Viable alternatives to DirecTV? (1 Viewer)

[David_B_K]

Reading this thread, it's sadly apparent that all of us are experiencing the pains of Home Entertainment inflation.

It's not just the cable services. It's the streaming ones as well.

Everybody is hurting these days with this economy and looking for ways to cut back. I get it. I'm retired and have already cut back on the content I buy on disc and digital.

Besides the cost, I think a lot of it has to do with spending money for programming we do not need. DirecTV provided a lot of content, but I only watched a smattering of it; and I would have to choose a higher tier to get all the Hallmark channels. If DirecTV had offered a tier with some flexibility that allowed me to trade channels I don't watch for ones I do watch, we could have stayed together.

They also tried to talk me into their own streaming package (DirecTV Stream). It was even worse. In order to get the channels I already had on DirecTV, I would have had to buy their highest tier. The streaming service was very sports oriented, and they didn't have a tier like the basic one from YouTube TV.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I just went through my annual dance with Comcast yesterday, as my one year contract was up. I have the same situation -- it's cheaper to have their triple play package with Internet, TV and phone than to dump the phone line. This year, I was actually able to get my price down by about $25 per month. I think they are finally reacting to losing so many customers. I could save another $10 per month if I could get rid of the one cable box we still have, but my wife refuses to give it up on the TV she watches most. I got rid of the box in the home theater, and am just using the Roku Ultra and Apple TV 4K each with the Xfinity streaming app in place of the box. I've been doing that with a Roku Express on the TVs in our basement and my wife's office for years.

I usually do not like quoting myself, but I had to contact Comcast again today, as my new pricing was not showing up on our account. It turns out whoever I spoke with never added the promotion price reduction to our account. This time, the customer retention person would not give me any lower price for service, claiming there were no promotions available right now. He suggested I call back in a few weeks to see if any new promotions were available!

Instead, I ended up dumping their TV and voice service, and have signed up for YouTube TV. This will cost $41 less per month than my increased Comcast bill, and about $8 less per month than what I was paying. Once I have the time, I will check with Wide Open West about switching our Internet service to save even more money.

My wife's not happy about losing the easy of use of the cable box, but there was no way I was accepting Comcast's price increase and complete unwillingness to do anything to keep me as a customer.