New Comcast Commercial including Tornado fears

[gcutler]

Now Comcast is using the Tornados around the country as an excuse to get rid of DBS. In Atlanta I heard a commercial saying that since you can't get your own weather channel (true) or your locals (not true for many) you can't get the Tornado warnings if you are a DBS subscriber (Relying on TV warnings is not so wise, since I'm on the west side of Atlanta I usually get the TV warning after it has passed me, and what about Weather Radios or the local firehouse blasting off their warning alarm, much more effective than TV).

The commerical also said that they have added emergency crews to convert DBS people to Comcast as soon as possible, before the storms occur again (chances are that those who still have standing structures, their DBS system is probably working sooner than cable in the hard hit areas. Talk about playing on peoples fears, is this just marketing or taking advantage of people fears???

[normang]

What happens to those that don't subscribe to cable or DBS, don't have a TV, live where cable isn't.. Guess according to Comcast, they're all going to die..

[Guest]

What happens when the tornado tears up all the utility lines?

[Lee L]

What happens if you are watching one of the 97% of channels that are not your local stations when the warning comes? Does Comcast break in on say HGTV or BBC America to run a tornado warning on their customer's feeds?

[Rick_EE]

I don't have Comcast in this area. What should I do? I am in near panic.

[music_beans]

If you have DBS, get your local channels if you qualify for them. Cable is no good anyway, with the rising rates and monthly fees.

[RichW]

This is really a low blow by Comcast - playing upon fear to get business and then compounding it with half-truths.

[gcutler]

I have a friend who's wife has fallen for all the Comcast lies and still I have managed to convince her that DBS will be a benefit. Now once his wife hears this commercial, she will become immovable on the subject (I actually suspect that she is afraid more channels = more reason for him to ignore her) :D

[Mark Holtz]

I would have to search the FCC web site for EAS procedures, but yes, the cable companies can break into cable programming for a EAS announcement.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Z'Loth
I would have to search the FCC web site for EAS procedures, but yes, the cable companies can break into cable programming for a EAS announcement.

But they will never do it. I've been in some bad weather when I had cable, where the local channels are all on special reports, but the non locals were never interrupted.

[Richssat]

I called Comcast, they said they don't service my area. I am now hiding in the basement, cowering in fear. I don't want to die!!

That is such a lame selling point......

Funny thing is that reliability is one of the good things about DBS out here in Ca. If there is an earthquake or any other disaster (natural or manmade) and you have DBS then as long as you have a power source and your dish didn't fall off the house you will have TV.

The "big one" will probably take all the local TV nets off the air as well as knock all the cable tv providers out. With a dish and power you will be able to get at least some information from a national source.

Worst case scenario.... You have to evacuate. I have a travel trailer w/D* dish attached. I can get information about what is going on any place in the country (and even in Mexico). Try doing that with cable....HA!!

RR

[Mark Holtz]

Bingo. http://www.fcc.gov/eb/eas/ has the handbooks for AM/FM, TV, and Cable in PDF format. Pretty interest stuff, actually. Under the EAS procedures, an emergency address by the President/Commander-In-Chief overrides all other EAS messages and must be carried live. (In the history of EAS/EBS, this has never happened.)

[Richard King]

This is really a low blow by Comcast - playing upon fearMust be a bunch of Democrats. :D

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Z'Loth
Bingo. http://www.fcc.gov/eb/eas/ has the handbooks for AM/FM, TV, and Cable in PDF format. Pretty interest stuff, actually. Under the EAS procedures, an emergency address by the President/Commander-In-Chief overrides all other EAS messages and must be carried live. (In the history of EAS/EBS, this has never happened.)

Wait, Didn't President Morgan Freeman break in to all channels when we launched the failed missle attack on Wolf-Biedimeir Comet right before it hit the Atlantic and Wiped out the East Coast??? And then again when when Bruce Willis and crew blew up that "Planet Killer" a few years ago.

[waydwolf]

Originally posted by music_beans
If you have DBS, get your local channels if you qualify for them. Cable is no good anyway, with the rising rates and monthly fees.

    One of the largest causes of rate increases is piracy and as an auditor for a cable company among other things, I can tell you some cities have a 25% piracy rate. The cable companies and their content providers know it, and when they realize they're losing $40 million to theft or some such number, they immediately think, "we need to make up for that by spreading the loss to paying customers with rate increases.

   Now then, with the current even more insane levels of DBS piracy, between 1 and 3 of every 4 dishes being connected to an unauthorized and non-paying user depending on who you ask, how long do you think that DirecTV and Dish Network can continue low-balling with their rates before they have zero choice but to enact further rate increases?

    Combine this with the other blurb about networks being willing to cede sports to the specialty sports networks and Yes being able to withstand jawboning and get their way until the final minute with Cablevision, and ESPN simply tossing down rate hikes to be passed to everyone as if they were tax increases from congress, and how long do you think they can keep low-balling with their rates?

