Today is my first day living as a cable cutter. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about taking the cable cutting challenge. The goal is to live off of OTA TV, Netflix, and Hulu for a year. There may be a couple other odd and end services mixed in, but the point is to watch TV for less than $30/mo. So far, I'm at $18/mo with Hulu and Netflix. I plan to probably add MLBtv next year. That will be around $120 for the season, but probably will only add $10 to my average monthly bill. I'm good with that, for now. That's still under the $30 mark.
My kids like some shows we won't be able to access through our TV, like Regular Show and Adventure Time on the Cartoon Network. Most of the episodes are available through the website, though and we can watch those on a computer. I'm not getting a DVR of any kind right now, like Tivo or something similar. I don't have the need.
Sunday is my first football season without Cable or Satellite. The good news is that since they have always been on Fox and CBS, they will still be there. And I can watch some football this Sunday. Last week I was able to pickup the network games, so I have no doubt it will be the same this week.
Good bye, DirecTV. I see you have some awesome packages on your site and are even including NFL Sunday Ticket for free! It's for new customers only, though, because I asked about lowering my bill. I'm as low as I can go at $70+/mo, while new customers get a deal that's almost half that cost and with more channels than I have. Are you offering the super special deals, because people are abandoning ship and realizing they can get along without you? Hmmm.... I know you will never admit it, even if it's true. I wonder what the landscape will look like in 5 years.
An Update: I just got a call from someone high up in Customer Service at DirecTV. They were verifying that I wanted to cancel my service and asked why? I explained it was a cost issue. They were willing to increase my channel package and cut my current payment by at least half! What a deal! I was already at the lowest package and they were going to bump me up and cut my cost by half. That would have put me at about $40/mo. It's a great deal, but still not $20/mo. I declined the offer. I'm sure I would have had to sign another 2 year contract and lose the cost benefits over that time and eventually climb back up to the current payment levels. I'm not playing that game anymore.
Out of all the times I called before to work with DirecTV, why do I have to go through the process to cancel my service to get attention from them? Why do they have to be faced with the prospect of a customer committing to dropping service. When I commit to doing something like that, I've made up my mind and I'm done. It would take a lot to get me to change my mind. Even if I do, I probably wouldn't be going back to that company because they let the relationship sour to the point of termination.
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