Cable, satellite get rotten grades

[snickerrrrs]

I was sure where to post this...

According to a University of Michigan study

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ic93424cac69485c2b9995a52231855b3

only the Airlines get worse customer service ratings. I especially like the quote:

"The picture is not pretty," said Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett. "The pay TV group is, overall, a disaster, ranking worse on average than the IRS."

:D

[magnus]

URL is broken.

[MickeS]

Working URL:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ic93424cac69485c2b9995a52231855b3

"Moffett warned that while "it was good enough to be the 'best of the bad' " among TV distributors in the past, that's no good anymore amid heated competition from telecom firms, video games, online video and the like.

"Weak customer satisfaction -- for the whole industry -- is an enormous Achilles heel for pay TV and perhaps more than any other factor threatens the foundation of the pay TV model," Moffett said. "

Can't disagree. I just dropped cable for OTA only. Their exorbitant rates for what they provided me were not worth it anymore.

[wblynch]

Good point. Wifey and I are viewing only 5 pay channels consistently anymore. That works out to about $15 per channel per month and I'm really doubting the value.

Our OTA high definition reception from a $30 antenna is amazing.

It turns out over 85% of what we watch and record is straight network broadcast. A big turnaround from 8 or 10 years ago.

[magnus]

Same here, dropped D* for OTA. Got tired of their poor customer service, lack of Tivo support, and determined that I was only watching 5 channels outside of locals (and paying D* $80 per month for nothing).

OTA digital is awesome.

Good point. Wifey and I are viewing only 5 pay channels consistently anymore. That works out to about $15 per channel per month and I'm really doubting the value.

Our OTA high definition reception from a $30 antenna is amazing.

It turns out over 85% of what we watch and record is straight network broadcast. A big turnaround from 8 or 10 years ago.

[JimSpence]

Important note about posting URLs. If you cut and paste from another place, you most likely will miss the middle as many other forums will abbreviate it. Both links in this thread look the same, but if you hover your mouse over them you can see the difference.

So the best way to cut and paste is from the address bar itself.

And yes, OTA HD is great as long as you don't suffer from multipath.

[snickerrrrs]

Thanks Jim, will do

[Mars Rocket]

Customer Service ratings have nothing to do with value on a per-channel basis for most people, however. I think my cable service is overpriced, but I don't have much choice in the matter since I want to use a TiVo and get HD content. In general the service is great - there's never any dropouts and the picture quality is good. It's only when I need to call Comcast about something that the CS comes into play.

So I might fault them from a CS perspective, but as a TV supplier I have no complaints other than price. And that's not a CS complaint.

[nirisahn]

If I went OTA only, I wouldn't get BBCAmerica, and I probably watch that more than any other channel. If there was a legal way for me to get BBCAmerica progamming without using a pay service, I'd do it and drop cable in a minute. But then I'd have to have antennas for all 3 TiVos, and converter boxes for the 2 S2's that I have. I can't do a roof antenna because of HOA covenants.

[pomerlp]

I would say most of my cable is a waste of space. How many cartoon networks do kids need? When I was a child and walked in the snow uphill barefoot 3 miles both ways we had cartoons in the afternoon and on Saturday Mornings. Captain Kangaroo, Engineer Bill were the morning guys during the week days.

And how much do these kids look at these channels? Arn't they playing Wii or some other electronic game? Some may even go outside and toss a ball around.

And it's not just kids, it's all the other waste of space channels. TVLand was a good idea, now there is like 5 versions of that.

Give me USA, TNT, SPIKE TV, A&E, FX, SCI FI, TBS, WGN, TruTV, CNN, FOX NEWS, ESPN and ESPN2. That's all I need. And to be fair to others I would say that Food Network and Home and Garden are OK too. The rest are useless including the music channels since I subscribe to XM.

Any local sport channels are OK too.

The rest you can throw out the door. All a waste of bandwith IMHO.

[JimSpence]

If I went OTA only, I wouldn'g get BBCAmerica, and I probably watch that more than any other channel. If there was a legal way for me to get BBCAmerica progamming without using a pay service, I'd do it and drop cable in a minute. But then I'd have to have antennas for all 3 TiVos, and converter boxes for the 2 S2's that I have. I can't do a roof antenna because of HOA covenants.You do know that HOA covenants cannot prevent you from putting up an antenna? And you'd only need one antenna.

[ZeoTiVo]

FOX NEWS, ESPN and ESPN2

The rest you can throw out the door. All a waste of bandwith IMHO.

I find those 3 a waste of space - do we throw them out as well?