day, and noticed the 'Regional Sports Fee'. $6 a month for something I never use as I don't watch sports. So I call the satellite provider and say, please drop all sports channels from my subscription, as I don't watch them and don't want to pay the fee. Surprise, they don't have any packages, except the very base one with almost no channels, that don't have the sports channels on them, so you have to pay the fee.
They really need to get ala carte going or I am going to cancel it completely. I just want a few basic channels to record things off of for shows that I like and that does not include any of the expensive channels that they have. My time is limited, or I would probably explore getting all of this setup off of the internet with a DVR functionality, but it is purposefully difficult right now. They could keep me as a customer if they just had packages targeted at this. In fact they used to have an option where they dropped the sports but kept everything else (although they did not advertise it), but recently ended that as well.
As it turned out, after complaining and threatening to cancel, low and behold they can suddenly give me $60 a month credit for the next year to get my bill inline with what I am willing to pay... I mean the satellite is already in the air, the equipment is in the house, the rest is gravy for them. Just offer choice of individual channels and I bet a lot of people would stay. Make a million pennies instead of a few dollars....
Poor people in the US get free healthcare.
Sure, in some states. In others they only get free emergency care.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I Live in Brazil and spend 28 dollars a month to have a 35mbps ADSL connection through a Cable TV provider. I cancelled all the cable packages and ripped open my cable box, took a few heatsinks off it and threw the rest in the trash. Saved the power supply, which is a good 12V 5A.
That for viewing, Netflix, Youtube and Torrents. Amazon Prime sucks bad, used for a month and cancelled.
I pretty much don't need anything else streaming-wide. Connection is reliable, fast and cheap.
Welcome to the third world.
Most US poor would need to move somewhere before getting a good job anyhow.
Lol they fooled you I don't know why you let them talk you into anything at all.
I do too over 100 tv shows and 1000 movies I like plus whatever gets dvr'd off the antenna plus 16 channels of whatever is on the air at the moment. Psuedotv live will hopefully work out to be a better channel surfing experience than actual cable once the bugs are worked through.
It's very simple. Buy the cheapest package they offer. Demand to use your own cable box. Tell them you'll call the police on anyone who shows up to try and install it but the tech is welcome to call you for your MAC address.
Bonus: If you live in an apartment use a made up name and room number so you don't have to deal with their shitmail or the fallout of "billing accidents"
Many professional and collegiate sporting events and political news-and-opinion shows are exclusive to traditional multichannel pay TV (that is, cable and satellite). They are not available over-the-top on the Internet.
Wrong. Research YouTubeTV, Hulu Live, DirectTV Now, whatever the Playstation service is called, etc. I know that YouTubeTV can be used to authenticate watch ESPN events not being broadcast. And in my market I even get some of the regional sports networks.
Research YouTubeTV
A couple days ago, YouTube TV's signup form told me YouTube TV is not available in my ZIP code.
Hulu Live
No C-SPAN, no The Weather Channel. My roommate watches Washington Journal on C-SPAN, and the live stream on C-SPAN's website is available only to authenticated subscribers to participating multichannel pay television providers.
DirectTV Now
The $40 per month plan lacks The Weather Channel, and I doubt the $55 per month plan would save anything compared to the difference between Internet only from Comcast and Internet plus TV from Comcast. In addition, the fade-in effect when switching among plans on its sign-up page annoys me, as it makes it more difficult to eyeball the difference among the plans.
whatever the Playstation service is called
It's called PlayStation Vue, and even its most expensive package doesn't have C-SPAN or The Weather Channel.Nor is my PlayStation console new enough to view it.
Comcast appears not to allow third parties to offer service over its last mile. Competing ISPs are MVNOs, which insist on limiting my household's Internet data transfer to a handful of gigabytes per month. A startup company seeking access to lay its own fiber over city rights of way would probably end up unable to satisfy an unreasonably rapid citywide buildout schedule. I'm aware that some cities require franchisees to build out the network over the whole city in order to ensure that the service reaches less affluent areas, but I'm under the impression that some cities have required this to happen sooner than a startup's capex budget permits as an anti-competitive means to circumvent the federal ban on exclusive cable franchises.
Its comical how many people point fingers at the tv providers as the ones creating all the cost increases here. You guys need to do a bit more research and realize the people you should be mad at are the networks that are demanding absurd price increases. Specifically local channels. You know those ones that receive grants to provide those stations as a free public service? The FCC has rules in place to say if you live in this area your tv provider can only give you local channels from this particular area. So if those local channels demand a 400% price increase (typically every 2 years) what option does the tv provider have? Not carry abc, nbc, fox (etc)? To make matters worse there are companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group who realize how powerful owning these local channels can be, so they go through and buy up loads of local networks. Sinclair in particular owns around 200 local channels across the country and in 2016 their revenue was over 2 billion (with an operating cost of just over 200 million). But yeah keep yelling at your tv provider, its definitely their fault.
..if you still get internet from them. You've just eliminate ONE service. And for many people that didn't save any money when you consider they've started subscribing to streaming services.
Cutting the cord means CUTTING THE CORD. NO SERVICES AT ALL. Course that probable means you're on cellular (5G/LTE/6G) and they're loving you even more...
I just cancelled my DirecTV service with AT&T. My initial 2 year contract ran out and my bill went up about $40. When I called asking for any other offers, of course nothing was available. When I called to cancel then all of the offers start coming out of the woodwork. Now I only have internet which costs me $70 (up from $60 when it was bundled) a month for 50 mbit down (highest speed they offer in my area) with a 1 TB limit (unlimited costs $30 more a month if you don't have TV service). I spent the past year configuring my network so that it is indifferent to the ISP supplying the connection and I'm now going to look into what deals are available from Comcast/Xfinity
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
And a lot of times the free health care is with shit doctors for those far from major cities. Even with certain HMOs I'll bet you can't get into Sloan Kettering in NYC for instance.
