Moderators: Bakhtosh, EvilHomer3k
And to further muddle it, only to certain packages on certain cable companies.Isgrimnur wrote:Yup. HBO is only available to people that have HBO through their cable company, and then only certain cable companies at that. Even when I was a customer, I couldn't get it because I was on Time Warner.
The installer was very nice, but said he had only done two Cablecard hookups in the last 2 years, so it was always a struggle to remember how to do it right on Charter's side (his side was quite straight forward - I could have done it). Add to that the fact that the TiVo boxes are relatively new and he hadn't seen their screens before and it became quite the ordeal. I actually found the right screen to get the first TV hooked up. On the second one he spent an hour with Charter on the phone before finally deciding to try a different Cablecard. There was only one other one in the city, so he had to go meet the other technician and do a swap. Turns out it was a bad card. As soon as the new one was installed and the correct numbers given to Charter, it worked. Felt bad for the guy though - he's independent and gets paid by the job. I was not supposed to take 4 hours. 
), and mentioned that I was paying way too much for my service when I was with DirecTV and that there were packages that could have gotten me down to $30/month before finally getting my address and saying the pre-paid return boxes were on the way. I think she was sad I didn't ask to stay - I just get agreeing with her that it was tragic I was leaving and that I really like their service, had spoken to a Rep and their Manager asking for what I wanted and been turned down. She said I should always threaten to leave so I could talk to her and get the best deal. I get why they do it, but it is a seriously frakked up business model that their best customers have to be bad customers to get the best rates. Anyway, I thanked her and told her I'm sure everything would work out fine. It took 20 minutes and 6 seconds to get off the phone with her. 
| Running__ | __2014: 1300.55 miles__ | __2015: 2036.13 miles__ | __2016: 1012.75 miles__ | __2017: 1105.82 miles__ | __2018: 1318.91 miles | __2019: 2000.00 miles |
| Running__ | __2014: 1300.55 miles__ | __2015: 2036.13 miles__ | __2016: 1012.75 miles__ | __2017: 1105.82 miles__ | __2018: 1318.91 miles | __2019: 2000.00 miles |
). When she's done, we'll probably drop that and just keep the Hulu and Amazon subs.| Running__ | __2014: 1300.55 miles__ | __2015: 2036.13 miles__ | __2016: 1012.75 miles__ | __2017: 1105.82 miles__ | __2018: 1318.91 miles | __2019: 2000.00 miles |
If you meant me, we've really had 0 buffering that I can remember since the swap. It's bee great.stessier wrote:Any other updates?
I was thinking like Xmann and others who had chimed in, but you're good too.Zaxxon wrote:If you meant me, we've really had 0 buffering that I can remember since the swap. It's bee great.stessier wrote:Any other updates?
| Running__ | __2014: 1300.55 miles__ | __2015: 2036.13 miles__ | __2016: 1012.75 miles__ | __2017: 1105.82 miles__ | __2018: 1318.91 miles | __2019: 2000.00 miles |
Figgered.stessier wrote:I was thinking like Xmann and others who had chimed in, but you're good too.Zaxxon wrote:If you meant me, we've really had 0 buffering that I can remember since the swap. It's bee great.stessier wrote:Any other updates?
Carry on.
The problem is nearly every NFL game is nationally-televised. The NHL and MLB can do it because most of their games are not nationally-televised. If the NFL provided a similar service, every game would be blacked out.Isgrimnur wrote:Yeah, I really wish the NFL would join the NHL and MLB in the 21st century and let the rest of us not on their preferred cable/satellite networks and preferred mobile provider throw our money at them, but they're still extending the Madden way of doing things to everything else.
True, it's not 'nearly every game' as I stated. But it's a significantly higher percentage of games. There is an average of 15 NFL games per week. Depending on the week, 2-4 of them are available everywhere in the nation and would be blacked out everywhere. Of the other 11-13, the blackout areas would be far larger than in other sports due to the smaller # of games on at a time. The NHL/NBA have what, 55-65 games/week, with very few shown on TV significantly outside their home markets?Isgrimnur wrote:If the NFL meets your definition of "nationally televised", then so does NHL with Center Ice and MLB with Extra Innings.
I'm with you. As someone without cable, I'd love to have a sport service that didn't suck. I was just pointing out that there is a 0% chance of us getting one. The NFL TV contracts were just extended recently.Isgrimnur wrote:Then change the rules. The NFL is a walled garden. Hell, even Nascar has an online pass, and they have a lot fewer events than the NFL.
Despite not paying for cable TV service, I still get access to the basics, so I can see the NBC and NBC sports feeds, but our local cable provider, in an NHL market, doesn't carry the NHL network. Wichita Falls? Sure. Dallas? Sorry.And with the new television deal and all games being on national television on the U.S. and Canada, no games will available on NHL Center Ice or GameCenter Live. Local television networks will carry first round coverage of non-NBC games.
Part of the larger piece on who's to blame for bundling:Last year was the first year that households with pay TV subscriptions dipped from 100.9 million to 100.8 million. Research group TDG expects that trend to continue.
Verizon Communication’s FIOS TV service is taking the first step to leveling the TV landscape by tying fees paid to stations based on how many viewers watch a channel. A media company is paid if a viewer spends more than five minutes on a channel. The initial phase of this plan is working with small and mid-level media companies. It’s not talking to large media companies like Viacom and Disney yet, but you can bet that if the initial gambit works, those talks will be on the horizon.
Currently, media companies bundle the channels it sells to pay TV distributors. If a distributor wants to carry MTV, Viacom bundles the channel with a host of second-tier MTV channels like MTV Tr3s. Cablevision filed suit against Viacom in February for this type of bundling.
