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Path: utzoo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!hao!noao!terak!doug
From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: Is cable TV worthwhile?
Message-ID: <529@terak.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-May-85 13:53:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: terak.529
Posted: Mon May  6 13:53:20 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 8-May-85 06:15:15 EDT
Distribution: na
Organization: Terak Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Lines: 55

What do you think?  Is cable TV still worth what you're paying for it?

I'm beginning to have my doubts.  Are there any true believers out there
who can restore my faith?  Or alternatively, anyone who has disconnected
and not regretted it?

I've had cable for three years now.  The rates have tripled in that time
(well, they were indeed unusually low to begin with), and I've dropped
a number of premium services trying to keep the bill affordable.  The
signal quality has improved from awful to barely tolerable.

I'm now paying $15/month for basic cable, plus $10/month each for the
two premium channels (HBO and Movie Channel), plus $3/month for FM
hookup.  The company (Storer) was recently granted another doubling of
its rates by the City Council, but that authorization was suspended
because the next day Storer announced it was going to sell its local
operations to American Cable.  If that increase had gone through, I'd
have cancelled on the spot (and wouldn't be writing this now).

Since a second cable hookup costs nearly as much as the first, cable
doesn't do me any good except in my living room.

For the local broadcast channels, I get a better signal from my own
antenna.  And the antenna doesn't break down a couple times a week.

The "basic cable" services are not as good as I had expected.  MTV was
fine for a couple of years, but recently it hasn't done a good job of
hiding what a seamy operation it is.  CNN has degenerated into providing
half-hour and hour long sports shows, talk shows, business shows, etc.
ESPN is worth watching only because I like car racing.  And the Weather
Channel: well, I'll try to hold my tongue.  Instead of improving, these
services seem to be deteriorating with time.

The premium channels hold less and less interest for me as they rerun
movies I saw on cable last year or the year before, while the
"first-run" movies are usually two to seven years old and are available
sooner at any of the 200 video stores within a block of my home.  When
it cost $3.50 a month for HBO and $5.00 a night to rent a tape, HBO
made a lot more sense than at $10.00 a month versus $2.00 a night.

(I don't often record movies to keep.  If I did, that might have some
influence on the cable vs. tape situation.)

All-in-all, I have this nagging feeling that I'm justifying having
the premium channels because "I'm already paying for the basic cable
services" and that I'm justifying the basic cable services because
"they're free with the premium channels".  In other words, using
circular reasoning to reach an unjustified conclusion.

Disconnection is a big step.  It costs a bundle to disconnect.  And
even more to reconnect if I decide it was a mistake.  It's awfully easy
to continue to remain undecided.  Is this how cable companies remain
in business?
-- 
Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{ihnp4,seismo,decvax}!noao!terak!doug