I believe I have the solution to the world’s problem. Not world peace, but something much more important. How to fairly charge viewers for what they watch on television. I came to this solution while investigating whether to switch from Comcast to Verizon. So one day, I sat down to identify what channels I actually […]
I believe I have the solution to the world’s problem.
Not world peace, but something much more important. How to fairly charge viewers for what they watch on television.
I came to this solution while investigating whether to switch from Comcast to Verizon.
So one day, I sat down to identify what channels I actually watch on TV.
I don’t watch any that aren’t in high definition, so that immediately eliminated 90% of what’s available to me on Comcast.
I’m left with 100 or fewer channels that come in HD. On Comcast, that starts at ch. 803 and goes to ch. 899.
I do watch HBO occasionally although we never pay for it. All I have to do is call Comcast when my free subscription to HBO is about to run out and tell them I’m thinking of switching to Verizon, and they give me HBO for free for another six months.
So of 100 or so HD channels, what do I watch?
I made a list.
Usually, I watch national sports on ESPN, like the recent US Open Tennis tournament. I’d watch the Tennis Channel if I could but it’s not part of my package, unfortunately.
I watch local sports here in Philly on Comcast SportsNet.
I watch local and national news on the major networks, but haven’t watched a primetime entertainment program on ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC in years.
We often tune into CNN, again when they have real news coverage as opposed to endless stories about lost airplanes or Donald Trump.
The Weather Channel occasionally, when it actually has weather coverage as opposed to canned programming.
I do watch a fair amount of programs on PBS. Like Ken Burn’s The Civil War.
My wife and I often watch shows on HGTV, Cops on Spike (watching other people get drunk and fight, run from the police, etc, makes me feel good about my life. No matter how bad things get, at least I’m not on Cops being arrested).
We very rarely watch FX, USA, TNT, USA, Bravo, Lifetime, TLC or any of the pro sports channels like MLB, NHL or NBC Sports.
We never watch the Home Shopping Network, QVC, the CW or Bloomberg TV. Same goes for the Comedy Channel, Fox News, Hallmark, E, Esquire, the Food network, the Golf Channel or Syfy.
Charge me for what I watch and only for what I watch. If I tune into a channel and watch from more than two minutes, charge me.
Based on my calculations from what I watched this past month, I should be able to pay my cable bill with some loose change.
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