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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.
We don't get cable TV along with it.
... 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).
Precisely.
There's next to nothing on television I want to watch. Internet service is adequate (and has been since my 2009 DSL line) for my tele-viewing needs.
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.
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
Internet access is free at most public libraries. Some even keep a free wifi running 24/7. You'll claim this is too much of a burden for the poor, won't you?
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
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
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.
Yet, my internet only package is ~$100 / month. ( My router, my cable modem )
What you pay differs VASTLY depending upon where you live and if any competition ( Fios, Google Fiber, AT&T Gigapower, etc ) exists in your neighborhood.
If Google rolled in here tomorrow, Comcast would probably cut my bill in HALF just to keep everyone from jumping ship.
. . . 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.)
...they give 50% better service.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Bingo, me too. I'm too poor to get an iPhone, I've got a years old Android or two. I get internet ONLY (29Mb/6Mb), and then OTA for Tivo. Well, and then add in Roku, Fire and Plex, and HiDive. I also (accidentally) have Verizon unlimited* internet as a backup for the few times Comcast goes down.
* the OLD actually-unlimited plan, with limited voice and text. Which is full speed unlimited data until 100GB DL, and then it switches to 0.0T since they drop you next month, so I hear. And if you heavily target a single site it's magically unreachable the next month but works fine elsewhere. It's amazing how sensitive the internet is.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
There's next to nothing on television I want to watch. Internet service is adequate (and has been since my 2009 DSL line) for my tele-viewing needs.
^^^^^^^^^^^This this this
I was browsing at a friend's place who has a cable package of a bazillion channels...I went through about 100 channels and found nothing, literally nothing worth watching or paying for.
I have an Amazon Prime account, and between that and Youtube and PirateBay I don't see the need to buy cable. As Newton C. Minnow said waaaaaay back in 1961:
"But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland."
And nothing has changed except the wasteland is far bigger. Yippee.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
At this point cable is just a tax on anyone too old, or too dumb to switch to streaming services.
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?
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
I have an Amazon Prime account, and between that and Youtube and PirateBay I don't see the need to buy cable.
^^^^^ THIS :)
I cancelled my cable TV subscription and discovered I have a WIFE!? We started talking more, playing board games, card games, and taking the dog for walks together.
Damn, she's an interesting human. Fortunately I've realized what a soul-sucking waste of time television is before either one of us died of ennui.
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells
If you're counting a 1,000 channel cable package as "cost of living", you're kind of an idiot.
You must be a lot of fun at parties.
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
Drive 200 miles on icey roads to use library internet, what could be the problem with that?
Don't live 200 miles away from books
Pay tens of thousands of dollars for real estate near a library to use library internet, what could be the problem with that?
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.
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?
What made you think that was a proud proclamation? I read it as a complaint.
It seems like nehumanuscrede is complaining that their internet-only plan is $100/month, and that it should be much lower, and would be much lower if there were any competition.
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)
We don't get cable TV along with it.
The problem with just internet (I'm one of those with just internet), is that the cost to have just internet has quadrupled in price over the same time period too.
I pay more for just internet than I paid for internet and cable back in 2010 (which is about when I cut out cable TV completely). If you're in an area with competition for broadband you have a little flexibility- for the majority of America living in cable monopolies- cost to get internet is ridiculously high for poor service.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
^^^^^ THIS :)
I cancelled my cable TV subscription and discovered I have a WIFE!?
The same thing happened to me. I'm considering getting a cable TV subscription again.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
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
It's funny how my cable Internet service went from $80 for ~10-15 megabit when it was a monopoly to $45 for 300 megabit within 2 weeks of AT&T laying fiber behind my house.
Though they still try to get me to rent a cable modem from them, because the 'substandard' modem I own wouldn't handle the speed, when it's rated for ~400 Mbps
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...
I have 1 T.V. hooked up to cable, and another with an antenna. We mostly watch Netflix on both T.V.s, and other then cartoons on the cable T.V. I prefer the programming on the antenna T.V.. Only like 30 channels, but I like the shows better.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
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.
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.'"
The only thing that hasn't been skyrocketing are wages.
