Frank Rose wrote a very interesting article about the plans that cable companies have to move to next generation network infrastructure so that true on demand TV becomes a reality and delivers more then you might think. The cable companies see this as the satellite service killer since TV on demand will literally provide every person with a TV experience customized to them. Something the satellite providers can not match, at least not right now.
Unfortunately I suspect this whiz bang very cool stuff with no competition will come at a very stiff price. One of the reasons satellite TV is continuing to kick cables butt is because the price point for the quality is better. Cable operators do not want competition they want to be a monopoly so that they can charge ever higher prices. We can only hope that competition emerges as a result of both baby bells and cable operators in a local market offering essentially equal whiz bang stuff. For now I am EXTREMELY happy with my DishNetwork service and will stick with it.
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The maximum prices that cable companies can charge for a particular region are regulated by the FCC and by the Franchise Agreement they have with the municipality they serve.
What's really going to empty our wallets is the upcoming federally mandated switch to HDTV for broadcast television. Once the deadline for complete switchover is reached (originally set for 2006), your standard, NTSC television will cease to function, without the addition of an expensive HDTV tuner/converter box.
This is somewhat of a catch 22. HDTV tuners are expensive because demand is low but people do not want to convert to HDTV, thereby raising demand, until the price is lower. To their credit TV manufacturers have started to produce lower cost HDTV ready sets but the tuners for the most part still wait for demand to show up.
I for one would rather have to pay for a tuner in a one time purchase then have the cable companies empty our wallets a little every month for the next 100 years because they think we owe them for an infrastructure upgrade. Do you realize that included in your phone bill is still a fee that was approved in the 1970's to help pay for the conversion to touch tone. Here we are 34 years later and we are still paying that fee on a monthly basis even though the infrastructure was converted for the most part decades ago.
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