Hi
As a cable consumer i must say that cable company is exactly the same that provide us the connection with Internet. How to change for a service in Internet if i lose all the services that my company (that i really don´t like and is a monopoly in Portugal, they make all they want) is serving the consumers? If i quit i lose every services like phone, faz, television and internet.

Please let me know your solution.

Carlos Martins
Lisbon, Portugal

My family is like Rita’s above…we live rural enough that the local cable company (which is the local telephone company) hasn’t brought the lines out this far yet (and likely never will). The prices currently are nothing special, slightly higher than the satellite companies most people ‘out here’ use.

We’ve been customers of both DISH TV and now DirectTV and when the current DirectTV contract (which is a come-on, our rates didn’t only double in this 2nd year as per the contract & advertising but instead doubled & went up 4% because the channels supposedly raised their carriage fees, hitting us up for another $5 a month or so over what we signed up for) expires, we’re going with an IPTV solution.

This won’t be easy as one of my family members has mild Alzheimer’s disease and will have to cope with a new gadget for him to learn (he’s no longer able to surf the web), but it’s time.

If I could get a la carte channels or even a la carte programs via satellite on a pay per watching service I would do so as that would be easier for my memory impaired relative. But since I can’t, I’m done with satellite (and cable) come 2013. I have one cable channel I’m loyal to (Turner Classic Movies) and two cable shows I watch regularly (Mad Men & The Walking Dead) but the rest of my viewing is public TV and a little bit of international programming via MHz Networks. The rest of the family likes access to The Weather Channel and the local broadcast channels for news but I think a weather radio or an online forecast is better and frankly ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox etc have total garbage on including their so called ‘news’ coverage.

So I’m stockpiling DVDs (with Blu-Ray, iTunes & streaming being pushed to the public, DVDs are going the way of the dinosaur right now and the price drops are terrific on classic movies & TV shows I love) and biding my time to get a Boxee Box.

If Boxee can get some sort of Live TV Dongle so much the better for the rest of my family but the satellite & cable companies are going to lose me either way (and no I’m not going to rent or buy some card to use with a Boxee Box or any other IPTV set-up).

Any games the media conglomerates choose to play at the FCC with blocking the IPTV industry will have me putting in my public comments to the agency about how they are egregious monopolies that need to be broken up already and getting ready to get disconnected from at least the tyranny of the dish or the cable. It may mean going a bit primitive but I’m very ready to stop paying DirectTV or DISH or any other cable/satellite outfit for their inferior content & service.

Maybe if cable offered something worth watching people like me would stay.Basic cable packages are from the stone age and should start at $10 not $80.It’s 2012, give people a decent basic cable package with twice as many channels for less and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.Cable companies are greedy monopoly bidders with no competition.You want to survive in this world you need to stay ahead of the competition by offering more for less, not by trying to destroy them.

Cable companies are dinosaurs. They know it and they’re freaking out. They’ve been gouging consumers long enough and people demand more value for less $ now that there are superior offerings available.

There is not enough competition for the cable companies. they all have their little niche markets around the country where they operate virtually as a monopoly. I have WOW in one state, and Comcast in another. Both are really difficult to deal with, once they have secured a contract with you. And the price for the services they provide simply goes up, and up, and up, while the services are reduced.

When digital transmission was introduced, we were told, as long as we had cable we’d be fine. Not so. They both have now required us to secure boxes for our services, in order to receive digital. Comcast will only give you 3 boxes. If you have more than that, you have to pay more. So, essentially they are telling us, how to watch TV. WOW is no better. Since they switched to digital service, requiring that we get a special box for each TV, our reception is worse, the remote that came with the system have stopped functioning completely and trying to use other equipment like an old VCR or anything, is just a hassle. Again, they’re dictating how we watch TV – their way.

Remember when cable first came on the scene? They offered monthly service for a fee, and that fee off set advertisements. TV with no ads – what a cool concept! Now the number, frequency and length of ads is mind numbing.

The FCC needs to let the free market figure this out. Right now the monopolies around the country are raking in the bucks, for service we know doesn’t cost that much. Either break up the monopolies and allow free competition, or allow IP based programing – or both!

I’m done with cable, myself. I haven’t switched yet, but am planning on it. Be tween the 2 services, that would save me about $250 per month for basic cable, internet access and phone service. $250! That’s a car payment!

What has been happening over the last several years is that all forms of media have become more decentralized due to the internet. The internet is simply a more efficient delivery system for content. The cable companies can’t change this and they will therefore eventually die out. All they do is deliver content, nothing else. There is no added value to what they do so they are not necessary if the content can be delivered in a more efficient, less expensive way. It’s simple economics.

I’d rather watch tv online, saving me time and of course electricity in the long run.