According to the BLS Employment Cost Index, September 2018:
Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.8 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the 3-month period ending in September 2018...Wages and salaries (which make up about 70 percent of compensation costs) increased 0.9 percent and benefit costs (which make up the remaining 30 percent of compensation) increased 0.4 percent from June 2018.
Doesn't sound like you went through the OnDemand type service your friend has. I have every channel, between just the movie channels like FX, HBO, STARS, etc you're going to find something. Through TV it's got almost everything from the current season of any show, plus backlogs of tons especially on premium networks.
I include it as part of the "everything everywhere" that has been sharply rising in price for the last decade, while wages stayed stagnant.
More communities need to be doing this. We're not networked with our neighbors; it's totally crazy and inefficient. If one person has downloaded something from a data center hundreds of miles away, the next person should be downloading it from next door, not the same long-distance, super-busy network.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
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.
And yet you're still paying the same company for your internet needs and the cost of Internet Access has been steadily increasing. Congratulations on eliminating one of the services you subscribe to....
What's your phone bill again....but yeah watch streaming content on your phone :0
THANK YOU!
That's the fucking point: NO COMPETITION. You can drop tv all you want but you're getting internet from the same company who just jacks the rates on the internet service. We need competition. More companies providing the service.
I'm in the same boat. Cable + Internet = $120. Internet only = $94.99. I've been with DirecTV for a while - they had a come on offer of $19.99/month for 2 years. As that is coming to an end soon, I'm not sure what I'll do next. Spectrum is the only game in my town. Verizon DSL ends 2 miles from my house. The nearest home serviced by Comcast is the next town over.
..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.
"Playing board games" WTF, get a freaking life.
Pro Tip: Get a wife or girlfriend and maybe you won't be such a bitter cunt.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Doesn't sound like you went through the OnDemand type service your friend has. I have every channel, between just the movie channels like FX, HBO, STARS, etc you're going to find something. Through TV it's got almost everything from the current season of any show, plus backlogs of tons especially on premium networks.
I appreciate the suggestion, but my goal in life isn't to watch more TV.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Worst case, there's public libraries.
When I lived in a semi-rural town, our cable ISP offered a 3mbit down / 1mbit up plan for $15/month and it was great. Now that I live in a very rural town, the cheapest DSL plan is $70/month, and it's a problem.
The people saying that they don't add a television plan don't understand what being poor means. That's like finding magical money by not buying $6 coffees.
Yeah, lately it's been Catan, which isn't very good for just 2 players, but we get lots of practice in order to decimate our children and their significant others for when we all visit during the holidays. The kids don't watch much television either as they are rather active and socially well adjusted, and always rather busy.
On one recent game I played nothing but development cards and the robber, and won handily. The wife was so pissed I damn near had to leave the house for a while, and the dog was traumatized. That was a good game, for me :)
Our big family games usually descent into winners vs losers arm wrestling matches, pull-up competitions with taunting and talking smack, lots of dead-arm shoulder punching, and obligatory shots of tequila. The bruising usually fades by Easter.
Your idea of board games must be the kind that pacifists play, where everyone is happy, there's no strife, taunting, or name calling. Either way, sitting face to face with other humans is something that I suspect you haven't had enough of, based on your response. Try it, it might mellow out your temperament a bit. I'd invite you over, but I'm afraid you'd just get injured.
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells
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.
You win the internet for the day, perfect response :) I'm going to use variations on that when I explain to visiting relatives why we have no TV service. She's gonna hurt me.
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells
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.
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.
The fact you mentioned Piratebay means you steal for part of your content watching, so no, you're not proving anything here.
Actually, PirateBay has a lot of perfectly legal stuff.
Shame on you for assuming that I'm "stealing" anything.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Yes, but if you have cable/satellite, it comes with a DVR, so at any time you have the last X days worth of shows you like from 100 channels.
So there's 100 days of more craptastic junk that I didn't want to watch then and (still) don't want to watch now. How is that better?
Most of the time, I find it much easier to push 3 buttons on my remote
Most of the time I find it much easier to go outside or visit friends or have fun in my workshop or spend time with my wife and family.
Enjoy your remote; I'm sure the two of you will have many rewarding hours together.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
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