I have a certain place in my heart for satellite tv.

If Comcast can use IPTV to add missing HD and up the bit rates then directv may be in for some hurt even more so if they stop being the only place for NFL ticket.

But now comcast is still behind in some areas from directv.

 

Pity you weren't around when it all started. Then you would have something really nostalgic to remember.

 

Ten years from now they'll still be around. After that, time will tell.

 

Until high speed internet is available across the country there will still be a market for satellite TV. Of course, that market is shrinking. My prediction is that Dish and DirecTV will have to merge at some point just like Sirius and XM Satellite Radio did. Expect satellite TV prices to rise as the market shrinks.

 

DISH's losses are perhaps 1/3rd of DIRECTVs losses of late (Q3 numbers for DIRECTV were 590,000 net lost and DISH hasn't announced their Q3 results yet but Q2 was a loss of 40,000) so the two may be coming to parity soon.

Of course if AT&T follows through on their reported plans to "monetize" (read: unload) DIRECTV, things could change even more rapidly on that side of the aisle.

 

Around here, when I had cable, that wasn’t the norm. If it went out it generally wasn’t even for a full day.

 

And we had it happen here when 100mph+ winds went through. Doesn’t change the fact that outside of some anomalies, cable does a pretty good job of fixing and staying up. I quit cable over money, nothing else. The service was good.

 

The quality of cable service from the same provider isn't the same across the board. I live in a very rural area and receive my internet service from SPECTRUM. We suffer more issues and outages than our counterparts who live in metropolitan areas. On top of that we don't have access to packages and services offered to their customers in the metropolitan areas.

 

My favorite is still C-Band. But yes, the first few years of D* were the best. Doing a self install and getting all those channels and sports in one place was exciting.

 

Yes it was kit, which included the dish and one receiver, I think you had to pay extra for the installation kit, which included mounting bolts, cables, grounding wire, instructions, VHS installation tape (I still have mine).

Many different places sold them, including Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, Walmart, etc.

Good times.

 

Installation video from 1998.

 

Agreed there are many people in rual areas where DirecTV and Hughes is their only option for tv and broadband.



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There has always been DISH and more recently Orby for TV that offer satellite TV service. Viasat is a satellite broadband option. There are also microwave options for broadband in some areas.

I wonder how many choose to bemoan their situation where just a little learning might open many doors.