The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/2013...elevision/

yay...there's nothing very important going on in the country, so I'm glad the government finally has time to worry about cable bills

His plan isn't really about sports. A la carte cable has been floated around for years. But I also agree with LD, there are far more important things the gov't should care about. If cable is too expensive for you, then don't have cable. If enough people drop their cable subscriptions, then the market will change. Yay for capitalism.

So the government should only work on one problem at a time?

Yes, focus on one thing at a time... just like Finis said.

no, they can work on multiple problems at a time. the next time they seem to get one right, i'll be happy about them moving on to make decisions about everything

We switched from Dish to Directv a few years ago & all of a sudden this year we are experiencing the increased monthly cost for Directv.

Once our "agreement" is up, we will pursue something else, possibly U-verse if it is available in our area.

It isn't nice for them to go up on our costs since we had an agreement, but like it was mentioned if everyone starts dropping them they will get the message.

(05-09-2013 08:31 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  We switched from Dish to Directv a few years ago & all of a sudden this year we are experiencing the increased monthly cost for Directv.

Once our "agreement" is up, we will pursue something else, possibly U-verse if it is available in our area.

It isn't nice for them to go up on our costs since we had an agreement, but like it was mentioned if everyone starts dropping them they will get the message.

Direct TV offers low intro rates than you end up paying more than dish

Yep. You do get more channels though.

We will go another route when our contract is up.

I agree with McCain: these are regulated utilities engaging in unfair trade practices. And that is exactly what Congress should be addressing.

The fact that it could bring the whole greed-based house of cards that is college sports tumbling down is just a bonus.

(05-09-2013 08:31 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  We switched from Dish to Directv a few years ago & all of a sudden this year we are experiencing the increased monthly cost for Directv.

Once our "agreement" is up, we will pursue something else, possibly U-verse if it is available in our area.

It isn't nice for them to go up on our costs since we had an agreement, but like it was mentioned if everyone starts dropping them they will get the message.

All the satellite companies give you a low rate the first year of your contract.

(05-10-2013 08:57 AM)jthrashr Wrote:  

(05-09-2013 08:31 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  We switched from Dish to Directv a few years ago & all of a sudden this year we are experiencing the increased monthly cost for Directv.

Once our "agreement" is up, we will pursue something else, possibly U-verse if it is available in our area.

It isn't nice for them to go up on our costs since we had an agreement, but like it was mentioned if everyone starts dropping them they will get the message.

All the satellite companies give you a low rate the first year of your contract.

Also, Uverse is garbage and was rushed out to compete with high-end cable. It runs on old infrastructure and relies too heavily on previous wiring installations for it to be anyway reliable. I had it, loved it at first until I started getting all the unfixable errors...and internet speeds capped at base-cable levels.

Don't think that U-Verse won't gouge your prices up after all their promo pricing either. It's ATT. They invented price gouging.

I switched from Movistar to Claro :)

We signed up with DirecTV because the local cable service (Coosa Cable) was reducing its basic lineup to about 40 channels, moving more of its channels to "premium" status. Since then it has gradually increased rates and added more "selling channels" (I really don't need 2 QVC channels- 70 & 275) but still won't carry CSS.

If John McCain wants to help consumers, he might get a law to ban "fine print" at the bottom of a commercial and the "speed talk" of disclaimers that sound like an auctioneer.

(05-10-2013 11:11 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  We signed up with DirecTV because the local cable service (Coosa Cable) was reducing its basic lineup to about 40 channels, moving more of its channels to "premium" status. Since then it has gradually increased rates and added more "selling channels" (I really don't need 2 QVC channels- 70 & 275) but still won't carry CSS.

If John McCain wants to help consumers, he might get a law to ban "fine print" at the bottom of a commercial and the "speed talk" of disclaimers that sound like an auctioneer.

CSS is only available for Comcast and Charter cable.

At times I think that needs to be a sticky note at the top of the forum.

A la carte sounds good until you think about having to pay $24.99 per month or more just for ESPN. The people who it would really affect are those who often watch a variety of networks.

(05-10-2013 02:45 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  A la carte sounds good until you think about having to pay $24.99 per month or more just for ESPN. The people who it would really affect are those who often watch a variety of networks.

That wouldn't come even close to happening. I could see $5 or maybe $10 for an ESPN package, but any more and they wouldn't have enough to sign up.

Microtransactions in media are quickly becoming the norm, and cable is going to have to change the way it's doing things to keep up. Otherwise there will be more people like me going to antenna plus computer-based media or Roku type device. For that matter you'll have more media offering online programming only for smaller fees.

(05-10-2013 03:24 PM)LightEmUp70 Wrote:  That wouldn't come even close to happening. I could see $5 or maybe $10 for an ESPN package, but any more and they wouldn't have enough to sign up.

They are already getting more than $5 from every single cable or satellite subscriber in the U.S. No way they offer ESPN for that low of a price. People are already paying $11-$15 per month for HBO and Showtime. ESPN can easily surpass that and still get tons of subscribers.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/141097593.html

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/can-espn-s...h-cm229538

As of 2012 they got about $5.06 per subscriber. My prediction is that they can actually charge slightly less with an a la carte system and would more than make up for it with the increase in subscribers. Of course you would have to add the surcharge for having the cable, but a build your own cable system would be great. The main reason they have channels in tier packages is because of the lesser known channels being afraid of getting pushed out of the market.