I was a zombie cable customer for years.
One day I turned on the TV and discovered the cable was out. It took a few days for the service team to arrive and they soon discovered that a grader had accidentally cut the cable when it was resurfacing the back alley. At that point I realized that no one had turned on the TV for over 2 months since that was when they were doing the work...
I cancelled my cable immediately, bought a digital OTA antenna from best buy for $20 in order to get the local channels (Shockingly good picture quality BTW). I invested in a VPN subscription along with upgrading to an unlimited DSL internet package from a internet wholesaler and a Netflx account. I now watch anything I want, whenever I want including sports for about 70% less than the cost of cable. As an added bonus, by making the laptop the media center, it's far quicker and more responsive than the clunky cable interface ever was.
Call Comcast and ask for the 'customer retention' department. They can work deals out.
Holy shit 'We won't provide you internet service unless we can install surveillance-tech in your home." Fucking dystopian nightmare we live in.
You must be in a one service area. I could switch to at&t symmetrical GB for $100 /month, or 100/100 for $80. I'm sticking with comcast because the gave me a decent deal for $140 and their television (x1) is way better then uverse. I've been real happy with it.
Cheap storage VM.
My internet comes from the phone company. Ironically, there is no phone line because I use voip and cell for phone service.
Now, I wish I had a choice of internet providers.
$15 /month for SimpliSafe. $70 for Dish. $40 month for 100 mpbs internet. MagicJack, virtually nil. about $140 per month.
What do you want? It's free.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
What state doesn't offer Medicaid?
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
That's what "poor" means.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
My internet comes from the phone company. Ironically, there is no phone line
So your phone company isn't selling you DSL and giving you a POTS line that you don't use at no extra charge? Because that's what some phone companies do, and it'd be analogous to what some cable companies do with their bundle structures.
Might as well download folks, you're paying for it anyway.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
The cable companies see the end coming. Already everybody who is savvy enough to cut the cord, has done so, or is thinking about doing so. The rest will pay whatever the cable companies demand. It's in their financial interest to raise prices! Where are they going to go?
It's kind of like old-style telephone service. Only older people still have it, and they pay through the nose for it. But these older people have no idea how to set up or use a VOIP service, so they are stuck.
I see so many self congratulatory back pats from cord cutters in this thread. But they don;t seem to realize a few important details.
1. Your selection has declined. Yes, you cut cable TV, but you watch a smaller selection of new content and the old content is substandard, to say the least.
2. Streaming content libraries of C grade movies from decades past and 1990's TV shows SUCK DONKEY DICKS! NETFLIX, AMAZON, et al SUCK!
3. THE MOST IMPORTANT DETAIL... Most of you cord cutters are purchasing your internet through the very same companies that you used to buy cable from. You didn't cut the cord, you reduced your services and degraded your experience. You still have the same cord from the same provider for internet.
Now you receive less and YOU'RE PAYING MORE than you did before for the remaining service(internet). Many/most of you are living in monopoly regions where you only have one or perhaps two available broadband ISPs. Do you not see the ISP rates rising? Do you not see the utter-shit-streaming service rates rising? Do you not realize that while cable dies, the cable monopolies still have a stranglehold on you and will simply raise your internet service rates to compensate for the declining service revenue?
YOU HAVE NOT FOUND A SOLUTION. You've simply kicked the can down the road and accelerated the inevitable, where you're paying hundreds a month for internet service($90), streaming services($80), subscriptions($30)...
For years you demanded a la carte service and I warned that it would be MORE expensive than the existing bundles you hated on. Now you've got what you wanted, a near incomprehensible array of disassociated devices and services, each with their own not so low monthly costs that total more than you paid for cable when you quit. But you seem to be too stupid and willfully ignorant to realize that you're paying more for less.
Are you really actually proud of yourselves?
If you're counting a 1,000 channel cable package as "cost of living", you're kind of an idiot.
Though the definition of "basket of goods and services" has changed in the definition of inflation, it has never been about bare necessities. It has always included luxuries. But here's where it gets interesting and relevant to the discussion of cord cutting...
Twice since the late 80's, the definition of how inflation is calculated has changed. Currently, the "basket of goods and services" changes with trends, so that when people cancel cable TV, the cost of cable TV as calculated in the inflation index goes *down*, despite the fact that people are dropping it because its actual cost is going *up*.
So, people are settling for less and less because they are poorer and poorer and they are being priced out of buying things they used to be able to afford, and the inflation index considers this *deflationary*.
The actual inflation rate is much higher than the official figure, as watching the housing and health care markets should make obvious. But people living with their parents into their thirties, and taking in rooomates and living in vans, and not seeing the doctor, is considered *deflationary*, offsetting the actual increasing costs of these things. According to the index.
Google "inflation calculation has changed" or similar for the details.
Those deals are always the same, they get you to sign up for an extra service by offering an introductory rate that's cheaper than what you'd pay without that service. But once they got you suckered in they jack rates right up. It's always better in the long run to only sign up for what you actually want*. And don't believe what the salesweasel tells you about how the bundle will be cheaper - they are lying.
Though I'd just drop Comcast if you can. I'm glad I can get decent naked DSL through the phone company here - that's all I need.
* Or call them up every once and a while and threaten to cancel, they'll usually offer you a deal to stay