You were wondering why your cable TV bill seems to be out of control? Because it is. That's the conclusion of a major FCC study that has just ended: the price of cable packages has been rising at
triple the rate of inflation . From the study:
[B]asic cable prices increased by 6.5% throughout 2012 while expanded basic cable prices rose by 5.1% over the same period. In contrast, the general rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index throughout 2012 was just 1.6%, meaning that basic cable prices rose at more than four times the rate of inflation in 2012 while expanded basic cable prices rose by more than three times the rate of inflation.
Sound bad? It gets worse. Keep reading over at
BGR , and then take the TechCrunch
Four Step Plan for cutting the cord. Screw you, cable.
For the few shows that I have watched, Netflix ships them to me in a little red envelop. Additional benefits are that the bluray quality exceeds the over-the-air broadcast, the episodes contain no advertisements, and I can watch the stuff at my own pace.