Saturday, May 7, 2011

Dish Network vs. Cable - Who's the Best?

By Ryan Steele


When looking for the best TV service provider, you may need to decide between Dish vs cable TV television. In tight economic times, you may be on a budget, and entertainment can sometimes take a back seat. This is why television is becoming more important, as it is cheap entertainment. However, it can sometimes be hard to choose between cable (CATV) services or that of a satellite provider. Here is information to help you decide.

CATV Options

Your CATV service is in your neighborhood and easily accessible. If you have problems, you can call them or go down there and talk to someone. You also can save money when you combine services like land line telephone and high speed Internet. However, you may have to sign up for a one year commitment. It also is very convenient to pay for these things with one payment each month.

You will get a very good selection of channels with a local CATV service. Many of these systems provide news and sports channels for their subscribers only. They also may have a local weather channel. For an additional charge, you can upgrade to digital service.

CATV systems provide a lot of forms of entertainment with pay per view movies and sporting events. You also can receive television shows and movies on demand. On demand means that you can start the show, and stop it, whenever you need to. You can also pay for digital video recorder (DVR) service to record programs for later viewing.

Satellite Service

Many satellite television services are dropping their prices to become more competitive. Often times, you can get programming that is similar to CATV for much cheaper prices. You also may be able to have the system installed free of charge. There are usually special offers that can provide services like premium movies and DVR service for no additional charge. However, this usually involves a one year commitment. When it comes to available channels, both CATV and satellite have a lot of selections.

Satellite TV providers have a lot of competition between services, and this helps to keep customer service high and the prices down. Your local CATV system may be the only game in town, so you may not get many special offers with low prices. When you have little competition, prices may not drop, and service may not improve much.

If you subscribe to satellite service, you may sometimes lose the signal in times of inclement weather. This is especially true in times of heavy rains. When this happens while you are watching television, it can be a frustrating experience. CATV systems rarely have weather related issues, but they can also have downtime, if there is maintenance or problems with the lines.

Summary

If you cannot decide between you local CATV or cable company and a satellite service, satellite may be the cheapest option. However, you may lose service during bad weather with satellite. Both services give you plenty of channels to view and both will have special deals from time to time. It may depend on where you live, and what your budget is, when looking at dish vs. Cable service.




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