Pay TV keeps going up...YAY!..Pfft...

[newfiend]

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2 ... ising?lite

Gotta Love Inflation.

[richard1980]

I'd really like to know where these people get their numbers. A couple of days ago, MissingRemote ran an article about one Canadian company that came up with something like 2.5 million people canceled, and now these people say 5 million canceled. Unfortunately, neither of them agree with what the MVPDs say during their earnings calls. I think I'll stick with the numbers published from the MVPDs, and if I want summary information, I'll go to someone like SNL Kagan.

[makryger]

They say that it's licensing fees that are causing the problems, but I'd imagine we've gone into this vicious cycle of decreased subscriptions>higher prices for the rest of us> more cancellations. I'm sure our commercial skipping isn't helping matters either.

[barnabas1969]

My cable subscription went up 8% last month. If they keep out-pacing the rate of inflation and salaries, they'll be putting themselves out of business eventually. Same thing happened in housing... home prices out-paced people's ability to afford houses. It was no shock to me when the housing market crashed. I have very good friends in the finance industry, and they were all in denial until it happened.

[adam1991]

I pay $81/month, including all taxes, for 15 megabit broadband plus all the digital channels plus cablecard. No premiums.

It started last year as a promotional "why don't I just give you the extra tier of digital channels for 12 months for free" as I set up my cablecard and moved away from analog, then a couple of weeks ago I called to ask about the expiration date on that--and he simply said, "let me renew that for you". Problem solved.

Full disclosure: my entire metro area has both WOW and Time-Warner cable lines running on the poles, and most of the area is also covered by AT&T with U-Verse. Yes, Virginia, there is actual wired cable competition--and it works.

I will not hesitate to scale back, up to and including going OTA for TV, if I have to. The problem with "cutting the cord" is that around here, internet service without TV is a dollar more expensive than bundling internet service *with* TV.

[J3ff]

I'm on cablevision... and have the 50 down/ 8 up, phone I'll never use and all channels but the movies for 95 bucks a month. If they try to raise that rate on me I will have NO issue going to uverse for a month or two until they are ready to offer me the same package.

If they never offer me the cheaper price and uverse doesn't want to compete, I will just drop down to internet only and "find" my shows.

[barnabas1969]

I now pay $110 a month, and that doesn't include Internet service. My employer is directly billed for my Internet service. If they it was bundled with my cable TV, my bill would be approximately $30 higher. I have one premium channel, Showtime, and it costs $15 per month. So, the "standard" cable package with a cable card and tuning adapter would cost me $95/month if I didn't have Showtime. We have U-Verse in the area, but I wouldn't want to be limited to two simultaneous HD channels in the entire household.

It went up $8 last month.