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Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:19 am
by FattyLumpkin
I'm about to become the most unpopular person in this house when I pull the plug on Foxtel at the end of the month (after the NFL playoffs!!) I'm expecting a lot of grief from trash t-v watching wife & kids (Just how much Location Location, Simpsons & Family Guy do they need to watch?).
Anyone been down this road previously & what strategy's worked & what didn't? My fall back possy is taking the "I pay the bill" line, but would prefer it to be a democratic decision with everyone agreeing with me!! (Exactly how democracy should work!)
Cheers
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:24 am
by Q.
Perhaps explain that there is a world outside (I say as I sit glued to the computer for yet another day...).
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:27 am
by gadj1976
I reckon nowadays with the ability to download all tv series (albeit illegally) you could offer to download the 'trash tv' series your family watches at a much cheaper price, ridding yourself of the excessive ads in the process.
I've discussed it with the missus here, however I'm far too into live sport that's not accessible on FTA to ditch foxtel at the moment. However it's not out of the question that I might be in the same boat soon too.
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:29 am
by Bully
its a hard one but what is so good about free to air tv anyway ? yes foxtel has repeats but who wants to watch neighbours? or home and away or even aussie idol etc. Cant find anything more boring then that. TV is tv wether its pay or free to air and BOTH networks have crap on everyday its just wether you want to pay for it or not.
In my case i cant live without foxtel as most if not all of the sports i watch are on foxtel. If the EPL and NASCAR were not on foxtel and were on free to air i wouldnt pay for it either
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:46 am
by Kahuna
You may also find that when you ring to disconnect,Foxtel will offer you cheaper prices or an upgrade of some sort.
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:09 am
by Psyber
You could learn from politicians and suggest you are pulling your funding for this investment from economic necessity, but that it was going to be offered for privatisation.
Thus, those who wished to continue using the service could choose to transfer it to their names and fund it from their own resources.
Then you could offer a small subsidy to their pocket money expenditure to compensate for your small usage in the sporting season.
That is modern democracy in action.
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:11 am
by bayman
tell the family that you just can't afford it anymore, then you may get well i'll chip in for some or alternatively suggest something else 'will have to go'..........just a thought
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:20 am
by dedja
dont be a tight arse ...

Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:21 am
by Sheik Yerbouti
Call a good divorce lawyer.
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:01 pm
by Rik E Boy
FattyLumpkin wrote:I'm about to become the most unpopular person in this house when I pull the plug on Foxtel at the end of the month (after the NFL playoffs!!) I'm expecting a lot of grief from trash t-v watching wife & kids (Just how much Location Location, Simpsons & Family Guy do they need to watch?).
Anyone been down this road previously & what strategy's worked & what didn't? My fall back possy is taking the "I pay the bill" line, but would prefer it to be a democratic decision with everyone agreeing with me!! (Exactly how democracy should work!)
Cheers
Your wife and kids are probably wondering how much NFL do you really need to watch.
regards,
REB
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:46 pm
by A Mum
FL - have to say I've been contemplating the same idea.
We have foxtel on in 2 areas - kids 'room' and main bedroom.
Kids room for the kids to watch foxtel.
Main room for 'A Dad' to watch foxtel.
I have no interest in foxtel myself..lol.
However !!
Since all these new great and wonderful free to air TV stations have arrived - I notice that they all congregate to the main loungeroom and are spending less and less time watching Foxtel - so I threw the idea in the air a couple of days ago...
"With all these free to air channels that you guys are all watching - think it might be time to get rid of foxtel"The reply for all
end of conversation (for now...lol)
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 2:31 pm
by CK
Spent a long time considering whether to get Foxtel for a while, but decided to hold off to see what digital TV would offer.
Since that started, it confirmed to me that I do not need Foxtel. Plenty of stations showing the sort of older TV I like (eg Rockford Files, The A Team, Dukes Of Hazzard etc), and many of these show the newer stuff (eg The Inbetweeners, Family Guy, American Dad). One HD's sport has a fair degree of basketball, both NBA and in particular, NBL, as well as golf and tennis, so no real need to upgrade there.
I found that, in order to get the real value for money from Foxtel, it would mean a lot of sitting in front of the TV to justify it, whereas I'm just too busy with work, getting out etc to be able to do that. Generally, unless you are home all day, there doesn't seem a huge need for Foxtel in many ways, IMHO.
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 7:00 pm
by FattyLumpkin
Seagull wrote:FattyLumpkin wrote:I'm about to become the most unpopular person in this house when I pull the plug on Foxtel at the end of the month (after the NFL playoffs!!) I'm expecting a lot of grief from trash t-v watching wife & kids (Just how much Location Location, Simpsons & Family Guy do they need to watch?).
Anyone been down this road previously & what strategy's worked & what didn't? My fall back possy is taking the "I pay the bill" line, but would prefer it to be a democratic decision with everyone agreeing with me!! (Exactly how democracy should work!)
