Another nail in Comcast's coffin!

[markw]

We've recently reached an accord with Comcast: a livable price on the TV/phone/internet bundle and have about months before we reopen negotiations, but FIOS just moved into town. We'll see then.

But, comcast always offered first run movies "On Demand" for prices comparable to the Blockbuster on the next block. These were always available for 48 hours, the same as Blockbuster but without any effort. They always touted this on their "On Demand" blurb and after a while you don't take notice of it.

On Saturday afternoon we "rented" "Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief". Fun movie and we enjoyed it. (We're not hard to please ) Knowing we had almost 46 hours left on the rental, we didn't think a thing of it and planned to watch it again before the time ran out.

Last night after coming back from a BBQ we sat down to enjoy it again. We saw that it was no longer in our "On Demand" queue. Hmmm.... I figured we had until Monday afternoon to watch it.

So, I called them this morning and was told they now rent movies form three or six hours. I asked when this happened and she said she didn't know, but it was fairly recently.

Now I gotta trudge to the next block to Blockbuster or two blocks to a Redbox. Anyhow, thanks Comcast. I could use the exercise anyway.

[Hyfi]

I have yet to give any of my money to cable/sat/fios. My plan is not to until there is no other way to get news and watch a movie. My cell phone is a basic shared 500 minute plan and I use it at night or weekends for all my long distance needs when it's free. I still use over the air roof antenna and redbox along with a few online sources.

In this economy, I can't understand how so many people are willing to throw so much money away on 800 channels of nothing great.

I don't need my emails to load at blazing speeds so I still use basic DSL on my basic local only land line. If I want to download something, I just let it run overnight and auto shutdown.

I think people should all just boycot these monopolies and force the cost to go way down where it should be.

Hey I'm still pissed at Verizon from when they put FIOS through my neighborhood. They destroyed my property between the sidewalk and the street and it took me 18 months to get my driveway properly restored, after 3 attempts by bozos. Hell, they should give me fios for free for all the time and effort it took me to get the mess cleaned up.

But that's just me. The rest of you can keep giving them your hard earned cash for rip off services. I would do streaming Netflix before I go cable/sat/fios.

[JoeE SP9]

At least you have the option of going with FIOS. Here in the city (Phila) they don't give us the option (no FIOS service). As for cell phones, I got a Metro PCS. I get unlimited everything including internet access for $45 a month.
Like you I get my TV over the air.

[atomicAdam]

is this music related? mind if i move to off topic or maybe home theater/movies...

[Woochifer]

You're one of the lucky ones! My understanding is that FiOS will not get added to any more new markets after this year (see thread below). Verizon will focus on shoring up those regions where they already built up their fiber network.

FiOS Expansion Winding Down: If It's Not Already In Your Area, It Probably Won't Be

Options are good, and I see nothing but a helluva lot of trouble if the Comcast/NBCUniversal merger goes through. Comcast has already held sports fans in the Philly region hostage by withholding Comcast Sportsnet (which carries the Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers games) from satellite services. With NBCU's networks added to the fold, that's a lot of control in Comcast's grasp.

[Woochifer]

I have yet to give any of my money to cable/sat/fios. My plan is not to until there is no other way to get news and watch a movie. My cell phone is a basic shared 500 minute plan and I use it at night or weekends for all my long distance needs when it's free. I still use over the air roof antenna and redbox along with a few online sources.

In this economy, I can't understand how so many people are willing to throw so much money away on 800 channels of nothing great.

Well, some people say the same thing about a cell phone plan.

If you can't understand why "in this economy" people still subscribe to cable/satellite/fiber service, then you can't understand 80% of the American public (basically around 90% of households have a TV, and about 90% of those TV households subscribe to a pay TV service -- only 10% are OTA-only).

Over the years, the trend has been that in an economic downturn, people will drop other forms of entertainment and expenditures before they stop going to movies or cancel their pay TV service. That's why the travel and hospitality industries have been hit hard, while box office revenues and pay TV subscriber levels have not been affected at all.

On Directv, I get over 200 channels. Lot of it is junk, but I can usually find several programs that pique my interest (and if nothing interesting shows up on the channel guide, I can always see what I queued up on the DVR). OTA options, along with Redbox and online options still leave a lot of gaps, since I watch sports and HBO original programs, along with documentaries.

I think people should all just boycot these monopolies and force the cost to go way down where it should be.

Agree that there needs to be more competition, but cable is the only local monopoly, and their market share has been in decline for about a decade due to competition from satellite and fiber services.

The cost component is more than just the service provider, you also have carriage fees that the networks charge. Those alone account for about half of the average cable bill.

But that's just me. The rest of you can keep giving them your hard earned cash for rip off services. I would do streaming Netflix before I go cable/sat/fios.

It's a rip off only if the consumers feel that they are not getting fair value for what they pay. Everybody hates the cable company, yet people still pay the piper because they want their programs. We went to satellite over 15 years ago, and we're quite happy with the service and programming.

[pixelthis]

I HAVE always had a love -hate relationship with my cable company(Comcast).
Everybody got a letter recently, they are doing something called a "digital migration",
basically you will need a cable box.
One thing they are doing right, once crappy SD channels are now looking good,
and there are fewer of them as time goes by. And they are actually watchable.
And sound, you get basically what the channel offers, just watched a show on HGTV
with an amazing soundtrack, DD 5.1, this on a 30 minute house hunting type show.
No complaints from my on-demand service, but then again I never watch a movie more
than once.
And my CABLE modem? 100 MPS, according to my software, might not be that all of the time, but video is flawless over the net.
Shows what competition can do for you, UVERSE is in town, and they look pretty good also,
also fiber optic.