From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Looking over my TV/internet/phone bill, I saw I was paying $145/mo. for
the video package alone. Beginning Jan. 1 I downgraded to basic cable
which brings it down to $67/mo.

As far as the expanded channels go, I found I was spending most of the
time watching CNN, MS NOW, TV Land, Sci-Fi, TCM and ESPN from their 100+ channel package.

CNN - I have subscribed to the Roku CNN app for $45/yr. ($69/yr. after
the first year) to stream this channel live. One benefit is I no longer
have to endure the hokey local commercials that my provider would show
on the Expanded package (just a message that says "CNN will resume
shortly"). CNN does show their own commercials but it's just for their
other programming.

MS NOW - This channel doesn't offer an app to stream the channel live
(yet), you have to connect it to their expanded package channel. But you
can stream the "highlights" of all their shows with a delay of a few
hours. This is just about as good as getting the channel live, and you
don't have to endure any commercials between the segments.

TV Land - I would watch some of my favorite sitcoms on TV Land, but all
those shows are also offered by MeTV which is included in my basic
package.

Sci-Fi - I only watched this for Twilight Zone reruns, which MeTV also
shows every evening.

TCM - I have found a good substitute for this is the "Cinevault
Classics" channel on the Roku Live app. Of course you have to endure commercials unlike TCM. I'm not that crazy about movies from the '30s
and '40s anyway which is what TCM devotes a whole lot of their
programming to.

ESPN - I would watch this (and their sister sports channels) often
during college football season, but most of the "must see" major sports
events are on the major networks which I get in the basic package.

To sum up, I think it's going to work out and save me a lot of money. At
some point in the not too distant future I think all of these channels
will be forced to let people subscribe them individually -- people are
sick and tired of paying for a lot of filler channels they never watch.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Tue, 06 Jan 2026 12:06:53 -0600, super70s
<super70s@super70s.invalid> wrote:

Looking over my TV/internet/phone bill, I saw I was paying $145/mo. for
the video package alone. Beginning Jan. 1 I downgraded to basic cable
which brings it down to $67/mo.

As far as the expanded channels go, I found I was spending most of the
time watching CNN, MS NOW, TV Land, Sci-Fi, TCM and ESPN from their 100+ >channel package.

CNN - I have subscribed to the Roku CNN app for $45/yr. ($69/yr. after
the first year) to stream this channel live. One benefit is I no longer
have to endure the hokey local commercials that my provider would show
on the Expanded package (just a message that says "CNN will resume >shortly"). CNN does show their own commercials but it's just for their
other programming.

MS NOW - This channel doesn't offer an app to stream the channel live
(yet), you have to connect it to their expanded package channel. But you
can stream the "highlights" of all their shows with a delay of a few
hours. This is just about as good as getting the channel live, and you
don't have to endure any commercials between the segments.

I would say it's better. When I used to check in on MSNBC regularly I
got to the point where I would tune in for about ten minutes to catch
up on the highlights and then turn it off because they would start
repeating points. I also learned not to turn on the morning or other
fluff shows unless I wanted background noise. Instead I would check in
on the actual news shows that focused on the news and not just
opinions. Did the same with the other news channels when checking them
out.

TV Land - I would watch some of my favorite sitcoms on TV Land, but all >those shows are also offered by MeTV which is included in my basic
package.

Sci-Fi - I only watched this for Twilight Zone reruns, which MeTV also
shows every evening.

Sadly this used to be the main network channel for me but now there's
nothing that holds my interest.

TCM - I have found a good substitute for this is the "Cinevault
Classics" channel on the Roku Live app. Of course you have to endure >commercials unlike TCM. I'm not that crazy about movies from the '30s
and '40s anyway which is what TCM devotes a whole lot of their
programming to.

ESPN - I would watch this (and their sister sports channels) often
during college football season, but most of the "must see" major sports >events are on the major networks which I get in the basic package.

To sum up, I think it's going to work out and save me a lot of money. At >some point in the not too distant future I think all of these channels
will be forced to let people subscribe them individually -- people are
sick and tired of paying for a lot of filler channels they never watch.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 2026-01-06 1:06 p.m., super70s wrote:

Looking over my TV/internet/phone bill, I saw I was paying $145/mo. for
the video package alone. Beginning Jan. 1 I downgraded to basic cable
which brings it down to $67/mo.

As far as the expanded channels go, I found I was spending most of the
time watching CNN, MS NOW, TV Land, Sci-Fi, TCM and ESPN from their 100+ channel package.

CNN - I have subscribed to the Roku CNN app for $45/yr. ($69/yr. after
the first year) to stream this channel live. One benefit is I no longer
have to endure the hokey local commercials that my provider would show
on the Expanded package (just a message that says "CNN will resume
shortly"). CNN does show their own commercials but it's just for their
other programming.

MS NOW - This channel doesn't offer an app to stream the channel live
(yet), you have to connect it to their expanded package channel. But you
can stream the "highlights" of all their shows with a delay of a few
hours. This is just about as good as getting the channel live, and you
don't have to endure any commercials between the segments.

TV Land - I would watch some of my favorite sitcoms on TV Land, but all
those shows are also offered by MeTV which is included in my basic
package.

Sci-Fi - I only watched this for Twilight Zone reruns, which MeTV also
shows every evening.

TCM - I have found a good substitute for this is the "Cinevault
Classics" channel on the Roku Live app. Of course you have to endure commercials unlike TCM. I'm not that crazy about movies from the '30s
and '40s anyway which is what TCM devotes a whole lot of their
programming to.

ESPN - I would watch this (and their sister sports channels) often
during college football season, but most of the "must see" major sports events are on the major networks which I get in the basic package.

To sum up, I think it's going to work out and save me a lot of money. At
some point in the not too distant future I think all of these channels
will be forced to let people subscribe them individually -- people are
sick and tired of paying for a lot of filler channels they never watch.

Agreed! We had a LOT of that nonsense here with respect to cable
bundles. The cable company once announced a new bundle of new channels - probably 30-odd years back - and on the 16 channels in the bundle, I was pretty sure I'd watch one regularly and I *might* look at another one occasionally but do you think I could just buy those two? Heck no! The
CRTC (our equivalent to the FCC) let the cable companies persuade them
that they had to bundle the less attractive channels with the good ones otherwise the weaker ones would fail so I had to pay for all 16. I don't
think I ever looked at anything except the one I was sure I would watch
but it turned to crap eventually. The CRTC did eventually allow a
provider to make smaller basic bundles and then offer everything else a
la carte: once you had the basics, you could have any 10 additional
channels for the same flat price of $19.95 or whatever it was. That was
a big improvement but the only provider of that packaging went belly up.

I think streaming is largely the same problem.
--
Rhino
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