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AT&T, Dish, Comcast All Raising Cable TV Rates To Counter Cord-Cutting (dallasnews.com)
AT&T's DirecTV, Dish, and Comcast are all planning to raise their rates again in the new year, "a move that could boost revenue but risks alienating subscribers who have been ditching their traditional TV subscriptions in record numbers," reports Dallas News. From the report: Cable and satellite providers are hoping to squeeze more money from consumers who remain loyal to their packages with hundreds of channels, Philip Cusick, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst, said in a note this week, even though "this strategy could accelerate video sub declines." The latest price increases come as cord-cutting accelerates. In the third quarter, the TV industry saw its largest ever rate of decline, with subscribers shrinking by 3.7 percent, according to MoffettNathanson LLC. Consumers are dropping traditional TV for lower-cost online options like Netflix Inc. and slimmer TV options from Hulu and YouTube.
DirecTV is raising rates on all English-language video packages by $3 to $8 a month while hiking fees for regional sports networks by $1 to $1.90 in most markets. Dish said it's increasing prices for English-language video packages by $3 to $5 a month. Altice USA, the fourth-largest cable operator, recently raised rates by 3 percent on Optimum subscribers. Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, is raising its fee for regional sports networks by $1.50 on average and its fee for broadcast channels by $2 a month, according to Cusick. Charter Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. cable provider, recently boosted its monthly fee for a set-top box by about 50 cents and its broadcast channel fee by about $1. Charter operates as Spectrum in Dallas-Fort Worth.
DirecTV is raising rates on all English-language video packages by $3 to $8 a month while hiking fees for regional sports networks by $1 to $1.90 in most markets. Dish said it's increasing prices for English-language video packages by $3 to $5 a month. Altice USA, the fourth-largest cable operator, recently raised rates by 3 percent on Optimum subscribers. Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, is raising its fee for regional sports networks by $1.50 on average and its fee for broadcast channels by $2 a month, according to Cusick. Charter Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. cable provider, recently boosted its monthly fee for a set-top box by about 50 cents and its broadcast channel fee by about $1. Charter operates as Spectrum in Dallas-Fort Worth.
My U-Verse TV series gives me the benefit of unlimited Internet data usage. If I cancel the cable, I will have a data cap. Weasley shits.
We have switched to YouTube TV. Not all of the channels, but enough. Local channels, bunch of news. Unlimited cloud based program storage (9 months). Sports channels (not a big concern but I watch some football, US and the rest of the world's definition, no Fox Sports for hockey though, dab-nab-it!).
$40 per month. We have cable internet through Charter (supposedly unlimited, hasn't been an issue)..
Combined with Netlfix (Bandersnatch!!!! we have 2 endings left and will cheat to find them) and Amazon Prime (already paid for), everything from the Roku, it works.
Going to get HBO Go for a short time to watch Game of Thrones.
BlameBillCosby.com
Other than local news and a few sports games, OTA TV is pure festering garbage. And the local news is pretty much trash, which leaves sports and only if that's your thing.
Then the real solution is to stop watching so much television. The reason cable companies are taking advantage of customers is that they are treating customers like a captive audience that has to subscribe. So the customers should be turning around and proving that they're not so addicted that they no longer have free will.
Uhm, what? USPS First Class mail prices are regulated by the government. They cannot raise prices without regulatory approval. And last time I checked, most Post Offices are falling apart, yet you make it sound like they're a bunch of fat cats living the sweet postage life.
It really surprised me how many channels you can get with an antenna. Something like 40-60 here in Dallas. Growing up, there were four.
The lowest cost for a letter from the USPS is under $.50 while UPS/Fedex is over $1.00.
You're most likely a Conservative/Libertard. You have no legitimate criticism, you just trash the government because you can. You hate it when the government works. Hating the government is a stand in for hating the US. You're anti-American.
Why is Snark Required?
For Pete's sake, /. Fix unicode support!! Parent post stabbed my eyeballs.
OTA is actually 1080i with MPEG2 compression, but on cable it is often recompressed with lower quality to save on bandwidth.