pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
1 edit | Yawn...
And we have more advanced broadband deployments in many of the places which did not have service otherwise. Since cable TV and broadband are luxury services anyway, why is price really that big deal when before such laws these items were not available at any price?
As for public access channels, who really cares about these anyway? I'd rather have my cable provider spend my subscription money on getting more HD channels instead of wasting it on things that most people don't even watch.
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This isn't fair! I was only supposed to hate just ONE presidential candidate! |
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NetAdmin
CCNA
join:2008-05-22
| said by pnh102  :As for public access channels, who really cares about these anyway? I'd rather have my cable provider spend my subscription money on getting more HD channels instead of wasting it on things that most people don't even watch. Your statement is ironic because most people aren't watching HD channels as most people haven't upgraded their televisions to HD or aren't willing to pay for HD service/equipment.
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Over ten plus years of carrying The Clue Bat... |
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dnoyeB
Ferrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI
| reply to pnh102
In my area (Detroit) lots of people watch the public access channels. City council can be quite entertaining. Its almost like the British house of commons.
Personally, I dumped my cable down to limited Basic. I would drop that if I could get quality internet service from anyone else besides Comcast.
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dnoyeB
"Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard. " Ecclesiastes 9:16
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| said by dnoyeB :In my area (Detroit) lots of people watch the public access channels. City council can be quite entertaining. Its almost like the British house of commons. So I've heard. A channel dedicated to raucous government proceedings, complete with blood, would actually be a winner.
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This isn't fair! I was only supposed to hate just ONE presidential candidate! |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| reply to NetAdmin
said by NetAdmin :Your statement is ironic because most people aren't watching HD channels as most people haven't upgraded their televisions to HD or aren't willing to pay for HD service/equipment. Where's the incentive to upgrade if cable companies are wasting cash on crap like public access instead of more HD channels?
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This isn't fair! I was only supposed to hate just ONE presidential candidate! |
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jslik
That just happened
Premium
join:2006-03-17
clubs:
| said by pnh102 : Where's the incentive to upgrade if cable companies are wasting cash on crap like public access instead of more HD channels? What cash? Cable just provides channel space...any dollars they actually have to spend on public access gets passed right on, and your statement assumes that the companies would spend the little money we're actually talking about on upgrades as opposed to adding to the bottom line.
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If they told you wolverines would make good house pets, would you believe them?
-"Planes, Trains & Automobiles" |
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NetAdmin
CCNA
join:2008-05-22
2 edits | reply to pnh102
said by pnh102 :Where's the incentive to upgrade if cable companies are wasting cash on crap like public access instead of more HD channels? The cost of providing those public access channels is a lot less than most people think. The biggest cost of providing a channel, programming costs, are non-existent with public access channels.
And adding HD channels isn't just as simple as just wanting to add a new channel to the lineup. For example, the source has to broadcast in HD, hence the reason Sci-Fi took so long to be available in HD. If the channels aren't available in HD, no one is getting it.
Whoops, had to fix a typo...
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Over ten plus years of carrying The Clue Bat... |
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jslik
That just happened
Premium
join:2006-03-17
clubs:
| reply to pnh102
Talk about moving the goalposts...
The main reason that statewide franchising was pushed was the idea that this 'reform' would result in dramatically lower prices, which hasn't happened, as Karl notes. Now it's "well, we've seen more deployments", which would have happened anyway.
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If they told you wolverines would make good house pets, would you believe them?
-"Planes, Trains & Automobiles" |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| said by jslik :Now it's "well, we've seen more deployments", which would have happened anyway. If that is the case then why weren't these services deployed prior to franchise elimination?
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This isn't fair! I was only supposed to hate just ONE presidential candidate! |
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jslik
That just happened
Premium
join:2006-03-17
clubs:
| said by pnh102 :If that is the case then why weren't these services deployed prior to franchise elimination? Because, as I note below, the telcos had/have to play a massive game of catch-up, and wanted as little government regulation as possible. Remember, there was a big push for federal reform before most of these statewide moves.
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If they told you wolverines would make good house pets, would you believe them?
-"Planes, Trains & Automobiles" |
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tschmidt
Premium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
 ·Hollis Hosting
 ·Verizon Online DSL
·Fairpoint Communic..
| reply to pnh102
said by pnh102 :As for public access channels, who really cares about these anyway? In our town PEG has been rather popular. Hard to nail down actual viewer ratings but we do get phone calls/email when something goes wrong. So someone is watching.
In addition to that the local library does a pretty brisk business with DVDs of various town and school board meetings.
/tom |
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marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
| reply to pnh102
said by pnh102 :As for public access channels, who really cares about these anyway? I'd rather have my cable provider spend my subscription money on getting more HD channels instead of wasting it on things that most people don't even watch. When we did our impact survey in Iowa City, 85% of cable subscribers watched PEG channels on a regular basis. HD penetration was less than 1/3 of that number.
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