Paying For Cable

[Godsize]

Why the fuck do we have to pay for cable when there are fucking commercials on cable? What kind of bullshit is that?!

 

[penguinsfan]

I understand your complaints. No one likes to suffer through too many commercials. I would suggest to you that many cable channels are serving small niche markets and could not support themselves on advertising or subscription fees alone. Take a station like The History Channel. There is only a small percentage of subscribers that are going to be interested in such a channel. To produce quality programs, they have to have an adequate operating budget and I suspect they may not be able to do so with mere subscription fees, or advertising alone. So, unfortunately, you are stuck with a little of both.

 

[pUNKY]

i have like 900 channels and theres like 15 good channels and the rest are just bull.

 

[ctmwm]

And like they are reasonable with their rates right???

 

[Godsize]

Nah, man. I think we're being screwed. Advertising brings in huge amounts of money. And most of those "niche" channels are owned by bigger conglomerates. They're just lil' spinoffs of a bigger corporation. I think it's bullshit. I agree if you want a pay-channel like HBO or something that only shows commercials for itself, then you should pay, but for every other channel...they've got as many commercials as broadcast television! We've been duped. I wonder if anyone else complained about that? Or are we so used to there being commercials on regular TV that no one questioned the cable company for including their scumfuck commercials in their programming?

 

[ctmwm]

Neck of the woods, Dish tv is kicking the crap out of the cable companies. And they just came out with a new dish that gets local stations at no extra charge!! And the system is free with a 19.95 per month package!!

 

[penguinsfan]

Originally posted by Godsize
Nah, man. I think we're being screwed. Advertising brings in huge amounts of money. And most of those "niche" channels are owned by bigger conglomerates. They're just lil' spinoffs of a bigger corporation. I think it's bullshit. I agree if you want a pay-channel like HBO or something that only shows commercials for itself, then you should pay, but for every other channel...they've got as many commercials as broadcast television! We've been duped. I wonder if anyone else complained about that? Or are we so used to there being commercials on regular TV that no one questioned the cable company for including their scumfuck commercials in their programming?

Some of the stations are owned by larger networks, and other don't have that financial backing. I don't discount the idea that we're getting screwed, but I doubt that free cable is a realistic expectation. Yet, it has gotten out of hand. If you want a deluxe package, it's easy to find yourself spending over $100 per month, which is more than most people should ever spend on cable.

 

[brennaja]

Price elasticity allows them to charge us because they know that we will pay a certain amount.

 

[penguinsfan]

Yeah, there is something to be said for them charging what they do because they know we're willing to pay it.

 

[ctmwm]

Down with HIGH cable bills!!! Heck I'm thinking about going to cable internet - the speed is astounding!!!! But at 29.00 a month I dunno.

 

[penguinsfan]

Originally posted by ctmwm
Down with HIGH cable bills!!! Heck I'm thinking about going to cable internet - the speed is astounding!!!! But at 29.00 a month I dunno.

Well, what are you paying now? I'm paying $20 per month for suckass dial-up and I'd gladly pay double for good cable access, but it's not available right where I'm at.

 

[Gardenier90]

I remember watching the Spice channel when my parents had a black box back in the '90s. That damn thing kept me from going outside for two weeks! Parents found out about it and got rid of the thing. I was like OMG NOOOOOO!!!!

 

[penguinsfan]

Originally posted by Gardenier90
I remember watching the Spice channel when my parents had a black box back in the '90s. That damn thing kept me from going outside for two weeks! Parents found out about it and got rid of the thing. I was like OMG NOOOOOO!!!!

Spice is cool when you're young. Then, you realize it kind of sucks compared to the backroom of the local video store.