Comparing Cable vs Direct TV

Cable TV deals aren’t hard to find, that is as long as you aren’t already a subscriber to Comcast or Time Warner.

The reason for this is because the cable TV guys want to build their subscriber base, so of course they are ready to give you a great deal, generally for the first year of service. The cable provider figures if you get service from them, you may set up a with one of their bundled packages that puts all of your services together like voice, video and internet.

Often you can get a triple play bundle for just $99 per month for the first year. Consider what the typical cable TV company charges: Basic TV costs $55 per month, high speed internet is $40 per month, and phone service is $35 per month. With prices like this, your overall bill would be $140 per month before all of the taxes that find their way onto your cable bill. With prices like this, a promotional deal that offers all three services for $99, even if it is just for 6 months looks pretty good to the average cable TV customer.

But it is good to think about how this might turn out down the road Well think about where you will be once the promo is over. You will have all of your TV’s hooked up to the cable company, your high speed internet including your e-mail address through the cable company, and of course your phone service through the cable company as well. But all at once your price goes up nearly 45%, from about $100 per month to $145+ every month. Now is it easy to switch?

Maybe, maybe not. The smart thing to do beforehand is compare providers before making your final choice. Lining up DIRECTV versus Comcast ahead of time is the way to go.

While you might logically say it is easy to switch to some kind of DirecTV deal or something else from your local phone company like Verizon FiOS. That is easier said than done, however. Usually the time and inconvenience of switching from cable to a different provider makes the customer stay with whatever service they have. Even though the monthly bill is high, the subscriber stays with the cable company because they have all the services in a package, making it harder to switch. That is what the cable TV company expects when giving the subscriber a good short term deal.