[CBFF] Article: NFL and Direct TV

[Jim Ferolie]

I just spent an inordinate amount of time breaking down the options (because 
I'm really irritated with this NFL Network deal going on here and the 
temporary unavailability of DVR) and found that satellite is not cheaper 
than cable here. In Macomb it was almost identical, as well, and in 
Davenport satellite was more expensive (both companies), even right after 
Mediacom raised its rates (that being the reason I called).

It's not exactly apples to apples. With three TVs and HBO but no DVR, cable 
is cheaper here by a couple of bucks and includes Cinemax (not that I really 
care). Satellite includes a few more stupid channels that I don't care 
about, either, though the option of Fox Sports Arizona ($12 a month for 
sports pack) really appeals to me. With DVR the cable gets more expensive. 
With cable modem obviously you save by having cable TV.

As far as his cost analysis, he was talking about total, as in the whole 
four months. Does it really matter how payments are structured?

That leaves a serious question here:
I know little about how the service is with satellite, but my wife says her 
mother's Dish Network and dad's DirecTV both have problems with storms, even 
just heavy rains or snows sometimes. How true is this? Under my three 
different cable companies I can remember about three outages over the past 
three years, the longest being about four hours (though it did cause some 
major problems as it was during American Idol).


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kenny Claxton" <kenny.claxton at gmail.com>


> Satellite is generally cheaper than cable and more reliable. He also
> took the most expensive oiption of the NFL Ticket and failed to
> mention that payments are broken up into 4. 15 million subscibers is
> nothing to sneeze at.
>
> Kenny
>
> On 8/22/06, Ryan Dietzenbach <ryandietzenbach at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I think he's a little off.  I'm not a DirectTV guy (DISH subscriber
>> here) but the dish services are generally no more expensive (if not
>> cheaper) than digital cable.  Furthermore, they can mount it on
>> basically any house or in a yard.
>>
>> Ryan