Verizon's New Skinny Bundle Plan Not as Cheap as Advertised

Apr 20, 2015 12:47 PM EDT

(Photo : Reuters) Verizon's new al-a-carte system might not be the promised treasure we thought.

Verizon was advertising savings of $25, $50 or even $75 from your original TV subscription, but according to several consumers speaking to representatives, the actual savings might be more along the lines of $5 to $10 per month.

The issue comes when you bundle in the internet, phone line and wireless, alongside the two pay TV bundles Verizon is apparently offering as part of the skinny deal. Instead of skipping some of those costs, Verizon slaps them on top of the TV service.

Like Us on Facebook

The premise is to offer a $65 per month skinny deal of three dozen channels, alongside two pay TV bundles that cost between $10 and $20 per month. Interestingly, people speaking to reps are getting back numbers over $200 per month even with the two TV bundles.

The tier packages include:

Lifestyle: Bravo, Lifetime, A&E
Entertainment: TBS, TNT, FX, TCM.
News: Fox News,. MSNBC, C-SPAN.
Pop Culture: E! Entertainment TV, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1.
Kids: Nickelodeon, Disney.
Sports: ESPN, Fox Sports and regional sports channels.

Verizon might have some issues when it comes to cutting costs, if it actually wants to win over cord cutters. Small drops in price by $5 or $10 per month isn't going to sway customers already on their way out, and even customers not set on an internet-only life might still think twice with these poor options.

It seems like Verizon took a look at Dish Network's Sling TV bundles, tried to emulate it in a cable package, found out there were contracts and other licensing issues and tried to pull a fast one on consumers wanting to test the bundle service.

That said, customers that don't have landline, internet or wireless provided by Verizon might be in the clear to save more than $10 per month, and might even be able to reach the $50 or $70 per month Verizon was speaking of in the adverts.

Reaching that number will mean a lack of other services, and the installation and renting fees might still mean a lack of actual savings occur.

Tagsverizon, pay TV, al-a-carte, cable TV