How to reduce cable bill

[johnep]

We have used Time Warner Cable for a long time but they now have competition in our area with AT&T. We have most cable channels except premium show channels like HBO. Also use digital phone and Internet service as a bundle. TW cost per month is $185 and AT&T offered same services for $150 with 2 year price guarantee. We really do not want to switch because TW service has been very good and we have friends who had bad experience making this switch.

I called TW and the best they would do is reduce bill $13 per month. Perhaps they would have done more but I would have to have canceled the service to find out. The only extra charges on our bill are $8.86 for a 2nd digital receiver, $12.95 for DVR for one TV and $3.95 for Internet modem. There was another thread recently asking what people used to stream on their TVs. We do not do that although I suspect we could as both our TVs are less than 5 years old and have a lot of features. We also have a home network with a Windows PC, Mac Pro and a new Ipad4.

I am just looking for advice for how to reduce our current cable bill and perhaps improve the usability of our TVs and computers. Thanks for your advice.

[pennstater2005]

You may have to actually call to cancel. They may not let it get to that point. I have Verizon phone/internet. I called to cancel and the gentlemen asked why I was canceling. I told him because there were better rates out there and I didn't need a home phone anyway. He put me on hold and when he came back, he offered me a 20 credit per month for the next year. That took my price from $46/month to $26/month including all fees. It may be worth it to take it to the cancellation point. You can always have the service re installed shortly.

[linuxuser]

See how much cheaper with double-play, i.e. kick the phone service.

[Calm Man]

John,
This is a common quandary. Although you will read here periodically as well as in other places that people "cut the cable" and seem to take great pleasure in that, for most of us cable is very important as it provides live sports, live news shows, etc and we will not get rid of it. I think you have done the max with Time Warner as I have been told by people who use Comcast in my area that while in the past threats to discontinue the service lead to full reups on whatever promotion they had, they now are getting $15 reductions, period. One easy one for you is to buy your own cable modem which will pay off in a year or two. The only other thing I see is to get rid of the DVR. Many people have it. I simply never started with it and thehre is nothing important enough that I need to DVR it. Losing the other TV is the last possibility but you probably don't want to do that. I think this will all end up good eventually. Enough people are getting tired of the high fees which are disproportionately hurting the lower middle class and middle class. I predict soon there will be an a la carte bill passed where one can pick and choose what they want.

[jeffyscott]

Last year when our promotional rate was ending, I had called up and said I was happy to pay the $110 or so rate we had for all three TWC services but I was not willing to pay the new rate that was going to be something like $140 or more. The rep checked on promotions they could offer and we got a new promo rate by adding more cable TV channels. They added a couple packages and gave us a new promo rate of about $115. Recently they added a charge for the modem, I complained that they had promised the new rate for a year but they ignored that.

Since I have finally lost all interest in sports and I think we are ready to do without the home phone, I'll be ready to just cancel everything but internet if we ever feel the cost is not worth it. We also have ATT as an option.

[blevine]

It's all a matter of sports. That's the only reason to keep cable.
Other entertainment is available through cheaper means as well documented on this site.

If sports matters and you want to continue seeing live games of local professional teams,
just have to play the game, call each year to negotiate a slightly better deal, or drop
those premium services you really don't use, or switch and try the competition.

As far as price guarantee for a year, that's usually only covering the basic packages, phone/internet/tv package selected.
Extras such as DVR, equipment rentals, may not be included in terms of the "promotional" pricing and could be subject
to change. This is one reason I have considered many times (not done yet) switching to Verizon FIOS with a contract,
to guarantee what I'll pay with no games for a couple of years. You can get freedom to live without a contract from Verizon
or cable in my area, will pay a bit more each month as a result, but that leaves you free to comparison shop more often,
if you are into that (I'm not).

[marstaton4]

I purchased a cable modem on ebay for ~$20 that will pay for itself in 5 months. I also have the lowest tier internet package and higher speeds may need a higher end modem. Make sure you check the list of approved modems before you go this route.

[stevewolfe]

I bought my own cable modem. I pay for Comcast mid level service (performance tier) and it's about $45 a month. I get the 23 channel package for $12.99 or so a month. My total bill with taxes, etc is about $63 a month.

For sports, in my case football, I can see a lot of games on regular TV. ESPN3 helps to stream some games. For Cowboys games (out of my area), I buy the NFL Audio pass and listen on the radio. It's $29.99 a year. There are sites online where you can stream these games as well if you care to.

