Get a fire stick and antenna and kick Comcast to the curb

I have Comcast wi-fi only just increased from $59.95 to $79.95. Have no other choice.

The Villages needs to open the market up to all providers. They control the markets. The kick backs from comcast and spectrum must be pretty good.

The increase in my bill was due to increase in Broadcast TV fee which went from $10 to $14.95. I was told years ago it was a pass-through fee they are charged. So I emailed Comcast to ask for some sort of documentation to show that this is what they are actually charged and I got no response.

Ohiobuckeye
 

I know this has nothing to do with TV but where I live we have probably 5 or 6 choices of cable. I would say 90% of the residents here took Frontier & it must be pretty cheap for the subdivision because our HOA pays for it & it’s FREE & we get cable & Internet. When we moved from TV we paid $165. a month for Brighthouse. I’m sure if we can get Frontier here in Texas you should be able to get it in TV. I like it because I get all & any NCAA , pro game that being played. (got every Ohio St. game, GO BUCKS) As a matter of fact we get just about any sport you want. We even get Corn Hole tournaments. But maybe again maybe nobody in TV wants it. I’m sure if TV’s wanted to they could get the residents a good deal somewhere!

Ohiobuckeye
 

bmit16, read my comment below!

Here is our math:

CenturyLink internet only: $45
YouTubeTV: $50

Total: $95

YouTubeTV has the local affiliates and DVR in the cloud.

You need approximately 5 megabits per second of internet bandwidth per stream for 1080p hi-def.

Ohiobuckeye
 

Yes, we had Brighthouse & when we first got it, it was $59.95 a month too. When we moved 7 yrs. later we were paying $165. (for cable & Internet)We now get cable TV & Internet for FREE through our HOA, I’m sure TV could do the same thing. TV could get the residents a good deal if they wanted.

Depending on where you live in The Villages, you may have multiple choices. Where we live, we have 3 choices for internet access (Comcast, Spectrum, and CenturyLink), and 2 choices for traditional "cable" TV (Comcast, Spectrum) plus satellite, of course.

We did the same thing and cut the cord and love it. Get all the content we did before for a lot less money.

Go Streaming
 

Just make sure you have decent Internet service and go streaming. YouTubeTV is great and it's only $50 per month for something like 70 channels. You can add on additional channels such as movie channels for extra. You need something like a Roku for each TV, but YouTubeTV allows up to six devices. I dropped Comcast for their ridiculous fees and have never looked back.

We tried this - but going from 200+ channels on DirecTV or Comcast to 70 on YouTube left out several channels that either me or my wife really wanted. The cost to get another service that offered these channels added yet another $30 to the cost.

In addition, you now have to juggle which service to start for the channel you want to watch - I'm OK with that, but my wife isn't.

If you plan on only getting 5mbps per stream, you need to plan on seeing your shows stutter and freeze at times. I know folks that try to save money by getting the 12mbps service and their screens have constant issues with one stream.

However, 50mbps should be enough for most purposes.

There is nothing wrong with cutting the cord - just realize that you do give up some features/channels/selections to save that money. As long as those options mean nothing to you, that is great!

We had 10 megabit per second internet for about 2 years and never had any issues with 2 hi-def streams. Some services, such as Netflix, are adaptive and will adjust the resolution if necessary to prevent buffering delays if you have a poor internet provider. If you want to stream 4k content then about 20 megabits per second is required per stream. While it can be nice to have some webpages with numerous graphics load a bit quicker, most people are paying for more bandwidth than they need. I can't speak of the quality of Comcast and Spectrum internet, but CenturyLink via fiber to the house is reliable and the performance is consistent.

Regarding features, YoutubeTV is essentially the same as traditional "cable". There is a programming guide and DVR.

If you're worried about $6, don't ever sign up with Directv. In 12 years I've never had the same bill twice. Of course I'm always calling and getting a discount of some kind, and usually they come through. Past two years I was rewarded with NFL Sunday Ticket for free, but couldn't get it free this year.

I have the Premier Package which is every channel (330 Channels), plus HD DVR, second HD box, HD Tier Channels (Sony, MGM, HDNET, etc), Sports Package (all the local and national sports channels), all the premium channels (HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Showtime, TMC - about 8 to 10 of each in HD), maintenance plan. The tax in Florida alone is $22 a month, when you have no state income tax they get their money in other ways. Plus I'm on my last month of six months of paying for NFL Sunday Ticket installments, which was every game in the NFL. Directv is expensive, but you pay for the convenience of having every channel and it's shown on an on-screen channel guide and being able to jump back and forth and record 4 channels at once and store up to 200 hours forever. The only thing I don't have is the 4K box, but I didn't want to lose about 75 favorite movies I have already recorded. I figured since I'm retired and do enjoy watching TV, that I'm not going to sacrifice saving a few dollars, which would be blown on something else anyway.

Broadcast TV Fee
 

Comcast's Broadcast TV Fee increased by 49.5% this month. On my "contract" it goes from $10 to $14.95. Overall my bill will increase by $5.80.

For those of you who call Comcast, my advice is don't. Take a trip to the Xfinity store at the corner of Rolling Acres Road and Hwy 27/441. Talk to them in person! No retention department to deal with. Last July when my 2 year"contract" was almost up, I went to the store with the intent of closing my account. I merely asked "what can you do for me." Within five minutes I was given a lower rate than before, plus upgraded equipment.

I'll make another trip to the store in 2021, ready to cancel, unless a better deal is offered.