    Combine this with the cost of constantly changing receivers, the unattractive need to purchase those receivers, customers who cannot have DBS thanks to having no line of sight while the cable company strings a line to them in ten minutes, the cost of building and launching satellites, and the eventual need to scrap their present switching systems to account for increasing satellites just to get as much bandwidth as cable can presently take for granted without using switching, and how long do you think they can keep low-balling with their rates?

    Do you think that a major giga-corporation like Hughes would ditch DirecTV to Murdoch if they had rosy glasses on and dollars dancing in front of their eyes?

    DBS is in for rought weather. Bank on it. Meanwhile, I'm going to be enjoying transferring some of my former DBS customers back to cable as they quit in disgust for high speed data that Direcway can't give them, for HD locals that DBS will carry around the same time we hold the Winter Olympics in Hell, and for high speed interactive video on demand that gives them eventually several hundred titles more easily than a quick trip to Blockbuster.

    I do so wish they'd finally grasp what XM and Sirius have about digital music on cable(you can't take a coax drop with you), but I've stopped holding my breath. By the time they agressively target the budding automotive video entertainment market, Cablevision's Rainbow will probably own it.

 

 

[Mark Holtz]

No matter what the pricing scheme is, there will always be people who will try to get it for free.

Having said that, I think that a contributing factor to piracy is the the general public is apathetic to the problem. I think that everyone has a complaint about the cable company pricing is too high, or that a channel that a friend has in a neighboring community isn't carried on their cable system. Thus, stealing cable is just a way of sticking it to "da man". I wonder if the merger of Comcast and AT&T, which was followed by a rate hike, will even cause more of a piracy problem.

Meanwhile, Dish Network has posted another profitable quarter.

[zztzed]

Winter Olympics in Hell? Would that be Hell, Norway (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Norway) or Hell, MI (http://www.hell2u.com/)?

:D

[razorbackfan]

In the past week or so with the gazillion tornadoes and severe storms in my area, my cable has gone out a bunch of times while by E* didn't go out once, and not even rain fade.

[RAD]

When I used to have AT&T cable they did have a feature where they could break into the audio on all their channels to announce a tornado warning. Only heard it used once.

[Cyclone]

Comcast was pretty bad around here during the Sniper Shooting. They had a comerical where this guy was trying to put up a DBS dish on his roof. Then the screen changed to gun crosshairs zeroing in on his head.

Then it cut away and said "be safe inside, get comcast digital cable"... blah blah blah. Truely lame.

[Mark Holtz]

The more I think about it, the more I think that the commercial will get Comcast into legal trouble. Why? Because the commercial implies that you would be able to depend on cable plant and infrastructure to keep running during severe weather conditions. This is, of course, false.

Take a look at your cell phone manuals. They have language in there saying (and I'm paraphrasing here) that "cell phones are not intended for Emergency use." In other words, while the cell phone manufacturers know that some people get cell phones for emergency use (like a breakdown on the road), don't rely solely on the cell phone system.

Quite frankly, I would get a consumer grade weather radio that can receive EAS transmissions if I was living in a area with volitle conditions. But, in California, while earthquakes are a major worry, there is no way to reliably predict when they will occur, while in the midwest and such, we have some idea of severe weather occurring by the weather forecasts.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Cyclone
Comcast was pretty bad around here during the Sniper Shooting. They had a comerical where this guy was trying to put up a DBS dish on his roof. Then the screen changed to gun crosshairs zeroing in on his head.

Then it cut away and said "be safe inside, get comcast digital cable"... blah blah blah. Truely lame.

Geeze, that is pretty bad. Talk about desperate...

[pez2002]

Originally posted by Cyclone
Comcast was pretty bad around here during the Sniper Shooting. They had a comerical where this guy was trying to put up a DBS dish on his roof. Then the screen changed to gun crosshairs zeroing in on his head.

Then it cut away and said "be safe inside, get comcast digital cable"... blah blah blah. Truely lame.


Did they fet in trouble for that ????:mad:

[catman]

I have DSL . Wisconsin had severe weather this year . I was watching the radar on my computer . I use to do tornadoe photo work . so I know what a tornadoe can do . they can come from no whare . that was seen this year . portage had pink over it . by the time it moved 10 miles a tornadoe formed .

[toad57]

Get the DBS folkes, take the money you save and get a decent weather radio with SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) and put in your county code(s). That way you don't have to stay up all night watching your cable TV and praying that the cable will not go out and that you will DIE as a result! :lol:

Make sure your SAME radio will alert on single or multi county codes- I leave my radio on 'multi' while I am awake (get warnings for my county and nearby counties) and I put it on 'single' (my county only) when I go to bed. Will only get alert if watch or warning is for my county.

Rat Shack has them, a bunch of other companies make them: See list at http://www.weatherradiostore.com/ (I am not saying BUY them from that site, but they do have a list of various manufacturers/models).

I have a Midland WR30 that Sam's Club was selling for $22.95 last fall and it has worked 100% for me.

[toad57]

duplicate post deleted

[scooper]

SAME weather radio and OTA TV will do wonderful when it gets THAT bad :D !!!