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A poorly written headline about Comcast's decision to leave our market and Metro Times' rebuttal. I've never heard anything good about Comcast so good riddance to bad rubbish I suppose...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-1...t-detroit.html
http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/arch...asts-departure
Wait, if Comcast leaves, who the hell is going to provide cable?
A new spin off company would be formed, called GreatLand Connections. Charter will manage it and be part owner with Comcast owning a majority share.
Read the article. They aren't taking their cables with them, just their greed, bad customer service skills, and money.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spartan
Just corporate deck chair rearrangement. This is where our PSC should be stepping up and making sure that the new owner of the customers and infrastructure treat both appropriately.
If the new company has a 5x earnings debt and Comcast only as 1.9 x earnings, that strikes me as a concern that I do hope is addressed.
Will this end their monopoly so we actually can choose who we want for our cable, phone and internet? Oh, UGH, I see they plan on a new spinoff company to take over, which will use CHARTER. From my experience with Charter at my Dad's place up on the Res, that is not good at all. Lots of unexplained outages with poor communication to customers.
I may be one of a few who actually like Comcast. I have Brighthouse in Florida and like them too. Other relatives swear by WoW. But not Charter. Take that short end of the stick and shove it.
PS, I am not reassured that Comcast will assist Greatland for a year. The transition from Roadrunner, which I also liked, to Comcast, took better than a month to accomplish, with spotty service and missed connections. Then Comcast took more than two years to provide web access to the e-mail account. Now they actually have a pretty good Smart Phone app for the e-mail, too. What services can we expect and at what cost from this changeover about which we apparently have no choice?
I wonder what this will mean for their very helpful Internet Essentials program of greatly-reduced-price home internet for low income kids. They've just recently rolled it out here. If they go then it seems that will be going as well, and that one small part anyway is sad.
http://www.internetessentials.com/
I, too, prefer Comcast over any other provider I have used here in southeast Michigan. I currently live in Farmington Hills, and am STUCK with Brighthouse Cable. Comcast and Wow are not available here, only Direct TV, AT & T and this super crappy Brighthouse.
I had used Comcast for years before coming here and was always happy with them. I had vew service issues, so I can't speak to all the customer service complaints. I have also used WOW in the past, although, according to my sister, they have much-improved cable programming and internet service.
This change will not currently affect me, but I wonder if the service will become available here. I would love to see some real competition.
I will still miss Comcast's predecessor [[what was that predecessor called again? TCI? Cablevision?) that we had at our first home in Southgate in the 1980's and early 90's.
I expected that might have been.....Barden Communications?Quote:
Originally Posted by mtburb
I have WOW and enjoy their service. My neighbor got Comcast and when they came to install, they hijacked my line. I was watching the game...the screen went blank.....looked out the window...and there was the Comcast truck pulling away. I called Comcast, until I suddenly realized from past experience they wouldn't show until 5 days later. Called WOW, and they came and corrected the problem within 3 hours at 10pm on a Saturday night. Prompt service is a good thing.
Comcast isn't necessary leaving Detroit, they are simply swapping territories with Charter cable as they prepare to take over Time Warner Cable.Quote:
Originally Posted by dtowncitylover
All it really is, is a name change. The services you get now will remain the same, its not like its going to get crappy over night.
I think that's what you meant......Quote:
Originally Posted by CLAUDE G
What is the point of that headline? It is immaterial to the content of the article.
The reason why Comcast is leaving the Detroit market is an attempt to avoid concerns from the feds about a monopoly in their attempt to buy Time Warner.
I have UVerse and its pretty good.
Hopefully this will end among other things their grammatically poor radio commercials for Comcast Business internet "Did you know blah blah blah? Did you also know blah blah blah? And did you also also know blah blah blah?" Whoever wrote that commercial has a limited vocabulary of adverbs.
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Originally Posted by Blueidone
I agree about Brighthouses service. During those storms we had in July and August, my service went out for a day and a half. Even when storms aren't present, the connections are spotty at best. I could be surfing from site to site, and inexplicably, lose my connection. I hear a lot of people are switching to Hulu, not familiar with them though, I hear the costs are a lot cheaper. Hope another provider will be offered. Competition is good.
