I f*&king HATE cable
 

I need to ramble about this somewhere. I watch exactly two TV channels voluntarily with any regularity. My wife watches maybe 8. One of them overlaps. That makes for a total of 9 channels we actually want. And yet, due to the packaging deals, in order to receive these 9 channels we have to get one of the top-tier packages offered by our provider (FIOS) and pay approx. $70 on top of our internet package. That's almost $100/channel/year. None of the cord-cutter options offer these channels in any reasonable way either. So we would have to subscribe to several offers with a lot of overlap and pay essentially the same we're paying for FIOS.
Ten years ago I was absolutely certain that consumer pressure would start forcing content delivery systems and providers to de-bundle and offer a pick & chose option for channels. I am absolutely certain that a vast majority of consumers thinks the same way. Why hasn't it happened yet?

To be clear here: I understand that we wouldn't get the same price/channel/year that we're getting now. We have probably around 300 channels and at $840/year we're at less than $3/channel per year. I don't expect our cable bill to drop to $25 or so per year for our 9 channels.

I got Netflix and never looked back.
Selection has gotten very good in the last few years.
If there is something I feel like I really need to watch, I watch it on Amazon prime.

I failed to mention, that I do almost all my watching on Netflix and Amazon Prime as well. Yet there are some things we like that are not found on either of these offerings. The question to me is the following: What is the consumer benefit of bundling?
To me is similar to the question what the consumer benefit of flat-rates for internet or phone calls is. I make maybe 10 phone calls from my cellphone/month. Yet I have to pay the same rate as somebody who makes dozens or hundreds of calls/day.

Thank your elected officials. We'll soon be going backwards when the whole "net neutrality" thing gets gutted.

Look into a modified Kodi Box. Flee bay has them along with other website vendors.

Got one this year and couldn't be happier.

START HERE - Pick the Right Kodi Box (updated April 2017)

I have Kodi running on Raspberry PIs. But you still need to get the content supplied somehow. If the channels would give us paid online subscription options to feed into the ubiquitous Roku/Chromecast/Apple TV/Kodi solutions, that would certainly work for us. But the only channel that offers this, AFAIK, is HBO. Others will allow you to watch some shows online and on demand, but not the whole lineup or not concurrent with it being live on the air.

All I want is to be able to chose which channels I pay for. Or at least an explanation why this desire can't or shouldn't be met.

The "Zen" addon has 90% of anything I've asked it for; highly recommended.

Regarding live TV there are add-ons for that as well.

Also works better with realdebrid.

PS Vue or gtfo.

Tried PS Vue. Not all the channels we want and it sucks: Not reliable and on some of the channels we did get we didn't get all shows.
And we have FIOS internet. 50m/s and very reliable with all other streaming services.

So you gtfo.

And you guys are missing the point: I'm pissed that I'm forced to bundle. And all the streaming options are bundled as well. They're just shittier bundles.

I'm guessing those 9 channels aren't available OTA?

Unfortunately not. Only two afaik. That'd be awesome.

I have found that buying enough car parts, motorcycles, guns, golf clubs and bourbon leaves me with no free time for TV.

Quite true. But something must keep the wife occupied while I ignore her....

Just curious, what are those 9 channels? Cord-cutting options have gotten a hell of a lot better in the last 2-3 years. Between FX, Showtime, and HBO subs, plus Amazon Prime and Netflix, I don't watch anything on cable anymore. The only reason we still have it is for sports.

Roku with Hulu + Amazon Prime + borrowed subscription info for premium channels + OTA antenna = most stuff I want

But I don't watch much tv.

​​​​​​​Yeah we use a Roku + Plex + Netflix + Prime in my house and we are very content.

Miata Family: We need the channels for "Ru Paul's Drag Race", "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy", "Modern Family", "So you think you can dance" and "What Not To Wear".

Yep confirmed you are in the closet.

We've been able to get everything we need on Amazon Prime (With HBO) + Netflix + Kodi + Torrent over VPN :)

The only thing this wasn't getting us we got by using my parents online pass for the cable TV subscription they are using.

[QUOTE=2slow;1448401]We've been able to get everything we need on Amazon Prime (With HBO) + Netflix + Kodi + Torrent over VPN :)
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