I will never have digital cable again!

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/02/comcast_sets_rate_hike_on_a pri.html

Fire the cable company. Seems simple enough to me.

Yep. Vote with your feet!

Heck, these days OTA is looking sweet, and a whole lot of programming can be had on the Internet. Lots of ways to keep current on stuff.

Streaming, subscription downloads, P2P.

Cable isn't worth it, unless you are using it for the Internet. Personally, I don't like Comcast as an ISP either. When the time comes, I'll go DSL again.

I know Andrew, Verizon is a PITA. Once that's over though, I can just use Spire and be a happy camper again.

Back in early '00's we went through a bit of a rough patch. I cut the subscription TV. Best thing I ever did. We've got it now, because my father in law and wife use the TV for entertainment enough to justify it, but we never have reached the peak watching we used to.

It just broke the cycle.

Today, we've the DVR and we pick and choose what we watch, when, and such. It's great!

Do it for a while. Just cut them off, find some other stuff to do, and give it 6 months. It will be good for you Vern.

Verizon, like Qwest, is fine if you don't have any problems. My Mom still has Verizon despite the nasty problems we had with them. Since the Verizon tech came out and fixed the problems last year, all has been well.

I suggest you give Clear a shake too if you can get it (despite Newflyer's problems with it, my friend is thrilled with it).

I might do that actually.

For now, we are sharing a Comcast account with a family member. Soon, I'll be able to go shopping!

In the article:

"Comcast is not raising prices on its phone or Internet services, or on its most basic video service. The cost of other services will rise by varying amounts."

Not quite right. My high speed internet monthly fee got bumped by an extra $2 a month at the beginning of this year.

We don't have cable TV so that won't affect us.

When I was in high school, I lost access to cable in a family cost-cutting measure. Although I felt "out of the loop" in terms of TV programs, I survived, especially with the mid-valley radio reception where I lived.

Several months after I finished high school, family signed up for Dish Network and thought we'd never get rid of it. Five years after that, we got tired of the bill and completely got rid of it. Something crazy happened, nobody missed it!

These days, there are some better schedules out there that I pay attention to, some of which are:
http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=26000
http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=24433
http://trimet.org/meetings/index.htm
http://c-tran.com/calendar.html

I remember back when someone scrawled on a Comcast advertisement "slave away for entertainment." I saw their point: have a gigantic cable bill you have to pay so you have to work even longer at some place you hate, especially if you're low-income.

I obviously recommend that as many people as possible end their dependence on corporate-sponsored conspicuous consumption.

Oh, and BTW, I'm glad to only be paying $7.95/mo. for internet, and because of the open free market competitiveness of the kind of service I have, I pay for a service I actually get, not marketing buzz.

Living in McMinnville, $16.50 per month for local analog channels is necessary. Then I signed up with Verizon (damn) to get 3 mb dsl for $27.99 for two years (price for life) they call it.
Less than $50 per month total and no price increases. I have a secret! I watch Fox News, Msnbc, Cnbc, SciFi, Tlc, and a few others online.
They are live and the website is legal!

Subscription TV rates always go up every year, as a response to programming costs from channels included in the packages. Dish and DirecTV are raising their rates too. The Oregonian slams the Comcast rate increase every year in an editorial. It's funny, a few years back, when The Oregonian raised it's daily paper cost from 35 to 50 cents, I don't recall an editorial about this 42% rate increase. Hmmm, I wonder why!

The article quoted an official from MACC saying he doesn't understand the business plan. Well, the business plan is simple: maintain the profit margin on video packages in the face of increased programming fees, for as long as the market supports it.

Nice one Shane!

True too.

Either the programming is worth it, or it isn't. If it's worth it, then there really is nothing to complain about.

Remember this: everybody spends money differently. Some will see value in going to the movies, some find value in renting, others in Netflix, and some find value in subscribing to Comcast or satellite.

A neighbor last night brought over a DVD they had purchased and we watched it. I had already seen the movie so we watched it again, but I noticed that it was priced at $14.99 for the movie. Personally to me thats incredibly expensive for a relatively mediocre movie. But to each there own because afterall everyone spends their money differently. We all see value in things where others may not.

People have a right to waste their extra money on whatever they want. Cable, satellite TV, stamp collection, whatever. What I hate is when people act like it's the end of the world if they can't get cable or act like I'm a freak if I don't have it. You don't NEED cable (or satellite) TV. It's an extra, not a requirement.

$58 per month for digital starter.
I need dsl more!

Cable-ready, receive-only TV or VCR + already existing cable socket:
Total operating cost per month (not counting electricity) = $ZER0. Simple as that.

Jeez, nobody's ever heard of "free to air"? Yes, it exists on cable systems as well ('specially analogue cable!) No, it's not just a "satellite thing". Yes, I do know what I'm talking about.

What I find hard to believe is that people swear by paying to watch stuff you could essentially be watching for free with almost no effort............

(I'm not going to get into discussion of QAM right now because I don't have enough experience with it to make said discussion meaningful, tho I happen to know some FTA stuff exists there, too--but it seems a huge pain in the ass, as I gather from what people have told me.)

> I need dsl more!

Then go for the DSL instead of the cable. As Shyguy suggested, only you can make the decision regarding whether the value of cable TV justifies the expense.