| reply to gar187er
Re: Go digital said by gar187er:yea but it would be against the code to do so, so many people don't want everything, and some people also just wanted limited service.... What code is that?
The dropping of analog will happen over time in all cable systems. And I think many cable companies will use the "Over the Air" mandate to switch to digital to accomplish dropping analog. There is no rule or law forcing cable to drop analog when OTA does, but most people don't know that and the confusion about it will allow them to sneak a dropping of analog in to the same time frame.
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| Most Franchise agreements state that you have to keep a certain amount of cable usable without a set top box. Also for those services that done need a box, giving them one complicates a few things.
1.) Credit checks will need to be ran on all services to get them without a prepay. This could potentially turn away customers who want in on the basic cable setups so that they can skip the $150-$300 prepayment cost for setting up digital tiers of service.
2.) It would require an even larger supply of set top boxes. Even though they are getting cheaper and cheaper as time goes on, the small DCT700 is still an expensive unit. I personally see tons of those boxes go up for sale at a flea market because some smuck thinks they own once they stopped paying their cable bill so you're looking at a definite rate increase not because of the broadcasters increasing charges, but to cover your neighbor hawking our equipment.
3.) We'd have to include a set top box with the cost and then increase the higher tiers to offset the cost of the lower tier. So thus another cost increase to supplement the lower levels of service that didn't need a box before.
Overall, I think it'd be better from a cable standpoint to basically 'end of life' any TV that isn't ready for digital level cable services by either a built in digital tuner or a cable card. But then people would complain about that one too.
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| said by MrChupacabra:Most Franchise agreements state that you have to keep a certain amount of cable usable without a set top box. Also for those services that done need a box, giving them one complicates a few things. Most cable franchise agreements run about 10 yrs. When these are expiring(avg over next 5 yrs), I'd bet a lot of money that the cable companies will no longer agree to keep analog channels as part of the renewal. Also, if a national franchise law is passed, it could contain a provision wiping out all local agreements at time of passing. Cable companies will kill off analog channels as soon as legally possible.
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 PolarBear03The bear formerly known as aaron8301Premium
join:2005-01-03 | reply to MrChupacabra
said by MrChupacabra:1.) Credit checks will need to be ran on all services to get them without a prepay. This could potentially turn away customers who want in on the basic cable setups so that they can skip the $150-$300 prepayment cost for setting up digital tiers of service. FYI, in my area, Comcast doesn't do any credit checks and doesn't require any prepay/deposit; they'll give you any level of service you want, no questions asked, PROVIDED you do not have a previous outstanding balance with them.
As long as you are square with the house, the house is yours.
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| reply to fAcEtIOUs
said by fAcEtIOUs:When these are expiring(avg over next 5 yrs), I'd bet a lot of money that the cable companies will no longer agree to keep analog channels as part of the renewal. Maybe not, but eliminating all analog is customer-hostile and will disrupt many people's television watching style. Not that the cable industry has ever been customer-centric, but this would cause an incredible churn rate among those who have more than a couple of television devices in use. Nobody is going to install a cable box on every TV or video recording device, and unless the cable companies can come up with equivalent technology (as is proposed by Broadlogic) they are opening the door for non-trivial customer loss. Given the choice between renting a half dozen cable boxes at $5+ a month each and still not being able to record what you want or going to (for example) FiOS with their analog equivalent service which do you think a person would choose?
As for me, when Comcast eliminates analog is when I eliminate Comcast. At that point there is no point to keeping them around. |
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| reply to PolarBear03
Seems like you are also forgetting the minor fact of the converter boxes for digital being available. I haven't seen anything that says that the current FCC mandate for a standard channel scheme on cable can, or will be changed, which, I would think, puts a bit of a kink in the cable. |
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 Vchat20Landing is the REAL challengePremium
join:2003-09-16
Columbus, OH | reply to 89707828
And what? Go to DirecTV which STILL requires a box for every tv? Those boxes sometimes becoming even more expensive than cableco offerings. Or FiOS /IF/ its available and even then, its running a VERY similar system to whats noted here in the article (i dont know if verizon does a digital>analog conversion at the ONT or they just send the baseband video right down the fiber line.)
Nevertheless, a complete conversion to full digital /IS/ coming whether you like it or not. It is a natural progression for the service.
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| reply to fAcEtIOUs
the only problem with that is the amount of cable system that
are analog only systems as comcast here is analog only as they say it is too costly too upgrade the entire system at this time |
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