Cord cutters continue to spend money year after year on ever-rising streaming services And they must be thinking, "Isn't this why I left cable?" In particular, two of the most popular options, Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV, will be raised again in 2020, and both are now $65/month

And when I saw this news, I wanted to rant that this should push people back to cable But upon checking my cable bill, I found that this was not the case

But before we talk about that, let's break down the price hikes that cord cutters faced this year, as they were familiar to longtime users: in 2019, there were two price hikes for Hulu with Live TV: from $40 in January (the original price since 2017) to $45, and from $45 to $55 in November; YouTube TV, which started at $35 in 2017, went to $40/month in 2018 and $50 in 2019

Sling TV, another major player, went from $20 (original price since 2015) to $25 in 2018, with an additional $5/month increase in the orange and blue tier prices in late 2019

And yes, we won't mention the crazy price changes experienced by AT&T TV Now (formerly DirecTV Now) We don't endorse that service, so we won't waste space here

Just as YouTube TV added eight Viacom channels when it raised its price by $15 this year And in some cases, like Hulu's recent $10 price increase, there seems to be no reason for the price increase

Meanwhile, we hear the same reason: rising carriage fees for broadcast networks-YouTube TV and Hulu all have them, Sling TV only has two-continue to be a reason people consider buying one of the best TV antennas

Frankly, none of these price increases should be enough to get people back to traditional cable TV Because I still use cable TV For reasons not really relevant to this conversation, I haven't turned off my cable TV yet, but I'm still looking at my Spectrum TV bill

Spectrum advertises its TV Select package (a whopping 216 channels) starting at $4499/month, with a big asterisk next to the price You'll notice the expensive caveat, especially since this price is only for the first year After several years of subscribing to our package, the Spectrum TV Select package is currently $7399 per month, according to my bill (we bundle it with internet, not phone)

The broadcast TV add-on (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and other more expensive broadcast networks) is $1645 per month Then there is the fact that they rent cable boxes This fee may or may not go up next year with Sling TV, which now has a one-year price lock guarantee, making it more reliable

Yes, that slow, always seemingly hot cable box, that huge eyesore, Spectrum charges $799 per month per receiver This does not include the $1999 per month you pay for DVR rights; YouTube TV offers unlimited DVR for free, and Sling offers 10 hours of DVR for free (the 50-hour limit is $5 per month) Hulu includes 50 hours of DVR space (200 hours, which costs $15/month)

And if you have a second TV (we do), you pay an additional $799 for simultaneous streaming; Hulu with Live TV offers a second stream for free, and YouTube TV offers three free streams, Sling will offer three with the Blue plan and only one with the Orange plan

And $871 in taxes, fees, and charges, which, in addition to how you claim your monthly package, totals $5316 - for us it is $12715

After making these calculations, I have no choice but to give up on the streaming service These services could start with a low monthly fee and gradually raise it Cable TV is very brutally priced, so don't worry about customers going back to cable TV

Here's my disconnection plan: I'm going to try each streaming service in small doses to kind of speed-date them

Starting in the new year, I'll spend a month with each of the top streaming services, with reviews of Sling TV, Hulu with Live TV, and YouTube TV showing that each is a strong competitor I'd like to try Fubo TV, but I'm not much of a sports fan, so I could do without the dozens of world sports channels