Even though DISH Network might be
hustling backwards, the cable industry as a whole has hit an 18-year low, with the Television Bureau of Advertising finding wired cable penetration reaches just 60.9% of households. Alternative delivery systems (i.e. satellite, fiber, DSL, 2nd-day air) now grab 28.4% (28.2 of which is satellite), and nearly a third of all subscription subscribers. A few months ago when numbers hit mere 17-year lows, cable advertising execs found comfort in increased viewing time, but from here it looks like
SDV and
tru2way can't come soon enough.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jeff N. @ Aug 15th 2008 5:33PM
Cable companies are shooting themselves in the foot. The consumers who want the expensive programming in HD are moving to DirecTV or Dish. Why they are moving at snail's pace to get more HD Channels and programming is beyond me. Maybe SDV is having more problems than first anticipated. It seems they are at least one full year or more behind the Satellite companies.
Hello Moto @ Aug 16th 2008 12:20AM
I have Comcast with DVR boxes, premium channels, and several movie channel packages. And I can't wait until fiber opens up. The number of HD channels that Comcast offers is fine, the real problem for me is that the quality of those challenges is horrible, with a decent amount of the content still running in 4:3 (which is understandable that Star Trek was never produced for HD) but upscale with many defects. Even my TVs (Sony Bravias and two Samsungs) upscale with better quality. Back to the boxes, they are slow and the remotes are a pain, but are hard to replace with universal remotes unless you buy the $250 harmony model. It’s truly disappointing.
HeHaw @ Aug 16th 2008 1:35PM
I bought an antenna and I'm watching much more OTA TV. I still use standard cable, but I'm too cheap to pay comcast their exorbitant prices for HD. Plus the quality isn't as good as what I'm getting OTA. Granted their are more HD channels, but I get to watch what I want in HD which is mainly local football, baseball and the olympics.
Pingmeister @ Aug 16th 2008 3:33PM
Cable's zoned monopolies are a big part of the problem. I live about 30 minutes form Silicon Valley and our SINGLE Cable choice is Charter which has NINE HD channels in their HD lineup. NINE! I couldn't believe when the guy sad it!
I'd much rather have a Cable modem (instead of DSL) and Cable TV instead of this Dish on my roof but they want the same price per month as DirecTV where I have almost 100 HD channels.
Ridiculous.