A couple of months ago I cancelled my satellite tv service. I was sick of paying almost $60 a month for hundreds of stations that I have no interest in, and never watched. I mean, really, how many shopping channels do we really need? All the new channels that came on seemed to be geared toward ostentatious consumption. I'd love to watch a travel channel that covered trips I could actually afford. Or a DYI channel that showed projects that the average person might really be considering. You know, like “This Old House” on PBS.
Since then we've been watching regular broadcast tv. Rearranging the rabbit ears almost every time we change the channel; can only get the local PBS station on the tv upstairs (and that's still pretty snowy).
So I was pretty interested to learn from my friends in Boston that they have a very cheap cable package that gives them good reception on the local channels without all the extra channels. I wondered if it was offered in Baltimore, so I did a little research, and guess what: It's offered everywhere!
Here's the deal: the FCC requires that all cable service providers have a basic services tier (it's often called "Limited Basic Service"). According to the FCC, “The basic services tier must include most local broadcast stations, as well as the public, educational, and governmental channels ....”
In Baltimore, that means about 20 channels: the local NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, several PBS stations, 2 C-Span stations, the city government access channel, and the public access channel. It has 2 shopping channels. I guess I can't get away from them entirely. The price in Baltimore is about $11 a month.
You wouldn't know about this from watching the ads for Comcast, would you? When you call them up and ask for it, they know what you're talking about and they'll give it to you without a hassle. But don't look for it on their website, or in any of their ads on tv.
Read the FCC rules here. Then tell all your friends about it.
9 comments:
I found your blog after googling for more sites mentioning the wonderful Holly Hunter's ridiculous interview with that twit who should be fired.
Anyway, thanks so much for this information. I need to cut back on some bills, and figure as much as I love my USA shows, I might not be able to afford them in the near future. Thanks again.
Glad you found us!
I'm going thru TNT "Law & Order" withdrawl, so I know what you mean!
I think I have the lowest basic level. Here it's 5 Spanish channels, all the local news, TBS, Nickelodeon, PBS and... I think that's it. I get that and roadrunner from Time Warner for $62 a month. Not too bad.
Allie, there might be a cheaper level — if you call them up and ask them. They aren't required to advertise it, just to offer it.
Pooky, you're on my favorites list now, so I checked back!
Allie, my "basic" cable now is all the local stations, plus TNT/USA/Discovery/TBS/FN/and a bunch of others, for $40/month. From what I understand of the original entry, there is a requirement to offer *very* basic cable (as denoted in the original post), at a *very* low cost (~15/mo). You need to ask for it, though.
danang... I'm so there... we're poor Army people! thanks, Pooky :)
I'm always for saving a buck!
When I first moved out into the world I used one of these cable packages. It was actually required by our company for us to have the lowest level cable TV package even though all we wanted was the internet. Oh well. As your family grows, so does your desire for viewing variety, I suppose.
Good point — I've read that a lot of people who really only want the internet connection get this basic-basic level.
But again, the cable company won't tell you about it unless you ask. So ask!
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