Locast in Sacramento

For our friends in Northern CA...

Locast announced its 29th market today, bringing more than 60 local TV channels to the over 4 million residents in the. Sacramento area. Locast will be available in Sacramento, Stockton, and Modesto, just in time for the Big Game this weekend.

Locast offers local broadcast TV via the internet for free, though the service will frequently ask for a $5 donation until that donation is set up by the user. Locast says that offering the channels is a public service “giving access to important local news, storm coverage, emergency information, COVID health and safety updates, election coverage, sports, and entertainment programming to internet-connected devices.”

The channels now available via Locast in the Sacramento area include: KCRA NBC 3, KTXL FOX 40, KXTV ABC 10, KOVR CBS 13, Univision, PBS and PBS Kids, as well as Azteca America, CourtTV, Mystery, MeTV, TrueCrime, QUBO, Telemundo, Circle, The CW, BOUNCE, Movies!, LAFF, COMET, MyNetworkTV, ION, GRIT, Charge!, and more.

The service is accessible to viewers in 16 counties in the Sacramento DMA including Amador, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Sierra, Solano East, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tuolumne, Yolo, and Yuba.

Locast now has over 2.3 million registered users in its available markets across the US. Visit locast.org for more information.

Link:  https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/locast-launches-its-local-tv-service-in-sacramento/?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1977141&tid=2713901&cid=

Almost Half of All Pay-TV Customers Are Likely to Cut the Cord This Year

 

A new report by Parks Associates reveals that it’s likely 43% of all broadband households in the U.S. paying for traditional TV will switch to streaming options within the next 12 months. The main reason? Cable is too expensive. There’s big incentive for TV subscribers to cut the cord in favor of Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributors like Hulu + Live, YouTube TV, Sling, and more, with cost being just one of the reasons.

The Parks research shows that 17% of vMVPD subscribers are relative newcomers who jumped the traditional Pay TV ship within the last 12 months. Some of their main reasons for making the switch in addition to price include the appeal of the flexibility vMVPDs offer by providing targeted package options on a variety of platforms.

Recent cord cutters also cite switching in order to watch specific channels or programs they couldn’t get with their traditional pay TV package. With dozens of new streaming-only shows and movies being released all the time, it’s obvious people want to be in on the popular originals that come with streaming services and packages.

Plus, people who made the switch in the last 12 months also say there were too many channels they didn’t watch on regular TV to justify paying for it.

“Subscriber losses in traditional pay TV continue, while the vMVPD category continues to grow, thanks to consumer price sensitivity and preferences for platform flexibility,” said Paul Erickson, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates. “Traditional pay-TV operators have online delivery in their roadmaps, if not already deployed. We expect vMVPDs will continue to grow dramatically and will gradually become the dominant offering in the pay-TV landscape.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/almost-half-of-all-pay-tv-customers-are-likely-to-cut-the-cord-this-year/?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1952959&tid=2680994&cid=

Comcast Data Caps Coming

Beginning in January, Comcast will introduce its 1.2 TB data cap on Xfinity Internet plans, including those in states where Comcast previously did not have a cap.

“Stop the Cap” first spotted the notice from Comcast which will impact those in Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, and West Virginia on January 1, 2021. Comcast previously did not have a data cap on plans in these states where Verizon Fios is a competitor.

To help customers get used to the newly implemented cap on their internet data, Comcast will give credit for overage charges accrued during January and February. After that introductory period, customers will have 1.2TB of internet data usage per month. If customers go over that limit, 50GB blocks will be added automatically at $10 each. The maximum monthly overage charge customers will receive is $100. Data does not roll over month to month...

 

Source:

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/comcast-is-introducing-a-data-cap-in-northeast-states/?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1749445&tid=2410641&cid=

Comcast Increases Prices Again

Comcast customers are receiving notices that their TV and internet prices are going up...
With this price hike, customers will see their Broadcast TV Fee increase by around $5 per month, from $11.70 to $16.20. TV Box fees for those who are using Comcast equipment will go up by $2.50 per month, from $5 to $7.50. Prices for basic and premium TV packages will be increasing, along with the prices of several on demand subscription services including AMC + On Demand, WEtv + On Demand, and UP Faith and Family On Demand.
Along with cable prices increasing, Comcast is increasing the cost of internet. All packages are going up by $3/month, with the exception of xFi Advantage which is going up by $5/month.
Finally, installation fees are going up from $70 to $100 and Xfinity Home Security prices are increasing by $10 per month.
According to the Important Information Regarding Xfinity Services and Pricing notice from Comcast, the new prices will go into effect on January 1, 2021.
The price list including all changes, shared by a Reddit user, is shown below.

 

 

Source:
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/comcast-will-raise-cable-internet-prices-in-january-2021/?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1749445&tid=2410641&cid=
 

Comcast Strikes Yet Again - Part 2

Comcast Strikes Yet Again - Part 2

So after Nancy stewed all night over not being able to straighten out her mothers Comcast TV situation  she called them back promptly the next day (yesterday).
First, after being on hold for quite some time, she was answered by an IT tech person who really couldn't help at all. He directed her call to another agent who had a hard time trying to figure out what had transpired with the original call that her mother made for IT help on Monday but eventually got to the bottom of it.
Basically after telling her mom how to reset her SAP back to English the agent up-sold her to a triple play package with 300+ channels and increased her internet speed from 200mbps to 600mbps. He told her that it would save her money and she wouldn't have to use the phone part of the plan. What it really did was to agree to a 2 year contract with automatic price increases each year until her monthly bill would be well over $200/month at the end of the contract!
The agent (Regina) that Nancy finally talked to apologized after she figured it out and learning her mom is 86 years old and didn't have any clue to what she was agreeing to on Monday. Regina agreed to return the plan to her old double play but Nancy countered with... how about if we lower the package even further to 120 channels as my mom doesn't watch many channels at all. Regina agreed to put her on a basic plan and the price is supposed to be $150/month now. That's about $10 lower than it originally was. Kudos to Regina as she was the nicest person to talk to in maybe....ever.
It will be interesting to see the exact monthly cost that her mom is billed for, the channels that she will now get and the speed her internet will be.

