Time Warner to Replace NECN with Al Jazeera

[P-3 Guy]

Originally Posted by TheProfessor

Well, be surprised.

The town signs a contract with the cable company.
Whatever cable company your town has - all was approved by the selectboard.
Your elected officials
And your selectmen sign a contract - usually for 10 or 15 years.
Might be a good idea to contact your selectmen.
Might be a good idea to attend selectmen meetings when contract comes up again for a vote.
Whatever you got your elected local officials approved of it.

A few cities and towns across the country own the local cable system.
But most frown upon this - as being socialism.

Yup, but in all likelihood the contract says that the cable company has exclusive rights to decide what programming to offer. If you want to complain to your selectboard at the time for contract renewal that the programming sucks and they should look to a different company that might offer "better" programming, good luck with that. As has been mentioned upthread, the cable company owns all the infrastructure. A different company coming in would either have to duplicate all that infrastructure (way too expensive in all but the biggest markets) or buy the other company out and take over its operations.

Really, if you don't like the programming offered by the cable company, the best option is to vote with your wallet and drop the service. With satellite services and the proliferation of internet options, it's getting easier and easier to get what cable TV offers through another provider, and usually at a lower cost.

[PaugusBayFireFighter]

I'd be surprised if anybody is using "cable" anymore to watch television in the very near future. Technology is moving so fast that it seems crazy to think anything we are doing, technology wise, will not be obsolete in 5 years. Amazon, Google and Apple all have "set-top" boxes that stream movies and television. A few years ago I had to wait in long lines at Blockbuster and other video stores to rent movies. Those stores are long gone and it only took a few years for it to happen because of online movie streaming and on demand technology.

Singularity is near. It's both exciting and scary.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...57967247,d.cWc

[BroadHopper]

Originally Posted by TMI Guy

Really, if you don't like the programming offered by the cable company, the best option is to vote with your wallet and drop the service. With satellite services and the proliferation of internet options, it's getting easier and easier to get what cable TV offers through another provider, and usually at a lower cost.

Around the Lakes Region area I am noticing more and more satellites disks. It is a known fact that the cable companies subscriber base is getting smaller and smaller as consumers switch to satellite or streaming of their favorite movies and programs. The WSJ wrote an article that soon cable TV will go the way of the dinosaur and cable and fiber optics will be used for internet. So expect to see internet subscriptions going up.

4G LTE will be competing with the internet providers but 4G do not have the bandwidth to take over the cable/fiber optics guys.

I refuse to rent or purchase a cable box and I do get most of the extended basic channels, despite Metrocast saying I won't get them without a box. Lately I was able to stream to my TV from the laptop previously shown programs without a recorder. A matter of fact I watch the news at my convenience on my laptop! Soon I won't need cable TV.

[Lakegeezer]

I'm concerned that as the cable companies lose their media fees, they will start charging for traffic volume, much like the cellular internet providers do today. How would you like a 2 gigabyte cap on your cable or DSL line, and $10/gig over that? My average downloaded traffic is already about 1 gigabyte per day, and still use the regular cable channels to source over over half of my TV viewing. The cable and telephone companies own the infrastructure and there is little to deregulate. They have us over a barrel. We'll be lucky if we can keep network neutrality as more cut their TV cable. The only thing holding me back from cutting the cord, is live access to the Patriots games. That is an expensive hobby.