Cable Companies Forced to Compete! Dogs Sleep With Cats!

I'd love to see the new rule, largely because my building all has Dish Network, and I'm not that impressed.

As for other innovations - anyone thinking about "a la carte" cable packaging, at least on some level? I mean, I KNOW I don't need a bunch of the channels I currently receive...a cable company that allowed a la carte pricing in some sense (i.e. grouping channels roughly by topic - sports, home improvement, news, science, etc. - or else true a la carte pricing) and thus allow customers to pay for the channels they watch only would immediately jump to the top of my list...

Well, here in Houston, Comcast just baught out Time-Warner and as thier first order of business promptly raised the rates. As an odd aside, my brother lives in Dallas, and Time-Warner has just baught out Comcast there.

Is this really true competition - I think not.

I would also like the chance to pay for and watch only those stations I care about.

Stations I can entirely do without:
Music stations (MTV, Country music stations)
All shopping channels
Spanish channels - no hablo espaniol
Weather channels - who cares what the weather is on the other side of the county?
Religious stations - unless I get to see those con artists get struck by lightening

Why should I pay for channels I never, never watch??? Why can't I pay $20/month and get just the channels I want instead of paying $60+ and never watching even half of the choices?

The problem is that, in most instances, it was the cable companies themselves that created (and now maintain) the infrastructure that provides cable services.

IMHO cable companies should be split up, with the company that provides the actual cable access run as a not-for-profit public utility -- and a "free market" among content/service providers.

(the other thing that needs to be done ASAP is ala carte station options. I'm paying for a load of stations that I never watch because everything is "packaged" and every package includes stuff I don't want.)

You're right to be wary of Time Warner "improvements." After misdiagnosing a problem with my HD DVR, I swapped for a new box which, I unhappily learned, was loaded with a different software program (Passport good, Navigator very very bad). TW nearly lost the franchise in Lincoln, Nebraska, after they foisted the Navigator disaster on the subscribers. And if they hadn't been able to swap me back to a Passport box, they would have lost me to RCN.

Why should I pay for channels I never, never watch???

just as an aside, most of the channels you list are provided "free" --- basically, the channel itself pays to have access to your home. (Spanish channels an the weather channel -- which I'm a big fan of -- do charge per subscriber.)

Stuff I could do without that I know I'm paying for:

1) Sports channels (ESPN has the highest per subscriber cost of any basic cable network, IIRC)
2) Kids programming
3) Spanish channels
4) Most news channels (it p@sses me off that I'm paying for Faux News. And I never watch any of the business channels, or "Headline News".)
5) Most of the "documentary/non-fiction" channels, like Discovery, History, TLC, CourtTV, etc)
6) All the "just music" stations -- basically its cable radio, and it makes no sense to listen to the radio on your TV.

The New Jersey legislature changed a law that cable companies had to negotiate with individual municipalities for the right to provide cable service. (The issue was a bit more complicated than that, but it's also even morequite boring.) The result? Verizon! Now I have a choice between Comcast and Verizon, and I switched to Verizon as soon as the wires were run just to prove a point. The service isn't much better, though.

@p_l Whats left? G4, Com central, and the sci-fi channel?
Unless there are some channels you get that i don't or I'm forgetting about some, it seems to me that you could just stick to broadcast tv.

Also i like those just music channels, sometimes you feel like listening to the radio but not commercials. Honestly the regular radio has about a 1:1 ratio of music mins to commercial mins. The just music stations play just that music and no commercials. I wouldn't pay more for them but i like that they're there.

I've lived without cable for going on 10 years now after TimeWarner pulled one too many no-shows to install service in my then-new apartment. I have to get my fix through tv-to-DVD and iTunes.

IF cable would create an ala carte price program I'd happily rejoin the cable nation. But I'm not paying $60/month for 35 channels when all I want is 10.

Here in NZ, we don't have cable, and only one satellite company, so the following is probably pretty useless information. That said, Sky TV, which is the satellite, has a base rate which includes all the news, weather, kiddy, documentary, and two channels which have mostly old series of shows; then you can add a sports package with all the sports channels, a movie package, a radio package, an arts channel or an arthouse movie channel, plus a wide range of channels in Asian languages.
So my family doesn't have the sports - why bother - and we just have the base package and the movies. Works great! And costs 65 dollars NZ, which is about 40-50 dollars US a month. (Maths was never my strong point!)

A bit of a random comment:

I don't know about tax auditors and journalists, but there is actually a ridiculous amount of competition amongst lawyers. Harvard grads do very well, but if you're not graduating from the top ten law schools, your life is going to be a little rough, or a lot rough. That simpsons episode where Marge sued the sugar companies, and the lawyers were swarming to be hired by her. "Pick me, pick me, me so litigious!" (lol.) That's based on some reality. While it's not as bad as Lisa said, that there's one attorney for every 2.1 Americans, there's a severe oversupply.

If any one of you out there is considering law school, please choose carefully. There's a large chance you'll wind up losing money.

No fooling! I live in Manhattan, NYC and that means that I have only 2 choices. watch DVDs only or pay the huge fees TWC wants. I can NOT get OTA (not atypical in a city filled with tall buildings) nor can I get satellite (again, tall buildings blocking line of sight to a bird and/or landlord's refusal to allow dishes to be mounted).

One of the hallmarks of a true monopoly involves a measure of economic harm. Get this... one section of my city has a lot of Verizon fiber already run. The franchising agency apparently is so in TWC's pocket that it is being reported the city is having secret negotiations with Verizon for the necessary "franchise agreement."

So in this one neighborhood, TWC gives 6 additional; HD channels, PLUS offers a 10% discount. So essentially, I pay MORE for LESS. And there seems to be NOTHING I can do about that!

Oh, in ALL of 2007 so far, they have added a net of exactly 2 HD channels. TWO.

I am tormented by Comcast Cable...... When I moved into my apartment complex I signed a contract with Adelphia, not a bad company. Only cable I could get but livable. Then Comcast took over,,, is anyone going to investigate these cable rapists..... wow, to have a choice over cable companies would be a miracle!! Please, have mercy,, there are many elderly who dont want to make waves yet are suffering, and others that do not know how to change this.

Please hear our voice.... This is truly frustrating and finacially disappointing.

An advocate for what is right,

Melissa