I’m not going to name names, or in this case, name sites, but I stumbled upon a good one today. “Good” in the sense that it is pretty funny. The idea is to make satellite TV look bad in order to sell potential customers on cable TV. The problem is due to the fact that the reasons they cite for selecting cable over satellite simply don’t hold water.

Let’s run through a few of the claims that are made on that site with regard to satellite TV and then inject some reality.

1. Get your local TV channels free: This one actually may have some merit. I pay about $6 extra to DISH Network to get my local channels. However, since cable is more expensive anyway, this one is a wash.
2. Get your local HD channels: I do in fact have my local HD channels with my DISH Network service. Whoops!
3. Your high-speed internet connection: Yep, this one is true, and I actually have high-speed service from Comcast. It “only ” costs me $75 a month. Quite reasonable, wouldn’t you say? Not.
4. Your telephone service: A friend of mine had his phone service through Comcast. It was so bad he decided to cancel it. It took Comcast months and many phone calls before they stopped billing him for it.
5. Library of video on demand: Cable has more “on demand” programming, but DISH is catching up thanks the new features that allow customers to connect their systems to the internet to download programming.
6. Always on/No rain or cloud fade: “Always on?” Not quite. I was without my high-speed internet for sixteen days following an ice storm. Rain fade is rare and “cloud fade” is something I’ve never heard of or experienced.
7. No damaged roofs from dish installations: My dish antennas happen to be accessible via the roof and my roof is fine. Look Ma, no leaks!
8. Worry-free installation/No trees to cut down: Perhaps, but if you want your ugly cable underground instead of up in the air, expect a nice trench to be excavated across your property. No worries there!
9. No expensive satellite equipment to buy: Sorry, equipment and installation from both DISH Network and DirecTV are free. Try again.
10. No long term contracts to fulfill: Whoops! Wrong again. Check this out: http://www.comcast.com/Corporate/legal/TriplePlayOffer.html
11. No antennas or multiple satellite dishes required: True. Just miles and miles of cable that can be snapped by a fallen tree, heavy snow storm, ice storm or traffic accident taking out a pole.

Now that the truth has been exposed, you might find yourself a little more interested in finding a good satellite TV deal.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Online Entertainment, Video Portal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.