Seems we can't win for losing. We don't get any of the movie channels but we just got the cable box as we had to buy a new TV (our big screen one died) so of course we "upgraded" to a 52" digital flat screen. I still have my moms TV from the 70's and it still works so might just haul it out, dump the digital cable box and hook up the cable to the old TV!!! Sell the new one and be done with all of it. Of course my real thought is to just get the local channels and read a good book!!

We are looking into a $400 TV capable PC,a $50 antenna , and some service like hula. Saw several ways of ditching cable described on GMA this morning. The above description pays for itself in 7 months,and who watches all the package channels anyway?

Unfortunately the 10 or so channels I DO watch aren't the ones on basic cable or I'd only be paying 10 bucks a month.  I like Hallmark, Disc., Nat Geo, I keep it on Noggin for the baby but DVD's would work as well, it's pre school stuff anyway and only two days a week.    I watch cable news, AMC and TCM.  I really wish they had a cafe package where you only paid for the ones you use.  I have 5 million music channels I NEVER turn on and another 5 million sports channels I never turn on unless Ryans playing on one.  Then there are the two dozen Spanish speaking stations that are worthless to me. 

I'm thinking maybe I will go back to basic.  Most days I don't turn the TV on til evening anyway.  The kids are always on me because I don't have a DVR.  I can't convince them I don't watch most of what's on so why would I want to pay 8 bucks a month to not record something I wouldn't have watched anyway?

Cutting from basic digital back to analog will not save you much if you have cable modem service. That's because digital users get $5 off the cable modem service for bundling it with digital TV while analog users do not. If I'm calculating the new rates correctly, there's now a $9 difference between digital and analog, but that would drop to $4 difference if you have cable modem service too (unless they've gotten rid of the $5 bundling discount). I may be off by a dollar or so though. I already recycled the last cost of service brochure, so working off my memory of the price differences.

my parents just cancelled the one that  doesn't have fox or cbs anymore (which dish service was that one?)  and went back to the other satellite company.  they got a discount and some free movie channels for being a returning customer. 

i told then they should play that game for a while, going back and forth between satellite companies; getting these returning customer discounts

if i was a cable or satellite subscriber i would seriously consider playing that game for a while to save some money

Shwaine, you're pretty close. The digital service is $10 more than regular.

Emily, Dish Network dropped CBS and Fox locally. If your parents went to DirecTV, I can't imagine they'll want to go back to Dish unless that standoff gets resolved.

Sorry, Brighthouse, I'm Closing my account or cutting my Tiers, I cant believe in this economy that they have the gall to raise rates. Hello !  we are in a melt down economy that could be nearing the great depression. Please, all in Bakersfield do the same. My wife and her friends have had there employers cut days off there work schedule because they cannot meet payroll. Hello Brighthouse !

A few weeks ago we were alerted that the Network MTV would be shut off do to an disagreement in cost with MTV , essentially Brighthouse wouldn't agree to there new cost, so they were going to go dark on this channel, Fast forward to now and they want to raise rates on us. Lets go dark on them.  Lets get the word out and show them the new "Change"

I noticed channel 4 is dark now and channel 12 is dark most of the time.  What's that all about?

Well, Brock, MTV didn't go dark, because Bright House agreed to their new cost. And now they're passing on the ... what's the opposite of savings again? oh yeah, cost! They're passing the costs on to you.

We actuallly canceled our cable months ago. Wish I had done it earlier. We have been watching most of the shows we like on Hulu.com, streeming it to our TV through a media extender such as a XBOX 360, PS3, or other device works great to watch it on my 55" flatscreen. plus with the media server I have installed on the PC (PlayON) I can also watch my instant Netflix, CNN, ESPN, CBS, along with HULU on my TV...all for free! minus the fee for Netflix and one time cost of $30 for the PlayON computer program.

I have to admit me and the wife do miss our Bravo TV.

I am a Bright House customer. I get just about *every* channel they offer and have never had any problem with their service. I think it is pretty much "customary" for companies to pass on their costs to customers. $10.00 a month is something like 33 cents a day... wow you're killing me. Why don't we complain about some things we pay for all of the time that we "have to have" like groceries... every one complains about gas prices... what about milk or produce prices... what about PG&E's rates, not to mention Cal-Water... check your water bill lately?  Have any work done on your car lately? I'm sorry... I don't want a satellite dish (I don't know, but I am sure they are not cheap either) nor do I wish to watch TV on my computer... call me crazy if you wish... but for now I will keep my cable service and pay their bill... just like I pay ATT.. PG&E... Cal-Water... and every other company I pay every month of my life... to keep my home, family and life running... that's life folks. It's your choice. I just do not see where Bright House is being any different than any other service company out there.

PS - I love to see folks on TV holding their six dollar Starbucks cups as they bitch about gas or utility prices.

DirecTV sent me an email today talking about rate hikes.  Luckily I'm on some 12 month plan so I am not affected.  Why is it that, even when times are tough, prices continue to rise?  What excuse did Brighthouse give this time?  "Do to the overwhelming cost of copper wire for our coaxial cables..." "Do to increased competition from the sattellite industry..."  I'm curious as to the justification for this increase, other than the general "stick it to the consumer" mentality.

Gs, the difference I see is that water, utilities, groceries, are all necessities.  TV is not.  THat's why I complain about it..it's my weakness and their expense that I blame.

Snowdragon~ Bravo has some streaming content, so it depends on what show you like. Joost also has some TV shows,movies,news etc. TV delivered this way is in it's infancy~ but I am liking what I see so far~looks like being a little tech geeky will be a big help.

