# DirecTV's days are numbered



## Johnny b (Nov 7, 2016)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/03/07/att-directv-now-only-rural-areas/4974530002/



> Start saying goodbye to DirecTV.
> 
> ************
> 
> ...


I cut the cord/antennae with DirecTV.
Rabbit ears for me.
Most of my viewing entertainment now comes from my local library in the form of DVD and BluRay.


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## SeanLaurence (Sep 6, 2019)

My dad get his TV channels using an antenna and is really happy with it. It seems to be a under appreciated option in these parts.
He did have a problem with reception while workers had erected scaffolding around his building however.


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

My biggest issue with DirecTV was the customer support. The service itself was fine, but then the prices went up and it was cheaper for me to switch to cable tv... then Cox increased my services to $250mo ...

Got rid of TV and Phone (that I didn't use, but required to get the bundled cheaper price) and started to use streaming services like CBS, Hulu, Disney+ for the kids, Amazon, and Netflix.

Only caveat on that is to make sure you are on an 'unlimited cap' plan. Even though what Cox is offering would be considered enough for standard users, people that requires HD format videos would potentially get caught in 'the cap'.


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## Johnny b (Nov 7, 2016)

I started out with Continental Cable Vision back in the mid 80's.
$17 a month HBO a few dollars extra.
Oddly, reception wasn't as good as air broadcast, but there was a better selection of interesting content.
Of course, prices went up, but not much, until Time Warner took over.
Over time, choices were flooded with content I had no interest in.
I switched to DirecTV on a special offer that I wound up regretting when it was doubled.
ATT had bought out DirecTV.
I went to 'cut the cord' and all of a sudden, I was offered a $25 a month subscription with out a contract.
That went ok for almost 2 years.
Then it went to $27 a month. Still OK, but I was noticing there wasn't much content I was watching other than auto racing on the Discovery channel, once a week.
After 3 or 4 months, the charge went to $100 a month with out any explanation. The 'offer' was obviously over.

Sooooo......I called up ATT to cancel my subscription, only to find that my account password from DirecTV didn't carry over to ATT and I hadn't been given the opportunity to set a new one.

Anyone seeing a moment of frustration?
I couldn't set a new password with out first presenting the old ATT password ( that I never had )
Long story short......after convincing a supervisor I was serious about taking the issue much further, after a 20 minute hold on the phone, he comes back and directs me to a ATT store in order to validate who I really was.
Of course, the store he presented was a reseller, not a 'company' store, but the manager was helpful and gave me the address of a company outlet store that could help.
At the company store, which was even closer to me, the manager apologized and spent all of 5 minutes setting a password.

I'll also note, my telephone reception improved when I switched from ATT to bundling it with my Spectrum Internet connection. But that was long before I dropped DirecTV.

BTW, my rabbit ears antenna gets good reception, but I've read there is a way to get better reception by modifying the old DirecTV dish that was left behind.


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

Johnny b said:


> I'll also note, my telephone reception improved when I switched from ATT to bundling it with my Spectrum Internet connection. But that was long before I dropped DirecTV.


This would be the case if you had old copper wire service. Digital is more clear and less prone to issues that POTS has, but if the cable goes down, so does the phone.


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## Johnny b (Nov 7, 2016)

When it rained hard, ATT usually went down. 

Yeah, it was wired. Good riddance.


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## makrjsard (Mar 27, 2020)

Philo TV is a good option. Cheap and have few popular channels like OWN, paramount, AMC, Hallmark.


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## Johnny b (Nov 7, 2016)

makrjsard said:


> Philo TV is a good option. Cheap and have few popular channels like OWN, paramount, AMC, Hallmark.


While I suspect you are spamming us, here goes......the lineup looks like one of the reasons I cut my cable TV and went to air broad cast.

Not the kind of programming that I'm interested in. 59 channels and none I'd even spend $20 a month to watch.
These days, I get most of my entertainment at my local library and news off the Internet.

I'm currently watching the series: Burn Notice and it cost me nothing


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