Forget paying for TV . Bring back 3 channels (ABC, NBC, CBS) and kill the rest so those who did not know how it was to have 3 channels can feel the experience. That will get kids outside playing for sure. Who cares if the networks go broke. Certainly not me

The way i see if anyone doesn't like the price of cable tv just DO WITHOUT IT, it's as simple as that ! If you don't think that it is worth what you are paying just DO WITHOUT IT !!!!!!!!!

I cannot wait until the day arrives when COMCASH and TIMERIPOFF are no more - DEATH TO CABLE and to the ZOMBIES who do nothing but sit idle and zone out watching the CRAP that is American Television. Euope has it right. TURN IT OFF. All Americans should be forced to go OUTSIDE and DO SOMETHING. I truly await the day when this consumer culture COLLAPSES and people have to do without SUVs, and all the other STUPID THINGS that are "American Culture". Europe is great. America is full of people who cannot THINK, vote for STUPID FOOLS like Bush, and could not find or reference their own country on a map. TV is WHY. Advertising feeds this illiterate culture with LIES, LIES and more LIES. And no, I am not a COMMIE. Capitalism is great, BUT IT MUST BE REGULATED IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. Now bash me you homos.

att can kiss my a_ _  i gonna close out all of it  and going to comcast. their bundle seems better than att . now that att is not going to be in the cable business, they are realy pushing the sattelite connections, that means i would need a box for each of my tv's. if comcast doesnt work out i just going to buy movies , and get my news online.good bye you greedy b_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ,dont call me ill call you.

fed up

If the cable companies unbundled their channels and went ala-carte, would we end up paying a lot more for each channel? Say 2-3 dollars a channel rather than the 25-50 cents we pay now.

Cable TV and Comcast are a huge consumer rip-off. If I could get Cable News Network some other  way I would drop both tomorrow. The basic pakage is not worth $60/month. Congrees should get involved to stop these yearly rate increases and protect the consumer.

"Cable companies say that unbundling those channels would give lots of cash to the most popular ones while the rest suffer" ---  

 So the cable companies think it's ok to force people to subsidize crappy channels that can’t survive on their own? The problem is that they need to keep SOMETHING on all those available channels so that it will appear that they are giving you your money’s worth, and to try to justify the exorbitant prices they charge. If they were to allow each channel to succeed or fail based on the quality of the programming the thinning of the herd would be profound.  Then they would have to bill according to the actual service they provide… that won’t do at all… how can the overpaid under worked big shots at the top maintain the lifestyles they’ve become accustom to if they were to charge reasonable rates for a decent service. I don’t subscribe and don’t intend to until I see some value in it.  

Disgruntled with cable company pricing methodologies ?

Try this. Pick up the phone and call your primary carrier [ telephone, cable & internet ].

Tell them you want ALL services disconnected at their earlliest convenience. You do not and should not have to give them any reasons why. Just stick to your guns over the telephone and if the initial CSR doesn't know what to do, ask to speak to their supervisor....NOW.

In either instance, just stick to your guns and accept the risk that they will go ahead and proceed. NEVER give in about your reasons why. That is the key to success here. Even if you do succeed in getting  disconnected from your current provider's services, you can start over with a competitor and bargain hard to get what you want in monthly fees. You will most likely have to give up some features, but the pricing actuary formulas with your current provider make it impossible for you to get the lower pricing without getting so confused [ which is what they are trained to do over the telephone ] about what and how your current offerings will be affected, that you simply give up or hang up on them and remain complacent.

I did this at the suggestion of a friend of mine who works for a major telecom  company and ......IT WORKED...!!! Reduced my monthly fee from $142.00 to $87.95. If they think you are dead  serioius, they will do whatever they can to #1 keep you on their AR roles and #2 Keep you from bolting to a competito

Pay close attention to what Tim Berners Lee [ founder of the Internet ] is doing with the Semantic Web. The telecoms are certainly paying attention. Someday the Web will be everything he intended it to be....mainly FREE interchange of most everything in media.

OH, for Christ's sake, does every subscriber to the New York Times read every page??!!  

What if the editorial page of the NYT had to justify its budget for overpaid blowhard columnists by appealing to subscribers to separately select their content?

Cable, and other media, is sucking the life out of newspapers.  This is how the old technology strikes back.  Cable is not a monopoly (in a legal sense) or in a practical sense.  I have about 100 channels and hardely ever find over 5 that are of interest.  They are worth the $60/month.  

If you don't like the deal, then do one of the following:  read a book, get a dish, go online for information and entertainment, subscribe to Netflix, or go for a walk!!

With all the world's problems, leave it to the NYT to stir this one up.

Unbundle them and let the market work! Municipalities ending cable monopolies would help, too, but then where would our towns and cities get some of their kickbacks?