Im am going to check out AT&Ts new service.  It is TV delivered though your phone line.  Last I checked it was only slightly cheaper that Brighthouse with more channels.  At the time it wasnt worth the hassle of changing because I prefer cable modems over dsl modems.  But now with the increase it will be worth it to get more channels and faster internet service for a cheaper price. 

Brighthouse was a good deal for the first year when my internet was half price half price.  I was stunned when I got my first bill that didnt include that discount.  My bill went from $110 to $140 a month.  I dropped HBO and Cinamax (which I was only getting because they were half off), just to get my bill to a reasonable price. 

I switched to AT&T U-Verse from Brighthouse the moment it arrived in my neighborhood.  My Brighthouse service had continuous intermittent connectivity issues on the Internet side, which of course killed my Internet phone.  I spent countless hours on my cell phone with customer support (very nice people by the way) and weekends waiting around for technicians to tell me that the problem is mine... my router... my switches... interference from electrical... only a couple had the guts to tell me it was their problem, but their fixes only lasted a month at best.  They should have been paying me for my time!  I was backed into a corner because I had no other option than to stay with BH because they had the monopoly in my neighborhood. 

I can't say that U-Verse with AT&T will save you much money, but you will get more for you dollar and you will not have to spend your spare time in useless banter with customer support.  AT&T has a better picture in standard and high def, solid Internet connectivity with their own modem+wired/wireless router (particularly when converters are connected via CAT5), and their VoIP service comes with an APC in case of power outages. (laptops and phones to keep you going in the dark for a couple of hours)  My favorite feature is that the DVR that connects to three other drone cable converters so I can watch live or recorded shows on all four TVs in my house (including Hi-Def)  When I am away from home I can connect directly to my DVR through Yahoo.com to erase shows or schedule future recordings.  Brighthouse cannot match companies like AT&T and others that keep up with the latest technology, nor do they seem to have any real plans for future technology trends.  Satellite companies are keeping pace on the video side, but forget about phone/Internet solutions from them.

Well, the Super Bowl is on 17. Not 58.

So all is alright for us Dish users.

One place Brighthouse has technical superiority to AT&T is the terms and conditions of their cable modem service. You are free to do a whole lot more on Brighthouse, like run your own web server or file server, than you are on basic AT&T. Brighthouse also rarely renews the dynamic (DHCP) IP lease, so you essentially have a static IP unless you're offline for an extended period of time. Most of the techies I know stick to Brighthouse for this reason.

AT&T does have a similar service available, but only for their static IP plans. Not only are those more expensive per month (around $50 and up), but they also force you to pay the tech charge ($250) to set it up (no self-setup like the dynamic IP DSL plans). And if your tech messes up the install (like mine did three years ago) and you have to sit on the phone with tech support for 2 hours to fix it (like I did), they won't refund the $250 they charged you for a useless tech visit (at least they never did for me). That experience alone has soured me on AT&T DSL.

Erikbako: The official reason is increased programming costs, the cost of upgrading new technology, and the cost of customer service. While not a Bright House employee or representative, I'll go out on a limb and speak to the first and third.

• Cable companies pay a per-subscriber charge for each channel. This is largest for ESPN, which I think is something like $4 for ESPN down to a few pennies for channels like FoodTV and C-SPAN. Prices go up all down the chain, from the cost of the cast and crew for the latest Galactica episode to the cost of the guy who makes sure the computer is cuing up the right Star Trek rerun. The Viacom fracas of a few weeks back (where they threatened to pull MTV and Nick, etc.) was only a public example. I doubt Disney, Fox, NBC Universal and the other companies have put their channels on a rate freeze.

• Bright House employs, according to its letter, about 400 local employees. People cost more money. Even if you're not giving them raises, their health care costs more. And they drive company trucks a lot.

Bright House is sensitive to the fact that we can dump them for something else — oversensistive, in my opinion, because they won't answer some questions officially out of competitiveness concerns.

Dabowli: What part of town do you live in? I tried putting in addresses all over town and couldn't find a place that AT&T actually served.

AT&T u-Verse is in the southwest part of town Citybeat. They spent a good deal of time last year upgrading line along Ming Avenue, which is why you saw so many AT&T trucks along Ming last year with a lane blocked off for utility work. My neighborhood off of Ming was upgraded to u-Verse boxes last summer (I know, my border was dug up for three weeks because of it). I get an ad about u-Verse a couple of times a month. So far, I've only seen the u-Verse installer truck in the neighborhood once, so doesn't seem like many are switching.

In response to Citybeat, I reside in the Rio Bravo area of the 06 zip-code.  They have been running fiber to support the new development in the Northeast and I just squeaked in their zone of influence.  I first saw this technology in Apple Valley where Verizon was running cable right into the wire closet.  SWEET!  That is not the case with AT&T where it is twisted pair to the street.  The highest bandwidth available is 18MB download and 1.5MB upload speed.  Shwaine is correct that Brighthouse offers much more dynamic web services to its customers.

well I have been having trouble getting emails from neighbors and family for over a month now. I have emailed brighthouse who suggested doing things I had already done, then they said they couldn't help me with email anymore I had to call which I did. the customer service rep told me I was lying , if I could send mail to myself then it was working and as for people emailing me they were putting the address in wrong!!!! give me a break.they have a problem but don't want to address it. maybe I should call our channel nine news to find the problem. I am at my wits end. don't send the darn junk mail, I just want to communicate with my family and friends again.

Has AT&T stopped rolling U-Verse out to other neighborhoods in Bakersfield?  I live in the southwest part of town off Gosford and White Lane.  I'm kind of surprised they haven't brought it to this part of town, as well as many other parts of town where I'd think they'd get a lot of customers.