[SledgeHammer]

 

[SledgeHammer]

Just a total falsehood.

First off, only $100 for a cable package?

Average pricing for DirecTV is over $130 a month, even with any services from cable/Sat. you can have Broadcast fees, RSN fees, DVR fees, Box fees.

This is what I have Streaming, no Live TV service and it includes the vast majority of content on Live TV except certain sporting events.

All in yearly prices because of some deals, all commercial free except ESPN+

Hulu with Disney, ESPN+ -$240 (need ESPN for the Red Wings).
Paramount+ with Showtime-$129
Peacock-$50
HBOMAX-$149
AMC+-$30
Apple TV-$44 ( bought gift cards when on sale at Costco, paid up until 2026)
MLB-$59 ( wait until May for the better price) need it for the Tigers since I live in Florida now.
Netflix-$240

So, $941 divide by 12 is $78.42

Show me one cable package that is that price with HBO and Showtime.

Then of course, with cable/sat Netflix and Apple TV is not available

So, without the premium stuff, but including sports because DirecTV/Cable has the RSN-
Hulu with Disney, ESPN+ -$240 (need ESPN for the Red Wings).
Paramount+ -$99
Peacock-$50
AMC+-$30
MLB-$59 ( wait until May for the better price) need it for the Tigers since I live in Florida now).

So $478 divide by 12 is, roughly, $40 a month.

I have Preferred Xtra / HR54 / AM21 and with my DirecTV promos I'm paying $91/mo out the door. No RSN fee on this package. I also have Cox Gigabit + digital phone (Cox makes you take it or the internet is higher lol) for like $119 I think, but it has a 1.25TB data cap and to get rid of that for streaming is an extra $50/mo. No thanks. Plus, no streaming service has all the Los Angeles locals and I'd lose the OTA integration. Plus Preferred Xtra has a lot more channels. Don't care about sports, so love that I don't pay the $12/mo RSN fee on this package.

 

[SledgeHammer]

So I was correct, I pay $78 that get the vast majority of content that is on your preferred xtra package ( and more) with HBO, Showtime and Netflix, plus all the exclusive stuff not available to DirecTV, like the shows on Paramount for example.

or a lot cheaper, $40 for the vast majority of content on your Live TV Package and the exclusive stuff.

Gigabit, no data cap, is $100 for me.

So, with Premium, $178 or without $140.

If you did Cox, no data cap, $169 + my no premium, no mlb $35 package, your price would be $204, so a savings of $7, but gain a bunch of content

Doubtful I really need the no data cap. I'm at 300-400GB/mo with only what I'm doing now, so that's $50/mo cheaper.

Don't watch anything on Paramount. Showtime, I think maybe one show. Can't think of anything I watch on HBO. Netflix I get for free (might change when they crack down on that, but I won't lose sleep over losing it) for the once in a blue moon that I want to watch something (which is MAYBE once a quarter -- Netflix is mostly garbage now).

I've sampled most of the VOD providers. Mostly useless to me. OTT services don't have all my locals and its the same price.

Plus as Rat mentioned, I got better things to do with my life then mess around with 9 providers, 9 UIs, 9 bills, etc. Having everything (including OTA) under ONE roof is valuable to me.

Oh yeah, the other issue with other OTT providers (including Cox, the short lived T-Vision, etc) is that they give me West Coast feeds (I'm in California) for nationals. DirecTV gives me the East Coast feeds for nationals. That's a very big deal for me. When I sampled T-Vision, it was extremely jarring to my schedule to have to shift everything 3 hours later. Having east coast feeds on the west coast brings everything into prime time.

 

[SledgeHammer]

It's only a comic strip, but I'd like to know what nine streaming services Rat gets for $200/month. I think he's overpaying a lot...

If you get a Live streaming service plus multiple vod providers, aren't you in that range? Plus, I think Rat is a huge sports fan, so he probably has all the sports services which are expensive.

 

[SledgeHammer]

That is a ‘duh statement, of course it will go up, everything does.

Do you see Traditional Providers starting a price freeze so streaming can catch up?

No, we see streaming hiking by larger percentages to catch up. ESPN+ just raised their prices 43%. Premium Hulu is going up 9.2%. Netflix, although, not live TV hiked by 11%.

Compare that with DirecTV. My price DROPPED by -11% this year. Just sayin'. If you're wondering how that's possible... I've been on promos for like 10-15 yrs, but in March of this year, I got better ones.

 

[SledgeHammer]

Not everything. 8 pm shows on east feeds show at 5 pm on west. Works fine, though, if you want to watch late night shows.

Stuff I watch on History, Science, ID, etc. get shifted into the 6-7PM PST timeslot. I usually eat at 5pm, then go workout til 6:15pm. By the time I shower and get dressed, all my stuff is recorded and ready to go . When I tried TVision, I had to watch stuff the next day and was bored all night.

 

[SledgeHammer]

Your discount went up which is not something that is guaranteed like the yearly price increase.

I'll agree with you on that. Although I usually play the ignorant card every Jan "hey, my bill went up by $7, what's going on??" lol and it works pretty well to bring it back down.

