Tag: Cablevision

Hey James, Nice Neck Fat

March 7, 2010

Movies/Television, Rants

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Does this look like the face of a man who refuses to allow a BROADCAST network on his cable system?

Why don’t you go use the 200 million that Cablevision is saving by not negotiating an agreement with WABC 7 and go get some liposuction. Thank goodness I have FiOS. I could actually care less about WABC 7 – there’s nothing on there that I watch. It’s just the principle. 1) TV is way too expensive. 2) Dolan is a greedy bastard and 3)People need to start using the internet to watch shows, because this is out of control. If this keeps up, every channel will be a-la-carte. Any network can threaten a cable operator for more money and if no deal is reached, pull their channel. Just to clarify – ABC actually pulled the channel. Yes they’re asking for more money, and usually, the costs are passed to the person. I kind of see Dolan’s point trying to keep prices low, but you can’t go screwing your customers out of channels – especially when your company makes BANK. 200 million is nothing when your profits are over $8 billion.

P.S – I still don’t forgive you for making me miss the 2002 Yankee season, asshat.

Even More Cablevision Stupidity

March 4, 2010

Movies/Television

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Here we go again… Take 3… As of March 7th, Cablevision may no longer carry WABC 7. It’s the usual “we aren’t getting enough royalties” vs “we don’t want to pay you more and increase our customers’ bills” argument. Newsflash, idiots at Cablevision: It’s a broadcast channel! You can get it free over the air with a digital receiver. How are you dropping free content from your cable system? Are we that low?

Historically, this happened with the YES network in 2002, Food Network & HGTV in January 2010 and now this in March? This happened with Time Warner and Fox, but an agreement was reached.

What does this mean for consumers? It’s awful. This is setting a bad precedent. Pretty much, Cablevision will threaten to drop any network it does not want to pay more money to. It only hurts the consumers, because if other companies give in and pay more, the cost gets passed on. If Cablevision drops the channels, customers get angry. This is happening way too frequently, and networks will catch on and use this to force carriers to pay them more. I do see Cablevision’s point, but at the same time, they are just dumb.

At the rate everyone is increasing prices, cable TV will be $300 per month. I say ditch television and watch your shows online.

Cablevision at it again

January 2, 2010

Movies/Television

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Good job morons. You just don’t get it. At the rate you guys drop networks, you won’t be carrying anything soon. Food Network and HGTV were dropped because Cablevision refused to pay a slightly increased per-subscriber fee to Scripps Networks Interactive (the parent company). I mean, not that I care or watch these channels, but the point is that this stupid cheap ass company always loves to piss off subscribers. It goes way back to 2002 with the YES Network.

I mean seriously – get FiOS already (if available) – it’s far superior. FiOS gives you something like 200 more channels. Those channels are completely uncompressed and look stunning. Their guide actually works snappily and doesn’t take 2 minutes to load. Cablevision likes to compress the signal because their tubes can’t hold as much bandwidth – meaning that their digital picture looks blocky. Even their HD looks gross. Don’t even get me started on internets. FiOS gives you faster upload speeds than Optimum Online and matching (or better) download speeds. Oh and it sucks if you live in Fairfield County Connecticut, because Cablevision is the best available carrier. AT&T and U-Verse are garbage.

Cablevision’s Deceptive Practices

July 16, 2009

Useless Update

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Cablevision is a sneaky, deceptive company and practices dirty tactics that are unfair to competitors. They have monopolistic tendencies and downright lie to consumers about everything.

Please explain to me how this is fair: Cablevision owns the Rangers, their arena (Madison Square Garden), and their TV channel. At first, they refused to gice Verizon the rights to these channels until the FCC forced them to do so. Cablevision then proceeded to deny HD channel access in order to form a competitive advantage in its markets. Verizon filed another FCC complaint regarding this matter which (at the time of this writing) is pending.

As a result, they can go around advertising that it is the only company that provides all NY sports teams in HD. Cablevision’s ad doesn’t state that they are the reason they are the only company that carries, due to the sports monopoly they hold.

Remember the 2002 fiasco with the YES network? If not, the Yankees formed their own TV network after their MSG (owned by Cablevision) contract expired. Cablevision refused to carry YES on their system because they were sour over losing the Yankees and were too cheap to pay royalties to YES for access to their content. The result? An entire season was blacked out on Cablevision. At the start of the second season of no deal, after arbitration Cablevision did carry YES, but sold it as a premium channel.

Next: MSNBC. MSNBC and Cablevision signed a secret agreement stating that MSNBC can only be carried on Cablevision in areas where other TV providers exist. No one knows the terms of the agreement, or when it expires. How is that legal? And what blockhead at MSNBC would sign that? All it does is limit your viewers and make you lose advertising revenue. Take Verizon FiOS for example. They carry MSNBC by default, but cannot put it on the system in areas where Cablevision is the primary cable provider.

The Connecticut Attorney General has asked the FCC to look into an exclusive programming deal between Cablevision and MSNBC, stating that this is anti-competitive and unfair, in particular to AT&T’s U-verse.

So Cablevision has two pending FCC investigations, because in short, their business practices are deceptive and manipulative. The company thinks it can do whatever it wants, but is pretty screwed.

Shameless plug: If Verizon FiOS is in your area, get it. It is beyond amazing.