Have you seen what the cable companies have been up to lately?

[Mr Peabody]

Cable equipment becoming standardized amongst the providers?
Forget the cable card, TV's with built in cable box equivalent.
Notice what FIOS TV is. How long will this take to get in place and will it be approved?
Will we be able to get our cable channels A La Carte?
Wider bandwidth and faster internet, right around the corner? What will this mean?

It really looks like cable companies and phone companies are evolving into one and the same new forms of mega providers.

Here you go, let's hear your take.

http://apnews.myway.com:80/article/20080516/D90MVOJO1.html

[pixelthis]

Wave of the future.
And their marching soilders, basic cable channels are doing okay also.
The strike really hurt the networks, now more are watching cable channels than networks.
And with phone, net, etc, cable is in the catbird seat.
our cable has unlimited long distance on their internet phone service, something like 20 bucks a month.
Sat's big problem is that they have never been able to figure out a way to deliver internet,
with 10 million customers how will you have teh bandwidth to give each an internet feed?
So people take a look and go cable, which is seen as a one stop source.
I like my buddys direct TV, but the DVR is clunky, theres a dish on the roof, theres no phone, etc. And you want the net?
Expensive DSL (which it is in spite of what they tell ya) or 45 bucks for cable modems,
might as well just get cable and net all in one place.SAVES A LOT OF HASSEL.
My DVR works fine, my cable modem is fantastic, and theres plenty of choices on the VOD, with more and more "day and date" releases with DVD.
Do Direct tv's HD channels look enticing? yep.
But not worth the trouble , really.
I HAVE HAD THREE or four sat systems, installed each, and they were great, especially Dish, but as I get older I find that they just arent worth the trouble, mostly.:1:

[Mr Peabody]

I couldn't go back to cable unless some one bought out Charter and operated the company much better. Charter is one of the worse ran companies in the world. I'm surprised to see bundling working that well and I have to wonder if it is still holding it's own since this article. Most companies are too incompetent to handle more than one service. Charter's billing was so bad the BBB had a warning out on the company. I am willing to bet that you and most on this forum has had to call a cable, satelite, internet or phone company over a screwed up bill at least once in the past year if not the last 6 months. They can't even handle their specials going on and off, let alone a bundle package. People have come to expect their home entertainment but just think of how much stress would be relieved if we could just turn off all this crap and what we might be able to get done around the house.

[pixelthis]

One word is key... competition.
Charter is in the county where I live, and is pretty bad.
COMCAST used to not be much better.
but now its sat, and charter in some places, and my local Comcast seems to be doing much better.
One help is fiber optic, its a lot more reliable and the bandwidth allows for a lot more services. Just don't know how sat will compete.
MAIN thing is it easy. I tweak things, run better cable in the house, etc, but for most
its just hook up and go, and everything is right there.
Phone, tv, net, DVR,only problem is its expensive.
But man, I do love it:1:

[Mr Peabody]

That FIOS looked interesting, that would bring fiber optic right to the house. That should yield some nice results.

[pixelthis]

That FIOS looked interesting, that would bring fiber optic right to the house. That should yield some nice results.
What a master of understatement.
Thats like saying that a nuke reactor is WARM.
It will double download speed, at least.
the future is fiber optic, and it will take awhile for FOTTH (fiber optic to the house)
to really grow, but my bet is that it will really take off once you hit a certain level
of growth.
Of course you need it to the pole first.
BUT nothing else has the bandwidth, unless you want to cook the next gen with microwaves.
eventually there will be one pipe for everything, its getting that way already.
I used to listen to a radio, surf the web, watch some tv set to mute.
Now I listen to coast from SAN FRAN on net streaming, surf the web on
my tv, and watch video also.
Soon it will all be indistingushable , all from one pipe:1: