[holymoly]

"This is an industry where there are strong incentives for all the players to compete on product differentiation rather than price,"

Does that explain why DirecTV has 8 or 10 shopping channels? ;)

[Investment Biker]

I have directv and they do have a lot of shopping channels. We are thinking of dropping all cable service because we just do not watch it that much. With HDTV on air I now receive an over on air broadcast a total of 21 channels over the local antenna. While I would miss having access to fox news and the sports channels the rest is really not worthwhile. My wife would bitch but she rarely watches Directv.

[longtermmemmory]

agreed.

Let the public drop the PC channels like MTV, Lifetime, and the new homosexual channel that is going to be foised upon the basic channels.

Some operators pay to be on the lineup others are paid to be there. It would be interesting to see a list of the two types broken down.

[oceanview]

those channels pay to be carried.

[bigsigh]

Isn't it time for these services and cable to let subscribers individually select channels as they like and put their viewing packages together?

[Gorzaloon]

The satellite companies themselves put the increases down to price of content and to the cost of adding new features to a monthly service.

Yes, content that nobody wants, just any excuse to fill billable bandwidth. You know, the Accordian Music Channel, the Darts Tournament Channel, the "I Love Lucy" channel, and, as you said, a number of shopping channels.

[AmericaUnited]

120 channels but almost nothing to watch! What's up with that?!

[Kerfuffle]

I assume they'll stop rinning those "pig" ads about cable price hikes now.

[yarddog]

We may drop Dish Network as soon as the increases hit. Only have the basic. I like around 5 different channels but like others have said, 90% of them are never watched, not even once. It does give an excellent picture tho.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Now, please?!

[cabojoe]

My pet peeve about DirecTV is their "Paid Advertisements" that start around 12am pst. We in effect pay them to watch something that someone else has paid them to broadcast. If the ads started at 3am pst I wouldn't care so much. /end rant

[fxrdeb]

I have C-Band (big dish) I can choose my own programming and the prices are a lot cheaper than the small dish.

[LoudRepublicangirl]

I pay about $62 per month for DirecTV and that includes the Starz package. I may drop Starz if things go up considerably.

[B Knotts]

I canceled my Dish Network service. For as little as there is worth watching on the various channels, it's just too expensive. Rates have gone up 25% or more in the last four years.

I have no complaint about Dish Network's service...it's the programmers that are the problem. Their quality keeps going down, while they charge Dish and DirecTV more.

For example, compare A&E of 10 years ago with today. It's pure rubbish now.

[10mm]

Forget them all. I cancelled my cable completely. Anything that's worth watching, I download via BitTorrent. Full HDTV quality with commercials ripped.

I've seen some excellent Canadian and British programming that is unavailable here except through BitTorrent.

Forget to record a show? No problem; download it via BitTorrent. The internet has become my Tivo.

[marajade]

No mention of VOOM? They have the best offering of HD programming among the three.

[rogers21774]

It's about time a cable or satelite company stepped up and offered channels a-la-cart. Let me pick and pay for the channels I want, and leave out the 80% of the other crapola channels I NEVER watch.