Re: Alacarte Cable and Geeks

["Kevin Oberman" <oberman () es net>]

> From: "Robert E. Seastrom" <rs () seastrom com>
> Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 06:51:17 -0500
>
>
> Jon Lewis <jlewis () lewis org> writes:
>
> > > This Can't End Well.
> >
> > Why not?  As people shift from watching broadcast channels to
> > streaming content and look to shut off their cable TV service, but
> > keep internet, the cable co's are just going to have to raise internet
> > prices to compensate.  I can see a future where you buy internet from
> > the cable co and they give you the basic cable TV channel lineup at
> > "no charge" but in reality, you're paying for the cable internet what
> > you used to pay for both cable internet and TV. 
>
> Here in NoVA (Comcast former Adelpha territory), the future is now.
>
> I used to have internet-only service (there is little on TV that I
> care about).  A bit over a year and a half ago, we added basic cable
> to the service.  Total additional cost per month to go from
> Internet-only to Internet-plus-TV-bundle (same speed) was about $4.

Hmmm. Better than the situation in my Comcast area. Internet w/o any
cable costs MORE than basic cable (i.e. over the air + PEG). I'm sure
that this pricing is to discourage customers from switching to a
satellite provider for TV since I'm going to get most of it, anyway, and
its not THAT much more to go to the standard package with the popular
cable channels. Of course, you may want digital, HD, ... and discover
the cable bill hits $200/mo. (Mine doesn't, but I have friends paying
that.)
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman () es net                       Phone: +1 510 486-8634
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