You must be in a good area or something, because a friend of mine is not impressed with them at all and is contemplating changing services.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cliffy
I hate Comcast and welcome a change. I currently use WOW.
The irony there is that communications companies aren't communicating. :pQuote:
Comcast hasn’t provided adequate information about GreatLand, and there’s nobody to talk to at the new company, said Jodie Miller, executive director of the Northern Dakota County Cable Communications Commission, in suburban Minneapolis.
What? Subscribers might have to change all their email addresses just because some corporate overlords want to shuffle their businesses?! How is that not sabotaging their own customers? :mad:Quote:
Municipal officials say they have questions about service, including whether subscribers can keep Comcast e-mail addresses or if the cable-channel lineups may change.
A small suburban property tax could work to pay for those in the City of Detroit who are low income. This will help to offset the higher tax they pay to live in the city limits, thus reinvigorating our economy by creating more opportunities with tax breaks for those who provide jobs.
This and other similar taxes such as the SMART Property Tax are supported by both the Republican and Democratic parties alike with compassion for those unable to live outside the confines of a socialist or communist structured society.
Admittedly, a regressive idea to fund cable and other services it does work to provide an illusion of security and hope that Ponzi schemes to siphon much more from those who are in the lower income levels then those who can fully pay. This is in exchange for an excessive number of low wage jobs, which otherwise would not exist under a supply and demand free market economy.
An example of this are those making 10 bucks an hour paying over 90 percent of my SMART bus ride, despite the fact that I can pay in full AND the Michigan route would make a profit if a free market was allowed to exist. And it is, if acted upon by voting NO to give SMART and DDOT more money. They are well funded already, just like Comcast.
I thought l read a while back the City was looking into providing free internet in Detroit through a Google test program. Anyone know what happened with that, or was it just talk?
I believe your beloved City of Detroit granted the monopoly in exchange for money which they have no doubt already spent on Manoogian Parties and on Bobby Ferguson's yacht. I would expect that the monopoly will last a long time into the future, and you will continue to pay 'franchise fees' for this monopoly, extracted by Dear Leader CAY, if I remember.Quote:
Originally Posted by gazhekwe
Enjoy what your democratically elected mayor and council hath done to you, while surfing on Charter.
Pitiful, first Barden then Comcast. All they care about is money and profits.
Hey! don't blame Duggan for this mess! He became Mayor while Detroit was broke! Go blame former Detroit Mayors of the past:Quote:
Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch
1. Albert Cobo, a racist bigot!
2. Jerome P. Cavanaugh, a cool city sell out and neigborhood buster.
3. Coleman A Young, A cussing racist bigot [[to White people)!
4. Dennis Archer, a proposed urban sell out,
5. Kwame Kilpatrick, a pimp!
6. Dave Bing, a lame duck sellout!
is there any way that the federal attorney general can step in and force equitable bidding for the Detroit area rights? Perhaps even split it up deliberately among multiple companies to prevent an outright monopoly/oligopoly.. [[I don't see the state AG Bill Schuette caring about this). Also there needs to be consideration for community access shows/features at affordable rates. The ethnic diversity of metro Detroit should be embraced.
um, you missed the Judge [[Roman Gribbs)Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny
7 Duggan, left SMART grossly underfunded. But that too is not his fault due to MDOT cuts and high costs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny
To answer Hyperstyle's question, probably not. Unless you're in a situation where a government entity has installed fiber optic cable [[the local PUD has done it around here where I live), the city has a franchise agreement with the local cable company. One of the reasons for this is that it was the provider who built the infrastructure and the agreement protects it's investment.
So is Uverse not available in Detroit....
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Originally Posted by Danny
Hey Danny, you forgot Louis Miriani, who took over the reigns of mayor from 1957-1962 after Cobo died, then went to jail for income tax evasion. There are some real choirboys on this list.
