Cable is Criminal

Yes, it has been a while, sorry. But today I am hopefully going to get two in.

The first is something that is annoying me: Cable TV.

Within the last year my cable company went from Adelphia to Comcast. I was already being overcharged in my opinion by Adelphia, but now Comcast is going to raise the bill for the same package. This might not have bothered me if I had valid and available competition, but DSL services doesn’t reach my home right now, and I don’t see where satellite options are any better, and the local area does not have a competing cable company. I already have my house wired, two fold, as a water leak issue destroyed the original outside, junction to house cable and some dipweed thought the problem was with the house wiring and could not be bothered to snake lines and such. The previous owner had wired the cable through the attic and put it in with piping so the brick work of the house would not be an issue. This new wiring was put in through the basement and the installer just drilled through the floor and fed wire. It was something I should have done and/or corrected before he started, but I was busy with other things and have now learned a lesson.

Here is my problem with all of the non-antenna systems: I CAN PICK A PACKAGE, BUT NOT AN INDIVIDUAL CHANNEL. And I say this is BULLSHIT.

I have the full boat, because I can’t get what I want to watch without getting hundreds of channels I don’t want. The cable company says that packages are all they can do. What I want is a menu where I can pick what channels I want without having to pay for channels I don’t want. The cable company says this will cost me more. How so I say? Will I need a scientist to tell me how this works? All the channels are already coming into my house. All the cable company does is send a message to my cable box and an electronic switch is flipped giving me the package. They can already differentiate between channels. Go ahead and try it, ask to order just Cinemax and not Stars, TMC, HBO, or Showtime, they will require you get all the lesser packages, but they can give you just Cinemax and not the other premiums. Also, if you have a On-Demand Package you can get what ever program they are offering at any time. But somehow they don’t have the technology or ability to give me just the channels I want?

I will give you an example of how I believe it should work. I am using rounded up and magical thinking numbers for example only.

Currently the system works like this: I pay $10 for a 10 Channel Package, the total bill is $18.75. If I cancel the package and return my box, but leave in the cable wire, I still get the 10 channels pumped into my house, but I have no way to watch them. I already rent the box $3.75, so rent is not included in the cost of the package, and all the other 990 channels are there too so the additional line charge ($5)in the total price can’t be part of the package cost. I paid for the installation so that is not part of the $10. That $10 is just a maintenance bill. (A flipped electronic switch and the cost of keeping the switch flipped)

I want to pay just $1 for 1 Channel, in fact I would pay $10 dollars just have the ten channels I want, instead of 9 channels I never watch. In real life, the actual cost per channel is much less, and it might be cost effective for someone with regular multi-channel viewing habits to use the package format, but not for me and my 4 out of 900+.

So, come on cable, either give me a channel per channel choice, or a package choice where I choose what channels I get in the package.