Also you can’t compare prices by percentages. Someone that subscribes to streaming that had a 10% increase is less than my 4% raise on my DirecTV service in dollar figures.

It's a bigger percentage.

 

[SledgeHammer]

(same thing, different delivery method)

Not. OTT is generally "skinny" packages. On DirecTV Stream the top package is less channels then on my lowly Preferred Xtra. The comparable priced package is 105 channels vs. 220+ on sat. Also, nobody streams CW and some don't have some other channels like PBS.

I have DirecTV (obviously) [legal / paid, but on steep discounts through the loyalty program]. I also get several streaming OTT & VOD services for free through work [all legal -- except for Netflix which is a family password share lol which may go away next year].

So technically I could drop my DirecTV and pay nothing every month since it's covered by all the other free services.

Even without the nuisance of having to pay for "9 streaming services", I still favor DirecTV and keep it. Muscle memory on the channels & shows I watch + full unified interface under one roof + OTA, etc.

Also, not really worth it to keep any of the services with so called "exclusive content" year round. Last show I legit watched on Netflix was Man vs. Bee and I finished that in a day. Only used Amazon Prime recently to watch a movie. Haven't used it in years other wise. Nothing on there.

 

[SledgeHammer]

While I agree and technically you are correct, most people who subscribe to OTT packages do so as a replacement for cable/sat. So while they may not have all the channels they had previously, they have enough to satisfy their situation (i.e. they made the conscious choice that they could "do without" certain channels to save money). Heck not every Dish or cable system has ALL the channels either (DirecTV is famously missing some HBO channels, DISH is sorely lacking in RSNs for example).

Subbing to DirecTV is your personal decision, and since you get discounts and incentives (which not everyone can or will get) it's worth it to you. If those went away would it still be worth the cost? Only you can determine that. I had DirecTV Stream, and because of the need for CW in my house (my kids watch all the DC stuff), we went back to Satellite. But if the rumors around the CW come to fruition (i.e. they jettison all of their scripted stuff), then it's just not so important for me and I'll probably switch back and save some money (I'm under contract for a bit longer so I'm kind of stuck). We'll see how it goes and what is worth it at that point in time.

I couldn't possibly care less about sports lol. CW I only watch Penn & Teller and Whose Line, my life wouldn't be over if those went away.

If DirecTV stopped giving me promos, and I had to pay full price of like $140ish would I keep it? Hmm... well, depends... if I needed to pay an extra $50/mo to get rid of my Cox data cap to go full streaming, it would be a wash.

 

[SledgeHammer]

Do some research and tell us how many of the channels that are not on Stream but are on sat that you watch.

I thought I did lol. CW and the PBS I watch. A lot of the channels I do watch, I'd have to go to at LEAST Choice+ on Stream, and Oxygen is only on Ultimate for Stream and some of the OTA sub channels I watch aren't on anything but OTA.

Still, even if I could get away with Choice+, it's $89.99/mo + taxes (does that include the RSN fee?). I only pay $91.30/mo OUT THE DOOR on Preferred Xtra + AM21 on sat. So why would I switch? It would raise my bill by a buck or two. If I had to raise my data cap, I'd be in the hole for another $50/mo.

Like we always say, the math is person specific... saying everybody will save money on streaming just isn't true.

 

[SledgeHammer]

DTV Stream doesn't include the infomerical and shopping channels. Aren't those part of the 220 channels?

Yeah & some other junk channels too. Still, as I said in my previous post, even if I could get away with Choice+ on Stream, I'm still paying less then that on Preferred Xtra lol.

 

[SledgeHammer]

CW you don't get but you do get CW OnDemand I believe. PBS is listed as a channel for my zip code too. And hey I am not trying to get you to switch. Just the channel differences you always bring up is that 99% of them are junk channels.

Yeah, but my point is that I'd pay MORE for not having the junk channels and losing CW lol. So again, not everybody saves money by switching to streaming, its very case specific. The only blanket statement you can make is that if you have a lot of TVs, you'll save money. Low TV count is more like "it depends".

 

[SledgeHammer]

But again, that's YOUR situation, everyone is different. So either way OTT services the "traditional cable" purpose for most people not named SledgeHammer. Stream was the only OTT that had both RSNs I watch (and sports IS important to me). As for CW, when we had stream, we also had Locast, so we were able to watch the CW that way. When Locast bit the dust, we tried cable (which sucked) and an antenna in our attic (which was iffy bringing in signals), so we went back. Now it's costing us a LOT of money for TV, so as soon as this contract is over, I'm back in the market and will consider streaming again (we have a LOT of TVs that need a DirecTV box, perhaps this new streaming app that's on ATV that will stream most stations could be a solution for TVs we don't use that much, we'll see).

Didn't you try streaming and didn't like it? If you have a lot of TVs then a per outlet service probably isn't for you.

How many TVs do you have? And do you watch all of them at once? If you don't watch all of them at once and are just one of those people who wants a TV in the bathroom, kitchen, garage, etc. then your other option is to "get creative" with your wiring so you can share boxes among TVs.

