[mythtv-users] Comcast bricked me above 33 so I bricked Comcast with my wallet

Simon Hobson linux at thehobsons.co.uk
Sun May 9 09:34:12 UTC 2010


Ben Kamen wrote:
>Ultimately, it comes to this:
>
>What if we all just canceled cable for a a couple of months.
>
>Everyone.
>Really.

Well i suspect that if everyone using Myth dumped them on the same 
day ... it wouldn't even show as a blip on their churn rates, let 
alone balance sheet.

You are faced with a situation where 90% of their 'customers' haven't 
a clue, 9% have some clue but don't care, 0.99% care but not enough 
to do anything, and then that leaves the 0.01% that would do it.

OK, so made up figures, got any better guesses ?

We're lucky over here in the UK that we have some pretty good public 
broadcasting. We get a lot of complaining about our TV licencing fee 
which goes to the BBC*, but it does mean we get some pretty good 
programming that doesn't have to be sold on the basis of "how much ad 
revenue will this get ?"

* Mostly to the BBC, some also goes to Channel Four which whilst 
commercial (with adverts) does have some public subsidy for certain 
types of programming.

We keep getting calls from people to scrap the TV licence. All I can 
say is that those calling for this are severely misguided if they 
think the US model is better.

Sky is still doing very well over here. The vast majority of people 
still paying them money don't realise they could ditch their Sky and 
get a freesat receiver - and still get enough good programming to 
keep them happy. The mass revolt isn't going to happen, not for a 
long time. The best we can hope for is that enough people slowly 
decide to tighten their wallets, and Sky are forced to be more 
competitive - but so far, all the evidence points to "competitive" == 
"buy up more 'key stuff'". Ie they go out and buy exclusive rights to 
enough sports events (for example) that anyone keen on sports is more 
or less forced to pay Sky to watch the events.

If enough people said no, then the event promoters wouldn't play ball 
- but money talks, top level football (for example) is awash with 
cash (and overpaid prima-donnas), and idiots still pay Sky to keep it 
going.

-- 
Simon Hobson

Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
Christmas stocking fillers. Some available as e-books.


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