For news channels, we just read various sites on the internet. Cable news networks just repeat the same news over and over again anyway. We've been set up this way for 3.5 years now and have no interest in paying more for cable tv. We don't miss the extra channels at all. We do have a streaming Netflix subscription too and watch shows pretty often that way.

With the money that we save on more cable channels we bought season tickets to Penn State home football games. Much better value for the money in my opinion.

[linuxuser]

I bought my own cable modem. I pay for Comcast mid level service (performance tier) and it's about $45 a month. I get the 23 channel package for $12.99 or so a month. My total bill with taxes, etc is about $63 a month.

That is me too except that I have the lowest speed internet which is $30, so $15 for the basic cable = $45.
I don't stream digital content to the TV so the lowest speed internet will be okay.

[bUU]

There is some movement toward much closer tie-ins between cable subscription and streaming off the Internet. For example, you'll see a cable network forcing you to validate that you are a cable subscriber before they'll stream you recent episodes of their drama or comedy series. They're doing this because streaming really does pose a great threat to their actual revenue stream, and so they're going to respect their more profitable distribution channels rather than less profitable or non-profitable distribution channels.

Someone mentioned a la carte, before. There's a lot of misinformation floating around about a la carte. The reality is a lot different. If you want to see how a la carte will affect you, look at the prices for C-band service. What you'll find is that once you add ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW, ESPN, CNN, TNT, Disney and a few more channels, you're now paying more than you did for cable. That's because we're each subsidizing each other's favorite channels, in order to grant us all all the channels. The only people who win, with a la carte, are people who really do limit themselves to three or four channels, all the time, without exceptions. Regardless, a la carte is pretty much dead now. Both Powell and Martin are gone and it's not a consideration for Genachowski. He barely pays lip service to the idea. At most, we may see operators that don't already offer a specific "family tier" starting to offer it. That would be the end of any consideration of a la carte.

[johnep]

Thanks to everyone for their replies. I think it will be difficult to reduce the things we currently get. The programs we watch vary and are scattered amongst the different TW tiers. I use DVR a lot because programs I like are often on at inconvenient times, plus I can FF past commercials. I like sports, history, food networks, home improvement, travel and some educational stuff. Wife likes old movies, games and other things. Neither of us watch network TV except for news and sports. I use internet more than TV. My wife uses very little internet although this may change with Ipad4.

I have considered dumping cable and phone and just using Internet and use own antenna for local TV stations. However, most of the local stations are those we use least anyway. Is it feasible to use your own receiver and DVR with a cable company? I am kind of leery of that because cable seems heavily controlled by software and I could just see a finger pointing issue whenever problems occur.

[Calm Man]

Bicker, who are these people you mention:
Both Powell and Martin are gone and it's not a consideration for Genachowski.

[bUU]

Is it feasible to use your own receiver and DVR with a cable company?

It needs to comply with a standard that the cable company supports, and the standard that the FCC has put forth is CableCARD. So you're looking at a device like the TiVo Premiere or HDHomeRun PRIME. I've been a TiVo customer for almost 15 years and I couldn't imagine watching television another way. We have had cable company boxes in the house, over the years, on second televisions, but they're been so disappointing that, at this point, we'd sooner get two TiVos than deal with any of them.

It's not cheap though. I've priced out replacing my current arrangement. (It's over five years old - I want to be prepared for how much it'll cost when the inevitable happens, because there is no doubt that we will replace the it with another TiVo.) It'll cost between $650 and $800, depending if we want 75 hours versus 300 hours of storage. (And we get a $100 discount as current customer.) Then we'll still be paying FiOS for service, of course (but not the $15 per month [or whatever it is] they charge for their own DVR).

I am kind of leery of that because cable seems heavily controlled by software and I could just see a finger pointing issue whenever problems occur.

Absolutely, which is why I go with TiVo. I know they'll go to bat for me when their own support staff determine that the problem is with the cable company.

Bicker, who are these people you mention:
Both Powell and Martin are gone and it's not a consideration for Genachowski.

Former and current heads of the FCC.

[johnep]

Is it feasible to use your own receiver and DVR with a cable company?

It needs to comply with a standard that the cable company supports, and the standard that the FCC has put forth is CableCARD. So you're looking at a device like the TiVo Premiere or HDHomeRun PRIME. I've been a TiVo customer for almost 15 years and I couldn't imagine watching television another way. We have had cable company boxes in the house, over the years, on second televisions, but they're been so disappointing that, at this point, we'd sooner get two TiVos than deal with any of them.

