Streaming services versus Direct TV

[scott_vt]

Good Evening Furu,

Been very satisfied in general but it has become very expensive in the last several years and the value is just not there any more.

We had Dish for many years and it got expensive also ! When we got Fiber in our area we made the switch to streaming with an Apple TV box ! Dish was costing us $98 per month at our Ct home and another $98 at our Vt home !
So almost $200 per month ! We now pay $80 plus per month for both houses combined, we are able to use our VPN to get everything up at the Vermont home !
We presently have HULU, PRIME, and Disney Plus ! We have more to watch and pay significantly less !

I personally think that DISH and DIRECT are in trouble, especially that anyone that has Fiber can do the same thing !

 

[lman]

I paid for ad-free Netflix and Amazon Prime and then they added ads. I'll stick with my OTA DVR and skip the ads at no cost.

 

[Oaktree]

We have both a Roku and a Firestick. The Roku seems a little less glitchy but both are good.

Never used a Firestick, but I've noticed the audio occasionally gets weird on our Roku. Usually the pitch will be off or it will garble, last night it got out of sync with the video by several seconds. Backing out of the program and then back in usually cures it. Occasionally the box will need rebooting.

 

[dodge man]

I have run into a couple of programs on YouTube that would not let you fast forward through commercials. I’d say 99% of the stuff you can. The one where I couldn’t was a network show, the new Matlock show as I recall.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I have Direct TV, it cost me 120 a month and it works anyplace there's internet and up to 5 can be on at a time.

I'm 800 miles away from my home right now, streaming the shows I like on Direct TV right now, no problem at all.

SR

 

[jk96]

I have Direct TV, it cost me 120 a month and it works anyplace there's internet and up to 5 can be on at a time.

I'm 800 miles away from my home right now, streaming the shows I like on Direct TV right now, no problem at all.

SR

Same for youtube tv and only $75 or $85/month depending on plan. Might be worth trying. You can sign up, pay a month, and cancel with no cancel fees to see how you like it before cancelling directv. May even be able to free trial a month if they are still offering it.

 

[Oaktree]

Same for youtube tv and only $75 or $85/month depending on plan. Might be worth trying. You can sign up, pay a month, and cancel with no cancel fees to see how you like it before cancelling directv. May even be able to free trial a month if they are still offering it.

Just checked, there is a free 10 day trial.
Still a LOT of money, how many of those channels would you actually watch? I also got the impression it's all linear tv as opposed to on-demand.
I don't know why no one offers an a la carte system where you only pay for what you'll actually watch. They all seem to be competing on the # of channels offered.

 

[jk96]

Just checked, there is a free 10 day trial.
Still a LOT of money, how many of those channels would you actually watch? I also got the impression it's all linear tv as opposed to on-demand.
I don't know why no one offers an a la carte system where you only pay for what you'll actually watch. They all seem to be competing on the # of channels offered.

Correct youtube tv would be a rival to cable or directv. It is not an on demand like netflix for instance.

 

[John0829]

I don't know why no one offers an a la carte system where you only pay for what you'll actually watch.

YES! I remember it being that way when we got our big 10' dish back in the 80's. The joy of watching and only paying for what we WANTED. Now you get so many channels, many you never heard of or want, thrown into the subscriptions and for what? Just so they can claim highest channel count?

 

[dodge man]

When my wife worked for our local phone company op they offered a sort of cable TV that came in over the internet. It was a very difficult thing to deal with the various providers. Take ESPN for example, you can’t just offer one channel, you take them all or nothing, which is probably 6 channels. When they first started the local network stations begged to be included and were free, then they started wanting money. In other words picking just the channels you want is not in the works yet.

 

[ultrarunner]

All of last year I turned on the 65” flat screen that came with the house one time and that was the presidential debate.

Never lived in a home with anything but rabbit ear antennas.

When cable came to the neighborhood everyone was signing up for the special 7.95 monthly rate and then adding HBO, MTV, etc.

We all gathered around the kitchen table as the sales person was explaining it all and thought dad would go for it… he said all very interesting but I’m not about to spend a hundred dollars a year so my kids will be glued to the idiot box and so it was not to be.

 

[NoTrespassing]

All of last year I turned on the 65” flat screen that came with the house one time and that was the presidential debate.

Never lived in a home with anything but rabbit ear antennas.

When cable came to the neighborhood everyone was signing up for the special 7.95 monthly rate and then adding HBO, MTV, etc.

We all gathered around the kitchen table as the sales person was explaining it all and thought dad would go for it… he said all very interesting but I’m not about to spend a hundred dollars a year so my kids will be glued to the idiot box and so it was not to be.

My 83 year old father has never paid for TV, or garbage pick up for that matter lol

 

[ultrarunner]

My 83 year old father has never paid for TV, or garbage pick up for that matter lol

I often have nothing for pickup and what I have would easily fit in one of the commercial dumpsters at property I manage.

That said trash service is not optional… you will contract with Waste Management and if unpaid the city will lien the property leading to sale if not paid…

Currently at $181.70 for weekly curbside 35 gallon service per quarter.

 

[WM75Guy]

We went to the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo today. DirecTV is a sponsor, had a booth there with national sales reps. They were able to switch us to a new account in my wife's name so we could get new customer pricing, a package with all the channels, new Gemini hardware for all TVs, and free install. Dropped our bill by $68/month. Price is good for 2 years.

 

[jk96]

We went to the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo today. DirecTV is a sponsor, had a booth there with national sales reps. They were able to switch us to a new account in my wife's name so we could get new customer pricing, a package with all the channels, new Gemini hardware for all TVs, and free install. Dropped our bill by $68/month. Price is good for 2 years.

That was always my complaint when we had directv. Always great incentives for new customers and only higher bills for long term customers. Every 2 years I had to play the cancel game. Call customer service and tell them we would like to cancel then haggle over a promotional rate to get us to change our mind. We would always end up with a lower bill for 1 or 2 years then would have to repeat the process.

 

[dmccarty]

That was always my complaint when we had directv. Always great incentives for new customers and only higher bills for long term customers. Every 2 years I had to play the cancel game. Call customer service and tell them we would like to cancel then haggle over a promotional rate to get us to change our mind. We would always end up with a lower bill for 1 or 2 years then would have to repeat the process.

Yep. When I finally got around to canceling DirecTV they tried to keep me by lowering the price. Well, if they had done that years ago and not forced me to call, maybe they would have kept a customer. Maybe. Given there was very little worth watching, which was declining year after year, even with a lowered price they offered, it was not worth the cost. The service representative and I went around and around until I said, do you have a plan to offer the channels we get now for $10-20 because that is all the service is worth. That ended the phone call and our paying for DirecTV.