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Tomorrow, January 1st, 2010, the nice people at our cable company have opted to give us a holiday present….a rate hike. Everything is going up. When they are done, the monthly rental on an extra cable box will be $14.50. That includes 50 cents for a remote. We tried a few years ago to return the remote, use our own $10 one, and save 50 cents. Apparently, even though they keep giving us extra remote controls we don’t need, they can’t be returned for money.
Can a cable box purchased possibly cost more than what it is costing us to rent it? It is one thing to charge more for cable service, but for the box? That said, let’s move on to cable service itself. At least cable companies can claim that they are passing on the increased costs content providers are charging them. But in the end, the price is getting ridiculous.
We don’t want 90% of the channels we are paying for, but due to bundling, we are getting and paying for them. That is why, despite cord cutting is a hassle, and many have said they cannot live with it and come back, it keeps seeming like an option. There is so much free content out there, and so much reasonably priced paid content out there, is it any surprise that cable subscriptions are down.
But we’re not planning to go cold turkey. That is how most cord cutters fail. We want to gradually wean ourselves off of these services, and explore alternatives. It may mean we have to wait for content. Is the latest episode of a popular show so timely it can’t be watched a day or a week later, which is when some online services receive it?
That said, cable is not likely to leave our households any time soon. But bringing down the cable bill is a serious concern. This includes looking at fewer cable boxes, lower levels of service, and more MythTV frontends, streaming boxes, etc. There are pitfalls. It means investment of time and money in experimentation. But that is better than thousands spent on cable television each year.
We needed a name for this multi-part series about experiments in cord cutting. Downstreaming seemed good as any. Stay tuned….