My bill is way too highQuote:
Originally Posted by Danny
So, please support a property tax for this. Danny this is 2014, so everyone should have affordable internet and a property tax is the only way to do this
So you want to raise your property tax bill in order to lower your cable bill?? Just how will taking more money from your left pocket [[tax bill) in order to take less money from your right pocket [[cable bill) improve your bottom line? Or, do you mean you want other people's taxes, but not yours, raised to lower your cable bill?Quote:
Originally Posted by That Great Guy
Has cable TV now become a human right [[like free water)? Why not just give up cable? It is not a life necessity.
For those wailing about a so called monopoly and not having any choice; have you ever heard of Dish Network, Direct TV or Uverse? You do have choices.
Anyone who uses their ISP's email needs to be educated!Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimaz
Why artificially tie yourself to an ISP? Use a free service like Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo. That way you can ditch your cable company and not have to tell your friends a new email address.
Back in the day, email was a nice service that your ISP offered you and had real value. Today, ISPs offer email addresses to tie customers down to their service.
Internet and Cable TV are a human right.Quote:
Originally Posted by That Great Guy
Beauty...... I'm sending an e-mail to the UN.Quote:
Originally Posted by 48307
GP has been beholden to Comcast forever. I might have been the first in the area to switch to WOW and now save about $120 a month for all services. So far, so good. Magic Jack helps, top.
It is available, however AT&T doesn't seem to offer unbundled UVerse internet speeds... WOW isn't in the Detroit market for a bunch of reasons, mostly that if you deploy a cable network in some of the less-dense portions of Detroit, the costs would outweigh the profits. WOW leases lots of cable infrastructure from Comcast or whoever still controls those lines, but the big money comes from them having to install what is known as "last mile" infrastructure, which is the connection from the hub to your home. Due to regulations, Comcast and other infrastructure owners do not have to lease that "last mile" infrastructure, which is why you only see a few smaller cable providers like WOW and company.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cliffy
This will end up being a good thing for us as consumers. It's a small step forward, since the actual services [[Internet, TV, phone) won't change, but it will be a new customer service department headed by new-ish executives who may or may not care about making you happy. Basically a nice reset button for the worst in class service we get from Comcast :)
Put me in the camp of disgruntled Comcast customer. Ironically I got a call from Comcast just hours before this announcement trying to upsell my downtown office business account. [For the geeks out there I pay $137 a month for 25 mbps down and 12 up plus a dedicated IP Address, but what everyone knows is that the up speed is what one really pays for.]
We rarely get 12 up and a spot check just now even using Comcast's speedometer I got only 7 up. Additionally we get brownouts and spot blackout, usually mid PM, what we have dubbed as the 'afternoon break'.]
So I gave the poor guy an earful, making sure it wasn't personal to him but directed at his company, and said come back to me after you deliver what we were promised. He persisted saying I should call the company when that happens, perhaps the modem needs updating, they'll come out and check, run tests blah blah blah.
I told him I had done all that at least three times and had just given up because we don't have time to wait around and deal with their disruptions, hold time on the phone and intrusions into our space only to face the same issue a few days later.
I have a second downtown business account that is a residential cable and internet service. It is even worse particularly on the internet side.
I can rarely stream anything without continual freezes, the HiDef channels are frequently delivered at LoDef quality, or fade back and forth indicating throttling. Again I went through the time-consuming service visits, phone support attempts and again I gave up and just swallowed the fact that I'm stuck with a third world service.
Internet service is crucial to our economic competitiveness and well-being. It needs to made a public monopoly at the infrastructure level and the speeds and efficiency brought up the levels of, let's say, Korea the world leader. No wonder they are eating our lunch.
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Originally Posted by rb336
Forget about him! He's more urban lame duck as Dave Bing!
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Originally Posted by Cincinnati_Kid
Forget about the racist! He paved the way for Cobo to keep more black folks away from Detroit business.
