Holy Crapatoli!

Updated on June 29, 2012 By Ken Begg 12 Comments

Apparently my instincts were right when I dumped cable. They not only removed TCM from my current package, but now to get it you have to move up not one but two or three packages. The ‘deal’ is fifty dollars a month, for only six months, and then up to $83 (!!!) a month after that. I guess you can fight over it every half year and get the $50 price continued, but I don’t have the energy for that.

$83 a month is basically a grand a year!! For TV! Insane.

I’ll miss you, TCM. However, this is probably for the best. Less wasted time spent channel surfing. I’ll got probably a 1,000 DVDs I could be watching, and I already paid for those.

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  • Gamera977

    Yeah cable is crazy expensive esp considering how little I watch it lately, really I should do the same thing. Thanks GJ and guys for the advice in the earlier post on other options- I’ll have to check out Roku too.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    I assume the cable people are looking at viewing habits, and TCM is one of the few that actually has consistently high numbers.  So yeah, they’ll charge you more for that.  And they’ll wonder why people start shedding service faster than yeti hairs on a bus. 

    What I think they will have to do to survive is allow people to make their own packages, ie, X a month for 15 channels and you get to pick which ones.  They’ve been fighting that for years, since it’s the only way to keep losers like Current TV viable, but I don’t think they’re going to have any choice.

    I haven’t had cable for years and I don’t miss it.  If I had it, I’d probably spend all my time on Cartoon Network or something like that.

  • Ken_Begg

     Yes, I’m trying to look at the upside, which is I’ll waste less time in general channel surfing. I’ll miss a few shows, like Chopped and Mythbusters, but not a lot. Luckily, Amazing Race (and Hell’s Kitchen) you can eventually watch on the Web.

  • GalaxyJane

    That is stinking AWFUL!  The only way they would ever get me back to cable would be to go al la carte and even then I’d likely stick with what I have. Hell’s Kitchen is on Hulu, so not even much of a wait for it.  I know this far too well as there’s actually a local chef on there this year (Clemenza?  The big guy anyway) and I never remember to watch it when it’s actually on.

  • Ken_Begg

    This is the worse crop ever for Hell’s Kitchen. There isn’t a single person on that show even remotely worth a quarter million dollar salary. I’m sure they’ll keep them busy with personal appearance and out of the kitchen.

  • Terrahawk

    You won’t ever see ala carte selections.  Both the cable companies and networks bundle their product.  They would both have to agree not to do that and that’s unlikely.

    If I can convince the wife she doesn’t need ESPN and can miss Monday night football, I’m dropping DirecTV.  They offered the “free” DVR upgrade but then wanted an additional $25/month.  That didn’t happen.  I think the only other item I’ll have to convince the family about is that we can purchase “Merlin” episodes the day after they run on Sci-Fi and watch them on the TV through the computer.  Otherwise, I spend more time on NetFlix anymore.

    Are we reaching the tipping point?

  • GalaxyJane

    Yeah, they’re all pretty obnoxious and less competant to run a kitchen than I am. And, oh boy, is this another bitchy group of females.  Way to reinforce those stereotypes, ladies.  Still, I gotta root for the local guy.

    I think part of the problem is that if you are already a successful, albeit not famous, chef, it isn’t worth the abuse for a one-in-sixteen chance at a better paying version of the job you already have, so they tend to get a lot of really middling sous chefs that don’t have the wherewithal to actually run a restaurant.  I have a cousin who runs a reasonably successful Frenchish (started French, now more local ingrediant specialty cuisine) restaurant up in Northern VA and he says he would punch anyone who yelled at him like that in the nose rather than hang around.

  • TCM was one of the few channels I knew I’d miss when I dumped the service a few years back (at the end, I was mostly watching just TCM and Boomerang). Still, even then, the channel was growing more and more pretentious, and few things irk me like pretentiousness. Made it rather easy to just let it go.

  • wallyballou

    We love Roku.   We dropped Dish when we realized we were paying $100/month so I could watch TCM and my wife could watch HGTV (we live in a rural area with no OTA access).   I have computers hooked up to every screen, and was happy with that, but my wife is much happier with the Roku’s ease of use.  if you want to extend your Roku choices, run “Playon” on a computer on the same network as your Roku.  it allows you to stream those shows that are ‘computer only” to your Roku for a modest annual subscription.  You can also watch Playon-streamed  shows on a Kindle Fire.

  • Flangepart

    If I could bundle cable, I’d pick Discovery, History, TLC, Nat. Geo, Food Network, Military, and…that’s about it. And I can’t afford cable anyhoo so-nada!
    Hell’s Kitchen- does anyone else think Ramsey should star in a Spagetti Western as the bad guy? He has that look Lee Van Cleef had. Yeah, if he treated me like he does them, he’d be out of there of nursing a busted schnozz.

  • sandra

    Ramsay chooses those people, so if they are all incompetent, what does that tell us about his judgement ?

  • Ken_Begg

    That he’s more interested in ratings than in finding a competent temporary employee for one of his many restaurants. That said, he might want to pick a few more competent people next time.