to watch on demand.

I was offered it for free (for how long, I have no idea) because of the cell phone plan I have. You get several other channels too. Not really super premium content, but enough to add to my (essentially) "local network-only" tv cable plan. I think if you are not eilgible for free access that it is something like $15/month.

Honestly, this is one of the most bone headed things I've ever seen them do. If they want to do 'packages' then make them single interest packages. I'd pay for a classic movie package.

I'm not particularly 'tech savvy' when it comes to apps, and such, but my niece and nephew can help me. I've been thinking about dropping everything but Xfinity internet and just going with add ons like Hulu and Netflix.

laptop. You'll have to use chrome, though. Firefox and Microsoft EDGE don't really work with it.

They are working on a Roku app but sadly not yet available.

companies have come up with ways to spread the pain.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but Optimum around here was looking at paying around 50 bucks a month for members of a pure sports package or 12 bucks a month if everyone got it.

They figured that not enough people would pay the heavier charge, so they just spread it around to all of us. I pay for around 120 sports channels I never watch. I can only imagine what I might save if I had an ala carte system where I just paid for the channels I want. Or a particular show I might want. Not over 800 channels I'll never watch.

affordable isn't available . Not from Comcast anyway.

That likely doesn't include the phone service but I could lose that and never miss it. The one advantage to having a 'traditional' AT&T land line was, if the power went out I still had phone service. That was a comfort during my week long power outage. Not so with a phone through a cable company. I have my cell phone through Consumer Cellular and could upgrade to the top service, and still save $$.

Alternatively, I could downgrade to Xfinity's lowest plan, keep the internet and do add ins. During the warm weather I'm outside, a lot, but during the cold season, I bounce between books and classic movies for distraction.

There's an Xfinity store, right down the road. I might just pay them a visit, to look at options. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is re-thinking their service, right now.

Mrs. Aristus and I thought that was weird. We dropped TCM rather than pay for a sports TV package we'll never use.

The push back they've gotten has been pretty massive.

I was irritated enough by their new 'on demand' set up design - hard to find ANYTHING because of the massive 'icon' view - and their sticking 'Starz' into the package I had, and not giving an option to swap it out for HBO or Showtime. Those are now 'extra $$' options. I hate 'Starz'. Very little of any interest ever shows up. Just old movies and ridiculously inaccurate historical series like 'The Spanish Princess'.

I'm one of those 'outliers' who never had any issue with Comcast that weren't rectified in a fast and friendly manner. Until now. This has put me in a very bad mood, indeed. I want to punch someone. But, of course, I won't.