I saw in one of the posts in that thread that "The Waltons" is shown on the Hallmark channel. Fine, great, wonderful. But Hallmark got moved from our basic cable package to an upgraded package. On two of our televisions we have the upgraded package, so I CAN still watch it, but it made me think.

Hallmark? Are you KIDDING me? Is it really one of those hot-hot-hot channels that we need to pay extra for? I'm so tired of having to pay MORE for channels we've had included in basic for ages. They did the same thing here with "Oxygen" - moved into an upgraded cable package.

Gee, cable offers packages where you have access to 50 million channels (I know, exaggerated, but this ticks me off!) when you might want access to 100. So you have to pay for EVERYTHING to get those couple extra channels they decided to push into another cable package!

I'm SO ready for a cable company to come in that will charge customers for the channels they WANT to use. Let them know what all is available along with a monthly price for each.

It seems like the basic cable bill has tripled in the last 10 years. Has the company expense really gone up THAT much too? I'd find that hard to believe. It feels like one of those situations that they charge what they do just because they can. Cable service needs to seriously be deregulated. Let them have to get customers based on their service - not because YYY company is the ONLY choice you have - just like every other company does.

Off my rant - sorry so long!!

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Maybe it's just your provider. Time Warner here does not charge for Hallmark. Mostly it's the specific sports channels, like we get the Golf Channel for an additional $8.95 a month. I think they start charging when the channel it's self ups their price for the cable company.

It just busts my butt that Oxygen would start charging separately. Oprah has more money that G*d, does she really need to charge more to watch her stations?

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Mary

"Deregulation" is part of the problem. I forget how many channels come into my house but I'll wager half of them are either sales channels like HSN or QVC or religious broadcasting -- none of which I watch. I would love ala carte programming too but until the 1996 deregulation rules are changed and a more consumer friendly FCC is in place, doubt it will happen.

The Failure Of Cable Deregulation: A Blueprint For Creating A Competitive, Pro-Consumer Cable Television Marketplace - NJPIRG

Here, Oxygen and Hallmark are EXTRA channels that I would have to pay for. The real kicker is that our Cablevision company just sent around a notice that within the month I will be losing about 10 more channels due to HD digital changeover. So now we can just make due with alot less channels and pay the same amount (we have family basic) or upgrade. If we upgrade we would have to pay rental on cable boxes (we don't have them now), rental on remote controls for the cable boxes and upgrade to IO to get the channels that we were getting before. That figures out to around 18-30 a month more. What a pain. We have some decisions to make, ugh!

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I had no idea that I'd loose "Lifetime" by switching to basic cable, but that's what happened. My kids were very sad that "Disney" is also an extended cable channel.

Oxygen and Hallmark are extras here, too!

Yep, same thing here! I have basic cable on all of my TVs and cannot get Hallmark or Oxygen or Game Show Network. Oddly enough, about a year ago, Comcast sent out a letter saying we needed a box of some type for basic cable so we could still get those 3 channels. I did have it put on one TV and all was fine until a few months ago when I no longer get those channels even after getting their silly box. Comcast is outrageous too. I have basic cable and internet and pay over $100 a month. I'd love to switch but do not like satellite and I'm quite spoiled to my fast internet connection. My dad has DSL and it is so slow. But with everything else increasing I may have to learn to enjoy slow!

A while back my satellite company decided that Hallmark and Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) needed to be charged extra for . Didn't go over well here, but of course I'm paying it.