In a struggle to be happy and free

Drystone Wall

So kind of them…

About my cancelling my cable in the aftermath of the CRTC decision to allow fee-for-carriage, Shawn wrote a comment that made me think. He said,

I applaud your defiance, but it is penalizing Rogers for CTV’s greed. I think the best way to protest is to boycott CTV.

I don’t think this is exactly true, though I can understand how it might appear this way given how upset I am about the situation.

It came down to the cost. I did cancel my cable earlier this year because the monthly fee was again increased, to $33.89 (taxes included). Before the disconnection occurred, I reconsidered and decided to keep it. It was a close call, however. Now with this latest change, it’s going up again and although no one knows what the increase will be, it could be significant. I’d be surprised if the increase is less than $5 a month, and that’s an increase of 15%. It’s more than the service is worth for me.

You could view it as penalizing Rogers, but the fact is that I was annoyed when the price went over $30, and I’ve grown more annoyed ever since. Although I did dump it at CTV’s feet, an increase of any significant amount would have had me cancel at this point, regardless of who caused it. So that’s what I did. I paid my last Rogers cable bill earlier today and although I won’t enjoy cable TV, I will somehow manage to make myself feel better with the $406 I’ll save every year … and that’s the current cost, before the coming increase.

As an aside, it was kind of Rogers to today send me a notice of a channel shuffle coming on August 18, despite my cable being disconnected nearly two weeks before this date. The notice reports that three channels I don’t care about are moving around, another I don’t care about is moving to to the digital line-up, and the only one that I’m interested in is being removed. That’s right, PBS Watertown (WPBS) is being dumped entirely. They are adding PBS Detroit (WTVS) instead. This makes sense because Watertown, New York is a distant 157 km while Detroit, Michigan is right next door, being just 683 km away. Makes sense, right? <sigh>

PBS Detroit is actually three separate stations, one being HD. According to the notice, Rogers is going to carry only one of the SD stations, meaning that there’s only a 50% chance I’d be able to continue watching Nova after the switch. This alone might’ve pushed me to cancel. I love that show. No more Nova? Then what good is cable?!

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1 Comment

  1. Shawn

    I pay close to 4 time what you did for cable, but unfortunately the family would lynch me if I cancelled it. And we only watch a fraction of what is carried. Try as I might, I cannot just get what I want at a reasonable price. The whole system is a rip off. No wonder so many steal cable, steal satellite, etc. Toss the CRTC, toss the regulations and sell me what I want to buy!

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