Comcast Dispute Nearing End??? THEY"RE GOING DOWN!!!

What did they win? Some extra time to prolong their death? Their monthly cancellation rate is up to 1.7% from 1.4% last year.

Unless something unexpected happens - I just think they will continue to circle the drain.

The big difference, however, is that the cable companies have the customers and the infrastructure to deliver the content (agreements with the channels, billing etc...). As long as they are competitive with the other service providers - they have a good chance of winning the battle simply because they have the power of "momentum" behind them. People do not like to make changes if there are no drastic differences in service.

Smart companies adapt to technological changes. At the moment, the cable companies have a distinct advantage in some areas (not TV service, but internet services are much faster and robust over FIOS than over wireless means, for example) - so they are right to retain their already built infrastructure. When the technology renders the advantages moot - I am sure they will be smart enough to make the change.

 

Great news! I'd like to see someone interview an "expert" on all this and see how this will effect the CSN/Dish situation.

 

Fucking socialist bullshit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Tell 'em to give me a call!

 

Now if we could only get them to do the reverse.

Stop showing the Seahawks in Portland.

 

That's stupid. Comcast should be able to retain those rights because DirectTV and Dish wanted nothing to do with the TrailBlazers when everyone in Portland still hated the team and there were 8,000 fans showing up every night at the games.

If the FCC is going to stick their noses in where it doesn't belong, then they should make their noses completely brown and stick it all the way in and make all Sports Franchises available to all companies.

Portland gets screwed with the NFL because they are force fed the crappy Seahawks every week of every year whether you like it or not, unless you get DirectTV. Make it completely fair or don't do anything at all (which they shouldn't be doing in the first place). Comcast's contract will end soon with the Blazers and then it will open to renegotiate among Portland and all cable companies after that.

This has Obama and his socialism crap written all over it.

 

Actually... on second thought this doesn't change anything with the Blazers. Comcast is already offering the channel. I don't see that this changes anything.

There was somewhere where the channel *wasn't* being offered.

 

Once again you don't get it. With Wireless, you don't have to build much infrastructure. That's the whole point of having it be wireless. Look how quick Clear rolled out, from concept to being online. It was fast. That is all because you don't have to build the infrastructure at the level the other companies do. The main point being, as long as we have more competition, everybody gets a cheaper better product in the end.

Now as for your Tivo stats, what do they have to do with this? As I said before, Tivo isn't a good comparison for this market. Tivo is a gadget. We are talking about supplying bandwidth. Bandwidth is a commodity. You don't compare a commodity to a electronic device for market decisions.

 

I think you do not get the idea that I call infrastructure more than the mechanism to deliver the content. It is the agreements with the content providers, it is the software to handle on-demand content and limit customers to the content they purchased, it is the billing in the place.

The big cable companies will have to stay on their toes - that's true for every company in every field when a big technological change happens - but, if they are good at what they do - and understand the technology and are not married to it because of "religious" reasons (NIH, in other words) - they are at a prime position to make the change quickly, cheaply and not lose any ground.

Tivo is a service, not a gadget. There are many different types of gadgets Tivo sold over it's existence, but the unifying part of it - was the service - the ability to record shows quickly, easily and see them when you want as you wish. It's a service, which is exactly what the cable companies provide - they provide a service of communication and entertainment. The way this service gets to your consumption is nothing more than a technical detail. This is the entire point of the argument.