Cheers
Your reasoning(or lack of it) seems to differ from the 'democratic' portion of your post.
My understanding of democracy is that everyone has a choice to voice their opinion and come to a conclusion. Yours appears to be "I make the rules 'cause i pay the bill", so all fall in line with what I say.
Hardly a 'democratic' decision if you decipher the meaning of the word as below IMO.
DEMOCRACY: a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in all of the people
Did you miss the !! exuding sarcasm or are you just a knob?
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:27 pm
by GWW
The only reason i have it is because i have the 2 boxes for price of 1, i got this deal renewed about 2 months ago after signing up initially 14 months ago (1 set up in lounge, 1 in bedroom). And even then, if it wasn't for the footy coverage i wouldn't have it at all.
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:35 pm
by Rik E Boy
CK wrote:I found that, in order to get the real value for money from Foxtel, it would mean a lot of sitting in front of the TV to justify it, whereas I'm just too busy with work, getting out etc to be able to do that. Generally, unless you are home all day, there doesn't seem a huge need for Foxtel in many ways, IMHO.
Not necessarily. If you have IQ you can record whatever you want to watch so you don't
have to watch Basketball all the time.
Football fans just can't survive in this state without Foxtel. It is because I work that I don't need to stay up until 11pm at the earliest to catch a footy game. With IQ and all the footy I can watch, this provides the value for me.
regards,
REB
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:51 pm
by mal
FattyLumpkin wrote:I'm about to become the most unpopular person in this house when I pull the plug on Foxtel at the end of the month (after the NFL playoffs!!) I'm expecting a lot of grief from trash t-v watching wife & kids (Just how much Location Location, Simpsons & Family Guy do they need to watch?).
Anyone been down this road previously & what strategy's worked & what didn't? My fall back possy is taking the "I pay the bill" line, but would prefer it to be a democratic decision with everyone agreeing with me!! (Exactly how democracy should work!)
Cheers
This is what you should do
Go out to Garage Sales, 2nd hand shops, salvos etc
Buy as many Video Tapes as possible
Try and buyem at about 25c each
Spend $140
Buy 560 x 3 hour tapes
That = 1680 hours
Most programmes are of 1 hour duration
Thats 1200 programmes you can record
If you spend 5 hours a day watching TV = 35 hours a week
That equals 140 hours per month
That equals 1680 hours per year
You cancel Foxtel for 12 months and save about $800 for the year
If you want to save even more, PM Bayman and be nice to him, like I do, becoz,
he has most of the Bonanza and Lost In Space episodes on DVD and Videos
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Tue Jan 04, 2011 12:53 am
by Gozu
Just convince them that with all the new FTA channels popping up (plenty of Family Guy on 7mate and perhaps more Simpsons when it moves to Eleven next week) the Foxtel is a waste of money. That's what I told the disconnections area when I rung up to cancel. To save having to buy an HD set-top box with decent sized hard drive and a good aerial I cut a deal with them. Free upgrade to an iQ2 (access to all the FTA HD channels + bigger hard drive), remove all the Basic package channels (they're expensive rubbish) and just leave the sports package on.
Instead of paying $75 a month for a standard iQ with basic package + sports and the mag I'm now paying $30 a month for an iQ2 with all of the FTA channels + Fox's sports package.
It's up to you if you want to get rid of it or keep it on for a discounted price. They're losing a lot of customers due to all the FTA digital channels springing up so if you tell them you want them to come and pick up the thing and get it out of the house the cheaper offers will start coming.
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Tue Jan 04, 2011 9:16 am
by Lightning McQueen
FattyLumpkin wrote:I'm about to become the most unpopular person in this house when I pull the plug on Foxtel at the end of the month (after the NFL playoffs!!) I'm expecting a lot of grief from trash t-v watching wife & kids (Just how much Location Location, Simpsons & Family Guy do they need to watch?).
Anyone been down this road previously & what strategy's worked & what didn't? My fall back possy is taking the "I pay the bill" line, but would prefer it to be a democratic decision with everyone agreeing with me!! (Exactly how democracy should work!)
Cheers
If you hadn't of put the highlighted line in it wouldn't have looked so selfish. Perhaps you should offer some incentive that costs about half of the foxtel bill e.g: Take the family out for dinner or do something else family orientated with the saving.
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Tue Jan 04, 2011 12:25 pm
by Psyber
I've concluded I watch too much TV anyway, without adding Foxtel - and the drive to get my money's worth!
There's been some interesting science programmes on the SBS channels lately - like the one recently on the evolution of skin colour.
Re: Foxtel

Posted:
Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:15 pm
by White Line Fever
i'm close to pulling the plug too what a rip off.
I hate foxtel but it might be too hard as i just started another 12 month contract.
How hard is it to break the contract?