An alternative to cable

Earlier this year, I wrote a col­umn on “negotiating rates for products and service.” At a subsequent Sun City Town Hall Meeting, the idea of negotiating with Comcast was posed by a community member. Our board President indicated that a mem­ber of the Board was approach­ing Comcast to determine what, if anything, could be done to obtain more reasonable rates for members or our community.

After several follow-up email communications, I received an update from Bonnie Bayser, our Board President. Bonnie indicated, “The talks that were mentioned earlier this year were that Wentworth Property Man­agement (WPM) had been talk­ing with Comcast to try and see if they could leverage their portfolio to see if Comcast could come up with some across-the-board savings op­portunities for WPM managed communi­ties nationwide. This was not possible since the only way Com­cast could offer any discounts would be if they utilized commu­nities that had master antenna systems and the cable infrastruc­ture already in place ,and in the majority of those communities, many of the residents had already gone to satellite alternatives. Bill Pennock talked with Comcast out of Chicago and they con­firmed that they would not be able to offer a community-wide dis­count program that was not tied to a mas­ter antenna system.”

This was not the result that we had hoped for since the cable infra­structure is already installed here in Sun City. The alternatives we have had so far for Comcast have been U-Verse or Satellite sys­tems.

One of our commu­nity members wouldn’t give up on this issue. Sean Krogman, N28, sent me a response to the Frugal Forum column. He implemented an alternative solu­tion. Sean related the following, “I wanted to let you know how I dealt with constant Comcast rate increases. I cancelled my cable TV and kept my Comcast Internet. I was paying $180.00/ month, about $50.00 for Internet and the rest forTV, cable boxes, guide, taxes etc. I spent $400.00 to have a TV antenna installed INSIDE my garage roof. I spent another $720.00 to purchase a 2 tuner Tivo box with lifetime service. I spent another $120.00 to get my Tivo hardwired to my internet connection. I get chan­nels 2-1, 5-1, 7-1, 9-1, 11-1, 11- 2, 11-3, 20-1, 20-3, 26-1, 26-5, 32-1, and 50-1.

These channels are high defi­nition and look beautiful. There are more channels I can receive, but I just don’t watch any of their programs.The Tivo will record two shows at once while still al­lowing me to view a program. I can fast forward easily to skip commercials. Most hour long programs last 42 minutes with­out commercials. I can’t stand to watch TV with commercials. I forget what I was watching.Tivo has a Season Pass option that, when set, will record all the new shows of your favorite series. It works. I don’t miss the gazillion other channels cable offers. My life is better without CNN and Fox news. I thought about get­ting Netflix or an Apple TV, but I already have enough programs recorded to last me through the summer. I’m very happy with my setup.”

Thanks to Sean for sharing his innovative solution. What he paid to have the antenna sys­tem installed with the ability to record cost him about a year’s worth of the Comcast cable cost. After that, he gets it all free.

• Send your questions and ideas to: Sun Day, Frugal Fo­rum Column, P.O. Box 7505, Al­gonquin, IL 60102, or, by email to: thefrugalforum@gmail.com.

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