If the cable companies win this one, it very well might shift the home tv provider space in a direction that's actually beneficial to consumers. Maybe.Cablevision, a New York-based cable TV provider, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Viacom on Tuesday in federal court hoping to stop the media conglomerate from forcing Cablevision to pay for channels its customers don’t watch. In order to secure rights to broadcast Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and MTV, the company states that Viacom has unfairly bundled less-popular ancillary channels.
The pay-TV provider names 14 channels that it says Viacom coerced it into including in its lineup by threatening massive financial penalties. By forcing the company to buy all the channels, Cablevision says Viacom is unlawfully “block booking” — a form of tying that conditions of the sale of a package of rights on the purchaser’s taking of other rights.
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The 14 channels Cablevision feels it shouldn’t have to carry are: Centric , CMT, MTV Hits, MTV Tr3s, Nick Jr., Nicktoons, Palladia, Teen Nick, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul, Logo, CMT Pure Country, Nick 2, and MTV Jams.
I to love this lawsuit on its merits but even if they won I don't see rates going down. And while you should be able to order your channels individually I don't see that happening in the near future.LordMortis wrote:I think it's awesome. It likely won't save me any money and may even make my rates go up, as my cable is already the basic 88 channels bundled in with 2mb Internet for about $57 a month. Internet alone would $40 + fees. I don't them charging less than $17 a month for the 12 or so channels I watch out of the 88.
My cable went up by $21 or about 40% in the last 10 months.LordMortis wrote:my cable is already the basic 88 channels bundled in with 2mb Internet for about $57 a month.
and they have been writing me letter to inform me that sports TV costs are going up and taxes are going up and those costs are going to be passed on to me. And this is for the lower negotiated rate.That's the way I would read it.Isgrimnur wrote:So he's either paying for your phone service or you're deducting it on your taxes, right?
$130 for the internet service and a phone #? Fire that company, stat. Even Comcast is $62 for internet solo, and then you can go Vonage for < $20 for a VOIP #.Kelric wrote:LIVE ZOMBIE THREAD! LIVE!
I just called for a quote on cancelling my cable. With internet / cable / a phone number (that I need to have because my boss is a philistine and won't let me use my cell phone to speak to clients), as well as free HD & DVR due to a mistake they made on my account a few months back, I pay $132. If I cancelled cable, that make it..... $130. Seriously. I'd save $2.32 by cancelling cable. If I could cancel my phone and my cable I'd get it down below $90. Stupid work.
It is Comcast. Technically the cost for phone / internet is $109, but I'm adding taxes and the stupid modem I need to carry the phone and the extra $10 for their Blast internet level.Zaxxon wrote:$130 for the internet service and a phone #? Fire that company, stat. Even Comcast is $62 for internet solo, and then you can go Vonage for < $20 for a VOIP #.Kelric wrote:LIVE ZOMBIE THREAD! LIVE!
I just called for a quote on cancelling my cable. With internet / cable / a phone number (that I need to have because my boss is a philistine and won't let me use my cell phone to speak to clients), as well as free HD & DVR due to a mistake they made on my account a few months back, I pay $132. If I cancelled cable, that make it..... $130. Seriously. I'd save $2.32 by cancelling cable. If I could cancel my phone and my cable I'd get it down below $90. Stupid work.
Boston area prices.Zaxxon wrote:They must enjoy gouging where you're at. I had Blast and it was $62.95 with no promotions. Are there any competitors? You could still port your # to Vonage to save on the phone portion.
Actual DSL, not Fios. I'd love to get Fios.Zaxxon wrote:Is the smiley due to pricing or what? If you mean FIOS the speed is certainly good. If old-school DSL then I get what you mean.
FWIW I'm on CenturyLink's fiber-to-the-node DSL and it's faster than my Blast Comcast was.
Those 15 percent then told the researcher to get off their lawn.The Pew Research Center survey released ahead of the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web found 53 percent of US Internet users would find it "very hard" to give up Web access, up from 38 percent in 2006.
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By contrast, Pew's survey showed 35 percent of all US adults television would be very hard to give up, compared with 44 percent in 2006.
Women were more likely than men to be attached to the Internet, as were people with higher levels of income and education, Pew said in the report issued ahead of the March 12 anniversary.
The cellphone comes in a close second to the Internet: 49 percent of mobile phone owners said it would be difficult to give up their handset, up from 43 percent in 2006. That amounts to 44 percent of all adults who say now that their cell phone would be very hard to live without.
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Pew found that 90 percent of US adults have a cell phone and two-thirds of those use their device to go online. A third of cell phone owners say that their primary online access point is their phone.
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The report found 90 percent of Internet users say the World Wide Web has been a good thing for them personally and only six percent say it has been a bad thing. Three out of four said it been a good thing for society, while 15 percent say it has been negative.
| Running__ | __2014: 1300.55 miles__ | __2015: 2036.13 miles__ | __2016: 1012.75 miles__ | __2017: 1105.82 miles__ | __2018: 1318.91 miles | __2019: 2000.00 miles |
So far that AntennaWeb doesn't even list it as an option - it's like 80 miles. And it's in the mountains. (WLOS in Ashville, NC and I'm in Greenville, SC)Zaxxon wrote:How far are you from ABC's tower?
| Running__ | __2014: 1300.55 miles__ | __2015: 2036.13 miles__ | __2016: 1012.75 miles__ | __2017: 1105.82 miles__ | __2018: 1318.91 miles | __2019: 2000.00 miles |