Affordable BBC or Expensive American TV

     The other night, Lewis grumbled about an ongoing plight: paying for Cable TV's many channels, yet there's nothing good to watch.  Our British friend told us that the United Kingdom's BBC is a much better value than American TV.  America has several basic networks, each occupying a dozen channels.  In the UK, the BBC operates most of the different channels.  A handful of other TV producers have their own networks.  The BBC is commercial-free!  Their award-winning quality TV is funded by taxes and households paying for access to the networks via a "license fee" of £150.50 = $200.00.  So, that one-time yearly payment gets all their television--without commercial interruptions.  That's a tremendous value.  Any household with a person over the age of 75 gets theirs for FREE!

     In stark comparison, my Spectrum (previously the corrupt Time Warner Cable) bill costs a lot--especially "fees" and "surcharges", which America is famous for in everything.  Each month, I pay:
$70 - "basic" television package, with high-speed internet 
$13 - DVR Recording Capability (which is a ripoff of cost)
$11.75 - the cable box and remote (which is CRAZY for a remote) 
$10 - Broadcast TV Surcharge
$3.20 - Franchise Fee
$0.89 - State & Local sales tax
$0.06 - Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee 
$1 - Public Access Fee 

     Our absurd total is $109.90 per month.  That is more ridiculous when you realize the outdated hardware that we are forced to use: big boxy Cable Receivers.

I guarantee you that people in China have modern small ones.

     So, after paying $1,318.80 each year, I STILL deal with frequent commercial advertisements--often totaling as much time as the actual program that I'm watching.  Many times, each week, the cable box freezes, or the "fast forward" malfunctions and speeds until the end of the show, or the remote's buttons don't work.  Such low quality.  In addition, American cable companies are historically notorious for their bad customer service and untimeliness of repair visits.  I buy that entire "privilege" for $1,318.80 per year!  However, last month, Spectrum was caught and penalized by a court ruling for a class-action lawsuit, so it refunded approximately $66 to its customers.  Revengefully making up for it, Spectrum increased everyone's Broadcast TV Surcharge by $2 per month... forever.  When I called Customer Service, they were unapologetic and unwilling to lower any other part of the monthly bill to compensate for such a sudden increase.  When I wanted to pay my bill with the woman, she informed me that Spectrum charges an ADDITIONAL fee to make payments with their operators!!!!  So, I called back and made a payment through their automated system for free.  (Who charges customers to give them money?!!!  Only Spectrum and Con Edison Electric/Gas: they are NYC's corrupt monopolistic entities for television/internet and electricity/gas.  Making it worse, ConEd has the audacity to to make customers pay an extra fee to pay their monthly bills via their automated phone system!).

     Lewis and I would rather have the BBC for $200!

*Update: in the year 2023, our monthly cost for the same quality of Cable Television and Internet Access ballooned from $109.90 to $152.28.  For no reason.  The corrupt monopolistic company claimed that it suddenly cost more to transit our TV signals and internet through its electronic system.  An increase of $50 from millions of residents in NYC is an astronomical surge, yet our services and hardware do not improve.  Here's the breakdown:

$9.99 - Basic TV Service

$11 - TV cable box receiver. They stopped charging for remote.

$13 - DVR Service (to record shows that you want to watch).

$23.20 - Broadcast TV Surcharge

$0.12 - FCC Administrative Fee

$3.81 - Franchise Fee

$1.17 - PEG Capital Fee (we don't know what those fees are).

$5.00 - WiFi Service (it's a ripoff to charge for WiFi)

$84.99 - Internet (When I came to NYC 13 years ago, it was $25, but fewer people use TV so they price-gouge for internet!)

So, now our bill is $600 extra per year for the same crappy services!  We definitely will prefer another type of arrangement, and this doesn't endear us to live in NYC!

To see what our Cable/Internet bill began as, please click here:

https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2015/07/how-to-lower-your-time-warner-cable.html