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Originally Posted by Lowell
Every customer will get disservice whether it's from Cable TV to your water bill. Fascists corps. can change a little to keep its customers happy. After Comcast is out of our hare AT&T, WOW and Dish will run the show. Let Comcast sell their service to rich folks. They have no need for poor welfare and food stamps folks here in Detroit.
What kind of customer service do you get out of DWSD or the city hall?Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny
It isn't high-speed, I can tell you that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermod
I've had Comcast business class for two and a half years and I have not been happy at all. Speed is no better than regular service and customer service is a nightmare. You have to watch the billing like a hawk last Jan. they added late charges seven days in a row and the bill wasn't even due yet. When I called the rep. said.............. get this ............... it was a computer glitch. Hello! And they provide what kind of service? At night when I watch tv every ten minutes it skips a beat. Even when the contract is up I have no other choice.
No, I do not want others to pay for me. It is only fare that if I get something that someone else pays for then I should pay my fare share. We can't all pay the same for essential services. The internet is vastly changing by replacing older technologies making it much more of a necessity. Thus, the need to control monopolies by means of fair honest government policies.Quote:
Originally Posted by SyGolden48236
The use of socialism where everyone pays on based on ability, need, costs and appropriate fair impositions works in many cases. The funding for basic health care, education and the support of infrastructures such as crumbling bridges and worn out public buses are some examples of this.
Comcast already pays for the low income voluntarily but not based on any proven need. So, I think government control is better because then we can have majority rule to break up the robber barons as wanted or needed.
Just like water, there are places to get it for "free".Quote:
Originally Posted by That Great Guy
You are correct! [[Until those services vanish too.)Quote:
Originally Posted by 48307Anyone who uses their ISP's email needs to be educated!Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimaz
Why artificially tie yourself to an ISP? Use a free service like Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo....
You are correct! [[Until that service vanishes too. Oh, wait. Hmm. That's much less likely to vanish. Hmm.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Lowell
There is a conspicuous but seldomly acknowledged asymmetry here. ;)
ABSOLUTELY! I have basically only been with two ISP providers since and I KNEW right away to never, ever use their email. I pay a very nominal yearly rate for a web based mail service. I've seen folks go from ISP, to ISP, changing emails. I'm off the cable grid - it's all too expensive so I just do ROKU and stream and use a converter box for my local channels. Problem solved.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 48307
The cable monopoly in local municipalities is not unique to Detroit, and is actually the norm across America.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch
Sorry to disprove your your anti-Detroit rant of the day...
The cable industry is a patchwork of micro-monopolies. With cable TV, there's a massive fixed cost to enter a new market—putting in new cable lines. So, basically, whoever showed up first—or the company that bought them—has the legacy right of being the local cable company.
For decades, cable operators were allowed to set up exclusive regional franchises. A cable company would come into an area, and more or less tell the municipal area in charge of franchising that it needed an exclusive for the next, say, 12-15 years if it was going to build out lines.
The last reliable statistic shows that a mere 2-percent of American markets had a choice of cable providers.
http://gizmodo.com/5830956/why-the-g...-cable-company
Yup In the town I'm a councilman in [[in central Washington.....no, the other one) we just approved a new franchise agreement with the current provider. Erikd has it right. If someone else want's to come in and build a new cable network, we'll sign an agreement with them too, but no one would want to. The build up costs are too high for the return.
Quote:
Originally Posted by That Great Guy
Incorrect, your answer does not program! Duggan didn't under fund SMART. SMART was in the brink on bankruptcy before Duggan cam in. He eliminated some bad apples and propose with Dennis Archer and Detroit City Council to let SMART busses run in Detroit's main roads to increase ridership and regional job growth. That plan worked to this day.
Did anyone read Brian Dickersons Article in the Freep on Sunday?
Is Comcast really gonna call out of the blue and demand we surrender routers and cable boxes,or was he just jiving?
Whats the time table for the pullout? Will we be ale to keep using the Comcast equipment?
Anyone know?
I'm pretty sure he was doing an "Onion" on us. From what I have seen the new company will be working in tandem with Comcast for at least a year. We could hope for an upgrade...
