Quote from Bob111:
what about internet? as far as i know-the bundled package in many cases will cost you just 5-10-20$ more,than if you subscribe for internet only. it doesn't make any sense to me to pay for my internet FIOS 70-80$ a month,when i can have HDTV with dvr,land line phone and internet for 100-110$,if you negotiate. and every quarter-there is a free premium channel packages like HBO,Cinemax...
You are right, they can always find a way to repackage these bundles such that it is easy to say, "hmm, for only another $15, I'll get all this extra stuff!" I think I am paying about $25 bucks (on top of a practically useless land-line phone) for some pretty slow AT&T dsl. I keep the land-line due to some old school notion of having redundancy in case of emergency.
At any rate, depending upon how much your internet costs, some of the bundles make sense. They always seem to find a way to get that $100 out of you. Then when the introductory period expires, you either get a shock when you are suddenly paying $30 more per month, or they start nickel and diming you, raising the bill a few dollars every few months, hoping you won't notice.
As more people dump cable, maybe these companies will get the hint and try to restructure their offerings. I would probably be willing to pay ala carte by channel or for some much smaller bundles of channels, that actually target things that interest me. The content providers with garbage that nobody wants will then wither and die, as they probably should.
Everyone is different, and if you have a family, you probably get your money's worth by spending $100 a month on cable, but for me, the $$ is better spent elsewhere.