Everyone Seems To Pay More $$$ For Cable/Streaming

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matt72582's Avatar
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There's so many movies, or latest stand-up specials, documentaries, shows, etc., that are exclusive, and I know people who got rid of cable, and thought "I'll just buy streaming", and they tell me they spend twice as much. It might seem appealing $20/month, but when you have 10-15 subscriptions, it's quite high... And when you get Prime, all the great stuff is "unavailable" or they want an additional $10.

Of course, Concast makes cable so cheap, and the internet so expensive, they even throw in 30 channels of cable if you ask to cancel it, and of course, they have these bundle packs and for an additional $10 you can get home security or a land line phone (at least when I signed up).

YouTube is so underrated. I keep hearing people say, "I don't do YouTube" or "I don't know what's on there" - almost everything. And there's another $12/month I spend to avoid commercials. I am aware of ad-blockers, but my laptop was screwed up and had to resort to watching YouTube via my TV.

And then there's the many who will have their special on their website.. I want to see Louis CK's "Fourth of July" and I have to give him $15, but he's usually very reasonable on pricing, always charging $5.

EDIT: I just got a message telling me some movie is on Criterion -- more money, lol.



People are crazy about it.



I don't have cable, I don't stream, I don't have any TV services, I can't afford them. There's a lot of legit free stuff on YouTube and other places on the internet.



Victim of The Night
Well, I used to pay $160/m for cable and paid for a lot of movies on iTunes and had Netflix.
I got rid of cable completely and added Amazon Prime, HBOMax, and Shudder and I pay less per month and use them constantly. All my streaming services combined cost less than cable did and I only watched TCM on cable by the end.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
It's not paying for films that rubs me the wrong way. It's when people pay and then watch crappy movies.
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



matt72582's Avatar
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It's not paying for films that rubs me the wrong way. It's when people pay and then watch crappy movies.

And then quit watching movies altogether like many I know "in real life"



I'm closer than ever to canceling cable. It's bundled with my Internet, though, and I watch a fair bit of sports, so that's stopped me so far. But I'll probably look into it next year.



I haven't been to a movie theatre since 1997 (25 yrs ago!) when my wife dragged me there to see Titanic, for which I've never forgiven her by the way. Anyhow, I pay a lot per month for DishNetwork and three streaming services ($200+), but I consider it money well spent since we also rarely go out to restaurants. Overall, we probably pay less per month than most for "entertainment".



About $175 per month for Comcast. Used to be about $260 until I canceled the movie channels. Not sure what my wife pays for Prime and we get Netflix free.



A system of cells interlinked
$69 for internet.

Also have a Prime account

That's it!
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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



You ready? You look ready.
Best way to use streaming services is pick one as your main one and rotate the others. Once I’ve watched everything on a service it’s canceled.

HBOMax is my main app rn, but that might change once they rebrand with Discovery. We will see.

My internet is $30 a month.



I have shudder and criterion. It looks like that's a little over $150 for the year.
I had Hulu, but they started to put ads back into the movies at periodic intervals (as opposed to 2 minutes at the beginning).


I have Amazon Prime, but that's for shopping. I sometimes watch their movies, but it's mostly more for renting videos using the digital credits I get from using Amazon Prime Day (renting individual movies on Amazon's video service doesn't require any type of subscription).

For a few months a year, I'll get Netflix (well, I didn't do it last year) to watch their originals that I was interested in and revisit some of the older ones I enjoyed (there's usually one or two new ones a year).

I had apple+ at the beginning of the year for a month or two when I wanted to watch The Tragedy of MacBeth (I also took the opportunity to watch Wolf Walkers). I consider doing that some type of weird, indirect renting of a few specific movies I couldn't get otherwise.

That said, I'm still collecting physical media and buying individual movies off of iTunes for idiosyncratic reasons, which has totalled a lot this year, but I was going to be doing that regardless of subscription services.



I don't think I've had cable for over twenty years and, excluding the occasional big sporting event I can't access, I have consistently give zero ****s. Even before all of these streaming services, there was virtually nothing to miss.


I think I'm signed up for four steaming services now. Criterion (which is worth every penny), Prime (which I mostly signed up for free shipping), Shudder (which isn't great, but isn't very expensive, and Mubi ( which was gifted to me and will undoubtedly be worth every penny when I eventually start paying for it)


That's something like 50 bucks a month, if not less. And even if it was the same amount, these have all been worth the money I pay for them. Unlike cable which has been completely useless to me for decades.



matt72582's Avatar
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They charge so much for the internet knowing it's a must and very little for cable, security, etc., that you think "Might as well". I do have TCM and my local sports channel, which are the only channels I watch regularly, but I have automatic DVR set up for my favorite directors, etc... I wouldn't get cable without DVR.



I don't have cable, I don't stream, I don't have any TV services, I can't afford them. There's a lot of legit free stuff on YouTube and other places on the internet.
Exactly. I’m being mindful of the rules, but you can stream anything for free if you spend 2 minutes looking. As I’ve said elsewhere, I do pay for about 5-6 subscriptions and don’t mind it, I think it’s more important than ever to support art now, but if it’s really not there on any service, you can find it for free in seconds.

Ironically, I’ve stopped watching the actual news so don’t pay for that. I get all I can eat from work.



Finally cut the cord on cable.

When I got someone on the line and started getting quotes it turns out the bundle discount for cable + Internet is almost non-existent now, so our bill's going way way down every month. We've had cable plus a handful of streaming services for awhile now, but over the last year or so in particular we've watched shockingly little on cable other than sports, so it seemed like it was finally time.



Did you find an alternate source for sports or just saying screw it
I'm saying a provisional "screw it" with a dim awareness in the back of my mind that I've seen a few streaming services have some sports add-ons which I'll probably look into now.



matt72582's Avatar
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I think companies charge a ton for internet, knowing it's the buffer to everything else, and selling you on the "pay a few bucks, and get cable and security".. I pay under $200 for everything. I avoid looking at it, because it's shameful spending so much of my GDP on that, when I could just be patient and wait til it's on YouTube. But, the only reason I don't is to see my silly basketball team. It's much cheaper than buying a laptop, and I want reliability, not streaming lag for an assortment of reasons. And Turner Classic Movies.



For those who do pay too much and have the energy - COMPLAIN.... I promise you, just talk them to death about the ethics and anything vague, and they'll give you a deal.