It's not cheap though. I've priced out replacing my current arrangement. (It's over five years old - I want to be prepared for how much it'll cost when the inevitable happens, because there is no doubt that we will replace the it with another TiVo.) It'll cost between $650 and $800, depending if we want 75 hours versus 300 hours of storage. (And we get a $100 discount as current customer.) Then we'll still be paying FiOS for service, of course (but not the $15 per month [or whatever it is] they charge for their own DVR).

I am kind of leery of that because cable seems heavily controlled by software and I could just see a finger pointing issue whenever problems occur.

Absolutely, which is why I go with TiVo. I know they'll go to bat for me when their own support staff determine that the problem is with the cable company.

Bicker, who are these people you mention:
Both Powell and Martin are gone and it's not a consideration for Genachowski.

Thanks Bicker. You provided some very useful info.
Former and current heads of the FCC.

[jeffyscott]

The only people who win, with a la carte, are people who really do limit themselves to three or four channels, all the time, without exceptions. Regardless, a la carte is pretty much dead now.

The sports channels are the highest cost by far.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... it/265814/

Rather than "a la carte" meaning choosing channel by channel, there could be some further subdividing of packages. An obvious one would be to offer a tier that excludes the sports channels, then offer the sports networks for perhaps $10-15 per month.

[OAG]

We have TW also. We do not like paying more to watch one station at a time an pay more than the natural gas bill to do so. At one time we had the TW Triple play (TV Phone & Internet). First to go was phone which was replaced with "Frends & Family cell services @ $10 a month. Next will be TV to be replaced with a couple of Ruko boxes we have been using for 3 months with a $7.99 Netflix account. The Internet will stay so we do not lose the Wi Fi. I just do not think AT&T ASDL based Mi Fi will handle it. We are retired so we can adjust our viewing disires easily.

[supertreat]

1) Purchase an HDTV antenna such as [url]this http://www.amazon.com/Winegard-HD7000R- ... L2XB9NR7Y8[/url] and set it up with the advise of this website http://www.tvfool.com

2) Either purchase a pre-built or build your own HTPC- there are people you can pay to do this as well. Here's the parts I bought to build my own http://www.avsforum.com/t/1434137/need-help-building-a-new-value-htpc#post_22499731 (all I used was a philips head screwdriver.

3) You know have OTA DVR capabilities, so you get all the major networks including sports and also all the streaming on-demand content you would ever want all for the up-front cost of the equipment and a monthly internet bill.

Enjoy!

[bUU]

The sports channels are the highest cost by far.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... it/265814/

Let's be clear ... those are average prices. They vary based on how high a tier the channel appears on - the higher the tier (i.e., the smaller the number of subscribers paying), the higher the price.

Rather than "a la carte" meaning choosing channel by channel, there could be some further subdividing of packages.

Yes, as I mentioned, the family tier is definitely making a strong showing in recent years.

An obvious one would be to offer a tier that excludes the sports channels, then offer the sports networks for perhaps $10-15 per month.

The problem is that consumers generally don't guess the right numbers when they pull together a tier like that. They generally assume that the same price-per-subscriber applies regardless of how high a tier the channel is placed on. The reality is that moving a channel from basic cable to the next tier up can triple its cost per subscriber. So your sports-only tier would probably run closer to $20-$40, on top of the the basic cable fee of $20. And that leads to the hand-wringing: "Why pay $50 for basic plus 20 sports channels, when I can get 200 channels for $70?"

I'm not saying it won't happen. $20 is $20, and there is no technical barrier, anymore, to providing a few dozen different configurations. Now the barriers are (1) the channels themselves refuse to allow the cable companies to move them off of the tier their on, or more generally onto smaller tiers; and (2) a few dozen different configurations can make things a lot more complicated for customers, which often results paradoxically in customer dissatisfaction.

[Mudpuppy]

I have a few questions. All of these relate to having to prioritize what is more important: your costs or viewing flexibility.

1) Does TWC give free analog cable (unencrypted so no box needed) to extra TVs in the house as long as you have one digital receiver? If so, consider dropping the second TV down to just analog cable, which usually has 50-100 channels. (Savings: $8.86)

2) What level of Internet service are you subscribed to? If it is just you and your spouse, and your spouse doesn't use the Internet much, you are probably perfectly fine with the standard level of service (10-15M down, 1M up). The dirty little secret of cable modem service levels is that the primary use for higher levels right now in the USA is sharing bandwidth between multiple users in a household. Many of the USA websites have traffic shapers that won't allow you to download at much more than 10-15M and 10-15M is also perfectly adequate for video streaming to one device. (Savings: $10-50 depending on current service level)

