I’ve been trying to help our HOA (right there you can stop reading if you want to know the definition of a thankless effort) deal with our bulk cable TV contract and establish a bulk fiber Internet contract. I hit Consumer Reports for their survey of providers. For pure cable TV, here’s something remarkable: all of the companies are rated 1/5 for “value”. If we can all agree, which we apparently do, that cable/satellite TV is a terrible value, why do roughly 70 million of us subscribe?
(Bulk is much cheaper than retail, incidentally. We pay about $55/house per month for a decent slate of channels, 20 hours of DVR, up to three cable boxes per household, and Xfinity’s famously awesome customer service (rated 1/5).)
Conversation with Xfinity rep…
- them: we are offering our Hybrid fiber-coaxial network in your neighborhood
- me: if I’m using AOL dialup aren’t I on a “hybrid fiber” network? The computer that answers my 56K modem’s phone call is connected via fiber, right?
Readers: Anyone have experience with TV from FiberNow, Blue Stream, or Hotwire?
Note that the 1/5 value rating for cable TV isn’t because they surveyed 73,000 sourpusses. The same people rated their Internet providers at 4/5 or 5/5 for “value”:
How did Elon’s company do?
I’m not sure why Starlink was perceived to be mediocre in value. The only people who would buy it are those who can’t get fiber or good cable modem service, right? The alternative is LTE or smoke signals?
Live sports in the highest picture quality are probably still only on satellite & cable. Starlink is still 1 of those Elon products which is only accessible for single family homes, an ever dwindling segment of the population.