Warning: Cable TV May Be Limiting Your Options

Twenty-five years ago, Satellite TV was a game changer (no pun intended). Today, it has over 30 million customers in the United States alone. It’s also hugely popular in South America. You can get it whether you live in a town, city, or rural area. In fact, if you’re still watching cable TV, you may be limiting your options in two major ways: one, you have less channels, and two, your picture will not be as clear.

What Can You Do With More Channels?

If you love football, you can enjoy NFL Sunday Ticket on Direct TV, the only option that allows you to watch literally every game of the season. You can also benefit from features from Direct TV DVR. You can watch TV when you’re free opposed to watching a game when it’s scheduled at an inconvenient time. You can set your DVR even when you’re not at home through your phone or laptop. And you can even set it to record an entire season.

Cable television, by comparison, won’t let you see the games you want. You can also get your old favorites like ESPN or Disney Channel. You can even get international channels.

If you like the freedom to choose from a wide selection of channels, then you’ll think of Satellite TV as an upgrade. You simply have a lot more entertainment choices. Here is how an article by David Johnson, entitled “Advantages of Satellite TV, ” describes the choices available on Satellite TV: “The programming channel service provided by satellite TV companies is not even comparable to cable TV. For example, the most popular package includes more than 500 different programming channels. It’s not only the number of channels but the variety of programming provided by satellite TV is unmatched. The channels provided on your satellite TV covers almost all types of entertainment such as music, exclusive sports, movies, and religion.”

Why Picture Quality Is Sharper, Crisper

You don’t have to buy a new TV to improve picture quality. Simply switch to Satellite TV. With Satellite TV, you’re getting a direct transmission of signals. Cable network companies reroute programs through satellites and then feed these through their trunk lines.

Physics, in other words, works in your favor. The satellite will beam the picture to your home dish, and then from there it’s only a few feet through a cable to your receiver and your television.

Cable television, by comparison, sends you a picture through a much longer route. Once the cable head receives signals from a satellite, it has to then travel for many miles before it gets to your house. Once it gets to your location, it’s received by your cable box, and then sent to your television from there.

The further a signal is from its source, the higher the level of signal loss. When travel time is longer, signal degradation is higher. So with Satellite TV, the picture is piped almost directly to your television. With cable TV, the picture has to take a more circuitous route before it gets to your television.

In summary, Satellite TV offers you the benefits of advanced technology.

Availability

Satellite TV is more readily available in the United States than Cable TV. It’s not obstructed by the terrain or by how many cables have been laid out in a particular area. In other words, it’s available everywhere because it’s beamed from above the earth. The only caveat is that the dish has to be able to face the southern sky.

Cable television, by comparison, relies heavily on geography. In remote areas where population is thin, it hasn’t been worth the cost of laying cables. In addition, a difficult terrain can make it difficult to lay down cables.

One concern people have about Satellite TV is how weather affects signal strength. Do you get terrible reception during a snow storm or blizzard? Theoretically, this is possible, but it’s rare. Uptime is about 99.99%. Even if a storm does interfere, service failure only lasts for a few minutes. The strength of the signal is far stronger than interference caused by unusually severe weather conditions.

Pricing

With all the benefits Satellite TV offers—more channels, better picture quality, and easy availability from anywhere—you might expect it to cost more than cable. But the truth is that it doesn’t cost more

Here is what Digital Landing says about the price factor: “ Most experts generally rule the cost equation slightly in favor of satellite, even when you have to buy the equipment you use to receive (and sometimes, to record) TV, be it standard television or HDTV. That’s because the costs of renting cable equipment generally exceed those for buying satellite equipment over time, and because the regular monthly fees and taxes that get tacked onto cable TV charges also add to the overall cost. That confers only a slight edge, however, and shouldn’t be the only factor involved in your selection.”

Unwind After A Hard Day

Watching a good TV show can be a great way to unwind after a long day. It’s also fun when you have family over for the holidays and you just want to lounge around the house. You deserve to enjoy critically acclaimed shows like “Orange Is the New Black” or “Mad Men.” And you never know when someone in your office might need an update on “Game of Thrones.”