3) Consider cheaper alternatives to the DVR. In the not so old days, we just used the programmable tuner on the cable box to have it tune to the channel we wanted to record, then piped that through to video out, which went into the VCR/DVD recorder/set-top box with hard drive that was programmed to pick up and record the signal. And if the channel came in a nonencrypted format, we could just program the recorder to record it directly. You can get a Magnavox 53x series starting from about $210, which would pay for itself in 16 months. You have to ask yourself if avoiding a few programming steps to record the shows that air when you're not home is really worth $13 a month and even if you get your own DVR with CableCARD, you'll still be stuck with a monthly fee from both TiVo and TWC which will probably add up to more than $13 a month. (Savings: initial investment with break-even point of about 1.5 years)

4) You say you have most of the add-on channel packages except for premium channels. It's time to ask if you really need all of them. If there are packages where you are only viewing 1-2 channels in the package, it might not be worth paying the monthly fee for that package. Again, it's all about priorities. (Savings: Depends on channel package prices)

5) Do you have a cell phone? Does it have reliable service at your house? If so, consider becoming one of the growing cell phone only households and cancel the digital phone service. (Savings: Difference between standard rates for Double-Play and Triple-Play in your area)

[hlfo718]

Do you know when you are getting DVR you are not only paying $13/month for that but also another $5-$10 for "cable box"? So if you cut DVR as others have suggested you will save around 150 a years.

Also, you should just buy a new cable modem from Amazon for like $40. So your breakeven is about a year and $4/month savings thereafter.

[Frugal Al]

We have used Time Warner Cable for a long time but they now have competition in our area with AT&T.

I went through the same process with Time Warner. I went with ATT Uverse and it's been much better than the TW service in my area. Faster and more consistent internet (consistently 3 to 4 Mbps faster), better DVR (whole house), a better user interface, and I save about $25/month for a similar channel line-up. For home phone I went with the Ooma, which runs $3.76 taxes per month.

[johnep]

Thanks to everyone for their feedback and suggestions. I appreciate it. You have given me some ideas to consider.

John

[Boglemama]

We now pay $30 per month for Comcast performance plus internet (we purchased our own modem), $8 per month for Hulu plus (through our Roku player and streamed to our tv), $30 per month for one cell with 750 minutes, and $7 per month for our other cell that used to be our home phone (we prepay $100 and don't use it much). $75 per month total, and we used to get charged $125 by Comcast. I can think of much better ways of spending $600 per year than giving it to Comcast.

[linuxuser]

We now pay $30 per month for Comcast performance plus internet (we purchased our own modem), $8 per month for Hulu plus (through our Roku player and streamed to our tv), $30 per month for one cell with 750 minutes, and $7 per month for our other cell that used to be our home phone (we prepay $100 and don't use it much). $75 per month total, and we used to get charged $125 by Comcast. I can think of much better ways of spending $600 per year than giving it to Comcast.

I am surprised you can get $30 for Performance Plus internet. Here in central NJ, I have to pay $45 and that is if I also have basic cable with them.

[jeffyscott]

Yes, similar here. I believe stand alone internet service from TWC is about $50 per month, so my rate of $110 (before taxes and fees) means effectively paying $60 for TV and phone. We average less than $7 per month for two prepaid phones. With taxes and fees we sped about $130 per month on all phone, TV, and internet services.

I figure if we dropped cable TV and phone we'd perhaps pay $16 per month for hulu and netflix, we'd want a faster internet speed so that'd maybe be around $60 per month, and maybe increased cell phone usage would boost that cost to $10-15 per month. Adding that up would put us at something like $90 per month.

[jridger2011]

John,
This is a common quandary. Although you will read here periodically as well as in other places that people "cut the cable" and seem to take great pleasure in that, for most of us cable is very important as it provides live sports, live news shows, etc and we will not get rid of it. I think you have done the max with Time Warner as I have been told by people who use Comcast in my area that while in the past threats to discontinue the service lead to full reups on whatever promotion they had, they now are getting $15 reductions, period. One easy one for you is to buy your own cable modem which will pay off in a year or two. The only other thing I see is to get rid of the DVR. Many people have it. I simply never started with it and thehre is nothing important enough that I need to DVR it. Losing the other TV is the last possibility but you probably don't want to do that. I think this will all end up good eventually. Enough people are getting tired of the high fees which are disproportionately hurting the lower middle class and middle class. I predict soon there will be an a la carte bill passed where one can pick and choose what they want.

Time Warner Cable consistently raises its prices every few years and the internet service is slower than other providers. If you are able to switch, at least try the switch out. I'm locked into Time Warner Cable along with its high cost, slow internet, and that new cable modem fee for NY.

