Canceling direct tv

It took us a half hour of them trying to convince us to stay with them, but with the roku tv streaming video, direct tv makes no sense. We called our local phone company and told them we were not happy with our broadband service and were thinking of changing. They raised our MG from 10 to 25, and dropped our monthly rate to 50 bucks, a savings about 5 bucks a month, but fast enough to support all the streaming video services. So we ditched a $120 a month direct tv and pay about forty bucks a month for streaming video, fifty bucks local internet in Illinois and the same in Florida........for ten dollars a month more we have improved service in both places. I have all our phone services on vonage, for business 1, business 2, our personal residence, and then we both have cell phones.

The key is being able to get affordable broadband service, and that requires competition. However, as we speak fewer and fewer providers are available, and the costs for cell phones, digital tv/cable, high speed internet, and home phone service can easily sneak up to five hundred bucks a month. We will see how this traveling will work, and whether our choices were good ones.

For the first time in twenty years we have cut the cable and direct TV for our TVs. There is a learning curve and it will take some time to figure out programming, but the savings are immediate, and it gives us a better traveling experience.

Our combined TV, broadband and cell phone expenses are large. I watch very little TV, though my wife watches quite a bit. She uses her Roku a lot, however. I could ditch cable TV tomorrow, but I would get extreme resistance from the Mrs. on that notion.

I only watch TV during the college football season, and this season, half the games I watched I streamed to my computer monitor (but I had to use my ATT UVerse account to do this).

ATT has yet to run their fiber-optic cable into my neighborhood, so their Internet quite often goes haywire. We therefore kept the Cox broadband connection, but the rascals at Cox keep finding ways to ratchet our bill up. I am watching that one closely, too.

If I were to mess with any of this, I would face extreme resistance from my better half, so I just let it ride.......  

I picked up a 70 mile digital antenna which I mounted on the peak of the house in Navarre, and it feeds all the former Direct Tv Jacks in the house. With the Roku, I think I have settled on sling tv which offers the 25 channel basic cable package for $20 a month, and I can get all the local channels clearly (31) which are mostly religious stations, but I get the networks for football games. My friend is paying $240 a month for direct TV. We saw him after being in Florida, and apparently Illinois had two bad snow storms and he calls Direct TV after the service was out a day because his roof dish was covered by snow, and they said it was his responsibility to go on the roof and clear his dish. He goes I am 75 and have stage four cancer.....they sent somebody out who against company policy used his ladder and cleared his dish. A week later the same story, and he simply switched to media com. My concern is that my internet is provided by a broadband provider who makes the majority of their profit over content being delivered over their network, yet I am bypassing their profit center. When there are only two providers, there is a monopoly. However , if mesh technology would allow cell towers to deliver 60 mg broadband the costs would tumble and we would be getting much of our broadband from cell hot spots. In America, I think an investment in and interstate broadband highway would bring a huge return as students could have more home studies and opportunity.

Things have gone great since the cancellation of direct TV. The only hitch has been NBA TV. It has blacked out about seven of 12 Bulls games. If it is nationally televised, I simply go to the nationally televised game, but these were blackouts. I missed the OK bulls game, and the first half of the Washington game. I called NBA and based on my IP the only two games I should be blacked out is New Orleans and Orlando games. They asked for the zip code of Navarre and told me I was being blacked out incorrectly. They issued me a vip password and I got the second half of the Bulls game. I am like a pig in Chit getting all the Bull games and we are finally living very comfortably in Navarre where we have finally settled and are relaxing. When the grandkids are not around my basic relaxation is NBA basketball, but we have a wide range of options with Sling TV. I never used to watch CNN, but I have enjoyed watching their coverage of the hearings, and I like the host Cumo who asks tough questions. I cannot see any reason a person would remain on just cable, dish, or direct TV. The cost savings and flexibility for retired people traveling is amazing. We will spend a couple of weeks in Marco Island after the Super bowl party, and all we need is a good high speed internet and we have everything we need. I would like to watch a Orlando or Miami game while we are traveling. It will depend on how I am feeling, but nothing beats watching these players live.

2seaoat wrote:Things have gone great since the cancellation of direct TV.  The only hitch has been NBA TV.  It has blacked out about seven of 12 Bulls games.  If it is nationally televised, I simply go to the nationally televised game, but these were blackouts.  I missed the OK bulls game, and the first half of the Washington game.   I called NBA and based on my IP the only two games I should be blacked out is New Orleans and Orlando games.  They asked for the zip code of Navarre and told me I was being blacked out incorrectly.   They issued me a vip password and I got the second half of the Bulls game.  I am like a pig in Chit getting all the Bull games and we are finally living very comfortably in Navarre where we have finally settled and are relaxing.  When the grandkids are not around my basic relaxation is NBA basketball, but we have a wide range of options with Sling TV.  I never used to watch CNN, but I have enjoyed watching their coverage of the hearings, and I like the host Cumo who asks tough questions.   I cannot see any reason a person would remain on just cable, dish, or direct TV.   The cost savings and flexibility for retired people traveling is amazing.   We will spend a couple of weeks in Marco Island after the Super bowl party, and all we need is a good high speed internet and we have everything we need.   I would like to watch a Orlando or Miami game while we are traveling.  It will depend on how I am feeling, but nothing beats watching these players live.

Good going! I called and whined about the NFL ticket.....and got a huge discount.

Good going! I called and whined about the NFL ticket.....and got a huge discount.

It is hard for me to get excited about NFL football until the Bears start playing tough defense. I will look into the package next year, but honestly unless the Bears improve in September, I doubt I will purchase the package for November and December. I can always watch them on our digital antenna at home, but if they play defense, I will pay for the single team package. It is just hard to top the quality product the NBA is producing right now. I can watch almost any team and find enjoyment. I feel like a dinosaur the way we played compared to what these kids can do.

Another triple double for Westbrook, and he is number 10 in rebounds in the NBA with a six foot three frame. Incredible to watch this guy.

Good game...
 Now the Cavs and Trail blazers.