Yes, and I have many thoughts on this. I watch just a couple of channels and when I signed a contract 11 months ago (13 remaining now), I got exactly the package I needed to get TCM and the couple of other channels I watch. I priced the alternatives accordingly. Now I'm left with about half of what I watch being taken away, and to keep it, I effectively have been given a price increase of $10 a month mid-contract. I can't alter the terms, but Comcast apparently can. I spent a lot of time with "service" reps. One spoke poor English, very hard to understand. I got the script about "two movies a month".
The competition is really no better -- it's these unethical clowns or the other unethical clowns at AT&T, who also raised my prices mid-contract even though I was told I would be paying that specific price for a full two years (a lie) -- because apparently I wasn't really guaranteed the PRICE but the DISCOUNT, which didn't change, only the underlying base price (!!!) -- something not mentioned by the salesperson. So it doesn't matter who you use, they both are terrible and they can't seem to understand why people HATE their cable companies.
My solution will be to become one of the many cord cutters in 13 months. Of course I will not be paying the sizeable early termination fee, even though this mid-contract change *SHOULD* constitute a material modification to the contract terms that nullifies the contract, but I wouldn't be surprised if that 50 pages of fine print includes something about the channel lineups being subject to change, and even if it doesn't, my only available remedy would be to go to court when they assess the ETF and spend time and money addressing it, with a high risk of losing because of something in all of that contract language that leaves me on the hook. They almost certainly have every contingency covered in a way that works for them. The contract is very one-sided.
I will therefore look into the cord cutting alternative and give the cable companies revenue for nothing more than the bare minimum necessary, internet connectivity. At least I don't need to sign a contract for any of the online streaming bundles, and switching those is trivial (no installation appointments) so if they pull this nonsense, it can be remedied instantly. I had been slightly on the "don't cord cut" side of the fence but this is really the final straw. I get really riled up about something pricing or programming related every year or so it seems, so instead of continuing to deal with more of the same, I guess it'll be time to try something different in 13 months. I sure do wish I could get out of the contract today.
Oh, and I've kept seeing the response to the bewilderment over this classic movie channel being added to a sports package as, "well, it's the Sports AND Entertainment package".... but is it, really????? Because when I look on their own website, TODAY, it calls it the "SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BUNDLE", with no AND, no AMPERSAND, just that. So to me it sure looks like this has been poorly matched with a bunch of sports stations. I look at that list and I see nothing else that interests me in the least. I'm not a sports fan and there isn't much else in the bundle that isn't sports. So basically they've made it so that unless you were also actually interested in those sports channels, TCM ends up costing about as much as a premium movie channel.