[crowd79]

I just cut cable from Charter. Second time I've cut them, had them for 1.5 yrs, after going w/o cable for a year. They refused to give me another promotion so I cancelled. Savings of $77 per month. As far as sports go, football season is over and there is no Olympics or World Cup this year, so I figure I can go until September before signing up again for another promotion deal with Charter. Most sitcom episodes and reality tv that I want to see I can buy separately on Hulu + or buy separately on Amazon until then. Also have my Netflix membership. Plus, I hardly ever watch much TV during the summer months anyways. Who wants to be sitting inside then?

[Kulak]

Boycott TV altogether. I've been TV-free for almost 10 years now, and to say that I don't miss it is an understatement.

[VictoriaF]

Boycott TV altogether. I've been TV-free for almost 10 years now, and to say that I don't miss it is an understatement.

I have not had a TV set since 2008, but when I moved to a Comcast land I found out that paying for a package of TV+Internet is cheaper than the Internet alone.

Victoria

[mptfan]

I cut cable tv completely a few months ago. I do miss some channels, like the history channel and the science channel, but overall, I am happy with the decision. I get a total of 40 channels "over the air" from my antenna, and about 20 of them are high quality HD channels. I find that I have enough content to watch, but I am considering getting a netflix subscription.

[Tom_T]

I cut cable tv completely a few months ago. I do miss some channels, like the history channel and the science channel, but overall, I am happy with the decision.

FYI, the History Channel, A&E, and Lifetime now have free iPad apps to watch their shows. You don't need a cable subscription.

[Sunny Sarkar]

More than a year ago we started experimenting with Antenna TV + internet streaming combination. I connected an indoor antenna and a desktop computer (via hdmi) to the TV. After trying it out for 2 months, we felt not only that cutting cable was possible, but also that it was actually better and more liberating to be able to watch stuff at our own convenient times via streaming (never paid for tivo). For example, I can now watch Stewart & Colbert when I make the morning coffee the next morning instead of having to stay up late to catch the shows when they air on cable.

We use Kylo.TV on a Windows 7 desktop for streaming content... http://kylo.tv/computertotv/


No cable bills since.

p.s. I understand that those who are hooked on cable programs like HBO, it can be difficult or even impossible to cut cable. Luckily I'm a NPR/PBS kind of guy, and the sports I watch (european soccer, cricket) do not come on US cable anyway.

Best,
Sunny

[mptfan]

I cut cable tv completely a few months ago. I do miss some channels, like the history channel and the science channel, but overall, I am happy with the decision.

FYI, the History Channel, A&E, and Lifetime now have free iPad apps to watch their shows. You don't need a cable subscription.

Thanks. I guess I need to get an Ipad. Do they have apps for the computer?

[Sunny Sarkar]

I cut cable tv completely a few months ago. I do miss some channels, like the history channel and the science channel, but overall, I am happy with the decision.

FYI, the History Channel, A&E, and Lifetime now have free iPad apps to watch their shows. You don't need a cable subscription.

Thanks. I guess I need to get an Ipad. Do they have apps for the computer?

Yes, they do. It's called the web browser
http://www.history.com/shows
http://www.aetv.com/allshows.jsp
http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/
http://science.discovery.com/videos

[mptfan]

I cut cable tv completely a few months ago. I do miss some channels, like the history channel and the science channel, but overall, I am happy with the decision.

FYI, the History Channel, A&E, and Lifetime now have free iPad apps to watch their shows. You don't need a cable subscription.

Thanks. I guess I need to get an Ipad. Do they have apps for the computer?

Yes, they do. It's called the web browser
http://www.history.com/shows
http://www.aetv.com/allshows.jsp
http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/
http://science.discovery.com/videos

I don't think you can watch full episodes for free from their websites.

[Default User BR]

Boycott TV altogether. I've been TV-free for almost 10 years now, and to say that I don't miss it is an understatement.

I like TV.


Brian

[OAG]

I know this is probably useless to OP but we just today got off TW TV - The white van with a couple of fellows in it came by and picked up the cable box then went out back and put the filter in (or took it out) so we no longer have TV. We did keep the Internet/Wi-fi. We use Roku boxes on two TV's and a Netflix ($7.99 a month). Old bill went to $97 next month and was scheduled to hit $100 in March. Now the cost will be $47 a month (20/2 speeds). I can get news off the internet any time via Wi-Fi and DW still has her Soaps via one of those boxes that came out a couple of years ago hooked to a really old TV (she gets ABC, CBS and NBC plus a few other thing). She is hooked on the Roku and Netflix stuff now. She also can get Netflix via the IPad I when she wants to and a TV is not around for her.