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posted by mrpg on Saturday January 06 2018, @01:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the read-soylentnews dept.

Cable and satellite TV providers are ringing in the new year with an unwelcomed gift: higher cable bills.

Comcast, for instance, says customer bills will rise 2.2 percent, on average, in 2018. AT&T is raising DirecTV's prices by up to $8 a month in mid-January. Smaller providers are planning increases, too.

Over the past decade, prices for TV service have risen almost twice as fast as inflation, according to an analysis of government data. Data provider S&P Global Market Intelligence says customers' cable and satellite TV bills have soared 53 percent since 2007, to $100.98 in 2017.

Annual rate hikes are as guaranteed as death and taxes. But you can push back and trim your bill.

What are you gonna do instead, read?


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Apparition on Saturday January 06 2018, @05:13AM (2 children)

    by Apparition (6835) on Saturday January 06 2018, @05:13AM (#618637) Journal

    I live in a condominium building with Comcast the sole available provider for both cable television and Internet access. I recently returned two Comcast cable boxes directly to a local XFINITY (ugh) store and canceled cable television service. Now I subscribe to Amazon Prime Video, Philo [philo.com], and YouTube Red. Philo is a new OTT video streaming service by Viacom and Discovery [cordcuttersnews.com] that offers about 40 non-sports channels for $20 per month. I don't have access to any local television channels, but the few programs that I'd want to watch (The Orville, The Gifted), I buy season passes for on VUDU. That's more than enough for me, and cheaper than Comcast cable television.

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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday January 06 2018, @04:41PM (1 child)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Saturday January 06 2018, @04:41PM (#618816)

    You can just download those shows on BT.

    You can also get an antenna and watch them OTA.

    • (Score: 1) by Apparition on Sunday January 07 2018, @03:37AM

      by Apparition (6835) on Sunday January 07 2018, @03:37AM (#618994) Journal

      I realize that I can download those shows, but I prefer to not knowingly break the law, however stupid or silly that law may be. As for using an antenna and watch them OTA, I can't use an outdoor antenna since I live in a condominium and last time I looked (which admittedly has been a while), indoor antennas are generally crappy. Thanks for the advice though.