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Originally Posted by Danny
The SMART Property Tax will only force another tax shift by necessity to pay regardless of costs in order to get what we all want or need.
Someday we will pay 70 percent of our money in taxes. And get a 100 MPH train and big buses just like the ones in AA. Just vote YES, YES, YES. If ya vote NO, it won' stop big government and won't even slow it down.
The SMART Property Tax is a crooked tax shift designed to cheat those who truly want a real World class public bus system. It will never ever work. The 1 Mil tax will fail and SMART will again go broke OR cut service OR get you to pay more and more. Your choice, YES or NO
Please explain how it ties you down to their service. Can't you use gmail for example and not use the ISP email?Quote:
Originally Posted by 48307
I believe he means once you get a Comcast email address, you may be reluctant to give them up as your ISP because you'll have to switch everybody over to your new ISP's email address. Unfortunately, email addresses are not as easy to add a forwarding address to as snail mail.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cincinnati_Kid
I drank the Kool-Aid in the old days. I had about 5 different Comcast email addresses [[because they allowed you that many), and I used them for different reasons: Personal-informal, Personal-formal, e-commerce, etc. When Gmail and other services like them came about, I couldn't imagine why I would need something other than my Comcast addresses. Now I get it.
Ironically, I still get mail on my old Comcast addresses even though I haven't had Comcast for several years. I use Gmail to receive them now.
Can somebody please kill this before it lays eggs?Quote:
Originally Posted by That Great Guy
I agree with Jackie5275 about their commercials. While on my daily treadmill trek, their radio ads feature their arrogance while playing in the background. They seldom state anything that they do, only about the deficiencies of the so-called "phone company". I too am a former customer of the "Triple Play". And while the Internet platform was great, the television service had deteriorated to an abysmal state. When they offered a service visit about a week in the future, I remarked that as a paying customer of upwards of $200/month, that would just not work. That led to a week's worth of dropped calls, promises of returned calls never materializing, etc. I canceled, and while dropping off their equipment, I talked with a real caring agent in their field office. Unfortunately, they must have their best reps in their stores. Good riddance to them!
Competition is always good for the marketplace.
I am not a fan of monopolies that force people in a corner .
Comcast spends a fortune on stuffing my mailbox, repeatedly, with stuff I don't want.
I am aggravated by repeated calls from Comcast for bundling, business service, etc.
Between the Internet and the Television , they already get $100 a month from me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by That Great Guy
Please quit trolling this forum, Great Guy! This is not about the SMART Busses. It's about Comcast leaving Detroit.
I originally started internet with a company through excite.com. I think. It was a while ago. When Excite left the market I was transferred to Comcast. I would prefer a wider variety of choices regarding the internet and I definitely do not like the mega-corps' attempt to end the open internet as we know it.
I read about this a few weeks ago and I thought I read that while Comcast was leaving the area [[to avoid anti-trust issues) but that they still had their fingers in the profit pot.
I am now with Comcast cable and AT&T internut, but I started out with Grand Blanc Cable which was operated out of a guys basement, and answered the help line - with [[German accent) - What?
anyway we can kick Greart Guy of this forum, I know they can do that, Warren's Forum kicked off a guy a few months ago, before they closed down the forum, Im sure we can he is not following the rules
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"One of the biggest mysteries in life is why a company that’s as universally hated as Comcast seems to get whatever it wants when it comes to merger approvals. Two new reports — one from Bloomberg and one from Washingtonian — give us some good insight into the bag of sneaky tricks that Comcast uses to get influential lawmakers, journalists and nonprofit organizations to stand by its side.
As Bloomberg documents, one of Comcast’s go-to tactics for persuading lawmakers to support its merger proposals is pledging to expand its Internet Essentials program, which is designed to get more low-income people in the United States connected to the Internet."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
*Read more here: Inside the ingeniously sneaky tricks Comcast uses to get what it wants
So this discloses an incentive to withhold such "priority assistance codes" from their paying customers. It creates a no-cost scrip that is used to bribe legislators — effectively shifting service from paying customers toward corrupt legislators who in turn repay the favor.
