Tired of having to rent your cable box?
It has already been 11 years since Congress ordered the cable industry to make it possible for consumers to buy their cable boxes in stores instead of renting. The theory, then and now, was that creating a retail market for boxes would make better and cheaper models available. A new FCC rule finally puts that congressional mandate into effect.
It’s only been 11 years? It never made sense to me why a TV couldn’t have the ability to perform the same function as one of these boxes. Your tv set has just as many channels…but alas, I’m sure it was the cable companies exercising their free market abilities and squashng competition while “lobbying” congress to create laws that are favorable to them. Ah capitalism….aint it grand?
Tags: Corporate America
I have a dish myself, but I feel your pain. What’s tyrannical is that Comcast has the power to keep me from watching the Flyers.
you must be a sadist if you want to watch the flyers.
I have the Dish too, but I still have to rent the box you know.
Point well taken, donviti, but the Orange and Black have moved toward respectability with the signings of Briere, Hartnell and Timmonen, and the trade with Edmonton.
I wonder if Pat Gillick was sitting in his office at Citizen Bank Park when all this news broke wondering how, with a salary cap, Paul Holmgren can make these kinds of major moves while he, laboring under his own artificial salary cap, has to do with J.D. Durbin, J.A. Happ and J.C. Romero. A bunch of BS, if you ask me.
isn’t the it the same owners for the Phillies and the Flyers.
Pat gillick really must be wondering that is for sure. He gets stuck with Uncle Charlie and the flyers can get top notch coaches.
Man Law: any year your team loses horribly, it’s acceptable to label it as a rebuilding season…even if there has been no rebuilding whatsoever.
Anyway, I almost plunked down the extra cash for NHL Center Ice a few years ago, until I read the fine print about some games being subject to blackout. I called DirecTV, and sure enough all the Flyers’ games are blacked out in this market. DTV can still show games if they’re on ESPN, but somehow the blackout can be extended to ESPN2. How do they get away with that garbage?
Of course, my one true beef with any provider, cable or dish, is with programming bundles. I can’t buy Fox Soccer Channel without buying Golf, Yankees channel, and 40 Fox regional sports channels that all show the same two meaningless college football games on Saturday afternoons…meaning whomever’s not blacked out anywhere. A la carte now!
I started with DirectTV in this house, until FiosTV came online. I cancelled Dtv. I called back a week later and asked about the “box” they send so I can send them their receiver boxes back. Actual conversation:
“You own them, Mr. Smitty. You can do with them whatever you want.”
“Like what?”
“Sorry, I don’t know. Maybe you can sell them in a garage sale or on Ebay. Anything else I can help you with today?”
“*click*”
I still have them. They look good next to the family pictures.
Smitty, do your DTV boxes have TiVo? If so, I might be willing to take them off your hands; I’ve been looking to upgrade for a while now.