Recently it was announced that several cord cutting services are raising their prices by $5 a month. As you would expect, this resulted in a long list of posts saying how it was cheaper to have cable TV than be a cord cutter. The truth is cord cutting has never saved Americans more.
According to Consumer Reports, cable TV core package fees went up 3 percent to 4 percent and new and higher fees have been added to cable TV. For example, Comcast raised their core package fees about $5 a month but also raised their broadcast fee from $1 to $8 a month and regional sports fee was up as much as $1.75 a month. Also missed payment fees went up to $10.
In total Comcast, bills went up about $7.75 a month. This means former Comcast subscribers who got hit with a $5 price hike on their streaming service are still saving $2.75 more than they did last year.
DIRECTV had an even larger price hike: some packages went up $8 a month. Regional sports fees went up $1 and the NFL Sunday Ticket went up $12. That means former DIRECTV customers who went to DIRECTV NOW are saving $4 more a month than they did last year.
Spectrum, according to Consumer Reports, raised their core package prices between $5 and $10 a month. Some of their fees also went up, such as their broadcast TV fee, from $7.50 to $8.85 a month. This means former Spectrum customers are saving as much as $11.35 more than they did in 2017.
No matter how you look at it cord cutting has never saved Americans more than it does right now. While, yes, cord cutting does cost $5 more a month than it did last year, that is a far better deal than the $11.35 more some Spectrum customers are paying every month.
As always be careful of the advertised prices for TV packages. They often don’t include all the hidden fees and taxes. Also, that price often ends long before your contract will end.
So next time someone says cable TV is cheaper than cord cutting make sure to show them all the new price hikes and fees on cable TV in 2018.
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