Not to defend Comcast, but I think it's obvious that the problem is much more widespread than Comcast alone. Comcast is most certainly not the only organization pulling off maneuvers like this. E.g., imagine what similar quid pro quos buy for the military industrial complex!
"The best democracy that money can buy!" ;)
— is the worst democracy possible. [[That last bit was added for the benefit of any Ayn Rand adherents in the crowd who might not get the joke. I wouldn't want them to feel too humiliated.)
Wait...wasn't that within the city of Detroit itself? In Southgate in the 80's and early 90's, it was actually either TCI or Wayne County Cablevision...Quote:
Originally Posted by thoro
All that will change for customers is the name on the bill.
$400 billion for a fighter program that can't run on fuel that is too hot - and is basically a piece of crap all the way around? each unit cost 100+ million to buy, lifecycle cost for each projected to be close to $1 billion. Yet they "can't afford" to maintain the highly successful warthog A-10sQuote:
Originally Posted by Jimaz
The only two cable services in my area are DISH Network [[which we currently use) and Comcast. I guess I'm screwed as far as competition in the area goes.
I'd seriously drop cable in 2 seconds for some sort of Netflix/streaming option. The only problem is I like sports, specifically local [[Wings, Tigers, Lions), and unfortunately, there aren't going to be any options for people like me who want Fox Sports to watch games. Yea, the new DISH internet option will have ESPN on it, but that's not going to help. Looks like I'm stuck getting butt raped by the cable companies for now...
Then you could've seen what the satellite companies offered back in the 90's-you didn't even get our own stations, but rather a rotation between random major Big Three [[and Fox when they got the rights to the NFL) affiliates in the Eastern and Central Time Zones.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeg19
I'm a big Red Wings and Lions fan, but I cut the cable.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeg19
I was paying $110 to WOW Cable for Internet + Cable.
Now I'm paying $15 to WOW for 15 Mbs internet, $9 to Netflix, $8 to Hulu, for a grand total of $32 a month.
I can't watch Red Wings anymore, that was something I had to give up, but the Lions are always on over-the-air stations that even I can pick up at 21 Mile and John R.
My family now plays 30 minutes of board games every night. We spend more time with each other. I watch less depressing news. When we do watch TV, it's with no or less commercials, and we can binge-watch stuff that's already out.
I have zero regrets about cutting the cord.
You at least have three. DISH Network, DirecTV, and Comcast. Who's your phone provider? If it's AT&T don't you have UVerse in your area?Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeg19
DirecTV is what I have and the phone service is great. One problem is that they use contractors for install and repair service. We got quick response after Hurricane Wilma did a number on my dishes [[they brought in a lot of techs from other states), but every time they would show up at my house they didn't have enough ladder to reach my local antenna. I called DirecTV and the lady who answered the phone heard my problem and gave me the cell phone number for the local contractor [[MASTEC) foreman. I called him [[how the hell did you get this number?) and an hour later a truck with a long enough ladder pulled up in front of the house. Comcast would never give me the cell phone number of the service supervisor.
We don't have a landline [[Sprint Iphones). When we inquired with with AT&T, they said they only had internet available in the area, no phone or cable. I don't know how the hell that works, but that's their story.Quote:
Originally Posted by jerrytimes
And yes, you are correct, we also do have DirectTV in our area, but they are essentially the exact same thing as DISH. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind DISH, as we are paying I believe about $60 a month for our package with a ton of channels. It's just nice to be able to negotiate when our agreement is up with them.
I do the same thing from December till September, but still get cable during college football season. Dish Network will be launching SlingTV[[online TV service) soon, it will include ESPN and ESPN2 for $20 a month. If they could add BTN, it's basically all I need. Props to you for completely cutting the cord.Quote:
Originally Posted by 48307
One of the things people complain about having to pay for "unnecessary channels" is the way the system is structured. If Coleman Young Cable wants MSNBC for Detroit, the reach a cost agreement with MSNBC and ar told that we will sell it to you at that price, but in addition you have to carry Jewelry Network, Obscure Viennese Musicians Network, and Watching the Paint Dry Network. Since adding the crap networks costs the cable company little if anything, you get MSNBC and all of the junk. Essentially, there is zero cost for the junk channels.