It makes me happy to have only an antenna, Sling & "free" Netlix through T-mobile.

Comcast Strikes Yet Again

Comcast Strikes yet again.

Ever since Nancy’s father died a few years ago, Nancy has taken over her moms finances and bills as her mom never had to pay the bills when her Dad was alive and is totally confused by them.
Nancy also reviews all of her moms emails as her 86 year old mom is quite computer illiterate. Today as she checked her moms emails she noticed an email from Comcast that said something like “Thank you for upgrading your service”. She looked at the online account for her moms condo and sure enough the plan has changed.
She called her mom and asked if she did anything that would change the plan. Her mom said she was having trouble with some TV channels sound being in Spanish instead of English so she called Comcast to see if they could fix it (Didn’t want to bother Nancy). Her mother being very hard of hearing and not having any understanding whatsoever of how digital service “plans” work somehow agreed to switch her plan from a double play to a triple play with more TV channels and some kind of added equipment that their web site didn’t explain. They also added a new 2 year contract.
So, Nancy went over to her moms condo to call Comcast back and have them explain what they did. After being on hold for a very long time she finally got an agent that said the plan indeed was changed to triple play and that her mom would no longer need Verizon landline service. That makes no sense as her mom gets Verizon landline service entirely free as her Dad was a retired Bell Telephone engineer. It’s part of their retirement package.
When Nancy questioned why they would up-sell her mom to triple play when she was just calling for them to help her change the language back to English on her TV the agent became condescending and started spouting off about it being cheaper after a few billing cycles and basically shut the conversation down as it was becoming after normal business hours.
So there you have it. Comcast taking advantage of the elderly again.
Nancy is rather irate and said she will be calling them back tomorrow.
In my opinion and knowing how shitty Comcast treats it's customers, that’s a waste of time as they know her moms condo units only have Comcast TV & internet service available and the Triple Play upgrade was already put into effect with the new 2 year plan. Legally you have 3 days to back out of a contract but good luck with that as they'll stonewall her long enough for that time-frame to pass.
Stay tuned.

I saw this story about cord cutting and my thoughts are that too many people are "cutting the cord" and then buying too many add on services. All you really need is a good antenna and maybe one or two streaming services. My favorites are Sling and Netflix.

Here's our cost breakdown:
Antenna = zero cost per month after initial installation of about $100.
Verizon Fios internet 75mbps = $57.99/month (we've had no issues with speed)
Sling Blue = $30/month
Netflix = $8.99/month but is included for "free" with our T-mobile cell phone account.

So our monthly cost is $87.99

Our Rebuttal to ABC’s Latest Anti–Cord Cutting Story

By Luke Bouma on February 8, 2020 at 6:07 am CDT in All News, News

ABC just can’t seem to help but attack cord cutting. As cord cutting grows, we are increasingly seeing more attempts to slow it down. This time it comes from an ABC affiliate owned by Grey Television with the title “ABC 12 investigates cutting the cable cord: is it worth it?”
So, let’s break down this post and why cord cutting is still really worth it.

Issue #1 Internet Is Not an Exclusive Cord Cutting Cost
One of the main arguments of the ABC story is the fact that you need Internet. According to this story, Internet will cost about $45 a month. Plus, they worry about the $14 modem fee or the cost to buy your own modem.
The truth here is even with cable TV most Americans still want home Internet. This idea that if you had cable TV you wouldn’t need home Internet is weak. Most cable TV subscribers also have Internet for gaming, streaming, or just surfing the web.

Issue #2 Overstating the Cost of Cord Cutting

One common tactic many anti–cord cutting stories use is to overstate the cost of cord cutting. For example, multiple studies have shown that cord cutters subscribe to four or fewer streaming services. Yet ABC pushes this idea that you need so many different streaming services that it will add up to more than cable TV.
Many of these stories push the idea that you will need every service. According to our readers and other research groups, most cord cutters subscribe to less than four streaming services. When we surveyed our readers, more than 91% of them pay for four or fewer services and more than 70% of them pay for three or fewer services.
Plus, ABC included Internet as an exclusively cord cutting expense, pushing the idea the cable TV customers don’t need home Internet.

Issue #3 Claiming Cable Will Give You All the Content You Want

I find this to be the biggest issue with this story. According to ABC, if you went back to cable TV’s basic package you would happily give up Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and more. Yet the cable TV package they use does not include most of the content from these services. For example, the Disney Channel won’t give you the content that will stream on Disney+.

Would you really give up Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon? Most cable TV subscribers wouldn’t! Over half of all cable TV subscribers also pay for a streaming service like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon. Now you have to add that cost on top of the cost of cable TV.
So, would you really give up Stranger Things and The Handmaid’s Tale to go back to cable? What about HBO and Starz? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Final Thoughts
According to Spectrum, the average cable TV and Internet customer pays over $180 a month. So, even if you accept that all of these services would be needed with cord cutting it would still save cable TV customers $55 a month compared to what the average Spectrum Internet and TV customer pays. Even with a $45 home Internet bill you can still save a lot of money with streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.

Finally, do your own research and decide if cord cutting is right for you. Don’t take my word for it and definitely don’t take the word of stories like this one from ABC to make your decision. We suggest you check out our Cord Cutting Beginners Guide to help you decide if cord cutting is right for you.

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/our-rebuttal-to-abcs-latest-anti-cord-cutting-story/