 

[SledgeHammer]

I never said that YOU would save money by switching. I never said that YOU should switch to streaming. Just that your reasons have flaws in them for many people. As long as you get your discounts you should keep DirecTV satellite. If your discounts go away you could save money on a TV package but no you won't find any with the exact same channels you get now. But you would probably lose that money either with paying for unlimited data or paying the extra charge if you go over your limit. In your case with the channels you want and the discounts you get and your limited internet and the fact you only have 1 TV you should stick with what you have. That isn't the case for everyone though.

I've said about a billion times that higher TV counts should generally go to streaming if they want to save money. Now I've said it a billion and one. Generally for 1-2 TVs + promos, its a wash.

If I wanted to get all my existing channels that I actually watch, except for CW and OTA, I'd have to go Ultimate (just to get one extra lousy channel). In which case I could have 3 TVs on DirecTV and still break even. And technically, I'd STILL be on the losing end of the deal because I wouldn't have CW and OTA. OTA I could live with out, but if I had to get some CW VOD service, then I could have 4 TVs on my current DirecTV plan and break even.

With 4 full time TVs on streaming, I'd likely go over my data cap and have to pay an extra $50/mo, in which case, I'd be losing my shirt by going streaming and could have 7+ TVs on my current DirecTV plan before saving a penny. So as you can see, even a higher TV count like 3-4 to 7 isn't always a given.

 

[SledgeHammer]

My point being, everyone's situation and reasons for getting what they get are different. What works for me, doesn't work for you.

And vice versa. As I said above, I could have 7 TVs and still come out ahead/even with DirecTV. If I didn't have a data cap to worry about, the inflection point would be about 3-4 TVs. Sounds like you need to up your promo game .

The only advantage I have here is that I'm on Preferred Xtra which has pretty much every non premium channel out there, minus 1 or 2 sports channels AND no RSN fee, which saves me $12/mo in LA. On Stream and OTT, they just bury that fee instead of breaking it out.

And I'm also well aware that if I cancel my service to "try out" streaming, there ain't no going back as I couldn't get this package back, so you and Joe are gonna have to work a lot harder to get me to cancel lol.

P.S. umm.. we're both complaining about the same channel missing on streaming 🤷‍♂️

 

[SledgeHammer]

I do wonder, as someone who left and came back a bit more than a year ago, and, is on contract for at least a half a year more if I'd even be able to get the promo discounts at this point in time? What leverage do I have?

Just call 'em up and ask nicely. If they say no, then you start politely dropping hints. "hmm.... am I still under contract?" "oh darn it... is there a fee if I cancel now?" "how much is it?" "hmm... that's not too bad... with the money I'd be saving by going to streaming, I'll break even in a few months". That kind of thing. If that doesn't work, then just wait out the 6 months and get a promo then. Or cancel again and try streaming again, then come back and get another 2 yr contract . You may not even have to wait out the full 6 months, you can always try the same game again in a couple of months. Maybe there's a thing in the system if your contract is coming up "soon"? who knows.

 

[SledgeHammer]

The only thing that cartoon suns up is what streaming haters believe. Outside of people who get the overpriced DTV streaming service, I know no one spending $200 on streaming apps per month. For me, even including paying for internet, I'm under $120/month and that includes Amazon Prime (which many people don't consider it in their package pricing) and Philo. We are thin on sports, but neither my wife or I are really into that. T-Mobile gives me MLB for free while Apple TV+, Amazon Prime and OTA serve to quench the sports thirst when it happens.

The big thing about streaming is that I don't have to sub to every service I want at the same time.

What speed internet do you have for that cheap a price? Do you have a data cap?

 

[SledgeHammer]

I have DirecTV but I don't get why some think streaming is more expensive. If a person subscribed to these ad free ones. Total would be $80. Are people forgetting the extra fee's cable and satellite have? Charter's select plan is $80 but without the equipment and broadcast fees. Discovery+ and HB0 Max could raise their price one they are combined. Same if Disney buys the rest of Hulu combines that into Disney+.

Paramount+ - $10
Disney+ - $11
Discovery+ $7
HBO/Max - $15
Netflix - $20
Hulu - $8
Prime Video - $9

Where's all your linear channels? Hulu Live is $70/mo, less then the Charter $80. If you include both, you're paying $160/mo. I pay $91/mo for DirecTV Preferred Xtra.

 

[SledgeHammer]

If you are trying to pad the price of streaming by adding the cost of Internet please limit the padding to the incremental cost. How much more would one pay for Internet if they added streaming.

In my case I would not need to pay a penny more for Internet. I'd continue with my same plan whether or not I streamed.

Agreed. You can't factor in the BASE PRICE of your package, but you SHOULD factor in if you need a higher speed package or a data cap removal that you wouldn't otherwise need.

 

[SledgeHammer]

Who needs linear channels? I never watch them live anyway.

Who needs streaming? I never watch poorly dubbed Netflix shows imported from random countries cuz they lost all their licensed content.