I ditched cable years ago opting for the ROKU streaming with Netflix and the free channels they offer. Nothing is live which I miss. And for sure nothing is sports oriented live. I have to admit I do like somethings on the Comcast line-up when I can see it. I prefer the Comcast remote over Uverse...
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Originally Posted by mikeg19
Depends where you live. ATT has been pushing it on me for a few years and I live not too far from WSU.
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Originally Posted by Cliffy
Yep, you're not forced to use their ISP email. I have ATT and ditched [[ignore) the stupid email they gave me and they communicate with me to an email of MY choosing.
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Originally Posted by Cincinnati_Kid
What do you.mean junk, Hermod?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermod
Don't you appreciate the finer things like "The moonshining midget lesbian.mob wives of New Jersey?
I love the smorgasbord of contemporary TV...and the ads...
Dish TV is coming out with a $20 streaming package that has some channels, including ESPN and CNN. It's an interesting concept.
I'd like to see the cable companies offer a 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 channel package. For example, you pick the 20 channel package, and then you get to pick which 20 channels.
They really just need to trim the stupid crap that nobody watches. Cable would be so much cheaper that way.
I figure cutting the cord is the ultimate F.U. to the cable, and I'm happy to be able to do that.
I posted on my Facebook page about all the stuff I was doing to cut cable, and people have been very interested. Perhaps some of my most-commented posts of all time have been on this subject.
I remember when we only had channels 2[[CBS), 4[[NBC), 7[[ABC) and 9[[CBC).
It's amazing how jumbled the TV channel list has become. They come and go without notice.
We get one "local" channel that broadcasts Deutsche Welle. Go figure. :confused:
I didn't know we had a local station that was an affiliate of a German network.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimaz
is that on one of the WTVS sub-channels? I know it's the english language edition, and I have enjoyed watching it. [[that, the BBC and CBC all beat the crap out of US stations)Quote:
Originally Posted by mtburb
There are a lot of German people who work here for OEMs
Nope. WTVS only has two subchannels.Quote:
Originally Posted by rb336
Cable has a cost to the company to run and maintain a line to your home. That is the basic cost. The number of channels that line can carry is very large. Technically, it costs the cable company the same if you get 10 channels or 100 channels. What adds to the price of cable are the fees the individual channels seek from the cable company to carry their signal and programming.Quote:
Originally Posted by 48307
When the cable company is negotiating a deal to carry a package of popular channels, they very often push the cable company to include a bunch of crap channels that are supported by commercials or by on-line sales [[Jewelry Channel). In other words, the various channels are not equal in cost to the cable company [[costs to be passed on to the subscriber). If there was a la carte pricing, the costs of the desirable channels would be high and you really wouldn't save money.
Remember cable began as "community antennas" where the cable compnay took the broadcast signals, amplified them, and piped them out to the subscribers. At that time, the broadcast stations [[and their advertisers) were happy to get their signal clearly into more homes. Then as cable became a big business, the broadcast stations decided that they wanted cable to pay for their programming. It was decisions like these that caused the dramatic increases in cable prices.
I get that. There are 4 or 5 major content providers. Even if I got my "20 channel package" and then got to choose 4 channels from each of the major content providers, that would be awesome. I would expect to pay about $20-$30 for said package.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermod
It would force efficiency. It would cause them to drop a lot of infrequently requested channels.
The alternative is that cable companies and content providers are going to start getting less money as more and more people refuse to have cable subscriptions.
You aren't paying now for the crap channels. The cable company is giving the bandwidth to the content providers so that they can get the good stuff. If you went through the klist and told the cable company "I don't need this" your cable bill would go down very little [[it might well go up to pay for the admin complexity of individual choice).Quote:
Originally Posted by 48307